Ryan Navazio Interview

Ryan is one of the bigger names in the production of BMX videos now days, I know I am a fan of his work. We had a request from somebody to do an interview with Ryan so I got in touch with him and this is what came from it. After you check out the interview head over to Ride BMX to get some more info on his newest DVD project.

Name:
Ryan Navazio

Location:
Long Beach, Ca…typing these responses in Ridley, Pa

Years Riding BMX?
14

Years Filming BMX?
6

You have been working for Ride for a while now, how are things going? Are you strictly working for them or are you doing free lance stuff?
I started at Ride mid-february of last year so it’s almost a year now and in that time I haven’t really had time to do much freelance just because I kept myself pretty busy filming for the upcoming Ride video, Insight. I filmed a few things for DQYDJ2 and Animal but thats about it. Its cool to be working at Ride because I grew up watching Ride videos and now I’ve been given an opportunity to make one so its pretty awesome.

The new video you have been working out is supposed to drop, or already has been released, how do you feel about it?
It’s just been finished and I’m pretty happy with it. A few people have came by and checked it out and they seem to be feeling it so thats good. Everyone put a lot of effort into their parts so thats the most I could ask for.

Do you think it can compare to Left/Right or do you think you cannot compare the two?
I think it can be compared for sure, it was all filmed by me or the same contributors as Left/Right so you’re getting the same filming style. A few of the guys that have parts in this video had clips in Left/Right and the majority of the video is street. All aspects of the production were real similar to the way Left/Right was done.

Did you go to school for film or editing at all?
Yeah I have a bachelors degree and part of my degree is in film and video.

Now that Insight is complete, what is your next big project or are you going to chill for a bit?
I’d like to take a little vacation but I’ll probably get right back to work on something. Definitely want to do some kind of Paul Horan comeback video part. The only problem is I don’t even own a video camera right now so….

You had to travel a lot of film this year, where are some of the places you have gone?
A lot of back and forth between East and West. Specific cities include, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Fran, Phoenix, Boston, Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle/Tacoma, and Northern NJ. I tried to limit a lot of the filming to areas where we knew the spots and the people.

Out of those where are the best places you got to go to and advise people to visit?
I’ve been to all of these places before so it wasn’t anything too new or exciting but Boston is one of my favorite cities to visit for sure. San Fran. is up there as well.

Being on the road a lot, you must have some good stories, do you have any that come to mind you want to share?
One night we (dean dickinson, chester blacksmith, kurt rasmusson and I) were driving up to San Francisco and we stopped in the ghetto of oakland to get a motel. I’d say half the rooms on the bottom floor were completely full of prostitutes and gangster pimps running around everywhere. It was just a crazy scene, we had no idea what was going on. We saw a domino’s delivery driver pull up and Dean jokingly asked him something funny like “where can we get some pussy?” the next thing you know the delivery guy knocks on the door to this one room and all these girls come out offering us pretty much anything. But none of them were having it so we just chilled outside and watched people come and go picking up different girls, dropping them off. Just sleazy dudes coming and going basically. Meanwhile there were tons of crazy crack-heads living in the hotel. I was skateboarding in the parking lot and this one crack-head lady who called herself “Nightwolf” came out of nowhere and jumped at me and was inches away from getting my skateboard truck to her face. She kept trying to get in our room and would repeatedly tell us how tough she was and tried to fight us. The next morning we chilled outside and met a bunch of the girls from the night before who thought we were some kind of celebrities when they saw us filming in the parking lot, I’m pretty sure some of them were offering there services to Dean for free. We all hung out and took pictures and shit, so it was pretty funny.

Where are some places you haven’t had the opportunity to do “work” at yet but would really like to visit?
Europe in general, England, France, Spain (Barcelona) and Australia.

You have had the chance to film with a lot of people, who are your favorite people to work with and why? least favorite and why if you want?
Most of the people I work with are friends before we “work” together so I can’t really say I have a least favorite. But some of my favorite people to film with right now are Mark Gralla aka Ratkid, Tom White, Dakota Roche, Kurt Rasmusson, and most of the Animal team. I guess you could say I really don’t film with people I don’t know ahead of time.

