Leigh Bolton Interview

Leigh Bolton Interview

by MOEY



Merry Christmas Bolts. Get into the festive spirit? Did Santa visit?

Yeah I got festive in NZ. Xmas in the Naki.

Got plans for new years eve?

Yeah, having an arvo BBQ at the house, then going over to the gardens across the road. Pretty mellow, got a few guests here at the mo.

Nice. Skate guests?

Yeah � Marty (Girotto), Jake (Hayes) and (Anthony) Bull.


FST - Moey

Your rider�s ay? Congrats on the new job. How did you score your current position as �Australian DC Skateboarding Team Manager�?

Yup a few of the riders. Ahh I just got a call from Alex Hawkins - one of the DC guys and he just asked if I was interested in the position.

You�re close mates with a lot of the team already. When it comes to skate trips will you be putting on your manager face or do you think you�ll be more of an awesome friend with money to throw around? Slabs on Bolts?

Ha-ha ahh I think I will be a bit of both. I will put my managers gloves on, but we can always take a walk on the wild side.

Ha-ha wild. I understand you�ve had one or two finance worries this year.. What had you been doing to pay the bills up until now? Filming steady?/unsteady

Yeah the bank just randomly called me up at the start of the year and asked if I wanted a credit card and it just snowballed. So I have had that on my back the whole year, slowly getting money for various filming jobs and my lovely partner has had my back when I�m down and out. Ha-ha

Tosca is a good one. What made you lean towards filming skateboarding rather than just chilling and doing it yourself?

I was always way better than everyone at skating. I would have been pro if I stayed on the board, but the homies had no filmer so I just stuck with that.

Ahahaha!

Nah, I was one of the only ones with a camera when I was younger and I just got hooked at a young age. Just got bitten by the filming bug.


SWFSN - Moey

What kind of filmers are you into? Outside skateboarding would you consider yourself a �film buff�? Any notable favourites?

There are a few filmers I like, the ones I looked up to in New Zealand were Jason Morice, Jeremy Moa and Johnny Agnew. The big guys like Minor, Hunt and Hernandez�s stuff is amazing -both editing and filming. Roger Deakins is a favourite non skate..

I was thinking the other day about how gnarly it would be to film lines with skaters like Busenitz and then thought about your little mishap on the last Vans Aus trip. You fell pretty hard filming Rhino (Ryan Wilson) yeah?

Yeah bloody Rhino, I was just following right behind him down a driveway after he had landed his line and out of the blue he popped a little ollie over a small piece of metal where 2 gates lock in at the middle and next thing I know I was sliding for about 5 metres on my body, I saved the camera but I fractured my wrist, broke 2 ribs and copped about 20 deep as fuck grazes all over my body. The vans TM didn't take me to the hospital so 2 days later I woke up and could hardly get out of bed, so I taxied myself to the hospital in Albury.

Fark.

I mean I could hardly breathe and I got checked up and the guys came and picked me up about 4 hours later. Before I took myself to hospital it was a rough three days sleeping out side on the dirt by a lake with hundreds of flies eating at my scabs ha-ha.

Ha-ha no maggots were laid inside your scabs?

I was a bit sketched out by that. I probably had aids now. I�m always careful to check the runway now before filming lines.


BS180NG2REGS - Moey

I bet. You getting a GoPro anytime soon? It seems like five years ago the filmers kit was a vx1000 + 8mm camera and now it's a HD camera and a GoPro. Am I right?

Ha-ha I guess, nah I�m not getting a GoPro. They are cool for filming life style hams in the sea, that�s about it.

Life style hammers in the sea sounds good. How are you keeping cool in this 40 degree heat? Has filming come to a halt?

Well I have been hosing myself down out the back, we went to the Fitzroy pool early this morning, that�s always good. We have big dark tiles at my house, so it�s always a bit cooler inside. We have just been �laxing inside until it cools to go out and skate. Same shit other people do I guess. Ohh and homemade smoothies and iced coffees are mean.

When I flick through magazines I often try to guess which photographer has shot what all the photos before checking the corner for their credit. Are you like this when you watch skate vids? Can you easily differentiate between footage between say; Jason Hernandez and French Fred?

I cant easily tell the difference, but if only three filmers filmed one guys part, I can pick out certain clips.

What's your view on skateboarding turning HD? I remember a few weeks back you were saying something along the lines of vx1 footage looking good because "that's what skateboarding looks like". I've heard a lot of skateboarders say sour words toward high def footage..

I do think that vx footage captures the true feeling of what skateboarding is like. Getting all up and close, and the rawness, footage looks all fast and cool and the colours are nice. But yeah people do say they hate HD footage because it�s just so different looking. Two years ago if you asked me, I would have said I hated it. Now it�s a bit different, a lot of filming jobs have forced me to get into it and I really like it now. The flow of the new Panasonic cameras is amazing and it makes work flow a hell of a lot easier, no more glitches in tapes these days. Although the vx is still in my bag alongside the HD camera for those people who still are filming vx parts.

And you're running 8mm and 16mm? What do you reckon about all the new iPhone apps that filter photos and footage to emulate film? Do you need a filmer's eye to tell the difference? James James put some fake 8mm footage in a clip didn't he?? haha

The iPhone apps for faking film footage and photos can fuck off. I have been using the 16mm for the past two years or so, a mate was selling one so I picked it up. They are awesome to use, I think one of the best things about using film is not getting films developed for a while which makes it exciting getting the film back from the lab and seeing how it all came out.

Yeah I feel the same way about photos on film - It's like waiting to open presents on Christmas day

Precisely.

So you've got a new skate vid coming out - Slice of Life. What's the go with that? You got copies now? Who's in it?

Yeah the first one is done. Copies are ready to go out to shops or you can contact (kurt winters work email) to get hold of them. Parts are from Marty Girotto, George Simmonds and Tommy Fynn.


FSN - Moey

Awesome. I'm getting you to autograph mine. It's a series of three videos, yeah? How come you decided to make a series?

Yeah I�m doing three short videos rather than the standard one hour saga. Actually Young Vo gave me the idea to do a series of short videos and I thought it was cool and a little bit different. Also it takes other people a little longer to film parts. (George Simmonds)

Ahahaha poor Simmo. His part will blow minds though. And it comes with a booklet of some sort?

Yeah the DVD comes with a 20-page booklet with a bunch of photos in it.

That just about concludes this conversation Leighman. What's on for 2012? End of the world?

I wouldn't mind if it ended. But I have a busy year coming up. Just got lots of filming to do, same old stuff.