Jack Johnston
Jack Johnston actually does have cameras for eyes.
From: Carlisle
Favourite Tricks: Editing videos with no hands!
Likes: Video cameras
Dislikes: Capturing footage, hangovers
Special Ability: Being sick on trains and x ray vision
Quoteable: “I was just sick on a train”
Extra Information: Im the reason the BFC can make DVDs
Setup: MBS Comp 16
Making movies, with Jack Johnston
Jack Johnston loves nothing better than standing about watching people do big jumps and recording it on his own pair of camera eyes, we caught up with the man who makes it happen…
Yo Jack! How long have you been filming mountainboarding for?
Well when me and my mates first started boarding back in the old days, building jumps out of doors and bricks I started using my Grandads old HI 8 analogue camera and then my mate bought a slightly better digital camera and we started filming some more stuff and he started to edit some little videos for us. it was pretty fun just messing around being terrible at boarding.
I guess it was just a smooth transition into editing then?
Yeah I just kind of took over one day and decided I wanted to make a video. I think my first one was actually using footage from my Grandads HI 8 camera which i filmed off of a tv screen as that was the only way we could get it onto the computer! Those were the good old days of windows movie maker.
How long ago was that?
I don’t actually know how many years to be honest! I’d guess about 5? But yeah those days really got me interested in the editing and filming process and lead me to where I am today.
I’m guessing that your filming has improved a bit?
Ha ha yes id like to hope so!
After “Filmogenic” (the BFC’s first DVD) quite a few people commented on how they liked your style of filming and editing, how are you trying to be different from other mountainboard film makers?
Well the BFC’s motto has always been to have fun so I try and make it look fun with the editing. I can’t really say how it works it just kinda does. I think music helps a lot when trying to make something look fun. If you have a really fun sounding backing track it’s a lot easier to work with the music and make something look cool. Most other mountainboard DVDs out there at the moment are very competition orientated and don’t feature any of the creative riding done outside competitions and the pure fun that riders are having without the stress of competition.
Where would your ideal filming shoot be and who would be there?
Hmmm that’s a toughy. It would be somewhere with blue sky and sun, which is very hard to come by in the UK! As for a location it depends on what i want to film. Somewhere where there is a number of jumps to hit so I can get some good angles, Bugs Boarding is always good for filming, riding and messing about. I would obviously have to be with the rest of the BFC!
And how was it this year traveling around and filming with the BFC?
This summer was such wicked fun! We are all kinda used to filming now so its easy. Apart from occasionally when someone doesn’t shout that they are dropping in and then I miss it and it’ll always be the best trick of the day!!!
Ha ha, is it’s always the riders fault if you don’t get a shot?
Yes defiantly, I wont lie to you, its mostly Martyn’s fault!
Poor Martyn! He used to make videos a while back didn’t he?
Yeah I think so, I think quite few riders make their own little videos.
So say I wanted to go out and make my own mountainboarding films, how hard is it? Any tips for anyone wanting to start filming?
Just get out there and give it a whirl grab a camera, lots of tapes, a good crew of riders and go for it! It doesn’t matter too much at first the quality of the camera, “filmogenic” was shot on a little handheld job. It’s hard work though when you come to edit it. We shot around 40 hours of footage this summer for our next DVD and its taken me a long, long time to start getting things together. The best tip is to try and do things differently from all the other videos you see, get creative and see what you can come up with and don’t forget that mountainboarding is fun, so make it look fun!
Photo by Paul Crilley