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Street Dreams got some love from Pharrell with “Hoppin Over Fences.” How did that go down?
Nino Scalia: I’ve been working with Pharrell for going on five years now. I started as the team manager for Ice Cream and now I help him on a bunch of brand stuff. So we knew we wanted to have him involved somehow, obviously with the music, but we had no real plan for him. Initially there was a voiceover at the beginning of the movie and a closing voiceover as well so we asked him if he’d like to do that. On a dream level, of course we wanted him to score the movie, he a genius, but schedule-wise it was never going to be a reality and it is an indie film so would have been a huge pro bono project if he had. So we talked about it with him and at the time we had just gotten the animated credit sequence done, which is a big deal because it’s all these monumental first tricks in skateboarding, and we sent it to him to see what he thought. One day I get an email from Pharrell’s engineer and it’s the whole credit sequence scored with the sickest beat ever. We never expected him to just come through like that. He gave us an anthem.
For the marketing of Street Dreams, what was done differently to try to set it apart from mainstream skate films of the past?
Sal Masekela: The thing has always been for us is to make it hot in the streets, to cook it with the core first. Because if they don’t feel as if they have been served, if the core audience feels like they’ve been bypassed, straight to theaters, straight to mass marketing without them getting their due, then I think it’s not gonna be hot. It makes it very easy, especially in our hate-first society for a lot of projects to not even get a good look. Because core kids will look at it and be like “Fuck that shit, it can’t be good if I don’t know about it.” I think that is what really works for us specifically and I think that between our experiences and our years of working in the action sports industry, and our work in music and hip hop and taking that hip hop approach to making things hot, I think that that’s the unique perspective for us. And then it’s taking that and our unique place in Hollywood and the relationships here that we’ve developed and crossing it over and getting it to that next level.
Jason Bergh: Yeah it’s not us against Hollywood, its finding that common thread that marries the two together because we want to be a bridge to that bigger audience. We just have to make sure that when it gets to that bigger audience, that we’ve done the groundwork to build the project a foundation. The foundation is the most important part of the work we do. We start with a respected foundation and then we work really hard every day to protect it. It is our job and our duty to protect the core and to make sure that they know what the fuck is going on before they see it in a mainstream publication.
It’s do or die time right now, the film drops in less than two weeks, what are your ultimate hopes for what it will achieve?
Rob Dyrdek: I’m not nervous. It’s been a long time coming and I’m just excited to have it out there. This is something for us and I know that people who get it are gonna get it. If more people do then that’s even better.
Nino Scalia: We set out to make a movie for skateboarders. By making a very real skateboard movie for skaters, people that aren’t skaters are going to be able to understand it. Skateboarding is not just an activity, it’s your identity, it’s your life. This is for them.
Chris Zam: First and foremost we always said that we were making this movie for skaters and that if in a perfect world, it made it into the mainstream and people saw it and started to understand skateboarding better that would be great too. We just wanted to do it right and do it real and we made it for the skate community. That’s the most important thing that goes down.
Paul Rodriguez: It’s a movie for skaters. That’s who it’s for so that’s who I care about liking it.
Terry Kennedy: I hope this doesn’t come off as disrespectful but I hope it’s the mainstream dude. You know, because if they get it, it will probably mean that we won’t be getting thrown out of so many spots because they will understand how important it is for us to get the trick. They’ll know that that’s how we pay our bills. So I think if the mainstream gets it there will be more acceptance. The skate kids are already going to relate because that’s our struggle.
Jason Bergh: There’s a real problem out there right now. Cops and security guards all over the country are abusing skateboarders. They’re beating them up, they’re scaring them and they are looking at these kids like they are criminals. That’s a problem. The way skateboarders are looked at by authority figures is completely ridiculous. Is just like Rob’s mission with Safe Spots Skate Spots and the spot they just did here in LA. Kids age 12, 13, 14, 15 should not be getting tickets and starting a criminal record because they skateboard and there isn’t anywhere for them to do it “legally.” Increasing that awareness is definitely one of the main goals.
Sal Masekela: Definitely. For as many empty and decaying decrepit baseball fields and unused tennis courts and basketball courts with no rims on them that just sit there and are publically funded, there are 13 million kids with boundless energy that want to partake in this artistic form of athletic expression. So let’s figure out, not criminalize it! It’s also just cool that a bunch of skateboarders figured out how to make a movie and did it. But I think that there is also a goal to have this film perform above expectations especially because there were so many people at a mainstream studio level that didn’t think it was viable. We want to show them that if you know your audience, you can get it done. So for a film that no one saw coming to do well that would make me ecstatic. It will prove that from the action sports world you can have your Rudy or your Field of Dreams.
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