Last July DC Shoes and rally driver Ken Block released the short film Gymkhana 5, Ultimate Urban Playground. The world was stunned by this nearly 10 minute long thrill ride, highlighting what many of us would love to do on the streets of San Francisco if we thought we could get away with it. Most of us have watched it in awe as Block jumps, slides and smokes the tires of his Fiesta Rally machine.

What we hadn’t seen until recently was the behind the scenes look. While the film makes this seem like it all took place on just a sleepy Sunday morning, where Block and friends decided to go for a less than legal drive, it is an actuality a massive undertaking. The filming took months of planning, as well as the permission, and cooperating of local police and city officials. The stunts as well took extreme precision on Block’s part, as is illustrated throughout the video, nearly every jump, slide and stunt had to be executed flawlessly to avoid a crash, car, or property damage, and injury to Block, the film crew, or civilians.

Just like a full length movie the final product seems to be a chronologically occurring event. In reality each stunt or segment was shot separately, over multiple days (four to be exact), so they could be rehearsed, and multiple takes could be attempted, ensuring an amazing final product. This obviously was also necessary due to the number of street closures needed to perform the filming.

Several moments throughout the video are notable and entertaining, because when doing stunts like these, not everything goes as planned. For instance Block’s friend and participant in the film, Travis Pastrana, had to work out some rust on his bike skills. Block actually hit Pastrana on the bike during rehearsals. The making of video is interesting to watch, and sheds some light on how massive an undertaking the entire endeavor really was.