dig rejection 1: shadow conspiracy review

Let me start this off by saying that I think The Shadow Conspiracy has about the lamest image any BMX-based company can portray, period. That being said I didnt expect all that much from this video, but with a team lineup including Seth Kimbrough, Owain Clegg, and Eli Platt I figured it couldn't suck THAT bad...turns out I was sorely mistaken.

The video starts off with your typical crash/'look at how badass we are' section set to a crappy hardcore song and then moves quickly into Chase Dehart. I actually really liked Chase D's part, but it ends earlier than it should and moves into a few boring sections set to more bad music. Seth Kimbrough's part was one of the biggest letdowns, filled mostly with mediocre clips (for him anyway), and ending with a pretty disappointing and stock ice-180. One of my biggest complaints with this video is that every section begins right when another one ends, leaving no break in the BMX and never any time for the bangin'-ness of the bangers to sink in with the viewer. Occasionally when someone does something on a cool setup, I like to actually see the spot during and after the clip...not another zoom transition of the bricks on the ground. Eli Platt's banger was a serious victim of this, although Eli's section was quite enjoyable (probably because he has one of the only songs with any actual melody to it). Another standout section is the always entertaining Ricky Bates, who seems to be pedaling as fast as he can at all times. That dude rules. The last section belongs to Johnny Devlin, the filmer/editor of the video. Word of advice to anyone out there making a video: never put yourself last. You'll look like a jackass, no matter what. Devlin's section was really good, and probably did deserve to be last...but I still couldn't get past the fact that he gave himself the banger part.

With such a solid team, It's tough to comprehend how an entire video could turn out so dull as a whole. There were plenty of ridiculous stunts that I could have mentioned, however they were heavily outweighed by the consistantly bad music, rapid fire editing style, and overall lack of character. This video did not fill any voids for me (GET IT?!), and personally I think The Shadow Conspiracy should stick to marketing their streetwear to mall goth kids.