Firsts Archives – BMX UNION

Firsts: Stewart Johnson

Interview by Mark Noble
Portrait photo by Wes McGrath

Few people in the game have a NORA Cup on their mantelpiece at home stating that yes indeed, they made the best video of the time. Stew Johnson has such a trophy, and for good reason – Anthem2 was long awaited and hotly anticipated, and the hype built and built all through the filming and production process. The resulting video definitely not only lived up to but far exceeded the hype. And the just rewards came – it sold well (bearing in mind the age we live in and how people consume videos these days), the riders involved enjoyed truly landmark video parts, and then it was unquestionably awarded a NORA Cup. Anthem2 is timeless, an instant classic, and if you don’t own a copy of it in your video collection then you need to examine your status in life. Having spent the best part of 18 years working on BMX videos, Stew now juggles various projects for brands and companies – “I’m currently working on full length DVDs for Dan’s Comp and Fit Bike Co.” – and is going from strength to strength: we caught up with him just after a Dans Comp trip and here are his FIRSTS.

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Firsts: Tom Arkus

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Interview by Mark Noble
Photos by Brian Yeagle

Over the years, camera and editing technology has advanced at an insane rate. With all of this new technology, filming and editing web edits and DVD’s has become something that just about anyone could pull off if they set their mind to it for a little while. It wasn’t always as easy as it is today where you can film a clip on your iPhone and have people from the other side of the world checking it out 30 seconds later. Tom Arkus is one of the guys in BMX who has been producing edits online and DVD’s way back before you had things so easy. With the release of his new Vinyl “LP” DVD, we figured it would be a great time to get ahold of Tom to find out how he got into the film side of BMX. Check out what he had to say in this fresh round of Firsts!

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Firsts: Dylan Pfohl

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Interview by Mark Noble
Photos by Matt Lingo

One of the most prolific filmers in the industry, Dylan Pfohl’s video output is clearly on a level that is higher than most – he has an eye for detail, a creative edge that makes his work stand out from the crowd, and a portfolio of work that most people who kill for – riders know that if they do something with Dylan, it’s going to be done RIGHT. Dylan’s on top of his game.
Like most riders who have been around for a long time, Dylan’s early days were quite different to how most kids see BMX these days – “Looking back on it, BMX was so simple growing up. We liked jumping our bikes so we built jumps. That was it for years, no magazines, no videos, no internet. I didn’t ride a skatepark until I was 18 years old. I’m pretty thankful I always had the camera out, even when we were just learning to ride. It’s so awesome now to go back and see where we started.”
2012 was a very busy year for Dylan and it seemed not a week went by without something popping up out of his hard-drive and venturing online, but what about right now? “For the first time in months I don’t have any major projects going on, so I’m taking the time to finally work on my Best Of 2012. I probably won’t call it that though, since it’s pretty late. As for what’s next, I’m moving to Huntington in a few days so I plan on learning how to surf. Other than that, just keep doing my own thing.”
Let’s get stuck into finding out a new FIRSTS with Dylan.

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Firsts: Fat Tony

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Interview by Mark Noble

This instalment of our FIRSTS series with media guys in the BMX game is with none other than Fat Tony. Fat has been living the dream and changing his game for a good deal of years now, and shows no sign of letting up. I distinctly recall his package of photos with Terry Adams landing on my old desk back in the old magazine days, and we just knew we had to blow out the article as big as possible – the selection of images with Terry were definitely not your typical set of photos, and it was one of the most photogenic articles we ran back in the heydays of the mag. Shortly after that, he started working full-time at Ride BMX in Southern California and the rest is history – “I started learning to shoot proper photos around 2004, and started getting published in 2005. Then I started working at Ride in June 2006.”
So what is Fat Tony up to now? “Nowadays I am working for myself full time. I do a lot of video production for Alli Sports. I am also the BMX team manager for Freegun Underwear in the US, so I do photos and videos for them. Most of my photo work these days comes from contests. For example: I’ll go to X Games and shoot for Fox, Monster, Mongoose, and DC Shoes so they all have photos for their web sites and social networks, then I’ll sell individual photos from the event to brands like DK and Specialized for catalogs, ads, etc. And I am also starting to announce contests and demos… on camera and microphone stuff.”
Busy times indeed. Let’s find out how he started in all this, and rewind the clock with Fat’s own FIRSTS.

