When we heard that Davonte Jolly was hooking the world up with an Xmas present every skater can enjoy – a full length video, GODSPEED, with some of our favorites, including Ishod Wair, Zion Wright, Alex Midler, Robert Neal, and many more – we asked our man in the streets Tony Hufnagel aka T-Huff to find out a little bit more about the video. Add in some photos from Atiba and we’ve got ourselves a feature. Hope you like it. Can’t wait for Christmas morning!
Interview by: T-Huff
Photos by: Atiba
Was this video planned or did it kind of all just fall into place?
After we finished IC3, Mikey (Alfred) was like, “Next I want you to do your own full-length video and you just pick who is in it, it doesn’t have to be people that skate for IC.” And I was like, “What the fuck? Like, that’s easy.” Originally I was going to do an All-Black skaters full length, with an all-black cast, but then Alex (Midler) got on IC and he came with around two minutes of footage already. So I was like, I would be stupid to not use this in my video, you know? Because he already had the biggest head start. So I was like, okay, well it won’t be all black, but I’ll just pick all the people that I would skate with regardless. So yeah, I already skate with Ishod (Wair), I already skate with Robert (Neal), and I already skate with Zion (Wright). Like all those people are easy, plus Ish (Cepeda) and then the entire IC team.
It was just lined up from the get-go?
Organic. Yeah. Cause I think, I didn’t even tell Ishod I was filming a video until way down the line. I think it was like me and Zion already talked about it and then I was just filming but I wasn’t telling people like, “Oh, this is for my video.” I was just filming and then once I came up with the name, that’s when we made a post to kinda announce it. And then everyone was like, “Oh, I’m filming for Godspeed, I want a part for Godspeed.”
That was actually my next question. How did you come up with the name?
Originally, there’s this Frank Ocean song called Godspeed. I was like, damn, this song would be like fire for an intro. Because the song has such a dramatic build-up. And then I was like, wait, what the fuck? This name just looks fire, like Godspeed would be a fire name. So, looked it up in the car and it meant to wish you well on your journey. And I was like, wow, I love that definition, especially for this project. So yeah, that’s how I picked the name. And it went from just the intro song to the fucking name of the whole video.
Ishod – Over krook
Check it
True. I’m fucking with it though. That’s a tight name for a video. Did you guys have anything sketchy that happened in the video, anything wild?
In SF, all our camera gear got stolen. Two of Midler’s last tricks are from that trip. So we went to SF, the first day we went to FTC because somebody needed shoes. So whatever, we just went across the street from the car, like, no, it’ll be fine. Like we’re across the street. Come back to the car. Windows were broken, cameras are gone, the first day of the trip. So everybody’s like, what the fuck? Like we don’t have any cameras.
First day?
Yeah. We stayed in a nice ass hotel. We were like, what the fuck are we about to do? Like we just did all this. So then we were on a mission, like going down, I forgot the street is, but it’s like where people go to sell stuff, that’s stolen. We went down there to see if anyone had it. We actually had a picture of the car, cause some other businesses on the street were saying that they saw that car breaking into cars. They were basically doing loops, hit a car, come back, hit another car. So, we saw that car and our friend was down on the street where they sell the stuff that they stole and that car was parked right in front of him. So once we got to him, he was like, Oh no, wait, this is the car. He was like, “Bro! that car was just sitting in front of me this whole time. That’s how I got this parking spot.” Literally, the car left and he moved up. We ended up hitting up Kyle Camarillo. He used to be the LRG Filmer. We hit him up like, does he know anyone with an HPX or HVX? And then, Corey Duffel just so happened to have two HPX’s. We drove to his house, picked him up, he was hyped, let us use them. Didn’t charge us anything. We were trying to give him money. He was like, “No, no, no. It’s okay. Just take them.” And then because of him giving us those cameras, we got Midler’s last two tricks. It would have been a waste of a trip. We wouldn’t have any cameras.
Shout out Corey Duffel. Two HPX’s?
Chilling. Exactly. That’s what I was thinking, not only one, but you have two. Because it was me and Andreas, the other filmer. So it was perfect, outside from our camera’s getting stolen.
Did you have insurance on the cameras? I get anxiety just thinking about that.
I was trying to set an example and just stay calm but I was freaking out. I was like, we just did all this and then we had to like switch the van cause the glass was broken. I’m not glad it happened, but I’m glad we made it through that. Because it added a story element to it. We got back and Mikey, he gave me that one because his friend had it and he just wasn’t using it. He got the whole kit and all that. And then he gave Andreas his old one and then he just bought us new fish eyes. Maybe a couple of weeks before our cameras got stolen, they just stopped making the extreme fish eyes. So it was double the price. We had to pay $10,000 for two fish eyes. We had to finish the video. Kind of had to buy them.
Jolly getting angles
And tricks – FS Nose
What was probably your favorite place you guys traveled to?
