Visionaries: NCP Films
Apr 17 2007 / Los Angeles, CA
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Since their initial meeting, each had dabbled in film. Buddy made his first video in 1993 for a friend’s skateshop, and studied documentary film at a NYC film school. Rick was working on his own projects as well, but in 1999 they came together to make Fruit of the Vine, a pool skating documentary as NCP Films. Since then, NCP has worked on projects in and out of skateboarding. They teamed up with Anti Hero Skateboards for Tent City, and traveled across the Pacific Northwest, for the aptly titled Northwest, a documentary about the skate scene in Washington and Oregon. And they’ve also branched out from skating, creating documentaries about surfing, music, fashion, and even Red Stripe beer. In the past seven years, NCP films has shied away from the typical skate movies, with thirty second sections set to screaming death metal or thumping hip hop, and created something far more timeless and poignant. And ten or twenty years from now, their films will still be hard to forget.
Rick: Hollywierd. This place is a joke -- but we got empty pools and poop in the ocean right now.
Buddy: We live in the same neighborhood and edit here as well.
Lat34: What is it like working as a team? Do you guys work well together, do you ever have any power struggles?
Rick: I don’t have any power problems. I just do what I do when I’m behind the camera or computer....whenever things get struggley, we smoke more pot to level out the vibes. I think we work pretty well together. Just kind of go with the flow. Sometimes we don’t talk much when were on the road shooting, we hang out so damn much together, that when were around other people we talk with them more. We know what each other are up to.
Buddy: I like working together. There is so much busy work and non-fun stuff that goes into making films that it is great to be able to split that up. Basically, we both really enjoy what we do and we work really hard. We are motivated, no power trips or anything like that -- that kind of stuff isn't fun and if it’s not fun then why do it?
Lat34: What do you like doing better, skateboard stuff or other stuff?
Rick: I like it all. But skating is easiest for us, since that’s all we’ve ever done in our lives. Lately though we have been getting into some other stuff and I think people like our freestyle approach to shooting. Skating is the best school. You learn to be spontaneous and confident and nothing can really get in your way cuz you're a badass. Real cinematographers trip out on our stuff. They like the freedom and motion of our motion pictures. Everything comes from skating. No rules/no school is the best way.
Buddy: I enjoy the opportunity to do anything. I love skating and making skate films but it is fun to have variety. Skate stuff is the hardest to do by far!!! Shooting music and stuff like that is a breeze compared to skating.
Rick: We're doing stuff for Fuel TV sometimes. We just did a skate trip on Route 66. And were working on a big film about skating in NYC. It's about skating and architecture and people and city life and all kinds of stuff, not just skating. We have been working on it for about a year and hope to have it finished in February or March of ‘07. There’s a lot of good material that we dug up. Heavy shit.
Buddy: We are making the case that New York City has had a huge impact on the evolution and progression of skating.
Lat34: What was it like in Jamaica? How long were you there? How did you get involved with Red Stripe?
Buddy: Jamaica is awesome. I can't say that I saw the whole island or anything but Kingston (the capitol) is incredible. I have never seen more people striving to get ahead. Having the opportunity to meet so many musicians and singers and learn some of the history of Jamaican culture and music was an incredible experience.
Rick: Jamaica is one of my favorite places. People are so nice, not a lot of money, but very clean and down to dance and move. It's the only Third world country I've been to that has NO litter. I don’t know why. We went to shoot stuff for a Red Stripe beer campaign. They found us because a friend of ours worked at an ad agency and showed our crap to the owner and he said, ‘oh man this is what we want’ and called us up. We had sooo much fun. The first thing we put in any working agreement is total creative freedom. No one tells us what to do or how to do it. I’ll work at McDonalds if I want someone to tell me what to do, right? So we just got super baked and ripped around town for two weeks with a super cool driver named Vulch. We pretty much did it all. Dancehalls, dub plate studios, boats, hung out with artists, street freaks, kicked it in trench town got up in a helicopter, surfed a good reef wave, saw a horse race...
Rick: Pearl Jam, cool guys. We only knew Jeff the bass player cuz he liked our skate movies and wanted the same vibe to do a tour video. We went out for like two weeks with them, skated a lot with Jeff. I think we got him back to the venue late a couple of times cuz we were skating. The best was shooting with Neil Young. The rest of the band liked us, I think. The movie came out really good -- all Super 8, with a crazy sound mix. They spent some time and money on the mix, so it’s real cool to see a kick ass mix with crappy Super 8 pictures. Too bad they never released it. I think it was because my feet stank.
