(Photos courtesy of Jay Roe/Kink)
I think the first question on everyone’s mind is the title. What’s behind the name?
The name came from being on a trip about a year and a half ago. I think Garrett and A22 were having a bit of an argument on Twitter, and at the end, one of them just said fuck it, lets squash it. Someone on the trip said it once and then we all kept saying it whenever anyone on the team would have the slightest disagreement. A few trips later we were all still saying it and Jay suggested using it for the title. Everyone was into it.
How badly did the camera break when Hamlin’s bike hit it?
Basically destroyed the LCD screen, which isn’t a trip ender, but definitely makes my job a lot harder. Almost anything rolling long lens that I shoot is all LCD guided, so that was tough. Luckily all the other functions on the camera escaped major damage, so it could have been a lot worse. I was pretty bummed, and it ended up costing almost $1000 for the replacement screen. Tony felt really bad, it was a total fluke. Shit happens.
Any other hang-ups during the filming of the video?
Nothing too crazy. Random injuries along the way. I killed a nerve in my right arm sleeping on a long flight from Asia and my arm fell asleep for a solid month and a half. Couldn’t ride, film, or even pick up a glass of water with my right arm for 6 weeks, shit was scary. I think I ended up hurt for about half of the filming of the video, which sucked. Tony had an ankle problem for the majority of it as well, but he pushed through it.
How long did you guys film for?
Think it was about 14 months, we kind of started without getting the go-ahead from the office, the team all wanted to do it and guys were in town so we just started filming. It took some convincing from Jay and I for the guys back in Rochester to get into the idea. Full length projects are a pretty heavy investment of time and money, so not everyone was on board in the beginning. In the long run I think everyone is super psyched, the guys all killed it and we’re pretty proud of what came from it.
What cameras were used?
Everything I filmed was on a Panasonic HMC-150 and Canon 7D. Contributing footage varied, but there isn’t much of it anyway.
How long did you spend on the editing? What’s your computer setup?
I spent about 2 months of straight editing, usually when I do a project like this I start piecing stuff together early to get a sense of how I want things to look and sound. Most of the music was picked along the way, with a few exceptions. Once we knew we were done filming, I had a good idea of how things were going to come together.
I edited on a 2013 IMac with Final Cut Pro 7 for edits and After Effects CS 5.5 for slow motion and motion graphics. Dave Fortman did the concept motion graphics of the animated fists and Kink logo, while I did all of the text/motion in the video intro.
What was the first thing filmed? The last thing filmed? The most difficult shot? Your favorite shot? (My favorite shot is Hittle’s line at that desert looking ditch spot where he hops into that wedge then does like a manual 180 off a ledge, fisheye rolling shot, so smooth, edited perfectly)
The very first clip we filmed with intention of making a DVD was Jay breaking his foot manualing off the ledge in the crash trailer. Not a good way to start. Jay wanted to go hard for the video and things did not go well for him, haha.
The very last two things we filmed are Sean and Aaron’s enders in Austin. They both came through heavy on the last days of filming.
One tough shot that comes to mind is Tonys line at the MLK school in Pittsburgh that starts with the ice-bar. I had to be ahead of him due to the narrow sidewalk and film with my arm backwards until he catches up and ultimately passes me, I was pretty psyched on that.
That Hittle clip is literally my favorite clip in the whole video. The spot looks so crazy and that line completely sums up Hittles riding. It ended up going perfectly with that portion of the song, I’m psyched you mentioned that.
I know you guys traveled a lot to film. Any standout experiences on those? Which was the most/least productive? Your personal favorite?
We were fortunate enough to do a big Asia trip, the trip consisted of flying into South Korea and then heading to Tokyo, so several of us decided to have our tickets diverted to Bangkok and pay our own way from there to Korea. If you’re going to be that far away I like to take advantage and try and see something else while I can, so that was rad. The cultural differences in all three countries was incredible, and the temperature difference from Thailand to Korea was about 60 degrees; it was gnarly. We went from near heat stroke to miserable cold, so it was quite the experience. Some of our best stuff came from that trip though, it was unforgettable.
Almost all of the other trips were driving through the states and they really blend together, it’s hard to differentiate what footage came from what trip sometimes. There’s nothing like filming abroad, it’s the best.
I noticed that there isn’t much night footage in the video. I take it you guys are an early-rising crew?
Haha, yeah, it’s not really our style to film at night. It’s a pain in the ass and everyone prefers to mellow out at night. Our trips are really relaxed, we get going by noon, and we’re done after dinner. Night footage looks cool, but unless its necessity, we aren’t stressing riding at 1 in the morning.
How soon will you guys start on the next full-length? (Assuming there will be a next full-length)
We don’t have any plans right now, although I’m ready whenever. Sometimes it’s discouraging to work hard on web content and see the view count drop to almost nothing after a few days. I like to think that Squash It will be on rotation at people’s houses and bike shops for a while, it just feels like DVD projects make more of an imprint on the industry and viewers. Hopefully we can get going on another in the next year or two.
Get “Squash It” here for free ($3 for shipping and sticker pack) while supplies last.
