November 2008 Archives

I booked out one morning and arrived into Vancouver the day before Red Bull Shoot to Thrill event and realized not much has changed since the couple years i had been here last. Quickly i went straight to my favorite pizza place, "The price had gone up!". The bad economy had even hit Canada. Hope it doesn't hit their beer prices.

The next day I awake to a nice brisk walk throughout the city. Sun was beaming to the west, but rain still dropped sporactily on Vancouver as I walked around in the 55 degree weather. The people there are for the most part the same, in this gloomy sort of life. Though I did pass by a window of topless chicks which was cool (see above) Heavy jacket and all, I made my way to on the sky train to Rick McCrank's Anti Social store, and of course ate a burrito at the infamous Budgies (I recommend any veggie lover to go there)

Upon walking home I witnessed one of most beautiful sunsets I have seen in a long time. Not to many places in the world can have sunsets like this, but Vancouver is one of them.
Being from an area like LA in which I don't walk much, this was kinda over doing it. I probably walked about 10 miles total roundtrip, and my calfs were starting to cramp up (i know I am a pussy)

I got a call from Gabe from Red Bull Canada, "Free Drinks at 7pm till the events starts" After the news, I directly head driectly home and take a nap before my night of drinking. Well that endedup screwing me, because I woke up at 8pm and rushed over to only enjoy one free beer and 4 chicken wings. God I suck! Anyways, the night was still young, and we as a group consisting of Magnus Hanson, Ryan Decenzo and pretty much the entire Surrey Posse, we arrive infront of the Vogue Theater....

Today was a "work day". Meaning we weren't able to skate or do anything that we wanted to. Today was interview's for the Fuel TV show that is released in a couple months. Plus we wanted to see some of the sights so we mixed it up. Pretty cool.

First off was Buckingham Palace. Wait, I forgot to mention it was raining, which sucks for sightseeing, but we made due. Where was I, oh yeah Buckingham Palace: Kinda a bore, it was just a gate with the palace behind it. No guards, other then the ones we created for ourselves. see Azar photo Joey B. made a little friend real quick and was the entertainment of most the crew. Man that little guy can party.

The walk to Big Ben was awesome, because it was through a huge park, with tons of tree's we made friends with some squirrels, who Ryan Decenzo actually picked up and almost was able to pet. It was crazy that they weren't scared. Little piece of chocolate I guess goes a long way, especially for animals.

Once we arrived to the ole Big Ben, which is just a tower. I mean, its cool and old, but simply a clock tower. But when you got a group of goofs, even a clock tower is awesome. Next was the boats. We took these awesome boats from one end of the river to the other and saw London from the middle of the water, instead of one side or another.

Basically we lerked really hard and just walked around the area for "work". What was a real treat was this London Eye, which is basically a huge ferris wheel type thing which takes like 45 mins to go all the way around and hung out for "work". Joey booked it early, because he had some "beer testing work" to do with Paul Shier. While the rest of us took cabs home for a little break.

So after a couple hours of maxing and relaxing, we headed out to a nice dinner with the crew and after a couple drinks, we started to let loose.

Oh did I mention it was our Team Manager Pete's bday? So it was really on! Drinks all around, shots, beers and more shots! I wish I could describe how we all felt when we woke up, but it wasn't a good thing.

Click here to view photo of our DAY 5 of Nevermind the Bullocks.

Click here to read the previous post DAY 4 of Nevermind the Bullocks.

Click here to read the next post DAY 6 of Nevermind the Bullocks

For those who need a little introduction, Fred Mortange, aka French Fred is one of the more talented videographers on and off the filmer board. Doing not only some of the top videos in the past decade (Flip: Sorry, eS: Menikmati and most of the newer Cliche Videos: Bon Appetit and Freedom Fries) But, not only is Fred skilled behind the motion but also quite skilled behind the stop motion. He recently had a show called "One foot in the Grave" and was a finalist of the Red Bull Illume. This interview below was taken from the Red Bull Shoot to Thrill contest as Fred was one of the team directors, and this was his take on the contest. Thanks to Colormagazine.ca for the syndication of this interview.
Take a break and read for a sec.

SHOOT TO THRILL: What were some of the difficulties of the Shoot To Thrill weekend?
FRENCH FRED: It was mostly our concept, it wasn't the easiest, so it complicated things very much. But, we liked our idea a lot.
SHOOT TO THRILL: What do you mean? What was your concept?
FRENCH FRED: Reflections, for every single shot, in glass, water, chromed objects, mirrors...so that made everything complicated of course.
SHOOT TO THRILL: What sort of schedule did you keep?
FRENCH FRED: We used a 10am to 7pm schedule. I only chose daylight filming, and we were doing non-skating shots in the mornings.
SHOOT TO THRILL: What was the team's overall strategy and goals?
FRENCH FRED: We were trying to do something visually interesting, original, and different--something other than what you can usually see in skateboarding. We didn't have the goal to film as many tricks as possible, nor in getting hammers. We focused on the esthetics of skateboarding; the style of it.
SHOOT TO THRILL: Was it hard to motivate anybody?
FRENCH FRED: No, they were all into it. They put in a lot of effort--skating a lot, getting things done, being patient, and re-doing things. It's not easy to skate under these special conditions, and they never complained. They handled it very well. It was a good team, with good guys.
SHOOT TO THRILL: How much did alcohol play a part in your weekend?
FRENCH FRED: 0%!!! There wasn't a single beer around during our whole mission--just a few Ming juices got swallowed in!
SHOOT TO THRILL: What do you think is the key to success with this type undertaking?
FRENCH FRED: It's import to come with something that is not formatted. There's only one reason I hope we win: we didn't focus or worry about getting hammers done, but skating still had an important role, of course. I think skateboarding is too focused on the big action these days, and it's forgetting about the style.
SHOOT TO THRILL: Which other team do you think is your biggest competition and why?
FRENCH FRED: I have no idea. We were not competing, just doing our cool little project. I personally don't do it for winning, just for the opportunity to do a cool piece. I hope it works out in the end! It's hard to wait for the films to be processed!

To read more Directors interview's from Shoot to Thrill, hit up www.redbullshoottothrill.com