Whoisfreddy

Jesse Anthony is well known to the Fredericton skate community for producing what are essentially the city’s only full length skate videos, from the SFC video, to Twice the First Time and Under the Elm Trees. For anyone unfamiliar with Jesse’s work, his youtube channel TimelineMedia is a goldmine containing tons of footage from Freddy locals and others over the years. Since he began filming skateboarding, Jesse has made the transition to working on films locally and outside of Fredericton. He recently wrote, filmed and directed his first feature film, Skate Proof. I caught up with Jesse to ask him some questions about skateboarding, filming and Skate Proof.

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Alright well I’ll just start simple, when did you start skating?

I started skating when I was about 12 years old.

What was it like skating back then in Fredericton as opposed to how it is now?

Back then skating was quite a bit different, it was less accepted and popular so you always had to deal with haters and random dudes that wanted to fight you for being a skater but nowadays it seems like thats less of an issue. And for skating there was no parks at all back then, just the TNB skatespot with some ledges,the eastside box and the same couple of downtown spots.

What motivated you to get into filming?

I bought a Sony Digital8 camera when I was like 16 and didn’t really use it a whole lot, but then I busted my ankle really bad right before summer started so I couldn’t skate and was just lurking around with the crew, so I just naturally started filming more and was hooked after putting out the very first SFC video with Greg Brewer, Josh Clark, P-nut and everyone else that was around.

Seems like the whole injury thing being a motivation to start filming happens quite often. You are the only filmer from Fredericton who has successfully released full length videos. What do you think is lacking in the younger generation that has caused almost all filming productivity in Fredericton to stop?

Hmm I dunno I think youtube has changed things quite a bit since most vids just go up as video parts on youtube, and you can potentially get more exposure that way so it’s better for the skater in that sense. But regardless of that I think it just comes down to being stoked to make a skate video or not, it’s definitely a big undertaking to get it all together and actually release and screen a vid, so if your not super into it than it would probably feel like a lot of work. But I see some kids filming around Freddy these days so I’m sure one them is bound to put out a full length video sometime.

Yeah, I hope so. So when did you start making the transition from filming skating to working on actual movies and things like that?

When I moved back from Vancouver I started shooting 16mm film and took some workshops at the NB film co-op which lead me to work on some short films doing camera work, and I enjoyed it quite a bit and just started doing more film stuff which didn’t leave me much time to film skating anymore, and the dudes I was used to filming weren’t living in Freddy at the time either so I wasn’t really even skating that much at the time.

What sparked the idea for skate proof? Tell me a bit about how you tried to separate it from terrible “skate movies” like Grind, etc..

Well the last 2 years I started skating more and also filming skating a bit more, and I always wanted to do a film that had something to do with skateboarding in it, but didn’t want to make it about skateboarding itself just the lifestyle/culture of a skateboarder, so that’s how Skate Proof came about by mixing a crime/drama genre with the lead character’s skateboarding lifestyle. At first I was just gonna make it a short film but decided to take it further and make it feature.

I know that like myself, you are a big fan of east coast skating. Is it fair to say that you were influenced to have a similar kind of aesthetic in skate proof?

Yeah I think the east coast has certain gritty feel which is what I wanted to have in the film so filming it on the east coast was the perfect setting (more specifically Saint John).

Tell us a bit about Scott Veysey aka DJ young money and his instrumental role in skate proof.

Haha well I’ve worked with Scott on a few other films before Skate Proof, and when I asked him to help out doing lighting it was only suppose to be the first weekend of shooting. The first day on set he mentioned he was gonna be in Dreddy for the month and I was like oh yeah? You gonna work on the whole shoot then? Haha and he was down so he became the gaffer (lighting), sound guy on some days, camera assistant sometimes and even had a cameo in the party scenes as a DJ and that’s when the nickname DJ Young Money was born and he’s blown up ever since. To book him for your bar mitzvah’s and weddings you can contact his booking agent at djyoungmoney@aol.com

He killed it as a hype man at the Fredericton screening last night. How did it feel witnessing the premiere of your first feature film?

Yeah DJ Young Money hyped the crowd for sure! haha. It was super nerve wrecking at first but when it was over I was stoked, and the audience seemed to enjoy it so that’s all that matters.

Definitely seemed like everyone was into it. So whats next for Skate Proof? I know you spent a lot of time figuring how to market this thing.

Next up is getting it online for download on iTunes and Amazon then spreading the word and hoping people get into it and like the movie, who knows if it goes well maybe a sequel will go down in the future.

Photo: Ryan Lebel

Alright well I think thats all I got, it’s about time for some major shout outs.

Shit there’s so many people that I should give shout out’s to so just buy the movie and watch the credits haha, definitely major shout out’s to the whole cast and crew of Skate Proof for putting in so much time and effort to make it happen and Who is Freddy for the write up as well.

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Skate Proof is available for purchase now, so everyone should support Jesse for all the hard work he put into this. Eastside has a limited number of DVDs for sale and it is available online for streaming or download at the Skate Proof website.

-Mark

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