Video Parts and Short Films with Corey Young
Images by Riely Walker and Cameron Fraser
There is a video on Corey Young’s Instagram of him doing three fakie tre switch manual switch flips in a row on the Glebe manual pad.
If that isn’t a strong enough display of how good at skateboarding Corey is, you can watch his part in Arcadia, the latest full-length masterpiece by goated lensman Cameron Fraser. A display of tasteful manuals, great ledge tricks, quick feet and one of the most unique switch and nollie flip techniques I’ve ever seen.
While being one of the best skateboarders in Australia, Corey is also a massive film nerd. So, I caught up with him to speak about his love of movies and go behind the scenes on his short film that he directed that will be out sometime soon.
Arcadia isn’t out online yet so if you enjoyed Corey’s part, I highly recommend that you buy a copy of the full-length, here. Alongside Corey, the video features full parts from Jae Overton, Karl Dorman, Dean Palmer and Sean Ryan. It’s incredible and you won’t be disappointed. It’s the best Sydney-based full-length video since Skylarking.
To start, I’ve got a question that was on everyone’s mind. There was a photo circulating of you setting up a Darkstar board in a fedora; what is the story behind that?
Yeah, I got a box of boards from Anthony Mapstone; I thought I would try and go with it. I skated four boards and was trying to work out if I could be a Darkstar skater, which explains the fedora. But it didn’t work out, it just wasn’t for me. Rhys Grogan was trying to be the team manager too, but that didn’t end up working out either.
Oh damn, that sucks it didn’t work out. Your part in Arcadia recently came out, how was it working with Cameron Fraser on the video?
It was incredible. He is a super-talented skateboard filmmaker. He knows what he wants to do, and he will put in all the effort to make it work. He also basically has an infinite amount of patience. To the point where it gets a bit worrying, there are times I’m thinking; how are you okay with going back to this spot so many times or waiting this long for someone to land their trick [laughs]? I am freaking out for him, feeling bad about taking so long. Sean [Ryan] feels the same way. He has a super chill persona when it comes to filming.
How was it working together trying to find songs for your part?
Cam chose the Duster song because he likes Duster and I don’t know too much about them, I was just like that works well for me.
I chose the second song. I really like this filmmaker Hal Hartley, who Dean Palmer put me on to. When I watched his films it blew my mind, especially Trust. Trust has a theme song that fades in and out throughout the whole time and that was the second song. Hal Hartley is a true independent filmmaker he crowdfunds his films and makes all the scores himself.
I wanted to use that song, because of what it meant, and I like it. I’ve skated to songs before that have linked back to what I am interested in. The song I skated to in the Private Joy part was an Oneohtrix Point Never song and I chose it because the Safdie brothers did the film clip for it. I love those guys and think they are going to make the best movies ever. Those two were me being fascinated by music that is in film.
Is it a big thing for you that you want to skate to a song that represents you and what you are interested in?
Well, I don’t want to get to a stage where the songs I skate to have to be from a movie. I think for those projects those songs made sense. It was that thing at that time that I am into, and I think that helps do more justice for the part.
For sure. Cam once told me that you watch films in the morning before you go skating. Is that true?
Yep! I still do.
What are the five best films to watch in the morning before you go skating?
1. Deck Dogz: It is the only Australian skate movie. It is the craziest, most out-there thing ever. It has the craziest editing, and the acting is absurd. It will juice you up. Tony Hawk’s in it, I think he said in an interview; that it’s good to be in a movie where skateboarding makes sense and does it justice. That makes no sense at all, I was talking to Dean once about how it is so twisted and so bizarre. It’s a bunch of guys who want to skate across Sydney to skate a contest at Marimbula because their goal is to meet Tony Hawk and get sponsored by him, just him. It is incredible. Every skater in Australia should watch it.
2. Clerks
4. Koyaanisqatsi: It’s a movie that is all in images, it isn’t a narrative, it goes from the desert to the city. The music is by Phillip Glass, that music is amazing, I think it juices you up to skate. If you watch it, you will see Mindfield in it. It’s like they took this movie and made it into the snippets of Mindfield. I think it’s good for filmers to watch, it’s almost a good editing school or something.
5. There Will Be Blood: Not only just to get juiced to go skating, but it’s a movie that is impossible not to skip after watching it just because of how good it is.
What is it about movies that get you hyped to go skating?
It’s not necessarily hyped. I just love watching movies and if I have time, I’m going to try to watch one every day. If you watch a good film, it’s therapeutic, to some degree it is an escape. I have friends who play video games seven hours a night. My thing is just watching a movie and figuring out who made it and watching that whole person’s body of work.
You recently directed your first short film. When did you come up with the idea to make your own short film?
