T H E T H R A S H E R || A Portrait
At the beginning of this year, I told some friends I wanted to push and grow my storytelling abilities. I started carrying around a borrowed Blackmagic Pocket Camera, and whenever I would stumble upon an interesting moment, I’d try to figure out how to begin filming and capturing the moment. 60-90 second concepts that captured a person in a very specific moment.
Cut to one month ago when I spent an afternoon on Venice Beach. A place in LA, I had never been to before. As I was exploring the area, I stumbled upon the famous skate park and decided it was as good a place as any to see if a story raised its head. That's when I met Thrasher. We said hello to each other and I asked if I could film as he skated, he shrugged his shoulders and said “sure” without ever making eye contact with me. Not really paying much attention to me or caring if the camera was on him or not. For the next 30 mins, I watched him attempt some wild tricks. Some that he landed, some that he didn't. It struck me that almost every one of the skaters knew each other. It was like if you were inside the rails, holding a board and taking a leap, you were a part of a club. If you were outside leaning on the rails looking in, it was almost as if you didn't exist. Which is sort of perfect for a filmmaker.
It was an ordinary moment to him, an ordinary day. To me, that's the whole point of this project, it's looking at the ordinary and finding the story. Thats the lens that this story falls through.