OK, so this is at once both bizarre and the kind of thing we love to see from RedBull. French downhiller Loïc Bruni is building a reputation as one of the fastest, most fearless racers on the World Cup DH circuit. But unlike some of his competitors who film videos landing big tricks in their downtime, Bruni is a bit more of a classically styled DH racer, and is always looking for a way to innovate how he tells his downhill story. Working together with RedBull France and director Hadrien Picard, they decided to head out to his local trails late at night for a different perspective. Lit only from above by the super bright LEDs of a drone tracking him down the mountain, Bruni said it was actually sketchy as the light danced strong shadows across a track he knew, but at times could barely recognize….
The RedBull Night Chase project sees Loïc Bruni doing a bit of training at 3am on his Mandelieu home track. “Why try something new and daring in the day light, when you can race an LED-equipped drone down the track under a full moon?!” Over the course of three nights Bruni, photographer/videographer Picard, and their crew worked hard to figure out the tracking with the drone both to be able to film the trail at night and to make it so Bruni could actually see where he was going.
In the end they made it work, in no small feat by Bruni who was able to shred his home track with an almost constant barrage of strong shadows from the trees along the track that made him rethink every line he had to take to nail the berms and stick the landings.
Bruni’s parting thoughts, “It was a little bit dangerous sometimes.”
