From Stingray Days to Tailwhip Flips

Jan 16 2007 / Los Angeles, CA

"Joe Kid On A Stingray" was nominated for 'Best Picture' at the 2005 X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival

 

 

John Swarr and Mark Eaton have done what no one else could—made a comprehensive history of BMX out of an entertaining sports documentary. You never know where passionate persistence may lead.

Stitching together four decades of BMX history, the movie Joe Kid On A Stingray rises beyond the sport's enthusiasts. A labor of love for scenesters John Swarr and Mark Eaton, Joe Kid goes farther than most sports documentaries in the comprehensive attention to detail that builds into a true representative portrait. In a pastime that simultaneously achieved lift off in different parts of the country, complex accounts emerge of industry pioneer Scot Breithaupt and legendary rider John “Dizz” Hicks. And some of the most innovative, unforgettable characters in the sport embellish what so definitively changed, and in many ways, became their lives.

PHOTO GALLERY   Live the 80s all over again. View photos here>

Racers Stu Thomsen and Thom Lund, as well as Ron Wilkerson, Mat Hoffman and two generations of Osborns (RL the Warrior and Bob the Elder) tell it like it is from dirt track hard ball to freestyle creative expression to the limitless possibility available to each individual. If that seems like heady stuff coming from a BMX primer, Swarr and Eaton grew up with the sport and have spared no effort in covering its history. Know that it doesn't skimp on the action either, with head-scratching aerials and groan-inducing crashes. BMXers are a hardcore bunch and they're served well by this treatment, which appropriately ends on TV events. The technical trick wizardry that so dazzles us on the tube today, is only underscored by the phenomenal distance BMX has traveled.


How long did Joe Kid take?

JOHN SWARR: About three years. It got to the point where we were running out of our own personal money to get it made.

MARK EATON: We were really trying to get money to get it going quickly. But we spent so much time waiting for a sponsor that a year and a half into it, we knew we had to get it going.

How did (narrator, Executive Producer) Jesse James get involved?

JS: We wanted someone with celebrity status to bring something more to the film. Lenny Kravitz was a rider at one time but we couldn't get in touch with him. And Jesse seemed to be a perfect fit.

ME: Jesse was excited off the bat and he really wanted to come on board with it. We were more worried about how we were going to pay him!

JS: Jesse was like, “You guys need money?” We didn't think about asking him for it. He had a fair amount to say in the post-production phase but he was fresh eyes looking at it. We all wanted to make it better.

What's the response been to Joe Kid?

JS: We've had an awesome response. All the top pioneers love it. After the first screening Bob Osborn gave us a big hug. That was all we needed, really.

ME: To have a good reaction from all the riders we admire, that in itself is overwhelming.

Why hadn't someone done this before?

JS: There were actually two people who started to do this but they just couldn't. Scot Breithaupt wanted to also but he couldn't. It's such a huge undertaking. But we said it was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for us. Let's do it now.

ME: No one else would've risked what we did. There were a lot of scenarios in the film that no one else could've done. Who we knew, where we were, opened the right doors. We were able to do a lot of things with limited funds. We had so much drive, we used every resource we could. When people know you're behind something for the right reasons they get behind you. The whole project was a labor of love from the get-go. John and I pretty much did the entire film.

With just the two of you, what was the work flow like?

JS: We split it up into two parts. I had more connections to BMX racing and Mark had more connections to freestyle. We sort of split it up that way. Our connections streamlined that. We could've made a ten-hour saga [laughs].

ME: At one point we thought it might be two films. Being so close to it, we wanted to tell it all. The riders want to see it all. That was one of the hardest editing aspects—walking the line between the average viewer and the riders. The one thing we know, all our info is correct. That film highlights all the major things that happen. It opened our eyes to how these cool stories could be told.

JS: That's one of the things we loved were the stories in BMX. Everyone always had a crazy story growing up and we wanted to recreate that. We wanted to show that and make you feel like you were there.