Have you been getting into the HD camera stuff yet?
Yeah Transworld bought a Panasonic HVX about halfway through the filming of Insight. It’s cool because I was able to use some HD shots in place of 16mm film shots and save a little money but overall I’d have to say I wouldn’t want to shoot a whole project in HD just yet. The camera is bulky, not good in low light, expensive, you pretty much have to have some kind of computer with you at all times to store the footage, multiple backup drives (no tape). It just seems so impractical right now for so many reasons, the biggest one being why shoot an entire video with an HD camera if it’s not going to be released in HD? I don’t subscribe to the theory that HD is suddenly going to make BMX videos look good, there’s a lot more to it than just shooting on HD.

What kind of advice do you have for people looking into the film industry?
If you’re planning on shooting BMX you have to do it because you love it. Don’t work for free but don’t plan on getting rich either. Take any work thats gonna help you learn more about what you want to do.

Outside of work and riding what are some things you are into?
Music, Skateboarding and Snowboarding when I get the chance. Just skating around is so much fun right now.

If you never got into riding or film, what do you think you would be doing?
I’d probably be a bum living in Ridley maybe shooting heroin or something. HAHAHAHA Honestly though I do feel like I was lucky to find riding/filming because it gave me something to focus on and not get involved with a lot of stuff many of the people I grew up with got involved in.

What kind of music are you into?
I guess I’m pretty picky about music but I wouldn’t say there is one specific type of music I like most. Punk, Garage Rock, 60’s psychedelic, Indie, Hardcore, the list goes on.
A lot of the stuff I’ve been into lately ended up on the Insight soundtrack.

How do you go about picking music for your videos?
I seriously think I spend more time selecting soundtracks for videos than anything else, especially now that all my music has to be cleared. But most of the time I will talk to the rider and see what they are into, hopefully they have some idea and we can agree on something that will work. If not I just try and find something that fits. With Insight, I think I most of the soundtrack was picked by me with the exception of Mike Brennan. Everyone else I came up with stuff for and we agreed on it. Literally spending hundreds of hours and tons of money on itunes just getting ideas together. It’s not that bad though cause I love music and it exposes me to a lot of cool stuff I wouldn’t otherwise get to hear and it works out because I always find something for one video that doesn’t get used and ends up in another video.

What are some of your favorite movies(riding or non riding)?
My all time favorite movies include, Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, The Big Lebowski, Back to the Future, Indiana jones trilogy (can’t wait for the new one). I’m real into skate videos as well, Habitat and Alien Workshop videos and the Static and Eastern Exposure videos. For BMX I grew up watching videos like 1201 and Anthem, plus the Little Devil videos played a huge part in my interest in filming. “No country for Old Men” is one of the best newer movies I’ve seen in the past couple of years.

Do you ever catch yourself critiquing movies or anything like that(outside of riding videos)?
Definitely, but I can still get completely immersed in a really good movie. I usually can’t handle bad acting and bad CG’s though.
With a BMX video, If the riding is good enough than I can pretty much ignore everything else.

If you could spend the day with anybody (alive or dead) who would it be and why?
Right now I wouldn’t mind hanging out with Spike Jonze. It’s just cool to see someone who grew up doing the same things we do make it big into Hollywood and still be respected by so many different people. He’s directing the “Where the Wild Things Are” movie adaptation and a Ripleys Believe it or Not movie and both those projects sound pretty awesome.

What are some things you would like to accomplish in the next 5 years?
I’d like to put all the money I’ve been spending on rent towards a house. Aside from that I just want to be happy doing whatever it is that I’m doing.

If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?
Buy back all my shit that got stolen. Buy a house. Do something real nice for my family/friends. Make a BMX video with a huge budget and just get everyone I’m friends with involved and have a great time making it.

Who are some of your biggest influences on your life?
My parents for sure, they have always been pretty supportive of what I do even if they don’t really understand it. Everything and anything can be an influence it’s just whoever or whatever I happened to be surrounded by at the time. Pretty broad I guess…

5 things you can’t live without?
My Girl
My Family
A Car
Camera shit (coincidentally I don’t have any right now)
A Home…(not as in a house) but just somewhere to come back to and feel normal

Any bad habits?
I guess I tend to procrastinate from time to time.

What is a story or interesting thing about yourself nobody will believe?
I seriously hate editing. I don’t mind it as much when I’ve shot all the footage but editing other peoples stuff is the worst. I feel like I’d be a lot better at what I do if I could just get over it.

Anybody you would like to give a shout out or thanks to?
Everyone in the new Ride video for putting the time and effort to make it good. Whiteboy for making the video look good and keeping me from going insane. The Ride Staff for giving me the opportunity, and all my friends and family. Thanks.