Chris Hill: I got a chance to check out the Motivation, how did it come about? How did you decide to make a documentary on street league in the first place?
Adam Bhala Lough: It came about when I watching ESPN, randomly flipping through channels and I landed on Street league competition and it was unlike anything I had seen before. So I started to research it and get into it and I decided I needed to make a movie about it. At that point I reached out to my buddy Steve Berra who is a famous and well respected pro skater who runs theberrics.com a well respected skate portal and community. Steve introduced me to Rob and Rob gave me his blessing, amazingly to shoot this documentary and have all access to his contest and to his skaters.
Chris Hill: Was there anybody involved who wasn’t into the idea?
Adam Bhala Lough: 90% of everybody was super onboard the project. There are always speed bumps and detractors in terms of the athletes handlers. Bastien Salabanzi the Frenchman was very serious and hard to get access to. He would respond with very cryptic emails and was very mysterious. But it wasn’t that he wasn’t into the project. It’s just that’s the way he is. He is a very mysterious dude. All the other seven were super into it. Some of them had seen my films and some came on board because Steve Berra was executive producer and Rob gave his blessing. They were like if Steve and Rob are into it then it’s got to be cool.
Chris Hill: The thing I liked was how you focused on the back stories. You focus on one athlete and I am pulling for him then you cut to the next guy and I find myself rooting for him.
Adam Bhala Lough: That’s really what I as a filmmaker bring to the film. I am always interested in people, that’s why I make movies. From a young age, I liked people’s stories. People ask how I am able to get things out of them and it’s that I am curious and ask the right questions, and I am honest in my motives.
Chris Hill: It’s different than the majority of action sports films. You focused on everyone’s family life yet on Rodriguez you focus on his relationship with his daughter and never that he comes from a famous family.
Adam Bhala Lough: That was a conscious decision. A lot of people know about that, so I wanted to give them something new. While this movie is made for the general public, we want skaters and action sports fans to love to really love it. That group knows all that stuff about Paul and we wanted to give them something new. I made a genuine effort to focus on what the subjects wanted to focus on. That period in Paul’s life, when we spent some time with him, what was really on his mind was finding a home for his daughter. He is a great dad and at the time he just split up from his girlfriend and he was looking for a house. He was living in a house with all those skaters. It was authentic to his experience.
Chris Hill: Did you meet with each athlete and decide the direction it was going to take or did you just show up and film.
Adam Bhala Lough: We started interviewing with the camera rolling. We didn’t waste any time. Every meeting was happening on camera. We filmed the meetings.
Chris Hill: Your choice of music, during the slow motion there was piano. It’s not typical for this type of film. You didn’t have the punk soundtrack behind someone doing some tricks.
Adam Bhala Lough: Yes, thank you. A lot of people asked me what kind of music are you going to use? I knew early on that I was going to use that kind of music. It’s classical but it’s not orchestral its piano only so it adds a kind of tension.
Chris Hill: It really enhanced the scenes.
Adam Bhala Lough: Cool thanks
Chris Hill: Now that Nike is a sponsor is Rob still involved?
Adam Bhala Lough: Yeah he is still involved; he owns it and is still the brainchild. He has made a decision to step back as a personality which I think is a shame. I thought it was cool that street league had a visible figure head like Vince McMahon in the WWE. He is such a great personality I would love for him to be on the camera more. I think it’s awesome when he is there. It’s fun to see him do interviews and be on the course.
Chris Hill: There weren’t any sore losers, there was still strong comradery given the high stakes. It was nice to see the sportsmanship.
Adam Bhala Lough: These guys are all friends, there are rivalries, but they get stoked when another person wins. Last week everyone was stoked when Chris Cole won. They are friends there is no villain.
Chris Hill: What’s next for you?
Adam Bhala Lough: We are in the early stages of the Motivation 2.0 its going to be the same format but a new sport.
Chris Hill: Any tip of the hat as to the sport.
Adam Bhala Lough: You will need to follow me on social media. You will know soon if you are.
