TTTTOO
One last road trip before Christmas.
Bend, Oregon for the snowboarding Ferguson Brothers, New Pollution, Fuel TV.
Photo: Taco Tim at a Taco Truck in Ontario, Oregon---good Tacos.

Matt and Nicholi after the New Pollution Interview for Fuel TV.

Dozer the dog and Matt “Pretty Boy” Beacham double team the goal in some serious Pond Hockey in Lincoln, Massachusetts on a recent New Pollution shoot.

This is Nicholi, the kid Steve mentioned in his last post. Yes, that's a 16 inch bike, and yes, he's trying a back flip tail whip. Kid can ride.

We are at one of my favorite places, Camp Woodward in PA, Amish country. We are doing a New Pollution segment on Nicholi an amazing 11 year old BMXer . Getting great footage and having a great time. Got a skate session in today too. (Doing a 2 camera shoot---2 HVX 200s)

Over the years we have had the chance to work with GT rider Jill Kintner. She is a World Champion and World Cup Champion mountain biker. She is also an excellent graphic designer with a keen artistic eye. I think her web site is the best site in the world of competitive mountain biking, it is a cool look into her life, her art, and the people she races and travels with. Jill started as a BMX kid and is returning to the little bikes in 2008 for the Olympics in China.
Good luck Jill.

For now no comment.

WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOE

I have been waiting to see this film for many years. In college there were legends about this thing. The documentary world was much smaller then, and hearing about two dudes whose films you admired interacting in this way was intriguing, even if it was only a rumor. Turns out there was truth to the legend. A little warning, this ain't no 45 sec, instant gratification, get your laugh on, youtube clip. you'll need about 20 minutes to get through this one. Enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Before I pack it up and go to Granny’s house I wanted to post a piece of art I just got.
This piece is by Joey Lynch, it is 22 inch x 28 inch and I am very happy with it. Tim and I met Joey in Nebraska while working on a documentary about street skateboarding.
Peace

There is something is in the works with Nasty. I pitched the idea, they said pitch more---so TIm and I became graphic designers for a day. They got the proposal, 5 minutes later they said, “Let’s do it, nice proposal by the way”
More details later.

Before I went to baja, I got to go to Justin's premiere of his wake film "push process". It was pretty epic. Justin and I go way back to project watson days. I've always said justin has more gumption than anyone I know, that is definitely still true. Here's a shot of justin being interviewed by Kier Dillon for the Fuel coverage of the event.

I'm in Baja California this week shooting the Baja 1000 for oakley. This is benny, the co-driver for the arciero/miller race team. We'll be following them all the way to Cabo. Race starts in about 2.5 hrs. and if all goes well will last about 24-26 hrs.

Years ago my friend Joe Bennion turned me on to this video and it is one of my favorite pieces of video art of all time. Just found it online. Also remind me of my buddy Luis Ruiz who does a killer Lou Rawls impersonation.
Enjoy.

This is our sound guy, Ryan. We've been working with him for years, ever since the gt spot we did with jamie bestwick years ago. Ryan always brings something to the table and gives us a perspective on sound we might not have had going into a project. We just finished mixing the build spot with him on Thursday. Eric at flying spot is color timing the shots this week.

Here is another spot we did for Fuel TV in New York City in the Summer of 2006. Fun shoot, cool riders: Vinnie, Nigel, Ralphie and Mikey.

(Disclaimer: Non-documentary comment)
Last weekend my lady and I got to see a sneak preview of DAN IN REAL LIFE.
I won’t say much, but I strongly recommend it.
If you can get away without seeing the trailer---good.
It seems that with most movies the trailer is better than the movie, in this case the movie is much better than the trailer (and of course most trailers give away 90% of any surprises the movie may have to offer anyway)

We locked picture this week on the "build" spot we are doing for Fuel. Sound mix and final color this week. Should be on the air soon.

oidocumentary.com

Steve and I have never really had a website for our company, other than this blog. Someone needed to see some of our work so we threw this page together. Hopefully in the future we will get a full site going. Hit us up with any feedback. Thanks.

The Fuel TV guys wanted steve to make some 5 and 10 sec. ids using the footage from freedom of space. Here's what we pulled together. We had some help from Julian on these ones too.

Monday night I went to Salt Lake to grab a quick interview with Brian Venable and Ben Nichols of the band Lucero for the Jawbreaker doc. They were super nice guys and gave a great interview. It was a bit of a funny situation though, the club they played at had 2 different venues inside and on this same night Interpol was playing the other side of the club and there were people EVERYWHERE. More importantly, there was super tight security and they were not allowing ANY cameras in the club. People with Cellphone cameras were getting denied entrance. So there was no way i was getting in with the HVX. Julian and I hung out outside and when Lucero was done playing, I called ben and explained and they came outside where we did the interview.