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Firsts: Mike King

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Interview by Mark Noble

In the past few years, or as he puts it, “For pretty much as long as I’ve been riding, almost ten years I guess,” Mike King has conjured up some of the web’s finest videos – there’s no doubt you’ve sat back and enjoyed his work for the likes of MacNeil (who he also rides for, on their UK team), Amity Bikes, and more recently for the Seventies UK collection of brands where he was in-house filmer for a while, out on trips, hitting contests, and filming edits at their private indoor park. Now branching out into the freelance game again, Mike is also putting some extra focus on to his own web site at FFWDBMX.com and sticking together his new portfolio video site. Says Mike, “I’m trying to put everything I can into Fast Forward, kinda tricky when you’re a one-man army and have bills to pay. I’m also working on a portfolio site and starting up another brand…” So let’s find out where Mike started – here are his FIRSTS.

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Firsts: Lloyd Ramsay

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Interview by Mark Noble

For this instalment of FIRSTS we track down Lloyd Ramsay – a rider who, after spending a few years in the UK, moved back out to South Africa to work in the bike industry, and then break out on his own to work on a new site and branding – or, as he puts it; “I wasted a large amount of time producing digital media for a bicycle company recently and decided I was done making other people rich and working on a BMX frame they were being underhanded with. So I started my own company. The focus is on the lifestyle and passion of people involved in Action Sports. No pro riders. No regurgitated videos / photos. No competition coverage. No press releases. Simply real people who pay for their own bike or skateboard telling a life story we all can relate to. The people that keep our sports alive. I’m not going to plug it and say what it’s name is, but I am sure readers will figure it out.” Prior to this, Lloyd has produced some really impressive video work for a wide range of subjects, from Rockstar’s BMX racing team to Nike’s Pool contest. So we figured it would be a good time to work out Lloyd’s FIRSTS.

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Firsts: James Cox

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Interview by Mark Noble

James Cox is flat-out one of the best filmers in the game – but don’t just take my word for it, he’s in possession of one of the few highly-coveted NORA Cups for Video Of The Year resting on a shelf at 4Down HQ to prove it, for his production work on the United video. Whether it’s his filming skills or production and editing techniques, James has it down – and has done so for a pretty long time; “I’ve been filming since I was about 17 years old, so over a decade ago now. I’ve been filming professionally since about 2008 after leaving my job as a Senior Creative at a graphic design agency to pursue a BMX videography career and never looked back. I started off freelance, and made videos for all sorts of different companies, but eventually I ended up on the United / 4Down payroll as their staff full-time filmer. On top of that, I now produce videos for Etnies Europe and undertake the odd personal project…” Whether it’s travelling worldwide for United, or 4Down, or for Etnies, James Cox has it well covered. We caught up with him between projects to figure out his FIRSTS.

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Firsts: Will Stroud

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Interview by Mark Noble

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave somewhere, you will have seen and loved Will Stroud’s video work – creating some of the most popular BMX videos over the past ten years, Will always puts a focus and creative edge into his video parts, be it with Nathan Williams, Corey Martinez, Chris Doyle, Garrett Reynolds, Van Homan, Jamie Bestwick… the list goes on and on. Don’t forget he also balances his video work with running three stacked BMX teams under the Greenhouse umbrella; it helps having the likes of Cinema, Duo, and Verde on tap to film with, that’s for sure. So we caught up with Will in between filming duties currently with Monster and working on the upcoming full-length DVD for Cinema…

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