ME: We wanted to make sure proper guys got their credit. A lot of these guys would've been swept under the carpet. It was a major learning experience in both the history of BMX and making documentaries. The Internet was an amazing thing that helped us. I can't imagine being able to do this even ten years ago. We had to interview to get the knowledge we thought we knew, then the stories told themselves. The bigger stories were told by the little stories. Obviously there was a lot that didn't get used because they weren't relevant or other people told the story better than they did. I don't think I could tell you the amount of footage we had. Let's just say hundreds of hours.

So how does something like that all come together?

JS: We scripted it out and based our questions on the script. But the questions weren't based on the interviews. We realized we really didn't know a lot and had to re-think a lot of what we were doing. It was a non-stop process. When you're making a movie based on interviews, you don't know what you're going to get. We had it transcribed and put every interview into the computer until we found the sound bites that told the story in the way we wanted. It's a lot slower of a process than you think it's going to be. Pretty much every day we do something with the film even though it's been released.

ME: We put a lot of time and effort into the look of the film. We would've done more but we ran out of time. That motivated us to finish what we could in the time we had. If we had more time, we would've used it.

Where did you find your footage?

JS: Kids couldn't afford a camera. We had to rely on stuff that was shot by their parents. Stu Thompson's dad gave us a lot of footage, over six hours of super-8 footage transferred just from him. Also, Scot Breithaupt, Rick Twomey, The Gold Cup show, Don Shumaker's film ...

ME: Our sport wasn't well documented. Not nearly like surfing and skateboarding.

And these days, the footage of the biggest riders doing the biggest stunts  is all someone's property.

JS: As long as the networks are willing to work with the riders and the independent producers, I'm fine with it. I think the advantages probably trump the disadvantages. We're not kids anymore so the freedoms we had are gone anyway. Kids do what they want. They shoot what they want and nobody's going to go after them so it doesn't really matter.

ME: I think the TV aspect has helped BMX majorly. It's made it more mainstream and helped people make good money.

There's a really cool graphic element to the film, the way you make those old stills come to life.

JS: Graphics are a specialty we have with our production company. We have a lot of experience doing visual effects so we came up with a visual look for the whole thing that would work with the stills.

ME: We did it all on Final Cut and After Effects by isolating different parts of a photo to do a freaky effect with it. We had so many photos to tell our stories and we had to make them come to life. But we didn't want to do it in the way Dogtown And Z-Boys did.

Riding is at impossible levels and BMX racing is in the 2008 Olympics. You've shown where BMX has been, so where's it going?

ME: It might be something where the ramp has to get a little smaller to provide an entry into the sport. People aren't interested in learning tricks on a thirteen-foot pipe. From a spectator's point of view, it's big and looks scary, looks great on TV. But the top five vert riders have been the same for the last eight years. It'll be interesting to see how the Olympics play into BMX racing. They're actually going to have skate and BMX vert as a demonstration.

JS: I'm going to put my bid in for the eight-foot quarterpipe comeback.

ME: It's amazing seeing these kids at [Camp] Woodward either as instructors or just out of high school. Their level is really high. It's amazing to see where they are. What the pros were doing last year, they're not far off. Being a sponsored rider, you have to be very good. And they're not even making money, they just have the lifestyle.

Who's the rider to watch in your opinion?

ME: Jamie Bestwick has won every vert comp in 2006. He has the most motivation and talent.

What are you doing now that the movie's finally finished?

JS: We're back to getting work again. We don't see making money from it for a long time. We're just glad we made it. It's like it'll pay off in the long run, in more ways than just financially. 

ME: We really haven't made a dime off it, but it's selling great. It's funny how money plays into how things go. We had to do it the way we did it. We had to be as resourceful as we could.

The race footage is well-documented. And the wrecks are crazy.

JS: I cringe when I see those wrecks. After riding for a long time, you sort of feel that.


Watch the trailer: joekidonastingray.com
More links: bangpictures.com