Had a very quick but very fun gig on sunday. Flew to San Francisco to shoot a quick interview with Annika Sorenstam for Oakley. It was mainly a Photo shoot but they wanted to ask her a few questions on hi def as well. The photographer was Jeff Newbury. It was an Honor to work with him. Very inspiring guy. He still does all his own dark room stuff. It was a lot of fun to watch him do his thing. Big thanks to James, Ryan, Pat, Kevin, Gianna, and all the oakley folks.

Here's a spot we did for Fuel last year. We interviewed Chris Woodage about his Photos and then we printed out a bunch and shot them in steves basement using a bolex. This was a fun one.

Spent the other day onlining the Zack Hilton New Pollution segment. I'm very stoked that we have everything we need for that kind of stuff in house. It was such a pain before to have to ship tapes to LA just to get them dubbed to Digibeta. We are totally self contained now, very few things that we need to go out of house for.

Sorry about the lack of posts, I was waiting for steve to make a post about his trip with fuzzy to the stephen murray jam, but I forgot that his digital camera is busted and being repaired. I'll try to pick up the slack while his camera is out.

Steve and I went on a bit of a whirlwind trip this weekend. On Wed. night we decided to go for it. Woke up early on thursday and headed to Vegas to catch up with Fuzzy and shoot a quick bit for his First Hand episode. Spent a few hours after that wandering around interbike and catching up with some of our friends there. Then hit the road further south to LA to catch a screening at the Swerve Film Festival and to poke our heads in at the FUEL TV offices and hang out with our boys and girls there. Saw a very thought provoking film called "Surf Wise" on Friday night. By Sat. morning it was back on the road to make it to utah for our New Pollution shoot on Sunday. Great weekend, big thanks to Uncle Dirk for letting us crash at his place last second. Photo is of Chris Pastras Painting for some of the art at the Swerve Festival.

Had a great time at the Dew Tour in Salt Lake City.
The kids got to see what dad does at work.
They loved the Dirt Jumping Finals.
Our boy Cameron White got second with a bar spin, back flip, tail whip.
This photo is 3 of my 4 kids and neighbor Jared (in Hawk sweatshirt) with TJ LAVIN.

When I’m not on location I allow myself a few hours a day in the edit room to work on the rerelease of my 1992 film “The Potter’s Meal.” It feels like I am reconnecting with the idea of being a documentary filmmaker. I use to edit most all of my own stuff till I met Tim. Anyway there is something magic about pottery like photograph, from the mud of the earth you can get pots (art) and with from light of the sky you can get images (photographs). Here are a few photos from a very cold day of loading the kiln behinds Joe’s studio in Spring City, Utah.

OK the Dew Tour is in town this week, so there is lots to do for Tim and I. Tim got a gig with Fuel TV doing the Weekly Update and I will doing stuff with the Schwinn, GT and Mongoose riders and working on Fuzzy’s Firsthand for Fuel TV. Firsthand is diary style documentary show that perfectly fits our style of filmmaking. Fuzzy is long overdue for a Firsthand. He is a legend, and always fun to film. This shot is of Fuzzy from about 10 years ago in his old backyard in Roy, Utah. It was taken with my Army surplus camera and with Army surplus film.

I've been with todd this week shooting stuff like this fire exercise. We had to have the full fire gear on while doing it. Instant sauna, but very fun. It was a cool experience. The folks participating were mine safety workers flown in from all over the world. Guys and Gals from Chile, Peru, Tanzania, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, and the US. Heavy shoot days with very early starts and late nights editing.

I do a lot of work in BMX and Skateboarding. I am very excited about the art that is connected with skateboarding, I think it is a very exciting movement or whatever you want to call it---some very creative people. Anyways I sometimes find myself a little disappointed with the BMX community in the creative department----I mean BMX is pretty much the most creative way you can ride a bike! But lately I have been finding some BMX/ART stuff that beautifuly shows the creative spirit of riding 20 inch bikes. Here are a few I like, check out Skier J’s Merit blog and Def Grip. I occasionally steal stuff from them like the Gorilla thing, thanks.

Okay I will admit it, I am a Genesis Fan (with Peter Gabriel and with Phil Collins) and a Phil Collins Fan, I’m sorry if that bugs anyone.
Anyway this spot if great, it makes me laugh.
And like my sister’s kid, Tracey, says---Every normal person at one time or other has really been into monkeys (or Apes). Check this out.

