About Dirt Surfer

Dirt Surfer is a short feature film that aims to explore world-class trails from various corners of the globe, while connecting with high-profile athletes and engaging/embracing local mountain bike communities. We want you to feel like you’re traveling with us, immersed in each of the cultures, connecting with the people involved, and feeling the rush of ripping down stunning singletrack trails around the world. While most mountain bike feature films are largely a spectacle of sheer athleticism, they can quickly feel dated after a few short years and typically only appeal to core demographics. With Dirt Surfer, we want to tell a very human story while creating a much more evergreen experience to draw in both core riders as well as non-participants.

There will be a few pillars holding up our story: broadly it will be a quest to find the best “hero dirt” on the planet. It will also humanize mountain biking by giving the narrative elements equal billing to the action. And finally, we want to help shape the way in which viewers see the relationship between recreating in the mountains aboard two wheels and the natural world. We believe that if you love mountain biking, then you have an inherent responsibility as a steward of the planet.

Climbing, skiing, surfing, paddling and other outdoor pursuits have all had their moment in the mainstream in recent years, with premium streaming services showing a willingness to showcase stories centered around these pursuits. Mountain biking, despite having seen unprecedented growth in recent years, has yet to stake its claim through any of these platforms. Well, until now at least. Our distribution goal is to ultimately have Dirt Surfer find its home with a premium streaming service and in order to do so we need to nail this.

Dirt Surfer Cast of Characters*:

Brice Shirbach: Producer, Director, Host

Minvan Productions: Co-Producer

Dillon Osleger: Co-Host

Drew Bennett: Director of Photography

Matt Jones: 2nd Camera

Katie Lozancich: Photographer

*We will be working with high profile athletes in each of the locations we visit, as well as local advocates and trail builders. The locations and additional personalities have yet to be determined. 

What We Need 

Our total budget for Dirt Surfer is $160,000. We’ll be filming in 3 different locations for a week at each spot throughout 2024 and into 2025. Our hope with this campaign is to raise roughly 1/3 of that. Here’s the budget breakdown:

• Crew: $110,000
• Post Production Mastering: $15,000
• Travel and Permits: $25,000
• Music: $10,000

We are pursuing funding through endemic and non-endemic brand sponsors as well as grants. The more we can accomplish with our Indiegogo campaign, the less pressure there is to chase sponsors for the film. 

What Are You Getting for Your Contribution?

• $25: Digital download, Dirt Surfer Sticker, social media shout out, mention during end credits
• $50: All of the above plus an autographed Dirt Surfer front fender
• $100: All of the above plus an autographed film poster and a custom Dirt Surfer headset cap
• $250: All of the above plus a Dirt Surfer t-shirt
• $500: All of the above plus a personalized Dirt Surfer photo book
• $1,000: All of the above plus ‘associate producer’ credit during end credits, and a VIP night at a Dirt Surfer screening of your choice (free admission for you and a guest, recognition as associate producer, gift certificate for dinner)
• $10,000: All of the above plus ‘executive producer’ credit during intro and end credits, which means you will be able to join the production team on calls, be privy to behind the scenes info, and assist in some of the creative discussions around the film.

 

The Impact

Mountain biking is a brilliant pursuit. As a collective, we are stewards of forests and open space, we build communities by building trails, and there are profound economic and social benefits at almost every level. Mountain biking is a very human pursuit, but oftentimes our most cinematic efforts can leave the humanity out of it. There’s so much room for growth in our sport, and sometimes it can feel like you are either speaking to the core rider, or to the uninitiated, but never both. If we want to grow our sport the right way, we need to do exactly that and with Dirt Surfer we will.

Risks & Challenges

We are going to be fully transparent throughout this process. Mountain biking, like many dynamic pursuits in the outdoors, comes with its fair share of inherent risks and while we will take all of the necessary steps to ensure the safety of our athletes and crew, we can’t completely foresee what will happen while we’re out pushing ourselves on the trails. If we hit any proverbial bumps in the road, we’ll provide any and all updates regarding changes to the production timeline and/or release date.

Additionally, we have been pretty clear about our goal of finding a distribution partner with a premium streaming service, but it isn’t a guaranteed proposition. That being said, we have been in discussions with 1091 Pictures and have a strong set of contingencies in place. 1091 would first release the film on all transactional stores (a la Amazon Prime, Apple TV etc) while shopping for a “pay 1 deal (Netflix, HBO, NatGeo, etc). If there is no pay 1 deal, we would look for non-exclusive streaming partner deals at smaller platforms and then move to the AVOD/FAST (Hulu/Netflix with ads) window and release wide there. This will be in addition to a film festival run, and a limited theater tour. The limited theater tour will include stops in each of the filming locations, plus select cities and will provide fundraising opportunities for local trail associations at each stop. It can be run in conjunction with any stage of the distribution process. 

Other Ways You Can Help

Can’t give right now? We would still love your help!  Word of mouth is always a top tool in marketing. Please share the Indiegogo campaign, trailer, links, and updates on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) or by email to help us spread the word and to build buzz for the project – and be sure to use the Indiegogo share tools when spreading the word about our campaign.