What did surfmats have to do with the real Dogtown and
Z-Boys?
Craig was local at POP and rode only mats after about 1967 or 68.
They took the skating a little too far forward in the future, as I am almost certain that there were no pipe transfers in the mid '70s.
yes there were, skateboarder magazine showed some pipe transfers in the desert.
Chip,
Yes, there is at least one pipe-skating scene, shown into the trailer video. Watch it!
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/lordsofdogtown/
Jay Adams is a goofyfooter in the movie ???
oh sh** , looks like bloody hollywood f***ed up big time… again ??!!
…they must think we are idiots ?
ben
Where’s Herb Spitzer…?
How close was this to the reality you saw?
The trailers look a bit lame to me.
EJ
Well, I think you have to realize that this is a narrative version of the story; the documentary has already been made. As with any project, certain decisions need to be made as to best present the story cinematically. Perhaps the actor who plays Jay Adams was simply the best possible choice and just could not skate the other way. It’s important to remember that Peralta and the others were involved with this project to varying degrees…I don’t think anyone “forget” whether Adams was goofy or regular foot.
I saw an interview with Peralta and Alva where Stacey said they wanted to show what it FELT like to be a teenager taking part in what became the Dogtown and Z-Boys scene…the documentary has already been made, now it’s time to see the experience through the eyes of 15 year olds…
It may turn out to be a silly film, but I’m not going to pre-judge it until I’ve seen it myself…
More:
For Peralta and the other original members of the Zephyr team, having their life glamorized by Hollywood was initially an iffy proposition. The Dogtowners had gone from pure poverty to making rock-star money and leading rock-star lives, and some of them barely survived. This story had to be told correctly. Once Peralta made his documentary, which showed the real, gritty story, he was ready to write the fictionalized version. “I started writing the film shortly after we introduced the documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in the Spring of 2001,” says Peralta. “I had written five screenplays prior to writing LORDS OF DOGTOWN and it was without a doubt the most difficult, mental, ambitious thing I’ve ever done in my life. When it really got tough, I locked myself in my house for two weeks and didn’t so much as answer the phone until I had something.”
Finding the right director was crucial to the project, someone who not only knew what the material represented, but had a vision in tune with a story that bespoke rebellion, attitude and hardcore style. “I knew Catherine Hardwicke from years back,” says Peralta. “We had studied acting together in the eighties and would run into each other often over the years. I saw [her directorial debut] Thirteen and it just blew my mind. I called John Linson and said, ‘You must see this movie because Catherine Hardwicke is the perfect director for us.’ He took a look at it and called me back to tell me she was perfect. He said the opening scene was one of the most devastating scenes he had ever seen on film. So we contacted Catherine.”
Hardwicke, also reaping the rewards of a Sundance hit, had been following the project. She had met Tony Alva and Craig Stecyk, whose original photographs and magazine stories of the Z-Boys helped immortalize them for a nation, on the film Thrashin, for which Hardwicke was the production designer. There was no doubt in her mind that she had to be DOGTOWN's director. So when she received the call from John Linson about getting her onboard, she jumped at the chance.
“This movie is a dream project for me,” says Hardwicke. “I live in Venice, I surf and I know so many of the people involved in this, so I was just so excited to get that call. I read the script Stacy wrote, went in to meet Amy Pascal at Sony, and gave her my pitch. After a few months of research and preparation, they green-lit the film.”
“I don’t think anybody could have directed this movie besides Catherine,” says Linson. “She has an affinity for these kids, and for the moment as well as the movement. She cares about who these people are.”
The filmmakers agreed with Stacy and the other Z-boys involved in the project. Authenticity was key. And so the production made a decision to employ as many original members to work as both skating and technical consultants in their efforts to remain true to the story and the tone of the times. Tony Alva has been a professional skater for over thirty years and immediately climbed on board. World-renowned skating champion Alva would take on the task of choreographing the stunts for the skaters and teaching the actors not only to skate, but skate in true Z-Boy fashion.
“It was the greatest thing having Tony from the very beginning, helping us scout locations, find pools, train all the skaters,” says Hardwicke. “He remembered everything he did in those days. You can ask, ‘How would you skate up to a girl if you wanted to impress her?’ And Tony will do this cool little move, just fluid and great. He and Stacy and Jay have it in their bones.”
FINDING JAY
"Most of us just wanted to skate and have fun. Then people started getting paid
and egos were starting to grow. All of a sudden it was Dogtown vs. the world."
