by Brendan Buckley

I sit across a green clothed table from Carmen Vicari.  Palm trees sway as a light sea breeze pacifies the humid tropical air.  I gaze up at him to find he is focused on his iPhone.  Maybe he is on Facebook.  Or words with friends.  The words “East Coast” are tattooed on his abdomen, possibly suggesting that he is from the east coast.  He mutters, “Im about to throw this fucking thing in the water,” walks away, and returns with his computer.  He sits back down, and I hear that sound it makes when you get an instant message on Facebook.

What inspires you when you film and edit?

For some weird reason music. I’ll listen to a song and just plan out an edit in my mind to it. So when I get to the beach I’ll already know what kind of shots I want, and how I want it to play out.

That’s pretty cool, I’ve never really heard anything like that before. So, whenever you listen to music, are ideas floating around your head, or is it more of a once in a while, you’ll hear a song that you know you want to edit to type deal?

It’s mostly just once in a while really. It’s kind of hard to explain  it in words. It usually happens when I try to find new music. I’ll just be hanging out listening to it and just planning things out visually in my head.

For example I found this band on my ipod and had no clue how they even got on here in the first place and just as they started to play Zack got a wave and it flowed so perfect with the song that I planned out a webisode in my head for his O’neill webisode from down here. Now I’m gonna have to go home and use it.

What about when your actually sitting down and editing? Do you pretty
much just let the song inspire you, or do other factors start to get
involved?

The song pretty much does all the work. Sometimes when I’m not so lazy I’ll write down a layout for the edit in my trusty pink notebook, but for the most part it i’ll just piece it together with the song playing, the process usually involves taking clips out and adding new ones in 15-20 times before I keep a final cut.

Are you usually fully satisfied with the final edit, or do you
sometimes question it, but put it out anyway?

I don’t think I’m ever fully satisfied with an edit.

From a psychological standpoint, do you think the fact that you are
never fully satisfied could lead to a fucked up, standing in front of
a mirror hysterically crying sporting a tuck-back with lipstick on,
screaming “I’m never good enough!” meltdown some years down the road?

No.

What else is in the works?

Besides Buck’s Innersection, I am working on an interesting project with Alek Parker following cold fronts from California. The storms move from the West Coast to the Northeast and on down into the Carribean. We met with Timmy Reyes and scored some of the the best waves in California. Then tracked that storm to Puerto Rico with Gabe Kling and Brian Toth for some of the best waves in the Carribean. It’s been a very successful project thus far. For the time being I’m focused on Buckley’s Innersection and maybe we can get Sam Hammer into one too!

Check out some more of Carmen’s work on his Vimeo, here’s a taste.