Well, the SASL is over and, as promised, this series is kickstarted. I'm hoping to focus less on the personal reviews and make some interviews with the creators just like I'm doing right now. If you guys support this idea then I'll keep it that way for the upcoming reviews as well.In the 6th installment of the Looking Back series after a 2 month long hiatus, we'll be looking back at a very impressive best of released in mid-2009: Streem's
Bonzai.
This video seems like a joint production, since as much hard work Streem put into landing those stunts over the years, Dogger backed up with one of the most impressive looking editings of the year. The video features few really big standouts stuntwise like the finisher, the taxi precision and some others you'll probably find scattered throughout. But it's the big "teamwork" between the stunter and editor that seems to made this video stand out, it feels like every stunt was given a proper cam angle that shows it off in the best way possible, and it was all tuned in perfectly to the amazing music. In my opinion, a video which truly potrays the artistic side of stunting and how everything we do as stunters can be counted as some form of art.
I won't say much more and let you watch the video - you can find out more about it from the interview I conducted with Streem himself below.
Nominations:
- 3rd Best SA Video 2009
- 4th Best SA Solo 2009
- 7th Best SA Stunt 2009 (Finisher)
- (Dogger) 7th Best Editor 2009
BonzaiInterview with Streem:
PtR: "First of all, thank you Milosz for taking the time out to talk about your best of with me. For starters, I'd like to know how important was this video for you and do you feel like you accomplished something with it."
Str: "The pleasure is mine. It was a big achievement in my stunting career, my first solo, edited by the guy who was with me from the very beginning, it kinda ended my 'noobish' career, I was happy to get it released."
PtR: "'From the very beginning' seems to be the right choice of words - I recall when I started out on GTAS in early 2008 seeing you wearing a signature: 'BONZAI COMING SOON'. Do you feel the video was in the works for too long and were you bothered by it at any moment?"
Str: "When I put on that signature I didn't even talk to Dogger about that project, it was some kind of commercial move to bring some attention, I guess. Our conversation happened few months later, I felt such a relief that he agreed. I knew that his projects used to take considerable time and I got used to it so it wasn't really a problem, especially when the video was a 'best of' with already released stunts. When I finally sent him the pack I felt like, 'that's a closed chapter, time to move on' and joined SS, the editing took him about 6-7 months as I can recall."
PtR: "That clarifies it. Let's move on to the video itself - many people I've talked to about it said that two things stand out and make it special: the editing&music combination and the finisher. Do you beg to differ? Is there some other aspect of this video you feel makes it stand out from the masses?"
Str: "Dogger produced a real masterpiece, I couldn't expect anything better. I have to agree that the things you mentioned were standouts for the watchers, but there were a few other special things for me. First one was definitely the intro itself, the music and… the final part where the title appears, when I first saw it I got a feeling which might be compared to an orgasm, it happens in some videos and I'm glad I had it here as well. The other thing that stood out for me has to be the double boost to the chimney precision, it brings great memories of Blood Hood, probably one of the best videos where I appeared."
PtR: "Now that you mention it - the intro really was impressive. Though it is kinda confusing that it misleads the watcher into thinking it's a VC video. Seeing SA&VC combined is not an uncommon idea but the distribution in your video is. What made you opt for this unusual choice of adding two VC stunts?"
Str: "VC is the game where I started stunting, even though I wasn't really good there I had a few stunts which could be used. Actually I sent him a lot more than these two but he said that the others totally sucked and weren't worth using. About the intro, I had no idea how it was gonna look, the whole concept of it was the bonsai tree, I noticed that it appears in LC and that's how we came up with that idea."
PtR: "Let's keep talking about the video - this time I'm interested in the music choices. They were certainly great, and I'd like to know how much part you've taken in choosing them. Was it all Dogger's decision or did you suggest any of them? And what's your opinion on all of them combined, do you feel like they blend nicely together?"
Str: "To be honest I was certain that Kacper is gonna use one of the Prodigy songs, that's what I suggested at the very beginning, I found out about the actual soundtrack after watching the video. My feelings were mixed but I re-watched it a few times and I realized how epic it is, alternative rock plus electronic, who could've known that it would fit so well."
PtR: "Could you give us the impressions you had when you landed the finisher? I'm sure the feeling was immense."
Str: "I don't think I felt anything special, I knew that it was a great combo but I didn't realize how good was it until I showed it to Skamer and later while I was reading comments about the PKS video."
PtR: "And, for a fitting ending - do you feel like this is your peak? Is this the best Streem action in SA we will see? And something I've wanted to ask for a while now, would it be likely to see a "Bonzai 2" some day?"
Str: "I think that I can do much more than it was shown in Bonzai, even though the stunting level wasn't high I'm still proud of every stunt which I landed, no matter how bad did it look. At the moment I'm working on two projects, hopefully at least one of them will be released this year. I don't know if you've noticed but I was already wearing Bonzai 2 signature, I guess that's a good clue
."
PtR: "Sounds awesome, thank you for your time."
Str: "No problem, thank you for the interview."
