Filming Update 03-22-08

The weekend starts at about 10:30 in the morning, I get up and on my way to meet Adam in Spartanburg to start the day. Getting up at 10:30 is an extremely early start for skating on Saturdays, especially for Adam and myself, but is completely necessary if we're the sole navigators in the given adventure. You see Adam and I both notrious for being late and getting lost, even with the most simple of directions, and this trip was no exception.

So at about noon Adam and I set out for Hickory to go skate with Thomas Martin of Boone. On our way we get lost about 40 times and wind up not finding the park we're supposed to meet Thomas at, so we just set search for Hickory High, which like any other traveling adventure, proves to be full of getting lost and laughing at our terrible navigation skills. So finally, we get so lost that we ask Thomas to come find us. Now with none of us being very familiar with Hickory, this proves to an interesting task but through some grace he finds us and we commence skating this dope little flat rail we just happened to stumble on. Sorry no pics. After a short session there, we decide to try the Hickory High idea again and it was probably the best idea of all day.

This picture doesn't really do it justice but thomas did this really cool line where he jumped on this nipple high ledge to 180 over a rail and a short distance later fakie 3 over another rail to a drop, but here's a pic of the drop anyways:

Thomas with a monster wallride:


Adam also laced a really clean, really steezy AO wallride cab out:



There were these really dope ledges that you can skate in a line at this school too and all three of us actually managed to get a couple clips on them.
Here's me at the end of a line 360 over another one of the ledges:

And here's Adam at the end of one of his lines with a Zerospin Fishbrain:

This school also had some "man" obstacles, as dubbed by Thomas that he and I skated.
I did a soul grind :P

Thomas literally slammed into the ground about 8 times at the bottom of the rail before he landed this. But he took it like a champ and still managed to come through, here's a little ghetto sequence of Thomas doing a pornstar to step back soul:


After we did all we could think of at the school we went to the next spot where we were instantly greeted by this very unusual, possibly cracked out, older white gentle men.
And because I was scoping the rail/landing out i missed the beginning of the conversation so I don't have the exact words, but it was something to the lines of:
"That's a nice car, do you want it to get stripped?"
What?
"That's a nice car."
Oh thanks man.
"Do you boys know where you are?"
Yes
"NO, do you know where you are?"
Hickory right?
and i quote:
"You're in Niggertown, USA and if don't want to get your car stripped you need to..." (he was talking way to fast to understand but he was giving us directions to this "safe parking place."
With nothing to say after such a response, there was a short awkward pause and then the man saying:
"Ya'll will be alright."
And then I shit you not, in his very clearly not jogging gear (jeans and a tee), he takes off in a light jog, in the opposite direction from which he came, which he was definitely not jogging from before...Single handedly the strangest encounter I've ever had. And despite what that guy said everybody that we met was extremely nice.
Here's the rail:
Thomas laced this top porn to back slide tap off the flat.

and also laced a very gnarly gut rack.

Adam with a topsoul 540 out:


This spot pretty much wrapped up the session. We went had some food and some laughs at Applebee's parted ways with Thomas and headed on our way home for some well deserved rest.

The good part about this is that there are so many tricks I didn't post just because this post would be entirely too long, but this weekend was another very good very good weekend that was very productive.


*Sorry for not updating last week, I took that weekend off to do some personal things and just do some chill skating. However, I did make this funny little edit of my good bud Jeremy Lister, that's about as productive as I was.



That's all for now though, stay tuned.

Filming Update 03-11-07

Oh my, oh my. What a crazy weekend, i suppose the best place to start would be at the beginning.
The day kicks off with a session at Ximeno's Skatepark of Greenville where we skate and wait to meet up with everybody to go skate. When everyone arrives, we're rolling about 11 deep with some mentionable attendance that threw down: Anthony Timmons, Tim Taylor, Adam Mcmanus, Thomas Martin, and Joey Adams.
The first spot is a spot called brown rails which, contrary to the name, isn't limited to just brown had rails, it actually has a plethra of obstacles to skate, in this particular session everyone decided to session the cannon to curve rail line, and here are some screen shots.

Joey Adams - BS Full Torq cannon to Kg on the curve rail


Thomas Martin - soul to fakie the cannon, half cab pornstar revert down the curve rail


Adam Mcmanus - Royale 360 out the cannon to AO Fish down the curve


And out of nowhere Tim Taylor laced this crazy soul stall to topsoul transfer:

Richard Williams, and Chauncey Jenkins from Atlanta came and joined up with us a little bit later but after getting kicked out of a ledge spot and locking my keys in my car, while it was still running, I pretty much called it a day while everyone skated park up until party time.
Unfortunately, there is no documentation of the enusing night but it was full of alcohol, beer pong, and other random nonsensical activities. I guess you just had to be there.
***
Sunday Morning we all get up and after Richard and Chauncey very unexpectedly cleaned up the party mess, thanks alot guys :), myself, Anthony, Richard, and Chauncey get mobile and head out to meet dustin and film at Bryson. Here are a couple screen shots:

Richard Williams

Again, except with a BS Torq at the very end of the rail


Chauncey Jenkins in the middle of his Top Acid to BS Roy 450 BS Roy


Dustin Hinson with the Top Acid on the Dirty Lens

After that we hit up another spot here in Greenville but it got a little late so Richard and Chauncey had to be heading back. After we pointed them in the right direction, Richard, Dustin and I hit up this very steep handrail that Anthony wound up Kind Grinding both ways.
Here's the Screen:

After this spot, we all decided to call it a day. I ran Anthony up to Inman where his buds/the local Inman crew were skating, said my goodbyes, bought some spaghetti ingredients, traveled home, made it, saw the lady friend, and called it a very successful, very fun weekend.
Stay tuned, more updates to come..peace!

