“WHEN IT COMES TO MY RIDING, I’M A PERFECTIONIST” Belting out the hits: MacAskill wheelies on a rapid treadmill. Opposite: contemplating a trick during filming. “I wanted to be creative with gym equipment. Everything is an edge to ride on”
Danny MacAskill them. You can see the 400 goes it’s going to take you to land it.” Sometimes, the sketches can be a little too ambitious: “You have an idea, but it doesn’t translate to the real world – the bike doesn’t do what it’s told.” He admits there are a few tricks that have eluded him over the years, particularly when trying to execute them to his very high standards: “A 180 front flip is quite a simple trick on your feet off a trampette or trampoline, but put a bike between your hands and your feet and you can’t twist your body in the same way. I wouldn’t say it’s impossible – I’ve seen it done – but it’s not possible in the way I’d like to do it.” Talking to MacAskill, it’s immediately clear that the way he’d “like to do it” is the way things get done – on set, he’s in charge. He admits finding it hard to hand over control, and he’s relentless when it comes to nailing a trick. “If it takes me an extra 200 goes and another day to get rid of a hop from a specific line, then often I’ll do that. But it’s the only thing I’m like that about. I’m sat in my van right now and it’s a complete mess. With everything else, I’m like, ‘Och, it’ll be fine,’ but when it comes to my riding I’m a perfectionist.” That’s why it’s so essential that he makes films with a team he trusts: mostly friends he has worked with over and over again, such as Stu Thomson, the director “I VISUALISE THE WORLD AROUND ME, AS EVERYTHING IS LIKE AN EDGE TO RIDE” of this project, who also filmed MacAskill’s films Imaginate (2013) and <strong>The</strong> Ridge (2014). “I can focus on my riding and know that they’ve got camera angles to tell the story perfectly. <strong>The</strong>ir minds are working the same way as mine. It’s a given that the way they’re going to cut it is probably the way I would, too.” One element he absolutely won’t be delegating is the music. While sketching stick men is an essential part of his process, listening to music might be even more fundamental: “Pretty much from when I wake in the morning to when I go to bed, there’s some kind of music playing, and when I’m listening to music it’s sparking ideas constantly.” It’s usually MacAskill himself who sources the songs that soundtrack his work, and he’s so dedicated that he even plans to get involved in actual music production in future, to ensure that tunes fit exactly with his vision. “I spend a lot of time just going through playlists on my phone and visualising myself riding in the mountains in China or somewhere in a Mediterranean seaside town,” he says. “It makes me think of my sketches as well, to kind of tune into those ideas.” In an ideal world, MacAskill would have the music selected ahead of time and plan shooting around a track – “That would be a lot easier,” he sighs – but realistically this is a rare occurrence. As he prepares for the clapperboard to come down on the first take of the day, he doesn’t know what the final video will sound like. “I’ve spent the last few days frantically searching for the song. For me, the song is at least 50 per cent of it.” With long, gruelling days of riding and filming looming, what MacAskill does know is that he probably won’t be entirely satisfied. “In some ways, nothing is ever good enough for me,” he says, although he seems to have somewhat made peace with that. “I want to be able to look back on this in five years’ time and think, ‘Yeah, we might not have got every single trick that I wanted, but I got 95 per cent”. Five per cent off perfection. Danny MacAskill’s bar is still pretty high. Check out Danny MacAskill’s new film, Gymnasium, at redbull.com THE RED BULLETIN 41
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