To coincide with the video review I just posted, here’s a couple Q’s & A’s with the man behind the lens and monitor but also with one of the standout parts of the video, Matt Miller.
Alright, so what’s up with the name “Chocolate Truck”?
“It has really no significant meaning. Probably 5 or 6 years ago we wanted to come up with a name for our video, and we were all trying to think of serious names or something and Carl was just saying the dumbest names, and Chocolate Truck was one of them. I think it stuck for the sole reason that theres no stupid meaning or anything behind it, it was just completely random. Then i just got some basic stickers made and it went from there. People are pretty disappointed whenever we explain the name haha.”
How long did you guys film for this video?
“We filmed for this for about 5 or 6 years, pretty much the entire time I was in college. Most of the footage we used in the video is from the last two years but Kevin has stuff in there from when he was 15. Carl’s footage is from a long timespan as well.”
What cameras were used and who did the filming?
“The video was filmed with a VX2100 and a VX2000, with some random DVX footage in the mix. I did a majority of the filming but NickyB and Steve Tassone helped me film my part.”
How long did you spend on editing? What software did you use?
“I use Final Cut Pro 7 and it took me around 7 or 8 months to edit everything. Im really unorganized so I spent alot of time relabeling shit and finding lost footage. Its hard for me to sit down and just bang everything out at once so I would just edit for a couple weeks and then wouldn’t touch it again for a month or two sometimes.”
Did you guys travel much?
“Not much at all. Its hard to organize trips cause the crew is so big and we all had jobs or school shit to handle. We went to Boston and Baltimore for some weekend trips, but the video was filmed mostly in Philly which is what we wanted anyway. Hopefully we can travel a lot more for the next one.”
Who chose the soundtrack?
“The soundtrack was a collaboration between everyone. Some dudes picked their own songs or I would throw them ideas until something stuck. Certain people like Joby would always put their song on when we were in the car or just hanging out, so when it came time to pick music, those songs just made the most sense to use. Navaz found Brendon’s song for me too. Both of Kev’s original choices got used in web edits, so we had to change them last minute. I think a lot of people who make videos really want to use music that is relatively unheard of, but I didn’t really care too much about that. I just wanted everyone’s part to fit their personality and I wanted to make sure the video wasn’t too serious or anything.”
What is your favorite clip, or is there any clip that has a great story behind it?
“One of my favorites is Carl’s uprail to fence stall. We all told him to try it and he ate shit the first two times and then just did it perfect his next try. His reaction is pretty funny he looks so surprised that he landed it and everyone is laughing in the background. Brendon’s last two clips were filmed 30 minutes apart. We were driving to the kink rail and we saw this other rail and stopped there first so Brendon could fire it out real quick. Nicks infamous Polejam fall is one of my favorites and the Dog Shit bitch in the extras always makes me laugh. We tried to submit it to Worldstar but i guess they weren’t feeling it haha.
I think everyone has some really stand out clips in their part so its hard to name them all. Pretty much every clip I used in the Intro and Credits are my favorite as well because there just funny to watch and it gets me siked to ride with everyone.”
Which part was easiest to edit? Which part was hardest to edit?
“The easiest part to edit was probably my own. Its easier to edit something when your the only one who really cares how it comes out. When you edit someonelse’s stuff, you have to make sure they are happy with it too. A couple times I would be really siked on a part, and would show it to them all hyped and they would hate it haha. The hardest part to edit was probably Brendon’s. It was originally edited to a pretty weird song that was kind of out there but we all really liked it. But the more and more you watch something that can change pretty quickly haha. When we changed the song it was hard for me to start over from scratch and come up with a new idea of how the part should look since i had the original one stuck in my head. But Im really happy with how it came out and I think it’s his best video part yet.”
Any problems/injuries/setbacks?
“Me and Brendon both broke our ankles, NickyB broke his nose and John Yoh is always getting hurt. The most serious one was Kev. He compound fractured his leg in Baltimore a year and a half ago which ended filming for him. He still had enough footage for a full section though. Aside from that a lot of people who we planned on having full parts ended up quitting. Things moved pretty slow for the first couple of years. Once a bunch of us got a house together it made filming and organizing everything a lot easier so the last two years is pretty much when we got motivated and filmed the entire video. At one point though, our house got robbed and my computer and primary hard drive were stolen. I had to spend a lot of time re logging all the tapes from 4 years prior which sucked. I even had to make John Yoh nose manual the spring garden fountain twice cause that clip was lost completely haha.”
Who shot the photos in the menu/on the DVD?
“I shot all the photos and Jay Dyer at Animal did the template layout for me. I have an old Canon AE-1 that I bring out sometimes and I like messing around with disposable cameras.”
Did you ever find it difficult to balance riding time and filming time?
“Yeah for me it is really hard. I enjoy filming a lot and making videos but I would always rather be riding. Riding in Philly there are so many little spots to hit when your cruising, and having a big ass camera on your back takes the fun out of it for me. It sucks cause some days I just wont bring the camera out because I want to ride, but those always end up being the days when everyone kills it haha. I give credit to anybody who rides and films it takes a lot of patience.”
Will there be another Chocolate Truck full-length DVD?
“Yeah, eventually. Most of us want to work on some short term projects for a quick change and do a little bit of web stuff since we never really have. But we haven’t stopped filming since we finished the video. Everyone is pretty eager to keep filming, so hopefully this next one doesn’t take as long as the first did haha.
I want to thank everyone for filming for this video and for all the good times. Thanks to Navaz, Bob and Darryl for answering all of my questions. Jay Dyer for doing the artwork and Schimpf and Marshall for shooting photos. Kink, Animal and ODI for keeping my bike nice. Word, ALYK, Hood Antics, LFS, SAF, AM:PM, 90East, SharkAttack and all the other crews out there making their own videos. Thanks to all our friends and family and thanks to everyone who supports us. Follow us on instagram @chocolatetruck.”
Pick up the DVD here. Seven bucks shipped- you can’t go wrong.
Push It A Stop 