Hey everyone!
I was going through some old project files today, and I noticed some screen captured video files. I hadn't named them or stored them in a specific folder, so I was curious to find out what they were.
Photoshop Tutorials!
Way back when, I was the host of a few podcasts that were photography/graphic design related. I had always wanted to create Photoshop tutorials, even before I knew how to do the techniques themselves.
We are talking pre-youtube days, so we're talking just straight image/text tutorials, like the great phong.com or designsbymark.com
Ever since designsbymark.com basically sold out and started charging money for his tutorials, I was kinda bummed. His stuff is really good, however, so I understand his motives. They are like beasts that can only be contained within the confines of a DVD cage. His tutorials are professional level stuff, so I get it. Thankfully phong has never charged for his stuff, but it's been a few years since he has posted anything new.
But what about us lonely people down here? Lynda.com has some great, GREAT resources, but they are usually just a general brush stroke. (Pardon the pun, I try to be creative and/or interesting in my writing!)
What I really like about phong's tutorials is they were an in depth look at his specific style. This made a lot of my early work pretty much recreations and/or poor imitations of his work. Thankfully I was young, and all my design work just collected dust on my hard drive. His lessons did ferment in the back of my mind, and I like to think this help me create the wonderful wine that exists on my wonderful graphic design palate.
Phong and Mark's tutorials were pretty much Photoshop specific, and to make it even narrower, completely graphic/web design related. Not a big deal, but I feel like I have much more to offer.
I've been looking for a new, big project to tackle, and I feel this is perfect. I'm throwing all the old stuff out the window and starting fresh. As of today, I'll be creating some awesome tutorials that cover the entire Adobe Creative Suite, as well as some straight photography tutorials. But there is just ONE problem...
I don't know where to start.
Okay, I take that back, I knew where I COULD start, but these tutorials are not for me. They are for you. So I'm going to let you decide what it is I do. No project is too big, no tool is too small. If you want to learn how to use the pen tool, let me know. If you want to learn how to utilize the entire Adobe CS workflow, from Lightroom to InDesign, let me know.
The good ol' email address is snlich@gmail.com, so drop me a line. I'll be waiting!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
What the Hell, Spike Jonez/Ty Evans?! "Pretty Sweet" Could Have Been So Much Better.
48 minutes better, to be exact.
After my first viewing of "Pretty Sweet", Girl and Chocolates latest video, two things ran through my mind.
Holy Crap.
That was the first thing. Vincent Alvarez's opening part really blew my mind as he whizzed past the camera. A 3 song part? Who does he think he is? Marc Johnnson? Vincent Alvarez skates like he should be filmed with a VX-1000/Fish Eye combo. Some might take that as a complaint, but it's not. It just means that it seems like he should have been pro from the mid 90's. He is only 24, which means he would have been like, 10 at the time, but it doesn't matter. As most people know, I'm a strong advocate for HD/DSLR skateboard film making, but if there is any reason to film with a VX, this guy is it. It makes sense why companies like Baker and Deathwish still film with a VX, and I get it.
Corey Kennedy's part was amazing too. There aren't as many NBDs as there where 20 years ago, but with someone like Cory Kennedy, that ceases to be relavent. He does some sort of inward heelflip nose slide (I think?) on a ledge that has a 4 stair drop off that looks like ballet on a skateboard. The same with his 180 double kickflips that he does. Just magic on a skateboard.
I'm going to stop there, because you get the idea. Everyone's part was amazing, which brings me to my second thought.
Why so many shared parts?!
Very rarely do AMs get full parts. Yet, Elijah Berle, Stevie Perez, and Raven Tershy all have one. I don't think they didn't deserve it, quite the opposite. It just seems silly to give them full parts, but then have someone like Mike Carroll share a part when he has a long history of full/amazing parts. Jeron Wilson and Brandon Biebel shared a part, too. It didn't really bother me because they fit SO well together, I almost didn't even notice. But I did. And it pissed me off.
So whats the solution? Give guys like Raven and Stevie shared parts? Nah, their parts were amazing and they deserved all of the time they got. So what then? Danielle Costillio and Rick McCrank had ONE fucking trick. Some say "well sometimes they only film a couple of tricks, and they just don't give a shit to go out and film".
Well, I call bull shit on that because less than 2 months later a small shop called "Primitive" released a video, "Pain is Beauty" and Daniel has 5-10 tricks in that. And I refuse to believe he said things like "Nah, SCREW my board sponsor who makes some of the greatest videos ever, I'm filming for my Primitive semi-part".
That would be enough, but it's not. Ty had the balls to release a "bonus edit", which was 45 minutes of "out takes" which naturally were just as good as the other video. Many of the guys with shared parts had plenty of more footage they deemed "not good enough" yet they put it up for people to see anyway.
"Pretty Sweet" clocks in at 79 minutes. The bonus edit is 49 minutes. Together, that is just over 2 hours together. That is pretty long for a skate video, as most don't run for more than 40 minutes, but I don't care. I'm sure most people don't either. In the age of DVDs and iTunes, most people skip the part they want to watch anyway. Long gone are the days of popping in a video and watching it from beginning to end.
Okay, so 2 hours is too long you say? I took a look, and the guys who had less than even "half" part, if they gave them each 2 more minutes, the video would be only 16 minutes longer. Since on the short side, full parts clock in at around 3 minutes, this would have been perfect. Enough to give them their own song, or at least part of one. I'm sure it wouldn't have hurt the "flow" of the video at all.
The only shared part I actually like was Jeron and Biebels part. It flowed pretty damn well. Since Brandon is one of my favorite skaters, however, I still want him to have a full part.
The biggest slap in the face is Justin Eldridge. He isn't the most popular guy on the team, but he is one of my favorite skaters. I can blob about awesome his style is (it is. really awesome. really, really awesome) but I shouldn't have to. Not only did they release a bunch of footage of him in the "bonus edit", but they just put a fucking "Pretty Sweet full part re-edit". WHAT. THE. FUCK.
What trick in ANY of it was "not good enough" for that fucking video? In this day and age, not every fucking trick can be an NBD. Even Guy Mariano's part only had 20. (Thats a joke, thats a ton, and it's rad)
Shared parts are nothing new, but typically it's due to lack of footage/new guys on the team/guest spots/whatever, but as the years grow, we can all see how much bull shit that is.
Typically an excuse would be "they just go on the team" or they are hurt, or whatever. But they have been working on this video for 5 fucking years. Devine Calloway got hurt and it looks like they just kicked him off the team, even though his name was in the trailer that was released less than a year before the video came out. If he had NO footage up to that point, why put his name in there. Same with Rick Howard. I get he's the boss and he probably is getting sick of filming video parts. Okay, I'll give you that one.