-Jay Adams, 2001
Who in the world could bring Jay Adams to life? Wilder and harder to rein in than the rest of the gang, Adams represents the sport’s dazzling highs and hardcore lows, but Emile Hirsch wore the role like a glove. “Emile is just a stunning actor with such a huge range, he could go any way you needed him to go,” says Hardwicke. “He looks like Jay, he skates like him and sometimes you could just almost feel that Jay took over his body.”
“[Jay’s] gift and his curse was this crazy kind of spontaneous energy,” says Hirsch. “At the same time, though, it wouldn’t let him be pro. He couldn’t market himself the same way as the other guys. Jay was never really into the business side of it. He was more the skate and destroy kind.”
Hirsch ultimately went to Hawaii to hang out with Adams and get a feel for him. “I watched him and talked to him about his life and really picked up a lot of stories and nuances about the guy.” Hirsch, like his co-stars, had to learn how to skate in the true Z-Boy style. “I hadn’t really surfed before,” he adds. “I boogie-boarded so I was used to being in the water. And I’d skateboarded since I was ten, so I actually had a lot of street skating skills. But I had to adapt to a whole different type of skating which was pool skating, and I had never done pools before, so that was a challenge. Most of my stunts were done by my double Griffin Collins, who really rips the pool. But during the shoot they let me bomb Bicknell Hill, which is this famous hill in Venice. It was a great time!”
Did anyone feel that Stacy portrayed himself badly. I was just thinking this because the entire movie i didnt like Stacy’c characyer at all and i thought it was strange due to the fact that he wrote so i thought that he would have been seen as being the most loveable.
I traveled with Stacy back in that time. He was just a really nice straight kid, about 17 at the time (late 70’s). We went to the Virgin Is. with Hal Jepsen, Guy Motil and Paul Gross (how’s that for an interesting line up). Hal was making a film that tied the surf/skate thing together and since Stacy and I did both …
My feeling is that Stacy wanted to portray himself to have a bit more edge to his personality than was the case. Anyway, kudos to Mr. Peralta.
My good friend, Brad Coleman is the main stunt double for peralta in the movie. Got to miss a whole semster of school and got to skate some epic bowls.
This is a pic of him
kinda small
My most recent creation. [Perfect timing for lords of dogtown too]
The trucks are not really wonky its the back ones just loose.
Cutout of an old shit table i used to paint fins on. I then using a power plane mowed the resin and paint of and gave the bottom a ‘jet bottom’ contour.
I did the art work with a spraycan and tape.
all up this turned out super good and rides incredably well.
Josh.
…It dies ,just like this movie needs too.
…I don’t think I been fed more BS in one sitting in my life…
…POP…a**holes filmed the pier segs in my home town of I.B. …
…BITTER??? Naw…I just want them to go away…far away…Stacy can room with Oliver Stone,another BS film maker that can’t seem to tell a shread of truth.
…lords of dogtown…should of named it " loads of craptown".
…Talked w/ Mr.Peralta a few days ago…I hope he likes a hot enviroment in his after life because that’s where this movie will be filed.
And if you don’t like what I have to say…delete it!!!.. like most of the truth gets in this world…Herb
…I am the 4th horseman…
Quote:
…lords of dogtown…should of named it " loads of craptown".
there we have it , from a local …
I DID wonder , as soon as I saw a photo of a goofyfoot “Jay” doing “pipe transfers” [??]
I may still go see it … [as a comedy feature , by the sounds of it ]…kinda the “blue crush” of the skateworld , perhaps ?
[maybe they should have paid you to skate all the spots with a tony alva mask and wig on , Herb !]
ben
I don’t really want to be a part of it…
…as much as I would like to see some truth in it…
…on another note…RussHowell, the person that I had sold to him, his first set of urethane wheels in 74…won’t even admit it…guess he didn’t want to own up to the fact that a kid of 17 was ups on the haps while he was still riding clays and never heard of plastic wheels before.
…Stacy on the other hand doesn’t remember Russ taking him(Stacy) to Aus. in 75-76 for a skate-demo,a slot that Russ promised me…birds of a feather,I guess.Herb
…I am the 4th horseman…
I just saw the movie and thought it kicked @$$ i liked the parts where there was a guy skating and you got to see from behind him but it kind of made me dizzy
I could’nt believe that fall Tony Alva took at the beginning of the movie either and i think it was Jay Adams that always jumped off the roof of his house
damn they had good stunt doubles
Having had a skate shop in Venice during the height of the “Z-Boys” days, I can tell you that those guys ripped me off many times. The were a bunch of hoodlums. The fact that Hollywood is glorifying them now makes me sick.
Petty criminals to major criminals …YOUR RIGHT ON TARGET PJD.Herb
Barf.
Pass on the flick.
Losers! They all suck.