Kickstarter Brand Videos: The 500cc, 2 Stroke Motorbike Era

Brand video works, whether you’re starting with a kickstarter campaign or have a well-established business or product.

Kickstarter is a fantastic way to get your new, innovative and game-changing ideas off the ground, whether it’s iridescent dice (and yes, that was a campaign) or a photographic tribute to the 500cc, two-stroke motorbike era. While we’re certainly fans of die in the right circumstances, we were a bit more excited to get involved with the incredible 500cc motorbikes.

Today’s big 240 horsepower MotoGP bikes take strength and skill to ride, and are difficult for even the best racers in the world to handle. But they don’t hold a candle to the violently powerful, wildly accelerating, spectacularly crash-prone 500cc, two strokes used in motorbike racing for almost 30 years. The team wanted to honour this era with never-before-seen photographs (both contemporaneous and modern) housed in a beautiful art book.

Primer Films created the Kickstarter campaign, as well as the design and layout for the book. Working closely with legendary motorcycle photographer, Phil Aynsley and creating three Kickstarter films and brand videos for the campaign we ensured the contemporaneous images were showcased to perfection in the print of the pages. Each film featured stunning 500cc motorbikes from this era of racing that will never be repeated and captured Phil in his work memorialising these beauties.

Kickstarter Brand Videos

A Unique Body of Work, with Phil Aynsley

In this brand video Phil talks about being ‘privileged to visit people’s private collections’. This is no doubt true, but we were the privileged ones to be able to film Phil at his work. He is, without a doubt, one of the preeminent racing photographers of the era. He captured the incredible, never-to-be-repeated era of the ‘unrideables’ – the 500cc, two-stroke motorbikes – both on and off the track, during the era and since.

Photographing Race Bikes, with Phil Aynsley

In this brand video Phil speaks of his ‘art’, utilising photography as the medium and racing bikes as the subject matter. As filmmakers, we loved seeing the motorbikes through his eyes – every small piece of the magnificent machines seemed to come to life under his camera lens. And we looked to carry those feelings and style into our video work as well.

The 500cc Two-Stroke Era, with Phil Aynsley

Here Phil talks about the 500cc, two-stroke era as a ‘particular’ and ‘singular’ era of motorbike racing that we will never see again. That’s what we loved so much about this video, and about the Kickstarter project as a whole – the fact that we could capture a piece of history that will never be seen again, and memorialise it with beautiful imagery both still and moving. 

These ‘take-no-prisoners bikes’ weighed only about 130 kilos, with over 180 horsepower, making them incredibly powerful and incredibly dangerous. But they also made for fantastic racing. 

500cc Grand Prix Motorcycles, a photographic tribute

This in-depth, image-filled, limited edition art book showcases an iconic motorsport era that will never be repeated.

Working on the layout and design, we got up close and personal with the machinery that brought these bikes to life. Efficient and violent, every piece of a 500cc, two-stroke has a purpose. And that’s for speed. 

We may not see these bikes racing ever again, but they won’t be forgotten. And this book, and the brand videos, helps to keep their memory alive for the new generations.