Koston was another one. He didn't have a full part, and EVERYONE, young AND old, always look forward to his parts. He's getting into his "twilight" skateboarding years, but that should be all the more reason to go out with a bang. He might have another Girl/Chocolate video release in him, but I doubt he'll have a full part, if anything. He has nothing to prove, and I get that. We all know he destroys it, and he has been the best for 15 years. Okay, move on...
Anthony Poppallardo. Fucking Pops. There have been some interviews with him floating around, where he shows a LOT of resentment towards not just Chocolate, but Converse as well. He said that while Converse was still selling his pro model shoe, he recieved NONE of the royalties. Same thing with Chocolate, while he said he is still on the team (his name is on their web site team roster, and it ain't that fucking hard to fix) they basically cut him out and stopped making him boards. The interview DOES make it seem like there are two sides to the story, and we got that when Ty came out and said he did "everything" to get him a full part, even giving some guy in New York a brand new $6,000+ camera because Pops refused to leave New York.
There are two sides to every story, and I simply cannot trust either side, so whatever. If Ty's version is correct, what about Devine, McCrank, Eldridge, and Carroll. Who, by the way, has been there since the beginning. He shared a part with Alex Olson...
Okay, I like Alex Olson, but he still seems pretty immature. Not necessarily in the douche bag kind of way, as I've met the man, and he is a really nice dude. But he straight up said he didn't even bother to film for the video until they had a name for the video (about 6 months before it came out). Now he has said that he didn't want to start filming 4 years ago for it because he knew that most likely all that stuff wouldn't make the cut. He didn't go on any trips, LA and New York, that's it.
Okay, that's fine, but what about Ty's comment that "who ever put the most work in, got the most coverage". How did some of these guys, who have TONS of footage in the bonus edit, one of which even had enough to actually edit a FULL VIDEO PART anyway, put in less than Olson did? Doesn't make sense.
The final straw for me was when the released the "Lost & Filmed" on Youtube, for free, for basically everyone one the team. Once again, not good enough for the video but good enough for the web?
Pfffttt, fuck off.
I was really looking forward to full parts from some of those dudes, two of which has one trick each. That's absurd. I can say with confidence that I won't be nearly as excited for their next video.
..That is until they announce it and a trailer comes out, I'll be giddy like a school girl.
Bottom line is this. It's a great video, and Ty and Spike did an amazing job. I have no problems with it being too "over produced" with the steady cam and all that. But after waiting 5 years for this, would it kill them to just release the full 2 hour+ video? I know the Bonus Edit came on the DVD/Blu-Ray which is awesome, but it would have been a lot more awesome if they just put it all in the original video.
By the way, if you haven't seen the Justin Eldridge full part, I highly recommend it. I think the song they picked is totally wrong, but feel free to mute it and give it a song of your choice. I personally like using the song from the actual video, "On and On" by Justice.
Justin Eldridge full part: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iemj0YCY5E)
On'n'On by Justice, better song for the part (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWL8RogROr8)
Also I totally forgot about Chris Roberts, who I totally dig as well .He had this crazy power slide to nose manual to nollie flip thing that was awesome.
After my first viewing of "Pretty Sweet", Girl and Chocolates latest video, two things ran through my mind.
Holy Crap.
That was the first thing. Vincent Alvarez's opening part really blew my mind as he whizzed past the camera. A 3 song part? Who does he think he is? Marc Johnnson? Vincent Alvarez skates like he should be filmed with a VX-1000/Fish Eye combo. Some might take that as a complaint, but it's not. It just means that it seems like he should have been pro from the mid 90's. He is only 24, which means he would have been like, 10 at the time, but it doesn't matter. As most people know, I'm a strong advocate for HD/DSLR skateboard film making, but if there is any reason to film with a VX, this guy is it. It makes sense why companies like Baker and Deathwish still film with a VX, and I get it.
Corey Kennedy's part was amazing too. There aren't as many NBDs as there where 20 years ago, but with someone like Cory Kennedy, that ceases to be relavent. He does some sort of inward heelflip nose slide (I think?) on a ledge that has a 4 stair drop off that looks like ballet on a skateboard. The same with his 180 double kickflips that he does. Just magic on a skateboard.
I'm going to stop there, because you get the idea. Everyone's part was amazing, which brings me to my second thought.
Why so many shared parts?!
Very rarely do AMs get full parts. Yet, Elijah Berle, Stevie Perez, and Raven Tershy all have one. I don't think they didn't deserve it, quite the opposite. It just seems silly to give them full parts, but then have someone like Mike Carroll share a part when he has a long history of full/amazing parts. Jeron Wilson and Brandon Biebel shared a part, too. It didn't really bother me because they fit SO well together, I almost didn't even notice. But I did. And it pissed me off.
So whats the solution? Give guys like Raven and Stevie shared parts? Nah, their parts were amazing and they deserved all of the time they got. So what then? Danielle Costillio and Rick McCrank had ONE fucking trick. Some say "well sometimes they only film a couple of tricks, and they just don't give a shit to go out and film".
Well, I call bull shit on that because less than 2 months later a small shop called "Primitive" released a video, "Pain is Beauty" and Daniel has 5-10 tricks in that. And I refuse to believe he said things like "Nah, SCREW my board sponsor who makes some of the greatest videos ever, I'm filming for my Primitive semi-part".
That would be enough, but it's not. Ty had the balls to release a "bonus edit", which was 45 minutes of "out takes" which naturally were just as good as the other video. Many of the guys with shared parts had plenty of more footage they deemed "not good enough" yet they put it up for people to see anyway.
"Pretty Sweet" clocks in at 79 minutes. The bonus edit is 49 minutes. Together, that is just over 2 hours together. That is pretty long for a skate video, as most don't run for more than 40 minutes, but I don't care. I'm sure most people don't either. In the age of DVDs and iTunes, most people skip the part they want to watch anyway. Long gone are the days of popping in a video and watching it from beginning to end.
Okay, so 2 hours is too long you say? I took a look, and the guys who had less than even "half" part, if they gave them each 2 more minutes, the video would be only 16 minutes longer. Since on the short side, full parts clock in at around 3 minutes, this would have been perfect. Enough to give them their own song, or at least part of one. I'm sure it wouldn't have hurt the "flow" of the video at all.
The only shared part I actually like was Jeron and Biebels part. It flowed pretty damn well. Since Brandon is one of my favorite skaters, however, I still want him to have a full part.