Fuel TV is one of my main gigs. I have been doing stuff with them since before they went on the air. It has been a great relationship. It is an honor to work with such creative people. They have been good to me sending me places around the world like Norway to shoot snowboarding, England to shoot BMX superstar Jamie Bestwick, and Hungary to shoot my favorite Freestyle motocrosser Ronnie Renner. I have been involved with their documentary series “Firsthand” and done several commercials for their on air promotions people. Anyway they are putting on a Film, Music, and Art Festival called Swerve. Jonathan Wells the guy who was Festival Director of RESFEST is running the show. This could be very interesting! Films by Anton Corbijn and Doug Pray, art by Thomas Cambell, Chris Pastras, Mike Mills and Terry Richardson and a bunch of music. I think I will have to head to LA to have a look.

This was a very sad thing to discover. The tree of utah has been surrounded by a 12 foot fence capped with barbed wire. Supposedly to keep people from vandalizing it. There is not a word or picture you could paint on this sculpture that would be more offensive than the sight of this fence. Todd and I stopped at the tree on our way out to Elko where we are shooting some crazy mine safety exercises that include lots of fire. more on that tomorrow.

Been spending a lot of time in the edit suite lately. As a filmmaker it feels good to really look at your footage. It helps develop confidence in your eye, your equipment and your filmmaking know-how. Anyway, I was reviewing footage I shot this weekend when Brent called about a mountain bike ride. I told him I had too much to do. 5 minutes later I called him back and we were on our way to Payson Lakes for a ride. It was a good ride. We ended it with a feed in Payson. Thanks BH.
(photo: Brent on his Gary Fisher single speed rigid 29er)

Had a cool trip this weekend in Primm, NV to shoot the Primm 300 for the Oakley guys. Very hot, very dusty, and VERY intense! I was stationed at the main pit and the "spectator" area of the track. I wired up the crew boss and had a lot of fun documenting the highs and lows of the race. Each lap was 75 miles long, 4 laps, pretty rad. Got a little bonus family time in with my Bro and Sis in law and their kid during a lunch and visit to frys when i got to vegas.

While doing these segments for the new pollution show, we get to meet a lot of cool parents. Zach's folks were no exception, Ron is a DJ at a rocket 101, Val is a hairdresser, both are very stoked on zach's skating. Lara and Ray Kinney are another set of cool parents we met this trip. They built a mini skatepark in their attic for the kids to use during the crazy winter months here in PA. The setup is rad, a couple 1/4 pipes at each end, couch at the top of one, and the stairway up to the attic serves as a little ollie gap, this photo is of zach ollieing the gap on a 70's banana board. Makes me wish I had an attic.

We are in Erie, Pennsylvania doing a New Pollution segment on 11 year old skateboarder Zack Hickoff for Fuel TV. We spent the day in the country horsing around, the highlight being everybody jumping off bridge 18 into a river that looked like Wonka’s chocolate river. (photos-Zack and the Kinney boys and Zack and the host Matt Beacham) Thanks Ron, Val, Ray and Lara (the super cool mega hip parents) and the Amish food was good.

Blake and I in the studio last weekend.

Jawbreaker Doc update

Spent the Weekend in SF. We flew out Chris and Blake and shot them going through some of the old masters in a studio. Billy Anderson came in as well and offered his insight into many of the songs. It was fantastic to have all three guys in the same room because each would fill in details that were left out by the others. A really great dynamic was going on. Huge thanks to sean, scott augustus, the band, and billy. A really productive weekend of shooting. More photos to follow.

This weekend I swam in the Deer Creek Open Water Swim Marathon. I have never swam 10 kilometers. Everything was perfect. The water temp was so refreshing, 3 hours in the lake with no wet suit. Thanks to Jim for organizing the swim/race. I plan on making this a summer tradition and even working with Jim to help next year. So mark your calendar and do it with me next year August 9th I think Jim said. A super big thanks to Jason for paddling my support boat and snapping photos.

New Pollution Season 2

Steve is back from euro land and our first gig back together is under way. We started shooting the 2nd season of New pollution today. Mitch is the first of 4 segments we'll do this year. Mitch is an all around bike guy, mountain biking, bmx racing, trails flowing and skate park riding. Thanks to both matts, and all the NP crew for bringing us back for another year.

Here is a 20 second version of a 30 second Fuel TV BMX Spot we did last year with Fuzzy and Mike Aitken.
Fuzzy is a legend and it is an honor to work with him.