Ooh, Damn, that’s a good one. I want to say Copenhagen. Copenhagen was really sick. It was just me, Rob, and Zach (Saraceno). We had our own house, kind of a little away from everything. We just had to take the train to meet up with everyone. But that was so refreshing, going to the train, seeing everyone because I felt like we really got to see the city, not just being in the heart of it, everyone was nice. The food was really good. All our other friends… like Kevin (White) were still out there, cause I went right after the Copenhagen Open contest. I was wanting to get clips out there, but looking back, I should have gone at least two days earlier and enjoyed it. Copenhagen was sick, the food and I like how it’s like, no one’s driving. Everyone’s just out and you really get to feel the city.
Copenhagen, for sure. I’ve always wanted to go. I heard it’s so much fun.
If it’s open this year, you have to, not even have to, you’re for sure gonna go. Yeah, they’re gonna pay you to go. That’s going to be the easiest contest, that shit’s so fun.
Ishod was saying, it was so loose. The rules and all that shit is so lax. That’s why he ends up winning every year because it’s not like, no one’s tripping about anything.
Yeah. He’s skating. He’s just a fucking beast. It’s obvious, like who killed it this week? Bro, Ishod. What are you talking about? Cause that’s just how he skates regardless. Ishod’s sick.
Who has the last part in the video?
Alex.
He does? Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean for what he did.
Yeah, facts. But initially, from just the two minutes he gave me, he started out with the last part because he was the only one with a full part already. There was a window where it was either Ishod or Zion was gonna take the last part, and then we did that for three months like Alex just going crazy. And it was, I don’t know, he has the obvious last part.
For Sure. Is there any reason why you chose Christmas day to premiere the video?
Yeah. So there were a couple of reasons. Cause it was originally supposed to come out in April, which I’m so happy it didn’t. Cause it would’ve been a completely different video, but the idea behind it coming out on Christmas, we wanted the video to be a gift. Cause our last video IC3, we sold it and people are like, ah, tennis ball and the shit, whatever. Because the video wasn’t that long. I bet you like looking back, Mikey is like, yeah, I should have just given that away for free. But because of that, we always knew that coming into my video, we were gonna like to give it to people. It wasn’t going to be like this big thing like try to make money or whatever. Christmas is a perfect day. Like my last name is Jolly. So it makes sense. And it fit timing-wise, like, okay, we could do this. I can edit November. Yeah. That works. That was the reason. I’m so happy, it’s weird how so much stuff just worked out. Stuff that I was stressed about like damn, how is this gonna? Damn, I wonder how this? Damn the songs? Damn this? Then the last two week period of me, like trying to close it out, everything was just working. Like we almost, weren’t going to have a premiere.
Jolly – Backfliping
Nak – Hardfliping
Really?
Premiere was like out of the question. We were probably going to try to have a small screening, but then that wasn’t even guaranteed. So, I was just like, damn that sucks. That was one of the feelings that I wanted to make happen for my first full length because I’ve witnessed that for so many of my other friends, you know?
Yeah.
That feeling is irreplaceable but I’m glad that we figured it out and got to see everyone. And then more importantly got to see everyone’s reaction to their stuff. Cause that’s what I want is, are you happy with your part?
That’s cool that the pandemic didn’t make it so that you guys couldn’t have a premiere. I think that’s like the best part about making a video is actually having the premiere and just pretty much what you just said.
Yeah. Being with all the homies. Cause all of those days when you are trying, trying to get that clip all your homies are like “You got it, you got it.” And they get to see it pay off. You get to see it pay off with all of them. That night was cool. I didn’t even like to know, my emotions were just like everywhere, but they were all good emotions.
I can only imagine how you must’ve been feeling. You’re just waiting for that. Especially beforehand, you know?
Exactly. Until like three days before the premiere, I was the only one that saw the video. Like no one, so if I’m in my head like, Oh no, this is cool. Am I in this bubble? And they’re like, oh, I don’t know if that really works. All this stuff I try to make it seem like it works.
One more thing, got anybody you want to shout out?
Shout out to all the skaters that were down to be in this film. Cause it’s like, there’s no, like, I’m not like paying Ishod. He’s not doing this, “Oh I have to, this is my job.” He’s doing it out of love. Because he wants to do it. And that means the world to me. Cause, that goes, much farther than money or like whatever. It’s like people do stuff because they genuinely want to do it. It’s not like some games. So yeah, everyone that was down to get their clips in it, down to go get more clips for it. Thank them. Thank you to Nike for sure. Because they bought a lot of Robert’s flights. Copenhagen and Australia, you wouldn’t even be able to go if they didn’t buy us fights. And then they were just like supportive. Flynn was just on it, like, “yeah, whatever you need” and then Adidas too. They helped Kevin and Zach and all of them. So thank you to them too. IC! Thank you to IC. Let’s go!
Let’s get it! Thank you again.
Watch the GODSPEED trailer here:
Check out the Illegal Civ Youtube page on Christmas to watch the video.