Meeting Calvin Millar

Did you start filming skateboarding after your move to Austin?

No. I started filming basically at the same time I started skating, which was in 1997. It was the typical situation where a bunch of friends discover this rad new thing, and we wanted to document it. It sparked off with photos first, with a 35mm Pentax K1000 camera, then I started using my dad’s VHS camera. Eventually I mowed lawns to save up and get a new Sony Hi8 camera and fisheye lens. The Lakewood Forest Kroger parking lot was where I started stacking footy, haha. Austin was where I dove deeper into filming though. My friend Martin Lutteke moved here around the same time and was the first dude I would skate and film with. After about a year, a few more homies from Houston started moving here and we formed a squad. There was a video called Locals R Us at the time, so we just started calling ourselves Non-Locals haha. Which wasn’t a diss or anything, just a way to give our crew an identity, and the name fit like a hand in glove

Homies and Austin, Texas, photographer Calvin Millar

Is it true House Park used to be a janky tennis court park?

Haha, yeah before House Park was a big concrete park, it used to be a small wooden ramp park, unofficially called Green Park – all the ramps were green. It was where the bowl is now but about half the size of that area tucked in the back corner. It had a really nice hip, some different size boxes, and a couple small steep quarter pipes. Next to it were a few worn out tennis courts and an old gym building. Eventually the city tore the gym down, and then there was a slab there, which was kind of a spot for a little bit. There was this stair up stair down, and somebody built a cinder block ledge. Around that time, we were also going to a ton of city meetings trying to convince the city to build a better park there, and after everybody threw in different ideas and more meetings, House Park was built in 2011.

Were there other skate shops in Austin before No-Comply?

There’s always been a core skate shop since I’ve lived here. Prior to No-Comply, there were a few, like TekGnar, Find and Grind, Calavera. TekGnar used to be called Blondies but had to change the name for some reason. That was the first shop I went to when I came to Austin. They ended up becoming more of a clothing store I think, and in 2007 No-Comply opened and eventually just took over as the main shop in town.

Austin’s skate scene has a very joyous vibe, which is a vibe likely present in all skate scenes, but Austin’s feels so laid back, uplifting and with a lotta smiles! Has it always had that feel, or do you think it’s something that has evolved over time?

I think that’s always been the vibe. It’s a relatively small scene which leads to everyone knowing each other, plus having House Park and No-Comply right next to each other helps a lot by having a central zone to meet up at. Roger’s logo, which is based out of Austin, is a smiling face, so yeah we like the good vibes. The scene is small enough here too, that if anybody has some sort of success with it, everyone’s hyped for them!

My formative years in Austin with skating, filming and editing were influenced by that crew of my homies the “Non-Locals”. I was one of the youngest in the group, so I just absorbed a lot of the sense of humor and tastes all the other dudes were leaning toward, which was a vibe that skating isn’t that serious and leaning into the weirdness of it is more fun and entertaining. That vibe grew for me over the years watching videos from CKY, Spike Jonze/Girl, Baker, WKND, Enjoi. I also really loved the style and comedic take on skateboarding that Michael Sieben and Mike Aho had with everything they made, especially the Internet Shack series. Working on projects for Roger and getting to know all those dudes more has been a lot of fun. The HUGS video is coming along! I’m really stoked to see the progression of hugs lately. I wonder who will get HOTY this year?!

Haha, so many to choose from!? I’m cool as long as the crowned HOTY hugs’em firm, and preferably without back patting. How did you end up filming for Roger Skateboards?

I was filming most of No-Comply’s shop videos and a lot of the Roger dudes ride for the shop so it all just kind of started blending together. I was stacking a lot of footage with the Rogers, so naturally started making some videos. Roger Corp. meetups lately have been with Michael Sieben, Max Taylor, and Elias Bingham. The team’s performing well, so corporate's happy, and if Roger stocks stay up, haha, we’re gonna green light another video.

How many of No-Comply’s shop videos have you done?

I think the first one I made was No. 9. We had a bunch of footage and at that time No-Comply’s nine- year anniversary was coming up, so we decided to make a video for the anniversary. The video came out great and was well received, so the anniversary shop video became a tradition. Over the last few years, the Roger videos have filled in that yearly spot. Between No-Comply and Roger full lengths, I think I’ve made around 10. Plus a bunch more independent vids and shorts. All with the help of a ton of other filmers. Shout out all the filmers for the footage contributions! Much love!

There’s a great book by Duncan McDuie-Ra called, Archiving the City from Below – it’s about how skateboard videos act as a kind of historical archive of the cities they're filmed in. Do you ever think of yourself, or other skateboard filmers, as archivists?

Yeah for sure. Having our cameras as a front row ticket – we’re lucky to get to see and document all the rad skating out there and help write the chapters of skateboarding. There’s also the side story of seeing the cities develop and change over the years through the footage we capture. We’re not just getting images of the face of cities but also recording every corner and alley that most people wouldn’t think to point a camera at. So it’s cool to look back and see how different everything looks. I have so many hard drives. Inevitably some clips over the years get forgotten or not used. I’ve been meaning to dig back in the archives, pull them all and put together a video with it. It’s almost overwhelming to think about what could be done in the long road in terms of organizing all the footage into some kind of bigger archive. There’s so many other filmers from the past two decades that have tons of footage, stuff people have never even seen!

Do you think filmers help cultivate the tone(s) of the skate scenes they film? I think the skating, in large parts, elevate the skate scenes, but without it being filmed, no one’s going to see it. So in a way, it’s the filmers who are packaging it all up for the masses.
It’s the filmers, editors and photographers gathering the pieces of the puzzle and putting it together to set a tone, but the tone is also largely created by the talent in front of the camera. Filming and editing always come way easier when the people I film have entertaining style and personality – it’s a symbiotic relationship. The terrain definitely dictates the tone of a skate scene as well. Like the SF and hill bombing scene looks like a lot of fun and scary as shit on some of those hills, or I love the cruising, tech vibe of the Bordeaux scene and all the skate-able art sculptures that scene has been making happen. My favorite sub-genre of skating is fast, cruising lines, so those two scenes stand out to me. Austin’s terrain is a mix of different types of spots, which is fun but it’s never had a ton of good handrails or ledges unfortunately. It’s gotten better over the years with new developments, but a lot of times the ledges are knobbed during the build or made with limestone. There’s a lot of ditch diving and searching the cutty corners of the city for random spots, haha.

Yeah, I’ve read some about that. Are you guys trying to do something similar to his city projects in Austin!?
I would love to, and I think we’ve sort of planted some seeds, and with Elias’s connections with some of the people in the city, we talk all the time about trying to make some sort of plaza or skate-able spots throughout the city. Skateboarding could for sure be more integrated in Austin's public spaces, and I’m hoping to do something like what they’re doing in Bordeaux with city planning that involves skateboarding. It’s as easy as finding a good area in the city or a park, add a few marble ledges or skate- able art pieces, and you have a spot. We don’t need another big traditional skate park locking us into one area. Skating keeps us on the move, and we need the future of city planning to show love to that aspect of skateboarding. Layout, design, and material are super important to get it feeling right and authentic. Taking inspiration from all the legendary plazas and applying that in bits throughout the city would be amazing to have and help our local industry grow.

Austin reminds me of cities like Charlotte and Richmond – medium sized, expanding cities with developed skate scenes that are growing and getting some coverage. Do you think it’s possible the skateboard ecosystem at large has gotten to a place where a viable option for some skaters, in cities like those and here, could be to stay put in their local scenes, rather than making that trek out to California?

When it comes to getting coverage and exposure, there’s no lack of outlets for skaters and smaller scenes to get their name out there. All the mags, YouTube, social media, porn hub, etc. As long as you’re putting out rad, entertaining stuff, it’ll get eyes on it. As for the CA/NY trek, it’s a strange one to figure out, because there’s a great skate scene here, a lot of people are skating and being somewhat successful and productive, but it doesn’t necessarily translate to bigger opportunities consistently. For bigger opportunities in skating, like traveling with a budget, brand deals, getting paid decent, more often that all comes easier when you’re making moves in the mix of the bigger CA/NY industry. It definitely helps to be around and close with the people making decisions on a brand's budget. If they like you, and what you do, you might get a piece of the pie to do the dew, haha. Our local industry is growing though, and I’ve been seeing more opportunities come for local rippers and camera heads, so I’m stoked for that!

