It has been a while since I posted up one of Will’s videos… which is crazy considering he is one of the busiest people I know. Will is continually stepping things up with each project, and never fails to impress. He has been teaming up with DC Chavez and Skylar Smith, both SUPER-talented in their own right… making a veritable powerhouse of automotive film-making that is difficult to top. Throw Vaughn Gittin, Jr. in the mix behind the wheel of the RTR-X, and it is no wonder why I love this edit.
Growing up skating, there were always certain videos we would watch before a sesh. Videos that would get us all hyped up, amped, and ready to hurl our carcasses onto a handrail down a flight of stairs without a second thought. This video is right on par with that… but for drifting. It incites that same urge to do something ridiculously dangerous with little regard for consequence, and I CANNOT get enough of it!
* I did not edit this piece, only helped with some mograph muscle. Huge thanks to Andy Laputka (director/editor), Brian Casse, Mark Lenardon, and Chris Szczypala, Chris Boon, Hertrech Eugene, and Mike Vogt for their efforts shooting.
The rivers will run red with the BLOOD of the non-believers. East coast drifting will never be the same after this video hitsTrust me.
*I didn’t edit this video. I only slung the plasma around for the titles.
In this age of digital media, it is always rad to see your work in printed form. Ryan Tuerck was recently featured in the August issue of Inked Magazine wearing the American Steel Tee that I did for Drift Alliance.Just about every time I wear this shirt, someone says “great shirt… you ever seen them live?” I always reply “yeah, many times”… even though I’m talking about Drift Alliance, and they are talking about Judas Priest!
I’m proud to say that I think the full-feature turned out even better than the cover image! From a file-structure standpoint I really forged new terrain, and went crazy using adjustment layers on layer-groups choc-full of nested & masked layer-groups. I wanted to maintain maximum editability at all times. Basically a bunch of techniques nobody will ever see (that I should have been doing years ago), but I feel like I opened up some new workflows, and tapped a li’l further into Photoshop’s abilities as a compositing tool.
I totally got lost in my work while wrenching on this cover piece for S3 Magazine. Before I knew it, I had clocked over 13 hours and several revisions – specifically to the type in the main heading. I tried a few new things that really worked out well. I’m definitely excited to see this in-print!Stay tuned for the entire 6-page feature on Ameen’s car!
Made a super-last-minute decision to make a pilgrimage to Englishtown for East Coast Bash.
The last time I was there was 4 years ago to shoot Slide America, and I didn’t have time to pull my car off the trailer to drive. With Will and Josh in attendance to shoot for Keep Drifting Fun… it seemed all-the-more fitting to get back there for some driving. I’ve been telling Petty I was coming back for 4 years… so it was time to make due on that.
We showed up around noon on Sunday. This track is so amazingly awesome that I was instantly bummed I wasn’t able to get there on Saturday. So many configurations… none-of-which are bad. I instantly felt at home on this track. The more I drove it, the better things felt. I had such a blast… and cannot thank Petty enough for having us up! Towards the end of the day I felt a weird vibration in the car, and decided to call it a day before I blew something up.
The next day we took the car to Roots Factory in Coatesville, PA to give it a once-over. I didn’t feel like cracking open the diff-carrier… but it seemed like something wasn’t quite working with the diff. It had more play than usual, and you could turn the wheels against themselves if you pulled hard enough. Byron noted that my car looked right at home at this shop.
My buddy Brad Hettinger had already basically stripped his down to a shell in less than a day’s time. We decided to take a funny picture for his build-thread..
The next day we saddled up, and drove about an hour and a half from Hater Dan’s house in Pennsylvania to a top-secret locale for an OG underground hoodrat sesh. What went down inside this warehouse was UN. REAL. Rob Fleming met us, as well as a few local rippers, for a crazy closed-door session that lasted several hours. UN. REAL. Will and Josh piloted the KDF van to the location to document things. They wound up with some of the craziest shots I have ever seen in drifting. MASSIVE thanks to Dan for hooking this insanity up. Keep an eye out for the Keep Drifting Fun DVD to peep what went down!
