For our third and final 3rd Base interview, Laurence Keefe tapped director Tom Ormonde.
How did you get involved with the 3rd Base project?
I’ve known Laurence Keefe (adidas Japan) for a long time, we grew up together and went to the same school. We started talking about working together on something a couple of years ago. We knocked a few ideas around and then finally got the opportunity to work on a project that became 3rd Base.
Is this your first time to make a skateboard video?
Yes. Something I’ve wanted do for a while. A tick on the bucket list.
What sort of projects do you usually work on?
Currently I predominantly make films for advertising over in the UK. I’m also developing narrative short film projects.
Are you a skater yourself?
I used to skate in my teens. I was massively into it at the time, but not necessarily as gifted as others. I definitely owe a lot to skating. I’ve made friends for life through it, and skating introduced me to DIY film making.
Who's your favorite skater?
An obvious one I’m sure, but I’d have to say Jerry Hsu. Mainly for his closing part in Bag of Suck. That part is insane. Arguably the most laid back style going.
How was it working in Japan?
It was an amazing experience. Myself and the DOP (Spike Morris) were both very excited to film there. It’s rare you get the opportunity to film in Japan, so when you get an opportunity to do so, you jump on it. Because this was such a unique opportunity, Spike and I really pushed to shoot on film, which we were lucky enough to do in the end, from a logistical point of view, aside from getting moved on relentlessly by security, filming in Japan was fairly plain sailing. We gave ourselves more than enough days to shoot what we needed, so we were fairly covered.
What challenges did you face while filming the skits?
Thanks to Laurence’s local knowledge and expertise, everything involved with filming 3rd Base felt doable. We had a very small crew which meant we could go a bit more undetected. I recently returned to Tokyo to film a commercial with a bigger crew and it was a lot more challenging, mainly due to logistics and getting permits for literally everything. You want to film a bin, you need a permit. In Europe it’s way more relaxed, you can get away with a lot more, Japan definitely likes to stick to the rules.
How did you come up with the ideas for the skits?
When I was at university in the UK, and spent part of my time in Japan, studying at an Art College in Tokyo for six months. That gave me an insight into Japanese culture that definitely gave me a good starting point when thinking of ideas. It also was very much a collab of ideas between myself and Laurence. Some were premeditated, like the security guard idea, others came to us while filming, like the baseball skit. Luckily we had the time to act on spontaneous ideas.
What was your inspiration?
When I used to skate, I’d always gravitate to the skate vids that pushed the creativity of what the standard skate vid could be. Spike Jonze's early Girl vids like Mouse and Goldfish introduced the idea of low-fi short narrative skits in between skater’s sections. A nod to Jerry Hsu again, but the Tilt Mode video which also featured Louie Barletta and others captured my imagination when I was younger. This video felt so authentic and didn’t take itself too seriously. It definitely showed what a skate video could be.
Which of the Japan skate team did you like working with most?
I enjoyed working with the whole team. We luckily got to spend time with all of them over the period of time filming. They all went above and beyond and never said no to anything we asked them to do. They definitely brought a lot of character and personality to the film.
Who had the best acting skills?
Hiroki could definitely take to the stage. He was a seasoned pro. Toeda also turned it on in the baseball skit. Felt his performance in that.
What’s next? Would you want to make another skate film?
I’d love to make another skate film. I had such an amazing response to 3rd Base from the film and skate community that it’d be hard to turn down another opportunity to make another skate film, especially in Japan.
