You also used a beat that you produced in the most recent Sydney  City Loving video, how long have you been making beats for?

I’ve been making beats since the start of this year. I played the keyboard during year 7 and 8, and messed about with Fruity Loops when I was in year 10. Nothing too serious, I guess I just played about until I got bored, but as of this year I’ve been trying to make a new beat every day and I’m also studying music production part time now too.

So you try and use your music all the time in video’s you make? The beauty I see in this is that you can create a beat to work how you want to edit too, which would be amazing.

Basically yeah, since I have started doing it every video I’ve made so far has been using a beat that I’ve made, for me it’s just another extension of creativity aside from filming and editing the video, and yes tailoring to the edit/riding is super nice as I have complete control of the outcome, but the music is usually pretty chill/feel good to go along with the riding.

Last year you went to New York, how did the riding scene compare to the scene we have here?

The scene in New York is amazing, not to say that our scene isn’t great. But there’s just a whole different atmosphere in NY, I mean between riders and skaters themselves, everybody is really friendly, and everyday you’re basically riding with someone new, you know I was riding down 1^st ave with some of the guys and a dude was rolling and just yelled out asking where we were heading to, and just joined us, rode to the next spot and just chilled. People seem to be more keen to ride for longer periods (all day) but I guess that comes with the array of spots there.  I feel as if there is a lot of cliques in the Sydney and if one certain group rides park/trails or the other rides street, its like they’re  not allowed to talk or some shit, we all ride BMX for the same feeling, it’s something I can’t comprehend but you know. One thing I took away from NY was to appreciate what’s around you, even if it is a little curb cut out and utilize it to its maximum potential.

You seem to be getting into filming and photography quite a bit.  What got you interested in that lifestyle?

I have basically loved photography/film/videography since I was about 14 when I started getting into BMX, I am OCD magazine collector and still have the first RIDE BMX US magazines I bought from back then. I saw the photos and had no understanding of how they were lit or composed, I just really loved them haha. So I took up photography in high school, and when I graduated high school I did a screen/media course and then proceeded to study graphic design.

Is it something you do much of outside of BMX?

Yes it is indeed, I worked as the head photographer at a portrait studio for 2 years at Fox Studios before I left for the USA, and when I got back I really started to push myself into freelancing more, so I freelance/subcontract basically fulltime for a company now doing videography, and usually take whatever else comes my way which varies from weddings, functions, corporate jobs and such, both in videography and photography.

Why the push into freelancing?

Purely for the extra spare time (rarely now) and more creativity, changing between jobs/projects, which always helps with not getting too comfortable in a job. When I was working at the studio there came a point where it was just basically a formula to me, don’t get me wrong I loved it and continually switched it up, but there is still that “formula” you use, so with freelancing, things are always switching which is great and helps keep you on your toes and reassess your work.

You mentioned you studied graphic design. What course did you study and what was its duration?

I studied screen media which was a short part time course after school while I worked, then did a cert IV in Graphic Design Foundation at Tafe, I had some great teachers through out which were very helpful with industry knowledge and were just glad to help the classes learn as much as they could while remaining creative, and then there were a few teachers which would just come into the room, announce an assignment and leave haha. But in the end, I personally believe with the arts field basically a lot of it learnt on the job, via mistakes or some complementing/liking how you’ve done something a certain way.

Tell me about studying music production – you seem to have a passion for learning?

Well with music production course I looked at as having a one on one kind of learning base as there is only eight people in the class so it has an intimate feel to it, I learned quite a lot through tutorials online and experimenting, and definitely wanted to learn more so I guess I took the next step? It is a part time course so usually the people doing these kind of things generally have to make time for it aside from work/hobbies etc so its good, and you get to be around people that love the music/producing but may not come from the same work/hobbie background as yourself and you get to learn about them and what brings them to the course.

Working commercially (in photography) can be a real letdown, being restricted by art directors and close-minded clients – how do you deal with these limitations?

Sometimes it is hard to get a grasp on it and be like “Why aren’t you listening to me?” why would you choose me to do this job for you based on my creativity/skills and then you want to alter it, people love seeing the work you do for yourself and want that, but as soon as there is money involved they want to change it up haha. But in the end you just have to meet somewhere in between/in the middle. And one thing I’ve learned is to never make a client feel wrong, no matter how silly/bad the idea they have you have to make them feel right in some way, so sometimes being crafty with the words and delivery helps too!

What would your dream job be?

Well of course I’m going to come through with the cliché answer and say filming with all the guys right haha? That would be awesome! But really, I would love to work with the Soulection artist from Soundcloud/Bandcamp and make some cool music videos with them, filming documentaries for Vice would be great, you know learning new things about untouched world issues and then the other cool things they get to document haha. I think if I just keep pushing myself hopefully I’ll end up with the dream job, which in reality I don’t know where it could lead haha, and yes of course I want to stay filming BMX as long as I can.

If you could only do one of the 2 which would you choose and why?

Damn haha, this seems to be a question I see a lot. Hard to say as I love both video and photographer for their different reasons, I think for me personally when I shoot a photo a little bit more effort goes into it as I always shoot with at least two flashes, and then deciding on an angle and lens. While when I might filming a line usually the light is generally pretty good so I just have to decide on my path to roll, and transitioning/panning in the shot.  Damn I really don’t know what I would pick to be completely honest.
Any lessons learned you can pass onto anyone else out there shooting/freelancing?

Freelance wise, I guess just put yourself out there, approach as many people as you can, you don’t have much to lose right? Write/document any ideas you have, as I’ve made the mistake of forgetting to do that and forgetting the idea as another one might spring up. Shooting wise, just keep shooting, get to know your camera/gear, join some forums such as www.skateperception.com post your work, ask for feedback, learn how to take constructive criticism. Having a little folder on your desktop full of videos/photos/quotes or anything that you can take inspiration from is always nice to look through and feed off too.

Let’s finish this up with a run down of your current gear…

Ogio Ty Evans 2 bag
Canon 7D
Sigma 30mm 1.4f
Sigma 10mm 2.8f fisheye

Canon 17-40mm 4.0 L series

Audio Technica Pro-24cm microphone

60 LED light
2 x Nikon sb-600 flashes

Quantum Q flash with SC battery
Gaffa/electrical tape
Eazy Handle v2

Glidecam HD 1000

Manfrotto 501b tripod & 701HDV head

Nice Industries portable jib

SYDNEY CITY LOVING - PRODUCED BY GEORGE PRENTOSKI

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