After that madness settled down, we headed back to Pennsylvania, only to re-pack and head back to Jersey for Gardella Racing’s ‘Throttle Thursday’… which brought out a bunch of FD pro-drivers… many of which (including myself for a li’l while) kicked around skateboards and braved the park on BMX bikes. This was my first time inside a skatepark since 1998… and I was REALLY scared! (more on that in a minute…) We all had a good time, including our jump-session in the foam pit (01:35 in).
The advent of the foam pit was definitely after ‘my time’ in skating. I had never been in one, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I will say this much – they aren’t exactly as soft as you think. Whatever you do… DO NOT open your mouth, or else you get tiny bits of gross sweaty foam in it. UGH. Once I got up on that railing to jump… it was a good bit higher than I originally thought. Either way, I had to get in on a front-flip to complete the night.
Next up was Formula Drift New Jersey. The folks at NOS Energy were awesome enough to let us spring an impromptu booth-space in front of their bunker so we could help sell Will and Josh’s tees. Josh looks asleep in this picture.
Tony brought by some of the new DA American Steel Tees that I designed. They turned out SICKKKKK. These are available in the Slide Style™ store now!.
Alex caught me red-handed in this photo. After my shattered collar-bone in September of 2007… I swore I would never step foot on a skateboard ever again. I was actually banned by friends and family. After nearly three years, I finally caved. I totally understand how people who try to quit smoking feel. For three years I’ve been getting the ‘urge’ to skate like a smoker’s spiral into a nicotine-fit. I have to say… it feels good to ride again – even if I am riding like an old man scared for his life..
A couple funny jump-shots that my buddy Larry Chen snapped while I was wearing Lihnberg’s wig. If you haven’t been to Larry’s site, DriftFotos – CHECK. IT. OUT. Dude is a madman behind the lens – an amazing photographer for SURE. Plus he likes jump shots, which is RAD.
After FD, we headed south to Baltimore to meet up with the Drift Alliance crew to go see Hall and Oates in concert.
I never thought I would go see Hall and Oates… but we had a blast. It’s so smooth! SO SMOOTH.
After Baltimore, we made a quick stop in Philadelphia to get some proper cheesesteaks & pretzels with Will, Josh, and Andy Laputka. On the way back to Atlanta we made a minor detour to Manhattan. After an all-night drive back down the East Coast, we made it back home. What an astounding trip, and an incredible few weeks up North.
SUPER HUGE THANKS to my buddy Dan Bailey for letting us crash at his place for so long, and for the amazing hospitality.
I had a chance to design an AWESOME shirt for Drift Alliance. The idea was to make a throwback ‘tour’ shirt that showed everywhere that drifting has taken them. Tony ran this idea by me in passing… and it was just too amazing not to be made. For those of you unfamiliar with Judas Priest… it is a tribute to their ‘British Steel’ record cover.
I’m super-excited how the design came out. It was a lot of fun to work on, and I learned a few new tricks to make vintage-looking graphics. I can’t WAIT to see these pressed up!
What more can I say… “Stay Hungry” is one of the best drifting DVD’s I have ever seen. This movie was what I wanted their last DVD to be. It was an excellent mix of amazing drifting, crazy DA antics, hilarious skits, life on the road, comedy, and most of all… what it means to be America’s most infamous drift team.
Andy Laputka shot and edited everything and really set the bar with this one. He put an enormous effort into making this the COMPLETE package, and he succeeded with flying colors. There was not a dull moment from start to finish.”Stay Hungry” is a MUST HAVE for anyone even remotely interested in drifting.
So go get one… and support these guys in what they do.Andy Luputka getting interviewed by Jarod DeAnda.
Drift Alliance and crew on the red carpet.
We roll deep, and with knives. DriftMechaniks repping it.
Red carpet from the seats.
The title screen.
Outside the theatre, post movie.
We’re headed down to the red-carpet premiere of Drift Alliance’s new DVD “Stay Hungry”. There’s definitely a lot of anticipation surrounding the release. The premiere will be at the same theater we premiered Slide America almost 1 year ago. With the entire professional drift community in town for round 2 of Formula Drift… tonight is sure to be a riot.
We’ll see you all down on the red carpet… in the meantime – enjoy the “Stay Hungry” teaser trailer:
