I gotta say, I sensed something was brewing when I saw Kayley Ashworth with Instagram pictures of her in full Halloween makeup while at a shoot. Kayley surprised us today with some BTS photos from the Halloween film, “After Dark” along with some words from Manon Carpenter on how this film came about.
“When Liam first contacted me about filming a BMX Halloween edit I wasn’t sure what to think. I ride BMX for fun in the winter but I’m definitely not the best in the World at it… Then he mentioned he planned on getting another BMX girl involved as well and I immediately thought of Kayley; as well as being rad on a BMX she’s really good fun, and I was 100% up for it! Liam and I have worked together on a few projects now over the past couple of years and they’re always really fun to film, something different from the promotional kind of bike edits I usually film for. They generally end up as some kind of crazy experiment, and we both prefer the darker side to things for sure!”
“Getting some practise in on Saturday night we got off to a good start… Kayley had come down to get used to the park and Liam wanted to test the light with his camera as we were going to be riding in the dark however things didn’t quite go to plan. Bouncing her face off her bars whilst getting used to the jump boxes Kayley managed to knock one of her front teeth out of place. Neither of us are wimps but our teeth are one thing we’d like to keep as they are so needless to say she was kinda upset! But after a phone call to a Kayley’s retired dentist grandmother, some reassurance from the NHS helpline, a few painkillers and ibuprofen later and we were good to go come Sunday morning.”
“Driving towards Margam Castle is pretty impressive. I’ve filmed there before so know what to expect, however when Kayley saw it she was beside herself with excitement. It’s easy to take things for granted sometimes, but seeing Kayley’s reaction did make me realise how lucky we are to be able to do fun projects like this one and call it work. Liam had got a make up artist in so whilst Kayley was getting her face painted we had a look round the castle. Half film set/half historical building it’s a cool place, we could have spent hours in there! Next up was my turn for make up, and seeing as I have problems controlling what I have in my mouth with I laugh, it was a very stressful hour trying not to laugh coffee in Natallie’s face at the antics going on behind me with Liam throwing glass at Kayley.”
“After a few hours running round the castle getting intro shots we set off back to Cardiff to see who we could scare on the streets. Disappointingly no one was playing ball and even the guy in the takeaway was dead-pan when we turned up to collect it in full skeletal make up, it amused us at least! Trying to eat Naan bread without spoiling the paint stitches in your cheeks is an effort though, and Kayley was pretty much on a liquid diet after hitting her face anyway… So a quick feed and then we were off to Rampworld. I’m really lucky to have what I think is one of the best parks in the UK at the moment ten minutes from my house. I don’t get to ride there in the summer but I definitely like to pull the BMX out again come off season, even if I am super wobbly switching from MTB to BMX at first! “
“Turning up at Rampworld we quickly realised that filming in the dark and getting the shots to look how Liam wanted them to was going to take a lot longer than we first thought. We were all tired already from the day, everyone had a different idea where to start first and I think more than one of us was ready to throw a tantrum! We started getting a few cool shots and after some more caffeine we all started to get into it. Filming with Kayley was really, really fun. I don’t often get to ride skatepark with other girls let alone with someone who pushes me like she does. Doing trains over the jump boxes was so good and each time one of us got a good shot, went higher or did something well, the other would try in turn to match it. Sometimes when I watch the guys I’m like well yeah, they’re a guy so they will be better than me… But watching Kayley has inspired me to try for more. The girl is not afraid to crash either!”
“All in all it’s been a really fun project to be involved in. We weren’t trying to make the best BMX edit ever but Halloween gives us the perfect excuse to do something a little different. So enjoy!”