The biggest slap in the face is Justin Eldridge. He isn't the most popular guy on the team, but he is one of my favorite skaters. I can blob about awesome his style is (it is. really awesome. really, really awesome) but I shouldn't have to. Not only did they release a bunch of footage of him in the "bonus edit", but they just put a fucking "Pretty Sweet full part re-edit". WHAT. THE. FUCK.
What trick in ANY of it was "not good enough" for that fucking video? In this day and age, not every fucking trick can be an NBD. Even Guy Mariano's part only had 20. (Thats a joke, thats a ton, and it's rad)
Shared parts are nothing new, but typically it's due to lack of footage/new guys on the team/guest spots/whatever, but as the years grow, we can all see how much bull shit that is.
Typically an excuse would be "they just go on the team" or they are hurt, or whatever. But they have been working on this video for 5 fucking years. Devine Calloway got hurt and it looks like they just kicked him off the team, even though his name was in the trailer that was released less than a year before the video came out. If he had NO footage up to that point, why put his name in there. Same with Rick Howard. I get he's the boss and he probably is getting sick of filming video parts. Okay, I'll give you that one.
Koston was another one. He didn't have a full part, and EVERYONE, young AND old, always look forward to his parts. He's getting into his "twilight" skateboarding years, but that should be all the more reason to go out with a bang. He might have another Girl/Chocolate video release in him, but I doubt he'll have a full part, if anything. He has nothing to prove, and I get that. We all know he destroys it, and he has been the best for 15 years. Okay, move on...
Anthony Poppallardo. Fucking Pops. There have been some interviews with him floating around, where he shows a LOT of resentment towards not just Chocolate, but Converse as well. He said that while Converse was still selling his pro model shoe, he recieved NONE of the royalties. Same thing with Chocolate, while he said he is still on the team (his name is on their web site team roster, and it ain't that fucking hard to fix) they basically cut him out and stopped making him boards. The interview DOES make it seem like there are two sides to the story, and we got that when Ty came out and said he did "everything" to get him a full part, even giving some guy in New York a brand new $6,000+ camera because Pops refused to leave New York.
There are two sides to every story, and I simply cannot trust either side, so whatever. If Ty's version is correct, what about Devine, McCrank, Eldridge, and Carroll. Who, by the way, has been there since the beginning. He shared a part with Alex Olson...
Okay, I like Alex Olson, but he still seems pretty immature. Not necessarily in the douche bag kind of way, as I've met the man, and he is a really nice dude. But he straight up said he didn't even bother to film for the video until they had a name for the video (about 6 months before it came out). Now he has said that he didn't want to start filming 4 years ago for it because he knew that most likely all that stuff wouldn't make the cut. He didn't go on any trips, LA and New York, that's it.
Okay, that's fine, but what about Ty's comment that "who ever put the most work in, got the most coverage". How did some of these guys, who have TONS of footage in the bonus edit, one of which even had enough to actually edit a FULL VIDEO PART anyway, put in less than Olson did? Doesn't make sense.
The final straw for me was when the released the "Lost & Filmed" on Youtube, for free, for basically everyone one the team. Once again, not good enough for the video but good enough for the web?
Pfffttt, fuck off.
I was really looking forward to full parts from some of those dudes, two of which has one trick each. That's absurd. I can say with confidence that I won't be nearly as excited for their next video.
..That is until they announce it and a trailer comes out, I'll be giddy like a school girl.
Bottom line is this. It's a great video, and Ty and Spike did an amazing job. I have no problems with it being too "over produced" with the steady cam and all that. But after waiting 5 years for this, would it kill them to just release the full 2 hour+ video? I know the Bonus Edit came on the DVD/Blu-Ray which is awesome, but it would have been a lot more awesome if they just put it all in the original video.
By the way, if you haven't seen the Justin Eldridge full part, I highly recommend it. I think the song they picked is totally wrong, but feel free to mute it and give it a song of your choice. I personally like using the song from the actual video, "On and On" by Justice.
Justin Eldridge full part: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iemj0YCY5E)
On'n'On by Justice, better song for the part (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWL8RogROr8)
Also I totally forgot about Chris Roberts, who I totally dig as well .He had this crazy power slide to nose manual to nollie flip thing that was awesome.
Brian Anderson Leaves Girl, Leaves Me With A Broken Heart.
So, Brian Anderson left Girl. This really surprised me. After leaving me wanting more from "Pretty Sweet", I was hoping to see more of him in at least the bonus edit the put out. Like most of my girlfriends, I was left unfulfilled I wanted more. I guess, for now, I'll have to wait for the new Nike SB video, which I don't like watching in the first place.
(Link Thrasher Magazine :http://www.thrashermagazine.com/articles/trash/brian-anderson-leaves-girl/ )
The silver lining in all of this is it looks like he will be starting his own brand. I can say that it will be the first non Jeric's (my local shop) or Girl/Chocolate board I've purchased in 15 years. Let's hope he sticks with his shape, because I've really like his. Although Vincent Alvarez's is really starting to grow on me.
With Jason Dill and AVE leaving Alien Workshop, there are rumors already circulating they are all starting a company together. While this might be a possibility it's a small one at that. It seems more likely that he would start a company with a fellow San Francisco resident, which I hope would be Elissa Steamer. I've always loved her skating, and always bummed she has never released a full video part. It's always the same excuse, "they didn't get enough footage", but I rarely ever believe that. Proof of this is in the "Pretty Sweet" bonus edit, and the recent release of the Justin Eldridge "full part re-edit".
For arguments sake, why the hell wasn't he given at least TWO or THREE more minutes in the video? Would that have killed Ty? Oh well, back on point.
Seeing Brian Anderson start his own company will (hopefully) be awesome, but I hate the idea of it not working. Not all start ups from guys wanting to "branch out" always work. I'd hate to see him start one, then slowly become a failure, then have him retire. This could all happen in the next two to three years, which would probably mean retirement. I know he is in his mid/late 30's, which could very easily mean even him just running his own company.
Let's hope not.
(Link Thrasher Magazine :http://www.thrashermagazine.com/articles/trash/brian-anderson-leaves-girl/ )
The silver lining in all of this is it looks like he will be starting his own brand. I can say that it will be the first non Jeric's (my local shop) or Girl/Chocolate board I've purchased in 15 years. Let's hope he sticks with his shape, because I've really like his. Although Vincent Alvarez's is really starting to grow on me.
