Pro Paintball caught up with Cassidy Sanders, arguably the best paintball videographer in the world.
In this exclusive interview, Cassidy tells ProPaintball about his background, influences, and news of a fresh series of paintball videos.
ProPaintball: How old are you and where do you hail from?
Cassidy: 26, Southern California…currently Newport Beach.
ProPaintball: Tell us about your background in paintball. You were one of the original Hostile Kids/HK Army, right?
Cassidy: Yea, one of the few originals from when we created HK Army almost 10 years ago. I got out of playing a season or two after xball was created because the pro teams were constantly picking apart our core.
I always preferred playing with a core HK team and was way too shy back then to leave my friends to play on pro paintball teams.
The core HK team was always a last minute ordeal and after a few seasons, I decided to go back to school and work full time. I came back to paintball after a few years to see that a few of the core guys had turned HK army into a clothing company.
I jumped in and applied my creative talents to the cause. I rarely play now days because I enjoy filming so much.
ProPaintball: Where do you look for inspiration?
Cassidy: I don’t know if you can call it looking because I am literally inspired by everything. Any type of art form…be it through paintings, music, film, web designs, you name it, I have great appreciation for it.
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ProPaintball: Which musician or type of music is your favorite, and why?
Cassidy: Man that is a tough one. That is almost like asking what is my favorite film haha.
ProPaintball: Haha, that was our next question. Do tell..
Cassidy: Honestly, this is a hard one to pin down. I enjoy almost every type of music and film.
ProPaintball: We understand you spent a considerable amount of time traveling last year to shoot paintball videos. What event and host country was your favorite? Care to share any memories from your trip?
Cassidy: The first Millennium event in Paris, France I didn’t plan on filming paintball. The event was used as a trick to get my lady out to France. My goal was to surprise her on the Eiffel Tower with a successful proposal.
Being in Paris during the Millennium event I couldn’t leave without filming paintball. Paris was above and beyond a perfect trip and I’m excited to get married in a few months.
Norway was also amazing and everyone I met was beyond friendly to me, which isn’t always the case because I’m a weird looking American 😉
ProPaintball: You set the trend in paintball videography by introducing Dubstep music into your videos. What trend do you see popping up next?
Cassidy: Dubstep has taken over all media forms lately. I just happen to know a good amount of friends who made dubstep back when not many people knew about it.
I always thought Dubstep would be perfect for paintball. The other thing that aided me was that very few were using DSLR’s for filming paintball back when I started. With the way technology is advancing I think there won’t be just one really big trend.
The quality of these cameras are perfect for anybody to be creative and be original with there own type of style for film.
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ProPaintball: What type of equipment are you using these days?
Cassidy: I still use my personal outdated Canon t2i 550d for paintball, but when ever I have the opportunity to use better equipment I jump for it. The latest event I filmed with a Red Epic and plan to use cameras at that level for many more projects.
ProPaintball: Which paintball videographer do you watch most? Any favorites out there?
Cassidy: Big fan of my buddy Drew Templeton’s Grind Paintball videos.
ProPaintball: Your videos are blowing up on YouTube and the paintball community is clamoring for more. When should we expect your next video release?
Cassidy: Next one will be released tomorrow (Feb. 2nd.) I hate not having videos done as soon as possible just like everyone else. However, I film and produce videos outside of paintball for a living. Unfortunately the paintball videos all began to pile up in a backlog.
The rest of last years events will all be dropping through out this month and early march before next year’s season begins. I’m never going to let the event videos fall behind like that again.
ProPaintball: Awesome, we can’t wait to check the new videos out. What can paintball players do to find themselves in your videos?
Cassidy: I film anyone who supports paintball. Of course since my roots are HK and I now do videos for them, I will always hit record for anyone supporting HK army.
ProPaintball: Any advice for aspiring photographers or videographers?
Cassidy: When I began filming I couldn’t afford even the cheapest DSLR at the time, so I would test out friends cameras and learn everything I could while saving money. I would say don’t stop trying something new or making mistakes. So many good ideas happen on accident.
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ProPaintball: What is your schedule looking like for 2012? Anything special we should be looking forward to?
Cassidy: 2012 is going to be huge. I have lots of big plans for paintball and plan on finishing the first HK Army DVD/Blu-ray some time during this season.
ProPaintball: Thanks for your time dude! We can’t wait to check out your new releases. For more information about Cassidy and his videos, you follow him on Facebook.
Photo 1 credit: CreedShot
Photo 2 Credit: Warpig.com
Photo 3 Credit: Roggie Photo
