In The Street Today - Cripplegate, London

As a child I always wondered what it would be like to have eyes in the back of my head, and recalling that I decided to strap my camera to the back of my bicycle and film. Originally I'd planned to cycle up the main route out of the old Cripple Gate in the City of London which is along Whitecross Street; but since I didn't want to catch the dregs of the market there winding up, I switched to Golden Lane instead, turned left into Old Street and cycled to Bloomsbury. I've cut the film just past the junction with Gray's Inn Road. Strictly speaking this starts in Cripplegate Without and then moves on to other parts.... There are no edits other than making a start and end point for the film, and the sound is just what the camera picked up. This was also in part a response to Bas Jan Ader's "Falling II", where he swerves on his bike and tips into a canal - I'm doing the opposite by not going anywhere near a canal, not falling off my bike and having the camera film from the bike rather than pointing the lens at it.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Stewart Home
• Bas Jan Ader
• Old Street
• Cripplegate
• Clerkenwell
• Golden Lane
• Barbican
• London
• City of London
• bicyle
• cycling
• urban cycling
• psychogeography
• avant-garde
• experimental

[ButherLi55ett]

It looks frighteningly dangerous to cycle in London! However, the ambient sounds and thrill maybe enough to tempt me. On yer bike Home!

[stewarthome]

@ButherLi55ett I love cycling in London, definitely a thrill! You'd love it!

[opsonicindex]

Great stuff. That's some wicked cycling, especially towards the end of the clip. My kids loved your tour of London!

Actually, it brought back some memories. Last time I was in London, many years ago, I stayed in the Bloomsbury area and walked to the City.

[stewarthome]

@opsonicindex I think you must have been psychically guiding me....

[Hamishtarah]

wow what a simple video with amazing sensations. Filmed from the back a city biker life looks like total surrealistic. And the mini cab at 3:52 appears and sounds like a nightmare's hideous creature V^^^^V

I make the wish that "the tour de France" will be this year filmed in that way....it could be really less boring than it is :)

[TheFactoryOfLight]

Yeh, well, it really doesn't matter. I mean, all of your vids are just brilliant, so no matter what is it- something will cross your mind and you'll find how to make it with what you've just been given. It's all about DIY or Die in the end.

[stewarthome]

I'll try some different things... Wish I had a Shopper with a front basket now... But I got a hybrid cycle and a camera that is old, isn't fully functional anymore, and a bit big compared to new ones! But I guess when it stops working at all (right now it works sometimes others), then I'll be forced to buy a new one, which will make this easier!

[TheFactoryOfLight]

That's quite a point. Well, for that matter, were you still interested in making a forwards-vid, I'd recommend you to have your camera (as long as it aint too too biggish, you know what I mean) tied up the top tube (that's how I made my fisrt video) or your left shoulder (providing you're right handed) and last but not least, yet another option is having ut staright tied to the mudguard. Try any of the options safe before going anywhere. I think that's all, you'll tell us, Stewart.

[stewarthome]

Yeah, I often have ideas for films but it takes a while to realise them... Despite all the hype no one I know seems to have a Flip and I don't have a camera on my phone, otherwise I might have used that as an option, but I don't see the point of a camera on the mobile and you can't really ask to borrow someone's phone to go filming with!

[stewarthome]

woof woof!