With Jason Dill and AVE leaving Alien Workshop, there are rumors already circulating they are all starting a company together. While this might be a possibility it's a small one at that. It seems more likely that he would start a company with a fellow San Francisco resident, which I hope would be Elissa Steamer. I've always loved her skating, and always bummed she has never released a full video part. It's always the same excuse, "they didn't get enough footage", but I rarely ever believe that. Proof of this is in the "Pretty Sweet" bonus edit, and the recent release of the Justin Eldridge "full part re-edit".
For arguments sake, why the hell wasn't he given at least TWO or THREE more minutes in the video? Would that have killed Ty? Oh well, back on point.
Seeing Brian Anderson start his own company will (hopefully) be awesome, but I hate the idea of it not working. Not all start ups from guys wanting to "branch out" always work. I'd hate to see him start one, then slowly become a failure, then have him retire. This could all happen in the next two to three years, which would probably mean retirement. I know he is in his mid/late 30's, which could very easily mean even him just running his own company.
Let's hope not.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Skateboarding and Photography, A Love Story. Part 5
Unfortunately the VX glory days didn't last long. As tech savvy as I am, I was too blinded by the idea of owning my "dream camera" (I realize now how stupid that sounds) to realize that HD would soon be taking over the market place.
I know 5 years seems like a long time, but it really wasn't in the life of a very, very expensive camera. There are people out there still using the VX, and I commend them. But that doesn't change the fact that the footage looks like absolute shit compared to the HD camera out now. They come up with some pretty decent excuses as to why standard definition is "better" than high definition, but they are just in denial. That and I'm sure the idea of spending $500 to buy a new camera off eBay sounds better than $7,000. With in the debate of VX versus HD, there is also the debate of DSLRS versus the Panasonic.
**Full Disclosure: I am a supporter of HD, as well as DSLRs. I think they offer the most bang for their buck. Christ, you can get a full set up for 1/3rd of the price that I paid for my original one, and it looks amazing, if not better than the Panasonic cameras. If you're on the fence, go buy a Canon T2i and the Bower fish eye. You won't be disappointed.**
As 2009 approached, I began getting more and more anxious. I wasn't filming my friends as much, and I was only about half way to paying off my setup. Everyone, including me, got jobs. We found less and less time to hang out much less skate. It was getting harder and harder to justify spending $5,000 on a "video camera". Especially being on the cusp of the HD revolution, I sold my camera. GASP.
I know what you are thinking, I'm giving up on the dream, but I wasn't. I had picked up an entry level Nikon DSLR, and begain taking more and more photos. Through this whole experience I was always shooting photos, but very rarely of skateboarding. Even when I wasn't filming or skating myself, I could just never get the proper look I wanted. That and not having a fish eye can kinda bum you out.
But I was still skating! We were still having fun, I just started taking photos more. I had always been a fan of Atiba Jefferson, but for some reason I just started paying more attention to him. His medium format photos made me oh so jealous. He got a Hassleblad H2 from Jamie Thomas a gift. A $20,000 camera as a gift. Why can't Jamie Thomas be my friend?
Jefferson, Blabac, and of course Brittan were heavy inspirations at this point. Even with an entry level DSLR, digital cameras have made amazing advancements in the past 10 years. I was able to shoot some really neat photos, just not of what I wanted to.
I started paying more and more attention to ads and photos in skate magazines like Transworld and Thrasher. Thrasher was a particular source of inspiration, because a lot of their photos represented skateboarding a little better I always felt. Some of the time they were crisp, in focus, and professional looking. But skateboarding is not crisp. It ain't professional, either, that's for damn sure.
Thrasher was showing photos that made it look like they were skating in hell on earth. Lots of motion and blur (on purpose) and bright colors. The skater was in your face, as they are most of the time. What can I say? We drink a lot of Monster.
This was important to me because the technical capabilities of my entry level DSLR were limited. They can do a lot, but they sure as hell can't make it look like you have a $20,000 Hasselblad if you have a $600 Nikon. It didn't matter however, because I could make my photos look like the ones in Thrasher. At that exact moment I became confident in myself, and I knew I could ACTUALLY do this.
Then the worst thing happened. I lost my job.
I know 5 years seems like a long time, but it really wasn't in the life of a very, very expensive camera. There are people out there still using the VX, and I commend them. But that doesn't change the fact that the footage looks like absolute shit compared to the HD camera out now. They come up with some pretty decent excuses as to why standard definition is "better" than high definition, but they are just in denial. That and I'm sure the idea of spending $500 to buy a new camera off eBay sounds better than $7,000. With in the debate of VX versus HD, there is also the debate of DSLRS versus the Panasonic.
**Full Disclosure: I am a supporter of HD, as well as DSLRs. I think they offer the most bang for their buck. Christ, you can get a full set up for 1/3rd of the price that I paid for my original one, and it looks amazing, if not better than the Panasonic cameras. If you're on the fence, go buy a Canon T2i and the Bower fish eye. You won't be disappointed.**
As 2009 approached, I began getting more and more anxious. I wasn't filming my friends as much, and I was only about half way to paying off my setup. Everyone, including me, got jobs. We found less and less time to hang out much less skate. It was getting harder and harder to justify spending $5,000 on a "video camera". Especially being on the cusp of the HD revolution, I sold my camera. GASP.
I know what you are thinking, I'm giving up on the dream, but I wasn't. I had picked up an entry level Nikon DSLR, and begain taking more and more photos. Through this whole experience I was always shooting photos, but very rarely of skateboarding. Even when I wasn't filming or skating myself, I could just never get the proper look I wanted. That and not having a fish eye can kinda bum you out.
But I was still skating! We were still having fun, I just started taking photos more. I had always been a fan of Atiba Jefferson, but for some reason I just started paying more attention to him. His medium format photos made me oh so jealous. He got a Hassleblad H2 from Jamie Thomas a gift. A $20,000 camera as a gift. Why can't Jamie Thomas be my friend?
Jefferson, Blabac, and of course Brittan were heavy inspirations at this point. Even with an entry level DSLR, digital cameras have made amazing advancements in the past 10 years. I was able to shoot some really neat photos, just not of what I wanted to.
I started paying more and more attention to ads and photos in skate magazines like Transworld and Thrasher. Thrasher was a particular source of inspiration, because a lot of their photos represented skateboarding a little better I always felt. Some of the time they were crisp, in focus, and professional looking. But skateboarding is not crisp. It ain't professional, either, that's for damn sure.
Thrasher was showing photos that made it look like they were skating in hell on earth. Lots of motion and blur (on purpose) and bright colors. The skater was in your face, as they are most of the time. What can I say? We drink a lot of Monster.
This was important to me because the technical capabilities of my entry level DSLR were limited. They can do a lot, but they sure as hell can't make it look like you have a $20,000 Hasselblad if you have a $600 Nikon. It didn't matter however, because I could make my photos look like the ones in Thrasher. At that exact moment I became confident in myself, and I knew I could ACTUALLY do this.
