The story of the day a typical business-consultant-skater-17-year-old-dreamer quits his job to follow a dream and find his true calling - manifested in the form of a skateboarding trick. Or maybe it's just about riding the skateboard.

Here's the story of how it was made:

I had the idea after seeing Jim Henson's "Time Piece" - an experimental video of a man going through life and seeing everyday things as beats and noises of a greater picture. The production techniques especially fascinated me, and I thought "what if we made a video like this, but made it about skateboarding?". I started filming myself on the weekends, and started a little mockup video.

Alex, an absurdly creative thinker and friend of mine, and I decided to collaborate after I found out he wanted to learn more about video production. Alex and I spent many an hour thinking of shots and of different ways to film this crazy idea, and many early mornings filming around town.

Later, my filmmaker friend Jim Kambeitz came to town and watched our first draft. He's a film school graduate trained in script writing, so he brought the real substance to the character. Jim was a huge help in production - doing the camera work for some of the hardest scenes. He also spent a lot of his time helping us refine the script all the way through the rough edits. I remember a couple different occasions, scriptwriting while painting a house, or doing Tai-Chi before working on the next scene. Good times!


figs. 1-6 some of the original scripts

As the project went on, it turned into more of a focus on beautiful imagery than a strict narrative - and really a mixture between experimental films and traditional character development. The idea remained abstract, as was originally intended.

What's the big picture? I learned a lot during this project. I got a broadened sense of shot-construction, script-writing, and definitely a crash course in guerilla filmmaking.

More behind the scenes goodies: one of the first drafts, with a fast-cut scene like Time Piece, and a super wide-shot from a huge hill. I still want to make a film based around this editing style.

A ridiculous shot from Alex and I's first version, where the skater gets bummed and throws his board off a bridge.