ANDY MACDONALD INTERVIEW0

Andy Macdonald is a legend in the world of professional sports.

That maybe a bold statement, but I’m okay with saying it.

I’ll be honest, I am somewhat bias in my opinion of Andy Macdonald. I grew up at a time when skateboarding was gaining popularity, and by the time I took my first steps onto a board in 1995, Andy Mac was getting his start in the world of pro-skating. Sixteen years ago Andy Macdonald signed with Powell skateboards after leaving Boston, MA for San Diego, while I was buying my first skateboard at the age of 15 at the Concrete Wave skate shop in Worcester, MA. I walked into that shop during the summer of my sophomore year of high school and I wasn’t leaving without a complete board. After scanning the wall for only a few moments my eyes locked in on a deck tucked away in the corner of the shop. Once I saw it, I knew that deck was going to be under my feet. It was a 7.5″ (width size of the deck), Alien Workshop, “Wheat” deck, and it was epic. The vector art of a single blade of wheat done in a golden tan, two-tone hue covered the bottom of the board, but the painted image would only remain unscathed while the kid at the shop set up my deck with bearings, trucks, and wheels. My cash hit the clerks hand, and the board hit mine, and I was off skating with my friends. The summer of 1995 was my introduction to skateboarding. I’ve loved it, but I realized early on that I suck at it. I still jump on my board from time to time and just push for a little while, but that is the extent of my skating abilities.

So, yeah I guess I am completely bias in my opinion of Andy Macdonald because I grew up with skateboarding, and he and I are from the same area, but it is mostly because I am a fan of the type of person he is. He’s one of the good guys. He’s intelligent and charismatic. A talented athlete, and a philanthropist. Andy Macdonald is someone we all should be routing for. Someone who you would hope your kids would look up to. Two days ago I could only make that assessment of Andy based on what I have read about the 21 time X-game medalist.

Now after spending some time with him I can say he lives up to his hype as a legend in the skate world, and as an example of how athlete’s should conduct themselves on and off the field.

In 2010 I attended the Dew Tour stop in Boston, but only for a moments. At the time I was working on a reality series that was filming at the TD Garden, where the tour was hosted. I tried to meet up with Andy at the time, but it never worked out. This year once it was announced that Andy would be appearing at the Dew Tour in Ocean City, MD I asked my superiors at CSN if they were interested in a story about an athlete from Boston who had more championships in his sport than Tom Brady, David Ortiz, Kevin Garnett, and Tim Thomas combined. (That would be an astonishing 7 championships combined between the four stars.) Andy Macdonald is an 8 time world championship vert skater, plus I’d just like to mention those 21 X-Games medals again. With a list of accolades like that, the big guys at CSN were intrigued and let me hit the road for Ocean City to film a feature on Andy.

Now, I don’t know Andy. I’d never spoken to him before today when I got a call from him while I was driving down to Ocean City from Boston. Andy called to let me know that he would be around once we got into town and we could meet up to do the interview sometime around 5:30 PM. Once in OC, my videographer Jon and I raced down to the boardwalk to meet up with Andy. Now usually most athletes show up and want to get the interview over with and then get the hell out of dodge as fast as they can, but not Andy Mac. Andy strolled up on the boardwalk and asked if we wanted to go grab some dinner first. We made our way to a local kabob joint, sat down, ordered our food and started talking about everything from the Dew Tour, to the Red Sox, his charity work, the Olympics, and we even swapped stories about our kids. By the time we had finished up our dinner it was clear to me that Andy is one of those people you meet, and you feel like you’ve known him for years.

I asked Andy if he minded heading back to the boardwalk to conduct the interview. I wanted to get the visual of the beach and the Dew Tour in the shot with Andy so I opted for a spot right on the boardwalk with the Dew Tour event grounds far off in the distance behind him. Being the chill southern California transplant by the way of Boston, he obliged and we strolled the boardwalk until I found a spot I felt worked.

Using two Sony EX1 cameras set at 30p I had Jon set up the shots. I wanted the two shots to have an extreme contrast in appearance. I decided I wanted the main shot with Andy to be set a little wide so you could see the Dew Tour in the background, and to give a sense of how open the area was. The secondary shot I set to the left side of Andy and set an extremely tight shot of his side profile. I wanted this shot to be utilized in the final cut of the feature for when Andy would say something profound, meaningful, or insightful. I like to use this technique to keep the pace of the interview moving and to peak the viewers interest in what the interview subject is saying when the shot change drastically shifts to the close up.

Dusk was upon us, so we needed to make a couple of adjustments to the shot due to the lighting, but then we let the cameras roll and I started throwing questions at Andy.

Within 3 minutes of the interview of the nearly 30 minute interview I realized why Andy Macdonald has had such a successful pro skateboarding career. He obviously has the technical talent and ability to skate, but the thing he has that most professional athletes is that he is real. He spoke on camera, just as he did over dinner. The things he said during dinner were validated as truths because during his interview he answered in the same way. Andy Macdonald is not a loud or brash individual, but still there is no filter with him. He says what is on his mind, or maybe what is in his heart, and when it comes out of his mouth you accept it, understand it and respect it. For someone like Andy, he doesn’t need a filter, because he has nothing to hide.

At 37-years-old, Andy has never done drugs. He’s never drank. Cigarette. No. He’s a happily married man with 2 kids living in San Diego. He traveled the world ten times over on his skateboard. He is friends with Tony Hawk. His list of accolades rivals his legendary friend. He likes candy. He likes it enough to be sponsored by Red Vines licorice. He endorses Sony products just like Peyton Manning. He rides skateboards by a company called Positiv, which… just seems all too appropriate.

Andy Mac doesn’t need to have a filter when being interviewed. With a bunch of descriptive sentences written about you like the ones I wrote in the previous paragraph…why would he want to hide who is.

Look for the video feature on Andy Macdonald coming in September.

In the meantime check out www.andymacdonald.com for more on Andy Mac.