I’ve been writing a bunch of short stories since I was eighteen. Myles [Waughman] who filmed the short that we made has made a couple of shorts in the past. He was telling me about how he had an itch to make another one, but he didn’t have any ideas, I had this short story that I wrote that I could picture. I could picture the people, where it was and how it would be filmed. I was like man we should do this one. It just exploded from there.
Then our friends James Peach and Dan Goode, who shoot a lot of fashion stuff and both do lighting together, heard that we were doing a short. They were like if you need help, we’d love to help, we can do the lighting. When it got to that point, once Myles and I had that realisation it was going to be real. I rewrote the film, and I would hold these meetings at the Shakey, with Dan, James, Myles and Indigo Bennett who does sound for Hedgelock Studios which Lewis Oxenbould runs, Indigo ended up doing the boom. I got Fraser Bull-Clark, who is an actor, I didn’t know him at the time, but we had a coffee and I told him what I wanted to do and what I liked. We got along well, we bonded heavily over the idea of what movies should be and what he wanted to do, which was kind of similar to what I wanted to do. Which is on the surface, close to life story telling. Ruby Powell-Hughes my partner, produced it. Mikey Mieruszynski made some clothing and Halen Assef did slate. I made a storyboard with James and eventually, it was a point of no return, like we needed to do it.
What was it like working with Ruby?
Ruby is great. It wouldn’t have reached its final shape without her. I wrote the character and had her in mind for the role almost straight away. I was worried she was going to say no but when I threw her the idea she asked why did asking me take so long. When we started working on the short, her producing it just fell into place very easily and she handled it really well, she is just all around super talented. It definitely pushes me a little further to do the best I can. In doing that I think we work well together.
How long did it take from when you and Myles spoke to filming and finishing it?
I would say a year and a half. There was stuff that happened, like people went away, and I got a different person to be in the short. I wanted to make sure we had months of rehearsing, getting the lines right and rewriting dialogue for the characters to what suited those individuals. Filming it was really quick, it was only four days. The edit took a long time Myles and I edited for a few months.
What was the editing process like?
I would go over to Myles’ house with a six-pack once a week for three months and we would edit for four hours.
How long is the short?
It goes for eleven minutes.
What can you say about the story?
A man shows interest in a woman on a bus. That’s the log line for it..
How did you come up with the story?
I guess my ideas come from watching a lot of stuff and thinking about what if this happened instead. They have to be open discussions where it’s like problem-solving, like what if this character did this and if they did this and this happens at the end. I’m all for using different stories and mashing them together, not deliberately, but subconsciously. I think it’s a good way of storytelling.
How was it directing the film?
It was great. I had a great experience. I went from writing my concept on paper and then being in a room with people and working with them on their conversations, telling them what to do with their bodies. I almost can’t put it into words how amazing it was. It was like a gift to me having that feeling. From paper to working with actors blew my fucking mind.
Considering you just finished filming a part were there any similarities between directing the short and filming the video part?
Yeah, I think that guerrilla-style idea of I’m just going to do this no matter what is in our way. For the short we had no budget, all we had was two actors, lighting, a camera and a boom.
The first scene is on a bus. That was on a real bus. We took a meter-by-meter bounce board and a big black drape, to stop the light coming in on one side of the bus. We got on the bus, I was like guys okay, you sit there, Fraser you go there, Ruby you come in eventually out of camera. We spent all day on these buses, and we had to set up before the bus leaves. Then, once the bus leaves I would have to direct Fraser from behind a black curtain on the bus on what to do.
To do that on a live bus with people wanting to get off, pressing the buttons and people even being behind the curtain waiting to get off the bus was insane. It was unreal. People were supportive and had some idea of what we were doing. I was a bit concerned with the driver, but I’m assuming that he just thought we were transporting stuff. It felt like the same heart was there that you have when trying to film a trick.
I know William Friedkin who made The Exorcist said that at one point in his life, he had a sleepwalker’s security where nothing could ever get in his way, he would be able to leave the house sleepwalking and walk on a high beam that takes him to another building. That’s the invincibility that I feel. I felt as if I could do whatever the fuck you want.
The bus situation is so crazy. Do you have a date for when it’ll be released?
We don’t have a date yet. Ruby and I are trying to find a home for it at a film festival. Ruby is helping me with applications and it’s going well, hopefully, we will find a home for it soon.
Would you like to make another short?
Yeah, I would love to, and I’d love to work with the same people again. When you have your people, you feel like you just have to ride it out. It feels like half the battle. We all have the same energy and work well together. It feels like now we’ve done one we can do anything. It’s the same as when you find a good crew in skateboarding, it’s like let’s just keep making videos and be silly, this is amazing.
Do you have anything else that you’d like to say?
One thing I’d like to make clear is after we’ve been talking about all this stuff about my idea of the movie. I don’t want anyone to come to this conversation as a reference on how to do anything in film, because simultaneously I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. Please write at the end; Corey says, don’t listen to me I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing [laughs].