Then the worst thing happened. I lost my job.
Skateboarding and Photography, A Love Story. Part 4
After high school ended, things started to really pick up. Taking a year off of school and breaking up with my girlfriend, I found myself with an abundance of spare time. It was filled with skateboarding. Several of the tapes I have are filled with just single days. As the tape goes on, you can see the sun move from the middle of the sky to the horizon, as twilight approached the lights would come out. We'd all be wearing the same clothes, and the tapes are a pretty good example of the day to day life of a skateboarder.
I know "Day in the Life" and "A Day at the Park" edits are pretty common now, but to me, those tapes are a perfect example of what I consider some of the best times of my life.
"All I'm saying is that if I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life - remind me to kill myself." - Randall "Pink" Floyd, "Dazed and Confused" (played by Jason London).
While I don't consider the 4 years post high school to be the best, they certainly were not the worst. Especially after I turned 18. I discovered the magic of credit cards.
I was working at a Mejier, which is a grocery/everything store that rivals Walmart, but not that well. I worked over nights, and while I hated it at first, it allowed me to sleep from 7 am-1 pm, and pretty much have the rest of the day to do what I wanted. I was at the park for a full 2 hours before people started showing up. Although thanks to coffee, Red Bull, and adderall, I didn't sleep much, even from 7-1.
After a particularly long shift, and being up for 24 or so hours, I walked past a table with a bunch of balloons. It was Meijer's Grand Opening week, and they had a booth set up for people to apply for a Meijer's MasterCard. If you were approved, you were able to use it in the store that day thanks to a piece of receipt paper with your credit card number on it. They gave me a $500 limit. Not much I know, but for an 18 year old it was amazing. I got a bunch of shit I didn't really need for nothing. At least at seemed like nothing.
(The preceding paragraph is a pretty good example of why the US economy is as shitty as it is right now. If you're 18-25, do yourself a favor and DON'T get a credit card. Don't be as stupid as I was)
I bought an iPod (even thought I already had one), a TON of DVDs, and a bunch of stuff for my XBox. I couldn't wait to get home to play with my toys. I only got up to about $400 worth of stuff, and I payed it off within 3 weeks.When I got my first statement, I found out they decided I was responsible enough to handle a $10,000 limit. I wasn't.
I immediately went to Fry's electronics and bought a Sony VX-2100. My dream had come true. I had though about that camera almost every day since my freshman year of high school. Six years later, it was finally mine. This was another one of those deciding moments of my life. I picked up a bunch of tapes, as well as all the coolest stuff. A boom mic, some lights, and a bunch of stuff I never even used. Unfortunately I had to order the Century Optics fish eye, which was given the nick name the "death lens" because of how terribly close you get to the skater, leaving you and your camera open to getting smacked with skateboards and falling skateboarders. I had to spend three and a half weeks filming "rolling long lens" a technique I lifted from a man I came to know as "French Fred". He was the director of "Menikmati" and a few other amazing and inspiring skate videos. The first few clips I filmed came out surprisingly well. I still have clip of a friend doing a kick flip on a 10ft quarter. He didn't go above the coping, but the trick still looked really nice and shot I planned made it look like it was straight out of "Menikmati". But I was anxious for my fish eye.
As happy as I was when my fish eye arrived, I became extremely nervous. I had seen what happens when boards hit the camera, and although it had only happened to me once and didn't damage anything, I figured my luck would be that it happens on the first day. It never did, but I almost threw up at the notion that I would have to spend 2 years paying off a camera that was destroyed.
Thankfully it never did happen, and I spent the next 5 years filming with my friends and drinking Slurpees at 7-11. Some of the best times of my life, topped only by the time spent filming in high school, and my current situation, living the dream.
I know "Day in the Life" and "A Day at the Park" edits are pretty common now, but to me, those tapes are a perfect example of what I consider some of the best times of my life.
"All I'm saying is that if I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life - remind me to kill myself." - Randall "Pink" Floyd, "Dazed and Confused" (played by Jason London).
While I don't consider the 4 years post high school to be the best, they certainly were not the worst. Especially after I turned 18. I discovered the magic of credit cards.
I was working at a Mejier, which is a grocery/everything store that rivals Walmart, but not that well. I worked over nights, and while I hated it at first, it allowed me to sleep from 7 am-1 pm, and pretty much have the rest of the day to do what I wanted. I was at the park for a full 2 hours before people started showing up. Although thanks to coffee, Red Bull, and adderall, I didn't sleep much, even from 7-1.
After a particularly long shift, and being up for 24 or so hours, I walked past a table with a bunch of balloons. It was Meijer's Grand Opening week, and they had a booth set up for people to apply for a Meijer's MasterCard. If you were approved, you were able to use it in the store that day thanks to a piece of receipt paper with your credit card number on it. They gave me a $500 limit. Not much I know, but for an 18 year old it was amazing. I got a bunch of shit I didn't really need for nothing. At least at seemed like nothing.
(The preceding paragraph is a pretty good example of why the US economy is as shitty as it is right now. If you're 18-25, do yourself a favor and DON'T get a credit card. Don't be as stupid as I was)
I bought an iPod (even thought I already had one), a TON of DVDs, and a bunch of stuff for my XBox. I couldn't wait to get home to play with my toys. I only got up to about $400 worth of stuff, and I payed it off within 3 weeks.When I got my first statement, I found out they decided I was responsible enough to handle a $10,000 limit. I wasn't.
I immediately went to Fry's electronics and bought a Sony VX-2100. My dream had come true. I had though about that camera almost every day since my freshman year of high school. Six years later, it was finally mine. This was another one of those deciding moments of my life. I picked up a bunch of tapes, as well as all the coolest stuff. A boom mic, some lights, and a bunch of stuff I never even used. Unfortunately I had to order the Century Optics fish eye, which was given the nick name the "death lens" because of how terribly close you get to the skater, leaving you and your camera open to getting smacked with skateboards and falling skateboarders. I had to spend three and a half weeks filming "rolling long lens" a technique I lifted from a man I came to know as "French Fred". He was the director of "Menikmati" and a few other amazing and inspiring skate videos. The first few clips I filmed came out surprisingly well. I still have clip of a friend doing a kick flip on a 10ft quarter. He didn't go above the coping, but the trick still looked really nice and shot I planned made it look like it was straight out of "Menikmati". But I was anxious for my fish eye.
