SUZIE HARRISON
Laguna filmmakers Cory Sparkuhl, 21, and Cyrus Polk, 24, have formed
their own production company, C & C Productions, for their latest
project, "The Broken Video," a skateboard film to be premiered at
Laguna South Coast Cinema on July 25.
"We've been working on videos together for a while now," Sparkuhl
said. "We thought we might as well have our own production company."
Sparkuhl and Polk, along with Laguna skater Derek Dew, 21,
released the skate film "FTW" in June 2004. Polk released "The Chosen
Few," a skim boarding video, in December 2004.
Sparkuhl prefers to stay behind the camera, whereas, Polk has been
an avid skater for 10 years.
"This film is strictly skateboarding, straight forward, not
wasting time, not joking around," Sparkuhl said. "In my last video,
it had footage that dragged on."
They described "The Broken Video" as fast paced with no breaks.
"This one is straight up, hard core and raw," Polk said. "It's
what a skateboard video should be."
Polk said they used top-of-the-line equipment -- a Power Mac G5
with two external hard drives, three Sony Vx video cameras and a
Minolta Super 8.
"This video went a little artsy," Polk said. "It gives a true
feeling of what a video should look like and what skateboarding is
all about."
They were able to combine their skateboard friends and contacts to
create a better video.
"The Broken Video" features Scott Nelson, 17, Wes Verdugo, 21,
Jeremy Henry, 18, Connor Cevatli, 17, Luie Isais, 16, Jesse Isais, 18, Jesse Palares, 16, Travis Arnold, 22, Devin Lynn, 20, Devon Agar,
15; and the youngest of the bunch, Drew Agar, is 13.
Polk and Dew are in the movie but have less prominent roles.
"Since day one Derek has been one of our main characters,"
Sparkuhl said. "In this video he has two clips. We miss him; he has
talent like nobody else."
Their previous projects took years, however, they've been able to
produce this video in about four months, starting while Polk was at
film school in Tucson, Ariz., and Sparkuhl attending a film school in
L.A.
"One of the biggest sessions was when all the kids met in
Arizona," Polk said. "Everything was coming together to make a huge
video. The footage was insane -- a lot of brutal falls, a lot of
hammers and big hand rails."
Schools served as their playground of choice to capture footage.
About 40% was shot in Laguna; other locations were San Francisco, San
Diego and Los Angeles.
"We got at least 10 to 15 trespassing tickets at schools,"
Sparkuhl said.
That irks Polk.
