Filmmaker Profile: R.T. Thomas and Billy Anderson

 

R.T.: I grew up surfing, skating, fishing, drawing, painting, making things, growing things, shooting still photos, writing, playing in garage bands, etc. in Huntington Beach, California. I did a lot of freelance t-shirt art for Volcom from 1992-2000. In 1996 I started getting interested in filmmaking. I shot some super-8 for my brother Chet’s section of the 1997 Veeco Productions skate film Freedom Wig and shortly after that entered Art Center College of Design as a Film major. Half way through the Art Center program a friend, photographer/filmmaker Pat Myers, who I met there, gave me a copy of the 1970 surf film Pacific Vibrations. The night I watched it I immediately started making plans to take a school term off to start traveling and shooting in super-8 what became the surf film Scratch Miscellaneous, completed in 1999. Scratch Misc. to this day remains relatively unknown (only about 1500 copies were released), but it’s the work that prompted my long time friend Troy Eckert to call and ask me to edit the 2002 Veeco Productions surf film Football Shmootball with him right after I graduated from Art Center. I continued with numerous freelance filmmaking projects and personally financed film projects such as Concentration Face a Japan tour film of the band Hella. In 2005 while directing The Bruce Movie I hired on full-time to take creative charge of Veeco Productions at Volcom.

R.T.: I rent in Long Beach, California, surf mostly in H.B., office in Costa Mesa, and it all feels like one place.

Billy: 29

R.T.: I just asked my wife, “I’m thirty-five, right?” She laughed and said, “I don’t know, I’m thirty-two. Does that help you?”

Billy: I have been shooting film for two years.

R.T.: As far as motion picture goes, since 1996.

Billy: I would have to say, New Zealand for freeriding and heli and Mammoth/June for park. 

R.T.: The Bolsa Chica Mesa & Wetlands where I exposed my first rolls of super-8 is the most sentimental place, but I don’t really have one favorite location. Originally what turned me on to photography and eventually cinematography was trying to document sights and capture feelings that I get when I’m surrounded by nature— as if to collect and preserve it. But I’ve also found that by looking for compositions through the camera frame I’ve grown to recognize beauty in the city spaces that I used to try so hard to avoid.

Billy: Escramble is the first film that I have overseen from beginning to end.

R.T.: As Director & Principal Camera: Scratch Miscellaneous (1999), Concentration Face: Hella Japan Tour (2005)

As Director & Shared Camera: Creepy Fingers (2006)

As Director & Additional Camera: The Bruce Movie (2005)

As Co-Director & Animation/Compositing: Big Youth Happening Episode II Snow (2003)

As Editor: Football Shmootball (2002), Chichagof (2004), Chet Thomas’ section of Opinion (2001)

 

Billy: The Escramble Bonus Footage Download Project.

R.T.: Like Billy said, at the very moment we’re offering Escramble bonus footage downloads at volcom.com. Along with some other Volcom productions this year I’ll be heading over to Australia in the spring to help film a segment for our latest skate film that’s in the works. A portion of my weekends is being spent finishing another Hella documentary and I’m shaping as many surfboards as I can find time for.

 

Billy: The Volcom team.

R.T.: I’ve worked with my bother Chet Thomas. He and my other brother Matt have been major sources of support and inspiration in my life. And I’ve worked with various Volcom team riders. Traveling with my friend, surfer/artist Ben Brough, while shooting “Scratch Misc.” was definitely one of the best shared experiences of my life.

 

Billy: What ever R.T. is listening to. He has a music collection that is insane.  He opened me up to a lot of music that I really like.

R.T.: Hella, Dead Meadow, Pink Floyd, Can, Alice Coltrane… the list goes on, but I also like a certain amount of silence on a daily basis.

 

Billy: I am excited to see progression. The kids out there are hungry and doing amazing things.

R.T.: Yes, I’m excited for the productions I’ll be working on. I also really like watching other people’s films. I think Singlefin: Yellow is a great film, so I’m excited to see what comes of One California Day when it releases. Most importantly though, I’m looking forward to the fun my wife and I will have together with our 8-month old daughter as she grows.

 

Billy: Don’t be afraid of death it is part of life.

R.T.: I don’t have one wise piece of knowledge that I’ve come up with on my own to share. I think a lot of people both past and present, such as scientists, have worked hard to discover and pass on crucially important knowledge and the most challenging thing for me is trying to apply that knowledge to the way I live.