As happy as I was when my fish eye arrived, I became extremely nervous. I had seen what happens when boards hit the camera, and although it had only happened to me once and didn't damage anything, I figured my luck would be that it happens on the first day. It never did, but I almost threw up at the notion that I would have to spend 2 years paying off a camera that was destroyed.
Thankfully it never did happen, and I spent the next 5 years filming with my friends and drinking Slurpees at 7-11. Some of the best times of my life, topped only by the time spent filming in high school, and my current situation, living the dream.
Skateboarding and Photography, A Love Story. Part 3
After I "made" my new fish eye lens, my interest in skateboarding was renewed. I was filming any and everything I found slightly interesting. In hindsight is was silly, as I currently have around 125 MiniDV tapes that are filled with a lot of boring shit. It wasn't all bad, however, and there are a lot of good memories on those tapes.
I filmed my walk to school, my lunch period. I would interview friends and ask them dumb questions. We would walk down aisles, and pretend to trip and drop our lunches all over the place. I would use my lunch money, what would now be considered a "budget", to buy chocolate milk and "accidentally" spill it all over myself.
While most of the time I was behind the camera, I ended up doing most of the really dangerous and silly stuff myself. I adapted Bam Margera's mantra of "Ya gotta better the film" and I took that to heart. You have to remember I was in high school, and extremely impressionable. I got a job working at a Subway to help fund our adventures. Most would see this as something that would interfere with our adventures, but you would be quite wrong.
Thanks to a bipolar and down right crazy manager, as well as a coke head assistant manager, I was quickly made "night manager" of our store. They let me hire my friends, and would go off and party for sometimes days at a time, leaving me to my own devices. Sometimes we would close to store down for hours and have "battles to the death" which involved throwing large chunks of bread at each other. We once covered the entire store in that stuff that comes out of a fire extinguisher. We emptied that thing out. I suppose it is a good thing we never had a small fire, as we would have had nothing to put it out. I wouldn't be surprised if that thing is still sitting their, empty. Sure hope there is never a fire.
We'd shut the cameras off and build quarter pipes in the back to skate, and stall on the racks. One time we conned a friend who just so happened to walk by to drink the liquid that comes in a douche. I'm pretty sure it was just vinegar and water, but he was really reluctant to do it. It took us about three hours to talk him into it. You would think that after about ten minutes we would have given up hope, but we were bored, and the douches were buy one get one. Couldn't pass up on that deal.
While remembering EVERYTHING that happened in high school can be hard and probably downright impossible for most people, it isn't for me. I have almost everything important and/or funny that ever happened to me documented. Throughout high school I had planned to make an "amazing" full length video, like my hero (at the time) Bam Margera, and his CKY series. The goal was to make one for every year of high school, and at the end of the year have a big blow out party/premier. This was slightly before Youtube, and while there were websites I could upload the videos to, they only allowed 2-3 minutes of video, and that wasn't enough to do it justice. The plan was to get DVD's, cases, the whole nine yards, and sell them. I started coming up with plans on how to burn the DVDs and print cases, giving everything a feeling that they were released by an actual company. I dreamed big, and I really felt like it was something I could do.
(Those videos never happened, and to this day I kick myself in the ass for not editing at least 15-30 minutes worth of the footage. I did however, just recently purchase a MiniDV player with firewire/USB capabilities, and I'm really going to do it. I might be 12 years past my dead line for the end of my high school year, but it will be amazing. I can't wait)
I filmed my walk to school, my lunch period. I would interview friends and ask them dumb questions. We would walk down aisles, and pretend to trip and drop our lunches all over the place. I would use my lunch money, what would now be considered a "budget", to buy chocolate milk and "accidentally" spill it all over myself.
While most of the time I was behind the camera, I ended up doing most of the really dangerous and silly stuff myself. I adapted Bam Margera's mantra of "Ya gotta better the film" and I took that to heart. You have to remember I was in high school, and extremely impressionable. I got a job working at a Subway to help fund our adventures. Most would see this as something that would interfere with our adventures, but you would be quite wrong.
Thanks to a bipolar and down right crazy manager, as well as a coke head assistant manager, I was quickly made "night manager" of our store. They let me hire my friends, and would go off and party for sometimes days at a time, leaving me to my own devices. Sometimes we would close to store down for hours and have "battles to the death" which involved throwing large chunks of bread at each other. We once covered the entire store in that stuff that comes out of a fire extinguisher. We emptied that thing out. I suppose it is a good thing we never had a small fire, as we would have had nothing to put it out. I wouldn't be surprised if that thing is still sitting their, empty. Sure hope there is never a fire.
We'd shut the cameras off and build quarter pipes in the back to skate, and stall on the racks. One time we conned a friend who just so happened to walk by to drink the liquid that comes in a douche. I'm pretty sure it was just vinegar and water, but he was really reluctant to do it. It took us about three hours to talk him into it. You would think that after about ten minutes we would have given up hope, but we were bored, and the douches were buy one get one. Couldn't pass up on that deal.
While remembering EVERYTHING that happened in high school can be hard and probably downright impossible for most people, it isn't for me. I have almost everything important and/or funny that ever happened to me documented. Throughout high school I had planned to make an "amazing" full length video, like my hero (at the time) Bam Margera, and his CKY series. The goal was to make one for every year of high school, and at the end of the year have a big blow out party/premier. This was slightly before Youtube, and while there were websites I could upload the videos to, they only allowed 2-3 minutes of video, and that wasn't enough to do it justice. The plan was to get DVD's, cases, the whole nine yards, and sell them. I started coming up with plans on how to burn the DVDs and print cases, giving everything a feeling that they were released by an actual company. I dreamed big, and I really felt like it was something I could do.
(Those videos never happened, and to this day I kick myself in the ass for not editing at least 15-30 minutes worth of the footage. I did however, just recently purchase a MiniDV player with firewire/USB capabilities, and I'm really going to do it. I might be 12 years past my dead line for the end of my high school year, but it will be amazing. I can't wait)
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Skateboarding and Photography, A Love Story. Part 2
"Jackass" blew up almost immediately, and when it did, it was only obvious that stuff my friends and I were doing would be equally as popular. We never did anything extremely stupid and/or harmful, but never the less, the random kids at school thought it was awesome. I'd sneak my camera to school to show everyone, and they ate it up. Every Monday the kids would line up to see what goofy shit we did over the weekend.
I was never particularly popular, especially with girls. I had quite a few friends and in fact when I look back, I'd like to think most of the people liked me, but I still was pretty awkward. What a doctor would later describe as a chemical imbalance kept me from keeping casual conversations with people and thus, never really feeling accepted. The odd thing is I kept company with the most popular guys in school, who always came to me for laughs, which at this point were on video tape. When even more of the popular kids started paying attention to me, as did the girls. It never went farther than me showing them what was on my video camera, but I'd like to think it only had to do with my shitty personality at the time, and not because I was fugly. I still have self esteem issues, but that's for me to worry about, and not for you to read.
It didn't matter, it was enough for me. While still to this day I'm awkward around women, I knew I could use my photography to get the attention of almost anyone I wanted. You can call it shallow, but I always thought of it as my bridge into the normal world. I was still pretty crappy at it, but I didn't care. I could never figure out how those guys make their videos look the way they did. I was "crouching down and pointing up" like my friend said, and I even saw them do it on a couple of skate video B-rolls. What the hell was I doing wrong? Maybe it's my cheap camera. All the skate videos seem to have these HUGE cameras with handles on them, so maybe that's it. Enter: the fish-eye lens.
"They use a fish...a fish lens.", my friend casually mentioned. That stuck, too. I went home and scoured the internet. This was before Google became SUPER popular, so I was using "Ask Jeeves" because I thought the butler was stupid. I was coming up pretty shy, until I found the VX-1000 and the Century Optics MK1 Fish Eye Adapter. Those combos are still pretty expensive, but at the time they were running about $5000+ something a lower-middle class 8th grader would have to mow the lawn a million times to get. I wasn't satisfied, I was still hungry.
Eventually, I found a "38mm .05x Wide Angle Lens Adapter" that I had to order a special step up ring for, but I was almost there. It wasn't quite a fish-eye, but I got a little bit of that "bowing" effect I so eagerly craved. This was the beginning of the end for me. After a while I upgraded from VHS-C to Hi8, and then to MiniDV, with a bunch of different lens adapters and step up/down rings in between. I was close, but not quite. At the same time. I was filming more and more antics, and more and more skateboarding.
I became obsessed. I watched more and more skate videos, and I'd take notes. "Ohhhh, they crouch down at the bottom of the stairs. Got it." Paying more and more attention to their techniques. At the same time I started noticing the work of Atiba Jefferson, arguably the greatest skateboard photographer videographer ever. Reading some interviews with him, he mentioned how he did both photography and videography. Same thing with Ryan Gee. Most of them did it because no one could pay both a photographer and videographer.
At the time, a friend had just gotten a digital camera. They were huge with no custom controls, but he would bring it out and let me use it to take pictures with to "tease" on our website. It worked pretty well, not much blurring, even in the dark. The photos were absolutely awful, but it was cool enough to see our digital photos we didn't care. We were stoaked! I didn't pick up a still camera to shoot photos after that for another 3 years.
Then one day, I was messing with my Sony adapter, which had two glass elements in it. One in the front, and one in the back. I wish I could find a picture of it, but you'll have to use your imagination. I was just bouncing it back and forth, and the back glass came unglued and popped off INSIDE the adapter. Oh crap. I used all my muscle and some tweezers to pull it out, hoping I could some how glue it back into place. I decided to put it on my camera to see what the hell happened.
And that my friends, was the greatest day of my life.
It didn't ruin it at all. Quite the opposite. It turned my "semi-wide angle" adapter into a full fledged, make shift fish-eye. Everything looked all "bendy", and it had the dark corners and everything! I was in heaven. I started filming EVERYTHING with my brand new "fish-eye". I couldn't wait to go out skating. I was going to make the greatest video ever. This day was the turning point of my life. Right then and there, I called my friend to go skating. I made my decision right there, even though I had no concept of a career or even could grasp the idea of making money at a job. I still made the decision. I was going to document skateboarding for the rest of my life.
I was never particularly popular, especially with girls. I had quite a few friends and in fact when I look back, I'd like to think most of the people liked me, but I still was pretty awkward. What a doctor would later describe as a chemical imbalance kept me from keeping casual conversations with people and thus, never really feeling accepted. The odd thing is I kept company with the most popular guys in school, who always came to me for laughs, which at this point were on video tape. When even more of the popular kids started paying attention to me, as did the girls. It never went farther than me showing them what was on my video camera, but I'd like to think it only had to do with my shitty personality at the time, and not because I was fugly. I still have self esteem issues, but that's for me to worry about, and not for you to read.
It didn't matter, it was enough for me. While still to this day I'm awkward around women, I knew I could use my photography to get the attention of almost anyone I wanted. You can call it shallow, but I always thought of it as my bridge into the normal world. I was still pretty crappy at it, but I didn't care. I could never figure out how those guys make their videos look the way they did. I was "crouching down and pointing up" like my friend said, and I even saw them do it on a couple of skate video B-rolls. What the hell was I doing wrong? Maybe it's my cheap camera. All the skate videos seem to have these HUGE cameras with handles on them, so maybe that's it. Enter: the fish-eye lens.
"They use a fish...a fish lens.", my friend casually mentioned. That stuck, too. I went home and scoured the internet. This was before Google became SUPER popular, so I was using "Ask Jeeves" because I thought the butler was stupid. I was coming up pretty shy, until I found the VX-1000 and the Century Optics MK1 Fish Eye Adapter. Those combos are still pretty expensive, but at the time they were running about $5000+ something a lower-middle class 8th grader would have to mow the lawn a million times to get. I wasn't satisfied, I was still hungry.
Eventually, I found a "38mm .05x Wide Angle Lens Adapter" that I had to order a special step up ring for, but I was almost there. It wasn't quite a fish-eye, but I got a little bit of that "bowing" effect I so eagerly craved. This was the beginning of the end for me. After a while I upgraded from VHS-C to Hi8, and then to MiniDV, with a bunch of different lens adapters and step up/down rings in between. I was close, but not quite. At the same time. I was filming more and more antics, and more and more skateboarding.
I became obsessed. I watched more and more skate videos, and I'd take notes. "Ohhhh, they crouch down at the bottom of the stairs. Got it." Paying more and more attention to their techniques. At the same time I started noticing the work of Atiba Jefferson, arguably the greatest skateboard photographer videographer ever. Reading some interviews with him, he mentioned how he did both photography and videography. Same thing with Ryan Gee. Most of them did it because no one could pay both a photographer and videographer.
At the time, a friend had just gotten a digital camera. They were huge with no custom controls, but he would bring it out and let me use it to take pictures with to "tease" on our website. It worked pretty well, not much blurring, even in the dark. The photos were absolutely awful, but it was cool enough to see our digital photos we didn't care. We were stoaked! I didn't pick up a still camera to shoot photos after that for another 3 years.
Then one day, I was messing with my Sony adapter, which had two glass elements in it. One in the front, and one in the back. I wish I could find a picture of it, but you'll have to use your imagination. I was just bouncing it back and forth, and the back glass came unglued and popped off INSIDE the adapter. Oh crap. I used all my muscle and some tweezers to pull it out, hoping I could some how glue it back into place. I decided to put it on my camera to see what the hell happened.
And that my friends, was the greatest day of my life.
It didn't ruin it at all. Quite the opposite. It turned my "semi-wide angle" adapter into a full fledged, make shift fish-eye. Everything looked all "bendy", and it had the dark corners and everything! I was in heaven. I started filming EVERYTHING with my brand new "fish-eye". I couldn't wait to go out skating. I was going to make the greatest video ever. This day was the turning point of my life. Right then and there, I called my friend to go skating. I made my decision right there, even though I had no concept of a career or even could grasp the idea of making money at a job. I still made the decision. I was going to document skateboarding for the rest of my life.
Skateboarding and Photography, A Love Story. Part 1
I recently had a person tell me he actually liked my writing, so I figure I'm going to write about the two thing I love most in the world. Skateboarding and photography. This is the first in a series of posts about my history in the sport of skateboarding, and the art of photography. This mentioned person is the type of person that doesn't feel particularly passionate about anything and because of that, it made me really proud when he mentioned my writing. We weren't even on the topic. He generally bums me out about any projects I'm working on and if I wasn't as strong as I am, I'd probably take everything he says to heart and just give up on everything. Thankfully I know to take everything he says with a grain of salt and just ignore most of what he says. Not this time. So here we go.
If it wasn't for skateboarding, I might have never found a passion for photography. Some might argue that the reason I got into photography in the first place was because of the fact I was taking pictures of my friends skateboarding and thus, only into photography for that reason. In the past 8 years, however, my photography has blossomed into a beautiful career that make me truefully happy. In fact, the only time I feel happy and free is when I'm shooting photos, or skateboarding. When I can do both, all the better. Only recently has my skateboard photography made a mark on the world and thus, made me the happiest person in the world.
I first became aware of skateboarding photography when I was in 8th grade. At the time, I was busy stealing my moms video camera and my friends and I would go jump into the buses of our neighbors. We'd also do some pretty illegal things, and while I was approached by police and the property owners when I was 12 years old, those stories aren't important right now. So yeah, back to the photography, or at this point in my life, the videography.
Any time I'd bring the video camera out, my friends would get a little paranoid, but ultimately they thought it was awesome we could go back and watch the goofy shit we did at a later time. We could go out, jump in the bushes, or perhaps streak across a busy intersection with our pants around our ankles, then go home, smoke some pot, and laugh til we cried while watching our evidence caught on camera. It was a pretty stupid idea to capture all the borderline felonies on camera, but we thought it was awesome.
(It's important to note that I used artistic expression while using the term "borderline felonies", everything we did was a misdemeanor at best. We were also minors, and I'm pretty sure there is a statute of limitations on that shit.)
One night, a couple of my skateboarding buddies who didn't hang out with us on a regular basis were around, and I brought out the video camera. One of the first thing one of them did was hop on their board, crouch down, and started pointing the camera up.
"See, this is how they film skateboarding. They ride their board, get down real low and point it up. Some of the cameras have a handle so they can hold it better", he said.
I'm not sure why that always stuck with me, but to this day, I remember exactly everything that happened at that moment. He was riding a Birdhouse blue and white team deck, and wearing blue pants that zipped off into shorts, super cool.
I had only watched a couple of skate videos up til that point, but I never really payed attention to anything other than the skating. I never owned any videos of my own, so I was at the mercy of said friend who owned what I thought, at the time, was literally every skate video ever made. In the following weeks we watched Girl's "Mouse", Birdhouse's "The End", and CKY2K, which had come out the week before, so it further solidified my notion that filming our semi-illegal antics was the right thing to do, but it was important to add skating into the mix. After all, if the police weren't chasing us for ding dong ditching people, they were kicking us out of skate spots. This was RIGHT before "Jackass" premiered on MTV, and once it did, my friends and I knew we were on the cusp of something great.
If it wasn't for skateboarding, I might have never found a passion for photography. Some might argue that the reason I got into photography in the first place was because of the fact I was taking pictures of my friends skateboarding and thus, only into photography for that reason. In the past 8 years, however, my photography has blossomed into a beautiful career that make me truefully happy. In fact, the only time I feel happy and free is when I'm shooting photos, or skateboarding. When I can do both, all the better. Only recently has my skateboard photography made a mark on the world and thus, made me the happiest person in the world.
I first became aware of skateboarding photography when I was in 8th grade. At the time, I was busy stealing my moms video camera and my friends and I would go jump into the buses of our neighbors. We'd also do some pretty illegal things, and while I was approached by police and the property owners when I was 12 years old, those stories aren't important right now. So yeah, back to the photography, or at this point in my life, the videography.
Any time I'd bring the video camera out, my friends would get a little paranoid, but ultimately they thought it was awesome we could go back and watch the goofy shit we did at a later time. We could go out, jump in the bushes, or perhaps streak across a busy intersection with our pants around our ankles, then go home, smoke some pot, and laugh til we cried while watching our evidence caught on camera. It was a pretty stupid idea to capture all the borderline felonies on camera, but we thought it was awesome.
(It's important to note that I used artistic expression while using the term "borderline felonies", everything we did was a misdemeanor at best. We were also minors, and I'm pretty sure there is a statute of limitations on that shit.)
One night, a couple of my skateboarding buddies who didn't hang out with us on a regular basis were around, and I brought out the video camera. One of the first thing one of them did was hop on their board, crouch down, and started pointing the camera up.
"See, this is how they film skateboarding. They ride their board, get down real low and point it up. Some of the cameras have a handle so they can hold it better", he said.
I'm not sure why that always stuck with me, but to this day, I remember exactly everything that happened at that moment. He was riding a Birdhouse blue and white team deck, and wearing blue pants that zipped off into shorts, super cool.
I had only watched a couple of skate videos up til that point, but I never really payed attention to anything other than the skating. I never owned any videos of my own, so I was at the mercy of said friend who owned what I thought, at the time, was literally every skate video ever made. In the following weeks we watched Girl's "Mouse", Birdhouse's "The End", and CKY2K, which had come out the week before, so it further solidified my notion that filming our semi-illegal antics was the right thing to do, but it was important to add skating into the mix. After all, if the police weren't chasing us for ding dong ditching people, they were kicking us out of skate spots. This was RIGHT before "Jackass" premiered on MTV, and once it did, my friends and I knew we were on the cusp of something great.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)