Adam Mcmanus Valo EB 1.3 Session

So Jon Julio was kind enough to hook Adam up with some EB 1.3's, and to show his appreciation we decided to make an edit of him skating them.
This all took place in a single night at Inman Skatepark here in South Carolina, and I feel like for a night's work he compiled some pretty rad footy.
Editting/Animating/Rendering took about 6 hours. And in the Youtube edit there are several things wrong that I intend on fixing for the higher quality edit.
But for now, here is the youtube quality:



*It has been pointed out to me that the actual name of the skate are the EB 1.3's, i'm aware of this and I acknowledge my error, sorry.

Hand Made The First Installment

Hand Made is a video that i put together about a year ago now and just recently got around to putting it online.
It was my first actual video filming and putting together but i think i did ok and overall its a pretty solid foundation for future videos. So through there development of the three that i plan on being in this particular series, i think you'll see a noticeable progression in the editing, animated, flow, and overall layout of my projects. The Sections are in the order that they appear in the video. Enjoy.

Intro
I wasn't about the intro just because of how rushed it was to make, but i did really like the fact that it fast paced and fun. I was really struggling to put this together when i did because i think aside from Nick Bates' section everything was done and i really didn't have alot of quality footage left, but somehow, i scrounged enough up to put this together. The song is by The White Stripes but for the life of me i can't remember the name.
Interesting Note:
*I actually made two introductions, and i wound up using the latter because i felt like it fit better.


Riley Hilsman's Section
not online yet, Riley asked me to withhold putting it online for the time being.

A Weekend With Mark Wojda
This was actually filmed in a two days. Myself, Riley, and Adam just happened to be road tripping out to Louisville, Ky for a family affair of mine but we made time to stop and skate the infamous concrete park there. The same night we got in town we met up with Mark and filmed at the park and one other spot. The following day Adam and Riley linked back up with Mark and went and filmed for a few hours which gave us enough footage for this section. It was mostly filmed with a fisheye because my camera was sort of broke at the time which caused alot of the filming to suffer i think. Its a very fast and quick paced section though which I feel like fits Mark's skating very well. The song is Shit Luck by Modest Mouse.
Interesting Note:
*I never got in touch with Mark again after making this so he potentially doesn't know he has a section in Hand Made.


Nick Bate's Section
This section is one of my favorites of the video but was one of the hardest to edit. Nick's style is really unparalleled, its so unique and different and interesting that finding music to match up with it is virtually impossible. I must've gone through literally ten songs and edits just trying to find something suitable for his skating. You see the footage was there and i felt it was all really good, but it hinged on finding the right music, and that didn't seem to happen until the very last moment. I heard a song I'd been listening to for a while then but this time it just clicked. After hearing the song it took me about 30 mins to place clips and get everything ready to go, i spent the least time on Nick's section but i really do feel like it came out to be one of the best. The song is Take Time by The Books
Interesting note:
1/4 of Nick's section was shot on an early morning mission one day in downtown Greenville.


Tim Taylor's Section
This section was combined with some footage that was about 4 years old and had some Hi8 footage incorporated. I really wanted to capture the versatility of Tim's skating in this edit and i feel like it really does. There have been complaints about too much park skating but, i don't necessarily agree, granted there may be more than usual, i still think that to capture all of what Tim is capable of that I had to put as much of his park skating as i could because its absolutely phenomenal. I like this section but in retrospect would have changed the pace of it to match the flow of the video. The songs used in this section were a Sufjan instrumental off of his Illinoise Outtakes album, a sample from the Null_Objct song Artifact, and the String Quartet Tribute to The Mars Volta the song Roulette Dares.
Interesting Note:
After editing this section I still had about 30 minutes of unused Tim Taylor footage and even more unused park footage.


Friends
I think fit perfect and included some of my very good friends and was probably some of the best editing in the video. There isn't much to be said about this particular section aside from the fact that i thought it was too short. The is God's Gonna Cut you Down by Johnny Cash
Interesting Note:
The phone call in the beginning was actually from Adam Mcmanus telling about that song (God's gonna cut you down) and that is the main reason that i used it.


Adam Mcmanus' Section
Best and favorite section of the video and a section that has been long overdue. I expected so much out of this section and it produced everything I expected, the skating, the editing, the titles, and the perfect song choice made this just an entertaining stylish, flashy edit you can't look away from. This section really does have alot of footage in it and when i was finished editing i really had nothing leftover. I still watch this section because the skating gets me excited to go skate. The song is Date with the Night by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Interesting Note:
Adam hates section where the rider is wearing a different pair of skates so we actually had to take out alof of older, but really good, footage of him skating xsjado's, except for a backslide on a yellow drop rail.


Outro
Not much to be said, i didn't spend to much time on anything other than the little dedication for Phillip Nguyen, a friend who passed away in 2007. I just wanted to make sure everything was right for that part of the outro, other than that its chock full of cheap laughs, shanagins, and gay jokes. The song is Barnacles by Ugly Casanova.
Interesting Note:
This is the first footy of Jason Mosely I've ever used. :p