How often are you asked if that one camera you use is a drone camera?

When I first started using it, the majority of people seemed to think it was a drone. I think most people have now figured out that it’s a 360 cam on a pole. If you hold it high enough, the distortion and stabilization have a drone-like feeling. So I think a lot of people were confused by it. I first saw the camera used by a guy (@transition_ninja) I was filming ACL Fest with. He got into the crowd with the cam on a huge monopod stick and started swinging it around, and when we saw the footage, we were like, “this looks like a drone.” I started wondering if it would work for skateboarding, so I tested it out and after the first couple tries got some interesting stuff, and I just got more obsessed with trying to figure the camera out. When using it to film a line it opens up more angles and possibilities because my reach is extended and the camera is really stable. I also attached a VX mic to get good audio. I’ve filmed with the same cameras for years, I needed a new thing to obsess on for a while.

Was there any pushback from camera purists?

Yeah a bit. I think there were a lot of people who liked it, but there were definitely people who weren’t really into it. Any new thing introduced to skating or subcultures is open for pushback, right? And I totally get that – HD footage in general took some getting used to for the skate industry, haha. The 360 cam was just a new toy for me. When I first started using it, I would test how far I could push the distortion and movement, like how close can I get without it being too distorted, because once you get too distorted, it can be pretty off-putting for a viewer. Over time though, I learned to be more modest with it and pull back some to find a nice sweet spot that looks good. I feel it works best with any fast, flowing lines that are planned out with the skater. Instead of stopping at a gap on the last trick, I’ll jump down with them to get that perspective.

Keegan Crawford lip slide with Calvin in tow: Photographer Taylor Morgan

Austin, Texas has undoubtedly changed a lot in the last two decades. As a native Austinite I’m sure you hear the subject brought up in abundance. For me though one thing that hasn’t changed is the wealth of creativity found in Austin. There’s always been a lot of creative people doing a lot of different creative things here. Has being surrounded by so much creative energy been an asset in your own creative endeavors? You currently working on anything?

‘Water Spirit’, so I’m taking a quick breather and gathering my thoughts for what’s next. Out stacking clips when I can. Also just trying to fill up on inspiration and update my workflow. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to create all my work up to now, or continue, without the help of the creative energy this community has. There’s so many rad people here with good style and ideas – it’s a blessing to be a part of it. It’s been pretty productive over the years with everyone. Moving forward I’m looking to work on different style projects and direct more. As I’ve gotten older, my time and energy feels more precious, you know. So I’m trying to create work that really fills me up.

I’m a huge college basketball fan and noticed you’ve filmed at a few NCAA March Madnesses!! What’s more exciting, filming an ender or filming a buzzer beater?
Oh man I’m a sucker for large crowds getting juiced by a buzzer beater, and I’ve filmed some events and music festivals, where I’m on the stage or in the crowd, and just hearing everyone roar – that kind of energy is amazing, but there’s nothing like filming someone land their trick with a squad of homies there to celebrate. David Langston and Cosmo Martinez-Glenn’s openers in the Roger video, ‘Sucker Punch’, are great examples – Cosmo went to get this ride on grind he’d been eyeing, and we had a big crew hanging out, it was near the end of the session so there were bevs poured up, basically a tailgating party for the trick of the day! It didn’t take him a long time and once Cosmo did it, everybody was hyped! Then David stepped up to this big double set at the same spot that I don’t think I’ve seen anyone even try to skate before. It’s got an awkward run up, and you gotta ollie up a curb first. So he tries an ollie down and bails, then he’s like, “I’m gonna try a front 180”, throws it out and bails. David loves to switch up tricks without telling you. He said he was gonna try frontside 180 again but then next go, stomps a back 180. The crowd went wild! Having the energy from that and Cosmo’s ride on grind just before, man, it was priceless. I love those moments. We also stacked lots of hug clips that day!