Buddy: Hanging out with the guys from Pearl Jam was cool. It is cool to see how different people do it. I wasn't really a fan before we worked on that project, but I was converted because those guys are so cool and they do shit the right way. Both Ray Barbee and Mike Watt are awesome. They have a great attitude and they seem really interested in inspiring people do cool stuff. They are both big fans of the DIY approach to life and I am too.
Lat34: Is hanging out with rock stars much different from hanging out with skateboarders?
Rick: Everyone’s a rock star. The best thing about famous people is that they’re usually kooks just like everyone else. Pearl Jam weren’t kooks though. They were cool. We got copies of all their CDs. Mike Watt tried to call Hollywood on us when we showed up to shoot him. He had no idea who we were and jumped to conclusions. Man did we get into it. It was a bit of a scene and I rolled video on it -- f*cking awesome. Chuck Treece, the drummer, who’s my old friend from Philly was about to walk. He calmed down though. You need to stand up for yourself man. Nobody is any cooler or better than you.
Buddy: Cool people are cool people. It doesn't matter who or what they are, lame people are lame and I try not to be around those people too much.
Rick: I was hanging out with two whiney models last night. We were drinking wine and some shots. They bought all my drinks, got me high and drove me down to Venice to party, then back home to some lame Hollywood velvet rope crap. That’s when I got whiney and cut out. I accidentally pulled the blonde girls door off the car. It wasn’t attached very well. She said some dude gave it to her. Yeah no shit girl. So I guess we both like to whine. I can put up with whining if the drinks and drugs are free, and skaters don’t often buy drinks and never have drugs to spare.
Buddy: I have a whine filter -- when it starts I walk away.
Rick: I like both. Depends on what you want. Super 8 is easier to travel with and fit in your bag when you’re tripping around. But 16 looks so damn good sometimes. Just depends.
Buddy: I like 16mm because it looks so awesome. Super 8 is great because the cameras are so small that you end up carrying them all the time shooting stuff that you wouldn't get otherwise. Basically I like film.
Lat34: How did you get involved with Tylenol’s surf project? Did you like hanging out on the beach to film that? Are surfers really kooks?
Rick: I surf, so I love hanging on the beach. I like to film in the water though, too. Even more actually. Surfers for the most part are worse than my most hated jocks in high school though. Keep the football meathead crap outta the water. Joel Tudor is super cool. He’s a good surfer too. He invited us to his place in Hawaii to just hang out and shoot. He made me paddle out at sunset on a big swell, with one of his longboards and no leash. I had a waterproof movie camera, a backpack and some weird tourist cowboy sun hat thing on. I was walking down to the water with Joel and this crazy get up, and all these heavy north shore cats where like, what the f*ck is this guy doing? Joel was just laughing at me as we were paddling through the shore break. Good fun.
Buddy: Of course!!
Rick: Skate more than ever.
Lat34: Since you come from a skate background, have you gotten to meet any skateboarders you were really excited to meet through your filming?
Buddy: When we did our first film "Fruit of the Vine," we went skating pools with guys like Lance Mountain, Salba and Tony Alva. I was skating sometimes and I would look over at Rick and we would just laugh -- we were skating pools with the guys we grew up looking at in the mags -- like a normal kid shooting hoops with Michael Jordan or something!!
Rick: I’m just real stoked to be able to hang out with skaters and do my thing. They all like us too cuz we actually know how to skate. Sometimes it’s hard to stop skating to film. That’s when it’s good to have a partner.
Lat34: How are your films different now then when you started? Or are they?
Rick: Just like anything, when you do it for a while, everything has more layers of knowledge wrapped up in it. Not always better though. Sometimes the least thought about junk is the best.
Buddy: We shoot more 16mm and we get the film transferred more proper, it is still like a motion picture scrapbook though.
Lat34: What is your next project? Any other plans for things you would really like to do?
Rick: I want to make books and weird movies. I’m writing ideas down a lot the time for a film. Just need to put it together.
Buddy: Keep working, shooting as much as possible and making cool stuff.
For more information on there latest project NYC Skatemovie - Click Here>
