Spotlight: Brad Rosado
How did you begin your interests both in skateboarding and In skateboard cinematography?Well as a kid I lurked around NY and always remember seeing kids skating. Like it was a crazy site for me. They would have broken boards and still be skating them. Later on down the road my Uncle hooked me up with an old school Shut board. I didn't really know what to do with it. Compared to what I've seen at the time, it was huge. But then I ended up moving to Cali with my Fam and that's where skating really took off in my life. Every kid over there skated and it was just the best thing to do. Never had more fun in my life. But since my Dad was in the Army I had to move around a lot. After about 2 years in SF I ended up in ATL. Compared to Cali it was WAY different. Moving there kind of ended skating in my life for the most part. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, after a year I ended up moving to Kansas. Instead of it being horrible it was kind of one of the best places to live and it got me back into skating. After 10 months of that I finally moved back East and landed up in DC Metro Area. Moving to the DC area was probably the best thing to ever happen to me really. Met a ton of people and it was just chill. At the time there was this church and it had this thing called Skatenight. It was an outreach program to kids to come and just skate and also get a chance to hear about the word of God. It was probably the only hassle free place around at the time. Instead of getting your board taken downtown, you got to skate carefree. This is where I met my mentor Barton Damer. Through meeting him I became part of Skatenight and helped build it up. At the same time Bart was making a video to support the facility. Seeing him film got me interested, so eventually I picked up a Hi-8 camera that my parents hooked me up with. I would just mess around and film at Skatenight or wherever and just have fun. Within 2 years i got a 3-Chip camera and got real deep into it. Now I'm downtown everyday just trying to hold down the District.
What is it like to skateboard and film in the Washington D.C. metro, more so, what have been the best and worst aspects of the city?
DC is definitely an original city to be doing the skate thing at. Everywhere you look there is something you can skate. It all depends on how you look at it though. Downtown is such tight little community as well. You see all the same people usually and it's almost like a family. You also see all the Legends still doing their thing. It's pretty crazy. The only problem is getting hassled by Park Police. The main spots that people like are on Pennsylvania Avenue and those happen to be the worst.. Sometimes you can go days without getting busted and then all of a sudden they bum rush you and you get your board taken and a ticket. Not the best experience to encounter but then again it has become a game. We skate or film and try to get stuff done before Park comes to get us. If you are local you eventually learn how to get away easily and know what to look for. Recently, the downtown scene has gotten even worst though. The Park Police know that we are too fast for them, so now they go for our cars and threaten to break our windows and then give us pointless parking tickets. It just has gotten out of hand. But then again we are starting to expand the city even more then ever and skate more spots.
Your first solo video, "Liberal Arts" was a mix of some of the younger up and coming skaters in the DC area, how did that video come together and what was it like from start to finish?
Liberal Arts was a fun video but at the same time it drove me a little crazy. I linked up with most of the people threw my first video "Way Of Life" that i did with Zack Hollifield. The whole production of the video was pretty sketchy until the last 4 months. There were like 4 different names and like 4 or 5 different release dates, which were all pretty spaced out from each other. I also ended up going through 3 cameras starting off with a GL-1 and ending with 2 VX1000's. Picking out parts was also pretty crazy as well. People wanted to do it and then didn't and then they did. Daniel Kim and Shaun Gregoire were probably the only two people on the project from the beginning to the end. The other people that jumped onto the project was Eric Johnson, Pete Broderick, David Weitzel, and Alex Hansen. It came out to be a pretty sick diverse line up though. Filming all those dudes at the same time was the hardest though. All had different spots and different types of terrain to skate. That put a lot of stress on the video and setting a release date even harder. Finally I put the final release date and stuck to it. For some reason I put the release date on May, Friday the 13th...almost seemed like it was set up to fail; It tore me apart mentally and physically but I got it done. I personally wasn't feeling the video hence that I did the whole thing in 4 sleepless days, but everybody for the most part seemed to like it a lot.
What other kind of projects, both of your own and in collaboration with others, are you working on right now or have planned?
Wow I have so many things that I'm either working on or helping out with. The main thing that I'm doing right now is my site that I do with Keir Johnson, www.TheForgottenCity.com. This site covers all aspects of DC from past to present. You can find all the recent promos for any new video coming out of DC to old videos from back in the day. It also features interviews from people around the DC area. The site just keeps getting better and better. In the future you can look forward to interviews from all the OG pro skaters in DC like Andy Stone, Darrel Vaughn, Brian Tucci, Chris Hall, Scott Johnston, & Reese Forbes. There will be other special things up like Chris Hall and Andy Stone's sponsor videos from back in the day, and an exclusive photo gallery done by the legendary DC photographer Dave Schubert.
I'm also helping out my friend Allen Danze finish up his video, "Time Will Tell". That should be dropping anytime now. You can peep a promo or two at www.TheForgottenCity.com. There is another project I'm working on but supposingly I'm not supposed to talk about it, but all I got to say is "What We Do Is Secret". Haha.
Some other type of things I've been working on is some music video's with Keir Johnson. We're working with people like Washington DC's hip-hop artist Doctor Becket and Pat One, plus Scaramanga AKA Sir Menelik, A-Butta formerly of Natural Elements and more... The project is called "Two Zero Two Films". It's a continuation of the TV Show that Keir Johnson and Brian Tucci had in San Francisco.
Who are some of your favorite people to hook up with and film in the Washingtion D.C. metro area?
Well Alex Hansen and Ronald Flores are always fun to go skate with. They always have new spots and are always on missions to get some tricks on film. It's hard to find people doing that around the city these days. Most people are just chillin. Daniel Kim is another that I enjoy going out with. That kid is definitely rising up in the District. Probably has some of the most pop and style I've seen around. Watch out for this kid. Shaun Gregoire is another that I always skate with. Usually lands everything either first or third try which is a good relief as a filmer.
Circumambulate your thanks...
Well of course thanks to Perception for hooking up this interview. Also thanks to Doug & Kay @ Eastcoast, Mom & Dad, Keir Johnson, Daniel Kim, Shaun Gregoire, Hans, Barton Damer, all the Downtown heads, and anybody that let me film with them. Holla.