Here is a spot that Tim and I did for Fuel TV.
It was good fun.
Got to work with:
The folks at Fuel TV.
Kent Carter for music.
Some cool skaters.
Todd D. the graphic king.
Thanks Jake, Todd, and Big O.
(Big O. I owe you a burrito for this one.)

I’M BACK!
Today is my first day in office after 2 months in Europe. It was great to have some serious time with the family, rethink everything; family, work and everything in-between. August is full of projects.
Peace.
(this photo is from a world cup mountain bike race in Schladming, Austria)

I'm in Toronto for the next few days shooting at wakestock for oakley guys and gals. Toronto is in the exact opposite (12 hrs diff) time zone from Bali. Russ the oakley photog was with me in Bali and is sharing in my lack of body/time relationship.

Bali Bike #2

black and yellow bug on my black and yellow shoe

Bali Bike #1

This is Sebastian. Crazy 19 year old surf kid. "Sea Bass" would catch at least 7 times the amount of waves as most of the other guys out. Didn't matter to him if it was small and crappy. When I asked him about that in an interview he just said, "when i'm out there, I really just want to be standing up." I fell in love with that answer. Sea Bass has a crazy story too that i'm not sure if I have all the details straight but... He was born at home without the hospital, and never got a birth certificate, for a few years his ma was trying to get one so he could get a passport to start travelling with his sponsors. A few years ago they were getting close and then their house burned down with what little records they had. Finally about 6-8 months ago his ma was able to round up a social security card for him and he got his passport. He is super stoked on travelling.
There's 2 more things you should know about sea bass, his family is gonna be on the reality show "wife swap" and he has three thumbs. Very cool kid. Many thanks sea bass for the good times and inspiration in Bali.

Skibby, Denmark
We are here for 3 weeks.
We are staying on this farm.
The farm is on a lake.
The lake is a bird refuge.
The lake is next to the fjord.
It is amazing, quiet, super fun.
(this photo: lake left, the farm center, fjord right)
August back to filmaking.

European Vacation
I have basically walked away from everything including the computer for a 2 month holiday in Europe with my wife Noelle and our 4 kids. We did 3 weeks in Italy, then buzzed around in France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and The Netherlands. We are now staying on a farm in Denmark for three weeks. Back to film-making in August, but for now the only camera I am packing is a digital point and shoot. It has been super fun and an epic adventure for the kids.
We:
swam in caves in the Mediterranean Sea
got stuck in a tide pool in the Mediterranean Sea (I have scars to prove it)
explored cool churches, castles and museums---lots of these.
rode a million trains buses and subways
got robbed
saw two stages of the Tour de France
watched a World Cup mountain bike race in Austria
had lots of laughs with my kids
read a bunch of books with the kids
played with our Danish friends
saw Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam
I hope it is a trip that the kids will never forget, showing them that it is a big beautiful world.
It looks like August it full of film projects, more on that later.
Peace,
Steve
(this photo: Noelle and the kids, midnight, Paris subway station)

Suuuuuuuuuper slow internet here in bali. so this is the first attempt at posting. This is a shot of legendary photographer Steve Sherman. He apprenticed under Grant Brittain a legendary skate photographer. "Sherm" was also a slalom skater for G+S back in the day and worked at powell peralta after Stacy left. It's been a pleasure to work with him here in Bali. This is a shot of him shooting out the window, moto riders are Rico Jimenez and Roxy Louw. Lots of other cool folks to work with here too. posts on them soon

I'm on my way to Bali to do some shooting for the Oakley Surf Team. 15 hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong was pretty epic. Managed to get a window seat, about 3 hours in, I wake up to the guy in the middle seat trying frantically to explain something to the stewardess. He kept breathing funny and making a motion like he needed an aspirator for asthma or something, This went on for about 15 minutes, at this point I was pretty worried for the guy, near as I could tell he had left his aspirator in his checked luggage. After a bit he calmed down, and then it became apparent that the real issue was that he was completely drunk. At which point he would shift his focus from me to the guy in the aisle, back to me saying things like " I know your awake in there, HAHAHAHAHA" eventually the stewardesses got him up to stop him from causing a scene, But as they were walking him up the aisle, he fell down and I'm not sure what happened at that point, He might have hit his head, or just passed out, but it was a little scary for a while, they were actually anouncing over the intercom that if anyone on the plane had medical training to identify themselves. After about an hour it seemed they had things under control and the flight went smooth after that.
In about an hour I get on the flight to denpasar, BALI. Not sure about the internet situaish where we are staying so this may be it for a couple weeks.