How The Sacred Egg got surreal in San Vansterdam

What was the brief like for the skate. campaign?

It's fair to say it was a bit of a dream brief. Bring the city of San Vansterdam (the setting that exists in the game) to life in live action. Basically, create a skater's playground on a city wide scale.

Uncommon Creative Studios NY (who sent us the project) wanted the city to be explored by a crew of young skaters. Almost a day in the life of a skate crew in San Van. And the film should feel like it was captured by the crew filming it themselves. Skate tape style. The guiding principle we judged our ideas by was ‘DIY x SURREAL’.

Uncommon wanted the film to nod to the rich culture and tradition of skate tapes but didn't want it to feel like a pastiche. It had to be its own thing and something that could fit into or even contribute to today's skate culture.

Uncommon wanted the film to nod to the rich culture and tradition of skate tapes but didn't want it to feel like a pastiche

ABOVE: The short film Drop In, from The Sacred Egg.

Did you get to play an early copy of the game for inspiration?

So, EA had a test version of the game which we got sent. We had an afternoon with it. We wish we had had longer but we kind of had to get cracking with putting together the shoot. But that session really helped us get to grips with the physics of the game, which is one of the things that feels very specific to it.

ABOVE: Storyboards for the short film.

Did you guys have a hand in assembling the skateboarding talent in the film?

So, we brought in a skate advisor called Dan Magee whose role (amongst many other things) was to help us find our crew.

The four core skaters we picked ended up being from Japan, the UK, US and Mexico, Kiki Kakitani, Alfie Mills, Jackie Michel and Brayan Coria. They all had slightly different skateboarding skills as we wanted to make sure we had as many of the tricks and styles as possible covered by the four of them. They also needed to be good on camera so along with skate tapes we had them do more traditional casting tapes as well. We then made sure they had time to hang out together in Mexico, and of course skate together, so that they began to feel comfortable as a crew.

In cameo roles we feature some of the top elite skateboarding professionals, such as Ishod Wair, Atiba Jefferson, Yurin Fuji, Jerry Hsu, David Gravette, Sean Malto and Breana Geering. They were bought onboard by EA. 

We then made sure they had time to hang out together in Mexico, and of course skate together, so that they began to feel comfortable as a crew.

ABOVE: The cast and crew on location.

How was the shoot in Mexico City? Any Issues you had to deal with?

Mexico City is an amazing place and the people we worked with were incredibly hardworking, skilled, kind and accommodating. It was the first time we have had the opportunity to shoot there, and we spent a month on the ground putting this job together.

In many ways the film feels more like San Vansterdam than Mexico City which is testament to the service company and the location team.

we spent a month on the ground putting this job together.

The only issue we had was weather. It hardly rained in the month we were there other than a freak weather front that came in over our shoot days. Sadly, skateboarding and rain don't work. And the majority of our set ups were exterior.

Our producer Kate Brady (Riff Raff) and Natalia Casanova (The Lift) and her team spent a lot of time figuring out how we could work around the rain: pumping water out of locations at 3am, drying roads as quick as possible, protecting sets from water at the same time as building them. Despite this weather front across the shoot days (it rained each day) we managed to shoot everything and more which is a real testament to the team.

We also need to mention our production designer Fernanda Contreras and her team who built these wonderful sets. An incredible feat to make them not only look good but also make them skate-able during some heavy rainstorms.

Above: Some BTS skateboarding footage.

What was the overall goal of the film and how did you go about conveying this to the audience?

It was about capturing a spirit. The spirit of skate freedom in a city of endless skate opportunities. We knew that in order to really convey that spirit the world and people in it needed to feel as authentic and as real as possible.

This influenced everything from casting right through to photography and post and so on. Trying to do as much in camera as possible. This is something what we worked on with our EP Jane Tredget from the very beginning of the treatment process.

It was about capturing a spirit. The spirit of skate freedom in a city of endless skate opportunities.

Part of our approach was to build skateable areas into the real locations and then simply allow the scenarios to happen organically without us trying to control them. Of course, there are sequences that are storyboarded and shot in traditional commercial way. But we planned and scheduled a lot of sets up that weren't.

Amongst skaters there's a kind of common language, camaraderie and one-upmanship that you need to let happen. Particularly when you introduce the elite pro skaters on set for cameo roles. Suddenly everyone is upping their game, trying to execute a trick in front of their heroes. Things begin to ramp up and up. It's amazing to watch.

It's easy to get skaters to skate but sometimes not that easy to get them to stop. Chris Kelly our 1st AD along with Khucame Morales Castillo the local 1st AD had their work cut out marshalling large groups of skaters who aren't used to large productions and the people and equipment that comes with that.