(Taylor Orman (left) and Andy Ortega (right))
SO before I was about to meet up with Soggybones skateboard photographer, Andy Ortega, one afternoon to go and skate downtown San Diego, I was on the magical-machine we all call Facebook. During my long hours of “social networking,” I found myself in a funny conversation with Taylor Orman, the brains behind 6gun brand, about his new advertisement in Soggybones third issue. (Which happens to be sparking a bit of controversy in Australia due to its raw and lewdness! so ripping!)
I’ve been eager to get my copy of Tangible Fools (out here in the states), mainly because my anxiety is growing feverishly every-single-day that I don’t get to witness the finished produce of the magazine. I won’t be bored for at least a week. But also because in the Soggybones third issue sits Taylor Orman’s new 6gun ad. (www.the6gun.com). I’m a huge fan of Taylor’s work and couldn’t imagine the outcome of this ad, especially after hearing all the hype about it. The Ward brothers over at Soggybones in Australia told me the ad was ripping and they were super hyped. And all Andy and Taylor have been telling me is how lewd and hilarious it was. So I decided that instead of going to Andy’s house to see the original file on his computer... that I just wanted to wait until the magazine came out and see it the right way. So many different ideas ran through my head about what it could be... and I had been going strong for about a month until...
A few days ago when I met up with Andy, I walked into his room and two printouts (in high glossy paper) of the ad were sitting on top of his snake cage. At first I didn’t even know what it was. All I knew was that it was the lewdest most ripping picture I had ever seen. About a month before this mishap, I remember both Andy and Taylor mentioning to me the ad was shot in Andy’s room, and after putting the two together... I was basically just like, “Well, fuck, I just saw the ad.” And that was that.
Before I try to explain it... I figured I’d let the two masterminds’ behind the project do it for you. If you haven’t checked Tangible Fools, issue 3 yet... then you’re seriously blowing it. Not only for the ad, obviously, but because it’s packed with amazing photography AND there’s a hefty amount of reading to support it all. And every story is interesting and real as fuck. Seriously. So you should all probably get on that... and if you have seen it, then here’s a little sneak peak behind the mayhem in Taylor and Andy’s 6gun ad shoot. It’s pretty much just me laughing the whole time. Cheers!
BB: So Andy’s room got a “tiny” makeover that day, eh?
ORMAN: (Laughing) We destroyed his room that day. And it’s actually harder to make a “good mess” than you’d think.
BB: Originally, who thought of this idea?
ORMAN: It was Andy (ORTEGA)’s idea actually, then I built on it and we just improvised while we set it up. I was just stoked it was so easy to get my friend to be naked for it (laughing).
BB: What’s going on in the picture?
ORMAN: Basically we wanted it to look like the aftermath of a crazy frat party. You got the beer cans and bottles everywhere, a huge mess, a half naked chick passed out in the bed, and all the other random shit thrown all over.
BB: (Laughing) Yeah like the huge trash-bags of weed. A+ man.
ORMAN: (Laughing). Then we wanted it to look like we had just ran in there and tagged on this girl's back while she was passed out, snapped a picture, and left.
BB: How long did the entire “shoot” take?
ORMAN: Including the hours of Andy LAGGING in the morning? (Laughing)
BB: (Laughing) Yes, actually.
ORMAN: Andy was MIA the night before, so I couldn’t reach him to set up a meet time, so I had the “model” meet at my house at around 9am. I had been calling Andy all morning and finally had to have his mom wake him up.
BB: (Laughing)
ORMAN: He said he said he'd hit me back in a few once he got up and got his stuff together... he told me that about three times over the next 3 hours while me and the model just sat and had a beer (laughing) So I think we finally got to his house around 12:30, then took over an hour to set everything up and check lighting and angles and I think we finished shooting it all by 3.
BB: (Laughing) Perfect.
ORMAN: I had to go back and clean his room at like 9 that night because he had rented a lens, since SOMEBODY broke his on the Soggy Tour (laughing).
BB: (Laughing) Wes still isn’t allowed to drink whiskey! Just kidding, but really.
(These next few questions were with Andy Ortega, the eyes behind the lens, and the brains behind the setup of the 6gun ad-shoot):
Andy Ortega, San Francisco, Ca
BB: Andy, how the fuck did you come up with the idea?
Andy Ortega: My old room in Portland used to look like this quite often: growing pot in the closet, beer everywhere, shit all over, and me or a strung out chick passed out somewhere in the room
BB: (Laughing) Wow, ripping! Tell me more.
Andy Ortega: I always thought it’d be funny to shoot a picture like that, then eventually the idea progressed along with my fucked up ways. So when my old roommate and I started drawing on people and shit, we thought it was funny and I thought... “Hey if I mix these two things it’d be pretty funny.” So originally the spray paint was just going to be some hand-writing-tagged-shit saying like, "been there, done that," or something written across some naked chick.
BB: (still just laughing).
Andy Ortega: But Orman was kind of stressing on ideas for ads so I figured we could just turn it into a 6gun logo on her back.
BB: Nice. Clutch-moves.
Andy Ortega: He decided on the stencil idea because its more his style of art. I had thought of just having him spray out 6gun.com on her back (laughing). Like without a stencil, just all shitty. (Laughing)
BB: (Laughing) That would have been way better!
Andy Ortega: But yah we just wanted it to kind of look like a ghetto picture that was taken by some random guy. Like two guys ran into some frat house and found a random room, tagged some chick, then snapped a picture and bounced out laughing. ||
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