Wednesday, May 8

Stacy Peralta Speaks

By Billy Miller
Exclusive to EXPN.com

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Did you feel pressured to make Dogtown a certain way?

We didn't aim the film at any audience. We wanted to make a film that we found interesting. I wanted it to be inclusive, not exclusive. There was a certain danger that with me being part of it. I was so concerned people were going to think I just wanted to bang my own drum that I had nightmares about it. We wanted to please ourselves and celebrate an experience we all shared together.

Do you have kids?

I have an eleven-year-old, Austin. He skates, surfs, snowboards, and is a gifted pianist.

Jay Adams, keeping it low and tight.

How was his review of Dogtown?

He liked it. He wants to see it again.

Where did you go when you left Powell-Peralta?

I started doing second unit direction on features, and produced and directed for all of the major networks and cable companies. I have a kind of a kinetic style of putting things together. From my training in skateboard videos, I learned to take information and make it visually palatable. I did things with more of a rock and roll feel-a Grammys show, retrospectives on television history, I did a show for Disney based on how we were going to live 25 years from now. Basically taking info that's dry and making it more palatable.

How did you like doing that?

Working in television was not satisfying in any way, shape, or form. It wasn't making me any richer, it was putting food on the table and supporting my writing habit. I'd spend three months doing a TV show, and eight weeks writing a screenplay, I've written six. That's how I withstood the creative disappointment-writing my own projects and inspiring myself that way.

Have any been produced?

Not yet, but they're going around currently. This pretty much opened the door.

What are you aspiring to now?

My goal is to do my own projects. I'm really not interested in the directing life, I'm interested in taking the idea and bringing it to fruition. About eight years ago I had the chance to go the rock video TV route, or non-fiction TV route. I detest music videos and I wanted to learn how to do long-form projects. I wanted to tell stories in an hour or two-hour length, so I chose non-fiction.

Wentzle Ruml, shredding before anyone even used the term.

Was it the right move for you?

Now it feels like it was the right move. But man, was it ever lonely. Did I think I made the wrong choice at times. I saw so many other people going by me at lightspeed. If you are a good rock video or commercial director, it's the fast track to directing your own movie. If you do what I did, it's almost no track. I've always taken the non-traditional path, but this time it felt like I'd gone too far and made the wrong move.

What's one thing you've taken away from that process?

Our information needs to be entertaining. We live in a different age today. We're being entertained in every direction, it seems like, but a lot of times we're being cheated. How many times have you heard, "The special effects are great but the movie stunk"? If you're going to spend your time to a movie, there should be a story and character development.

What's your next move?

I'm set to direct In Search Of Captain Zero, an adapted novel.

So you're back to doing what you want to?

I detoured to learn a lot of skills, to hone my skills, and it appears I'm getting back to doing my own thing. I'm becoming myself again. I kind of lost myself in TV for a while.

Must've been hard to leave skateboarding behind.

It wasn't making me happy anymore. I realized that I could've stayed in skateboarding my whole life, but that wasn't inspiring to me. It concerned me-I didn't know if I was capable of doing anything else. I had to go cold turkey and give it up.

Now skateboarding has brought you full circle.

Now I can look back without regret. The one thing I've been good at is finishing a chapter and moving on to the next. You just have to follow that voice within you, no matter what the cost. You have to keep yourself attuned to it, no matter how tough it gets. Bite the bullet and keep going forward, a step at a time. Right after I left skateboarding I would go around to schools and see kids wearing long-sleeve Powell-Peralta shirts, I wondered, "Will I lose my identity of who I am if I'm not on people's arms?" But I didn't. I made the right choice.

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