![]() There was paintball, rollerskating, and Ryder faceplanting then bleeding out his eye. There was Hollywood legend Robert Evans, who produced The Godfather, lying down in a robe. One video was scored by Tyler, The Creator another with songs by Kanye and Smokey Robinson. There was puke, blood, handguns, the biggest nollie flip I’ve seen since Antwuan Dixon’s ender in Baker 3. New videos had pro-level skateboarding from the team, half of whom are black, but were shot around Burbank, where Jay Leno lives. IC hit big.Īnd like any great artist, Mikey incorporated all of it, “filming everything,” from the Godless grit of LA to the VIPish place IC was suddenly let into. IC held the golden ratio-that rarest harmony of local grit, insider respect, worldly elegance, and massive appeal-which makes brands hit big in the way only a brand like Supreme or Fucking Awesome can hit big. “When the IC videos came out, we were marketable,” says Na-Kel. Mikey was good at making videos, and like all the greats (see Future Primitive or Memory Screen or Baker 3 or Dylan Reider’s Gravis part), the IC videos were both a showcase of talent and a yearbookish portrayal of a time and place just beyond reality. The videos came next, made from skate footage, 50,000 Limewire downloads, and his library of international vinyl. It was a name at first, something to put on t-shirts. Mikey started Illegal Civilization circa 2008, in his room. (An other skate thing: Despite IDing as a collection of non-belongers, skaters can be high-schoolishly disrespectful, and, unfortunately, at times hateful and racist.)Īnd there was also Illegal Civ. The community was not always receptive or respectful, and when it comes to Mikey, please know: “I hate to be disrespected.” Mikey was hungry, teenaged, and seemingly the only black filmer in LA. (Another skate thing: top filmers like Beagle, Strobeck, and Guess Who must know cameras, lighting, blocking, and also skate well, since they have to keep up.) Early on he became a filmer-shooting, editing, and scoring skate videos of his friends. And like the kids in the film, he grew up attending Catholic school and skateboarding around North Hollywood. “Certain people carry themselves a certain way,” said Tyshawn Jones, who plays a pro in the film and is a pro on team FA (and a rising icon). “So is Mikey.” A seminal 00s skater, Dill founded Fucking Awesome, or FA, the brand to supersede Supreme, which sold late last year for $2.1 billion. “IC is absolutely respected in our industry,” said Jason Dill, who plays a priest in the film. “I wouldn’t have thought it was his first time directing,” said Cosgrove, star of the Despicable Me franchise and once the highest-paid child actress in the world. ![]() “He’s doing a great job bringing the hard-core skate scene to a bigger audience,” said Tony Hawk, an early champion of NoHo. “Mikey’s had the vision for a while,” said Pharrell Williams, a producer on the film. If that sounds a little too ambitious, just listen to what the folks in his corner say. The shot, scored with 50s doo-wop, which lasts seconds but took four days to create, also encapsulates the plot of NoHo (Mikey calls it NoHo) and underscores its subtitle: “ The First Movie About Becoming a Pro Skater.” It also might be about the director, and his journey from unpopular skate filmer to-he hopes-Hollywood mogul. ![]() ![]() Because if I was filming this as a skate video, this is how I would do it. ![]() “Yeah, obviously,” he continued, “Scorsese and the Steadicam inspire me, but also I had to bring that skate style. So it creates these really dope shadows when you’re taking the camera all the way through it the way we did.” When you block and light it-the roof space, it has these Ls and these Ws. “It’s half indoor, half outdoor, so shooting there creates a polarity. “I love that spot,” he says of the second location. His sweatshirt, polo’s collar, and the board at his feet all say Illegal Civ in his own rough cursive. Mikey’s seated in the back booth at Burritos El Chavo on Riverside Drive, five minutes from where he grew up. ![]()
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