Working Class Heroes intro
Frank Daniello
captions and video stills
Hunter Wood
Back in November 2008, a Metro Vancouver-based video premiered at the Granville 7 Cinemas as the opening act to Strange Brew. To much fanfare, the 45-minute Film Fatties feature creatively integrated samples from the 1979 teen rebellion film, Over The Edge, and boasted a serious amount of clips from a large local roster. Nearly two years later to the date, Film Fatties 2 is upon us. The cast is still largely ‘Couver-based, but more refined, and it consists of Nicky Reu, Tony Myshlyaev, Pat Maloney, Rory Fulber, Chris Logiacco, AJ McCallister, Nelson Conway, Tyler Gaucher, Corey Klim, Nick “Nugget” Moore and more. If you haven’t heard of some of these hombres, it’s because a few of them are under-the-radar and minimally or not-at-all sponsored rippers. But this entire roster is comprised of working class heroes, if you will. And that’s precisely the theme behind the part intros in Hunter Wood’s latest project.
Wood is behind filming 90-percent of the largely Panasonic HVX100 skate footage, along with intros and clip garnishes shot using the increasingly popular Canon 7D. He’s also largely responsible for the editing, alongside Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux. Needless to mention, anyone who has a passion for skateboard filmmaking knows that the organizational aspect of getting a project up and running can be an unrelenting pain in the ass. Hunter is all too familiar with this. “It’s impossible to lock down skaters,” the 23 year-old says with a laugh. “The amount of problems we had shooting the original gang for the first Film Fatties was unreal. Like the time Nicky Reu famously threw his phone off a balcony the night before we were supposed to pick him up, so we drove around Vancouver for four hours trying to find him. Things like that. But I think we’ve all kind of grown up a bit as skaters, and I’m definitely doing less babysitting than I used too [laughs].”
louis shemko
“Everyone in the video has strange and boring jobs, so once the skating starts up it’s a good contrast,” says Wood, whose “regular-ass job” fittingly consists of serving as an assistant editor for Ice Pilots [icepilots.com] – a History Television show about WWII-era planes flying cargo and passengers around in the frigid Northwest Territories. “I wanted to show that basically everyone in Film Fatties 2 works just so
they can skate. No one in the video makes money off skateboarding, and that’s kind of the basic premise.” Wood continues: “For instance, Nelson is a janitor, Pat’s a Longshoreman, Tony works at a FedEx callcentre, and Chris works at a restaurant making grilled cheese.”
Backside 180 “AJ can skate a bit of everything, and he does it all with one of the best free-flowing styles in Vancouver. He isn’t always around ‘cause he’s off on all kinds of trips, but AJ is the best motivator I know and gets people stoked on the trick they’re trying.”
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Concrete skateboarding
louis shemko
Heelflip up “Rory lives in Squamish, BC and the cool thing about him is that he’s been totally underground – no one has seen anything from him in a while. Rory got really sick last summer and didn’t skate, but now he’s got lots of super cool footage and has a long part in the video.”
ross wood
Pole Jam
nicky reu
nicky reu
louis shemko
“When you watch Pat skate in person, he’ll be shooting his board everywhere and clowning around. I’ve figured out that getting him on trips is the only way to get clips, so his part will be an entertaining mix of sick tricks and bails on tricks you’ll wonder why he tried in the first place [laughs].”
Frontside 5-0 “Nelson usually puts a new spin on a spot when we go film, and he’s really fun to watch. His part might run a little short time-wise, but it won’t lack in what counts though.” 30
Concrete skateboarding
One of the web trailers leading up to Film Fatties 2 was entitled Skitching – a downtown Vancouver venture of questionable legality and the following ingredients: one Canon 5D and two 7Ds, a fully operational scooter going 40km/h, and a five-deep squad of rollers death-gripping a lengthy tow-rope in the rain. This is Hunter Wood’s account: “We started planning it and got rained out two weekends in a row. Then on a Sunday afternoon that was supposed to be dry, we made a bunch of phone calls. When everyone showed up, it started pouring rain [laughs]. So we decided to just do it.” “It started with a couple laps in the rain around Coal Harbour. There were no hassles and no one bailed, which was surprising since it was so slippery. I was on the back of the scooter filming for some of it, which was scary because I thought the whole line of guys on the rope would pull the little scooter over every time they turned a corner really wide.” “We wanted an overhead shot at a busy intersection, so we decided to go up to Robson and Thurlow. After three attempts – which was kind of pushing it because there were so many people around – we stopped to watch the footage instead of leaving the scene first [laughs]. I guess someone had called the cops, so they showed up and pulled my brother aside. I felt so bad because I asked him to come out and drive the scooter. But the cops didn’t catch us in the act so luckily they let us off with a warning rather than a big fine.” Watch “Skitching” online at concreteskateboarding.com/?p=7973
curtis rothney
louis shemko
kickflip nosegrind backside shuv out “Chris is really consistent on flat, and skates ledges and mannies a lot. He had a part in the first Film Fatties, and after moving out east he sent over a bunch of Montreal footage for the new one.�
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Concrete skateboarding
Backside Flip “I think Tony’s part will be a surprise for people because nobody knows him. He’s from Richmond, and really only skated out there up until recently. He never did any networking, and it was never a top priority to get his skating out. He just has fun, but gets a couple clips every day. Tony is getting flowed by RDS and Vans now, and that’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
Film Fatties 2 will be available in December 2010, and is brought to you by Antisocial, SkateNewSpot.com and Concrete Skateboarding.
filmfatties.com