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.
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