Ben Stoddard

What were some of the highlights of the STT weekend?

My highlights are usually very different than normal people because they usually aren’t trick-based. It went really fucking good; I’ll tell you that much. It was sick because I actually got the guys to do something story-based, which was really hard for me to ask them because, you know, we’re all just skaters right? But I haven’t seen the film yet. I’ve never shot 16mm before. If everything comes out the way it went down, it’s gonna be pretty fucking awesome.

Was it hard to motivate your skaters?

I don’t want to make the guys sound bad. I mean, we’re all skateboarders, right? Motivation is not really in our blood, you know? We’re all kind of, dirt-bag skateboarders. But, there were certain points were everyone played the motivator role. Mostly, it was me, Paul Machnau, and Brian Cassie. I wouldn’t say anyone wasn’t motivated. I mean, we didn’t stop for three days. There were definitely some highs and lows and some low blood sugar times.

Did you do any storyboards or planning a head of time?

Yep, I storyboarded every scene and we went shot for shot, and then we decided when what days we could get each shot accomplished and then made a shot list for those days.

What sort of schedule did you keep?

We started shooting at 10 o clock on the Friday morning and basically didn't stop until past midnight on the Sunday.

What was the team’s overall strategy and goals?

Dave Ehrenreich and I came up with a little idea that we wanted to shoot so we story boarded a few things and took it from there. We had a meeting with the skaters the night before and just went for it.

What do you foresee concerning the editing process upcoming?

I should be fun since 16mm doesn't shoot audio.

Where there times when you felt that you might not come out of this with a working product?

I have never worked with 16mm before so, of course. It’s so crazy not knowing if you got the shot because you have to wait for the film to develop, and being in a time restricted contest and not able to immediately see what you shoot is insane. If I didn't have our crew with me, I would have been fucked.

Did any guest skaters make it out?

You'll have to watch the movie.

Which other team do you think is your biggest competition and why?

Let’s just put it this way: it was an honor just to be in the same contest with French Fred, Rick and Dylan Doubt. I've looked up to all of them ever since I was recording home skate videos tape-to-tape in my mom's basement in Chilliwack. I'm also a big Mcguigan fan. I thought Supper's Ready was amazing.