Bonus : Mac Dawg on "Sick Boys"

A small interview with the man behind the mirrors and wires... Sick Boys by its creator, Mike "Mac Dawg" Mc Entyre, whose latest film I saw, sorry to admit, was The Hard, The Hungry and The Homeless from, what, 1993? Anyway.

Was Sick Boys your first project?
MD: Sick Boys was my first film that was for sale. I had made several short films before that point with the standout being called Goons in Paradise.

Would you consider it a documentary?
I think Sick Boys documents the times that I had when I was with the skaters in the film but not a true documentary in regards to full interviews and the such. It does however portray the period in a great light which is the mark of a good documentary.

Did you do any skate films before and after Sick Boys?
I worked for Jon Malvino as a camera assistant/sound man for a couple of years before Sick Boys. He was shooting all the top skaters in 16mm with a lot of sync sound. Unfortunately that footage was never released, which was a good part of my motivation to make Sick Boys.
After that, I got a call from the late Mike Ternasky who hired me to make Hokus Pokus with him. During that film I hooked up with Noah Salasnek who was a am for H-Street and also a great snowboarder. He wanted a snow shot for his part. I filmed it a Squaw Valley and after Hokus Pokus I pretty much was hooked on filming snowboarding and being in the mountains. There has been a lot of skating in our snow films over the years from Noah to Shawn White.

Are you planning do do any more skate flicks at all?
Not really. I think it is quite a bit different now and my path is not headed that way.

Are you planning to ever release Sick Boys on DVD?
The plan is a re-release of Sick Boys late summer or fall of 08. This is coming about with the help of my friend Bryce Kanights who is putting all the pieces together. We are planning on doing a bunch of behind the scenes interviews and letting the riders in the film tell stories about the filming. I should be really cool for kids to see where a lot of their sport developed from.

How did you find the bands for its soundtrack?
A lot of the bands in Sick Boys were into the whole skate scene in Nor Cal at the time. We would go to their show and just get wasted. They were all super cool with the film and we got to use the music for free. Those were the good old days. I think Sick Boys only sold 500 copies so I did not make any money off it or anything.
I knew [legandary Venice skate loc] Ray Flores of Thee Fourgiven and Miles of MCM and the Monster. I met a lot of the other bands but it was really when it was a party scene and not everyday type of friends.