The Creation of "Bad Boy for Life"

IMP-Style: Bad Boy for Life


Saying that this video is my favorite yet is somewhat redundant; I fall in love with each as I make them, and thankfully, each is supplanted by the next. "Bad Boy", however, had a lot of special appeal for me, not the least of which was the name of the song. Is it just coincidence that the shirt I chose to wear with this song happens to read: "Catholic Schools?"

Nothing to do with my beliefs or how I was raised, by the way. Just a nice colorful t-shirt I bought at the thrift shop to wear at Burning Man.

I've been drooling over the thought of climbing a crane, for some time, but they're so high-profile, potentially dangerous, and usually on guarded construction sites, that I have, thus far, only dreamed from a distance. In this case, however, events came together perfectly. I had just finished playing on the concrete features at the stairs leading up the 1st St. bridge. The sun had already gone down, and my motorcycle was blocks away, so if I was going to take advantage of the twilight hour, I needed to find a new obstacle nearby, and it had to be one that worked well in silhouette. On the far side of the bridge, I could just see the top of the crane. It seemed unlikely that it would be unguarded, but I knew that I had to try.

The construction was part of work being done on the bridge, in order to ready it to hold a light rail line, running parallel to traffic (the tracks lead to the entrance of the subway tunnel that I trespassed through and explored earlier - video still to come). From the bridge, I could see workers loading up semis on the far side of the construction site, which was otherwise empty. If I were to take the pedestrian route into the site, I'd have to make my way through the workers, so instead, I scaled down through scaffolding that butted up against the bridge. Even that was an adventure, as I had to squeeze through gaps too narrow to contain me and my backpack (which has the camera inside, and tripod and motorcycle helmet, strapped to the back). So I had to dangle the pack through, and loop the arm straps onto some rebar, and then skinny through after it, pausing, mid-climb, to sling the pack back on.

The crane itself was a lot less scary than it looked from a distance. The rails that make up the crane arm are easy to grasp, and it was unlikely that I'd slip off of it (unless I hit a patch of axle grease, the curse of climbing construction equipment). But there was still a psychological hobgoblin I needed to tame, since I was going over 40 feet up on an unfamiliar structure, without any safety gear, nor anyone to help me out, if I should fall. Apprehension about being caught just heightened the fear. I climbed the first time, on the inside of the arm, figuring I would be more likely to be able to catch myself, if I slipped. But after I started feeling more comfortable with the structure, I made a second climb on the outside, and then tried dancing on it, in the closer shot. At one point, I noticed the workers at the semis had noticed me, so I hastily climbed down, but then no one came to throw me out, so I got back on.

Since no one had evicted me after my most obvious stunt, I figured it was safe to explore the rest of the site. This included the enormous girder, which was supported by the crane, and rested on three pillars in what was otherwise just a big hole in the ground. This also included a giant drill machine (the enormous bit was nearby, planted in the soil). On this machine, I did run into crazy axle grease, a stain on my jeans' knee which will show up in many videos to come.

Not all the obstacles I faced for "Bad Boy" were new, but even the ones I knew reflected the fears I've had to face in learning parkour in my late 30's.

The wheelchair ramp (and adjoining stairs) were actually my training ground for learning to land on rails. When I first started making parkour a near-daily priority, I was working in Glendale, and was able to jet out to the ritzy Bunker Hill part of downtown (where I shot Grand Avenue ). The wheelchair ramp allowed me to slowly work my way toward leaping and landing on rails, which is pretty scary to begin with, because of the fear of slipping. One moment (which seems so minor in context of "Bad Boy") was actually terrifying to get started: a jump from the wall onto the rail next to the stairs, because of the complexity of the rail, and even more, the apparent threat of the fall on the other side, with all kinds of edges and ledges to get tripped up on. An overactive and paranoid imagination is the death of parkour, and I had to train a lot of worst case scenarios out of my head.

And then there was the phone. I'm extra geeked about playing with props, because they are my less explored half of discovering how to dance with the physical world. I chose the location for the rails there, and because dancing in front of a church had a nice "bad boy" quality to it. But I was immediately drawn to the pay phone, and the yellow receiver just made it that much more interesting to play with. I had goofed with a pay phone once before, in a Stick's Riffs that I shot but never cut, my play at Mariachi Plaza, in East L.A. Here is a bit of that footage, my first phone foray:


On a different day of shooting, primarily focused on "Gimme Sum", the twilight hour offered me a cluster of nice locations on the south-west side of downtown (near the Staples Center), where I hadn't played before.

The vaults from the freeway to the onramp, like many acts in these videos, were scarier in real life than on tape. What you can't see in the video is that the small concrete bridge between the two roads is above a 30' drop to asphalt. My top-rocking dance in the alleyway wasn't very scary, but, as it happened to be right behind a strip club, and I was dancing just at the beginning of happy hour, the heavy traffic through there ended up shutting me down. And no, no one at the strip club offered me a job.

I love taking advantage of sunset to get silhouette shots, because dance often works better when it's just the outline of the body (like the fountain scenes in Grand Avenue ). Thus, I took advantage of a rooftop parking garage to place my tripod, as I danced at the crest of the adjoining roof. I've been kicked out of a lot of places while making these videos, so for a video called "Bad Boy for Life", it would have been shameful, if I didn't get evicted, at least once.

The Felix Cadillac shots in the passersby video were from the last set-up I shot for "Bad Boy". However, when I got to editing, I realized I had plenty of footage without that shot, and it was such a cool set-up, that I realized I'd rather save that location for my "Ragga Jungle" IMP-Style, which is coming soon. So I'll have to sneak back and shoot some more, now that I know that they're not offended, only amused, by my dancing.

As always, I am proud to present my trips, stumbles, and near-falls, because they are evidence that I am constantly going beyond my previous experience, exploring a wider range of what's possible for me (and what's safe)!