Filming Break 04-29-08

With so much filming going on every weekend, sometimes, I get so caught up in getting footage and shooting every second of the day's happenings that I don' t have the chance to skate. So, every couple of weekends or so, I leave the camera at home, grab my headphones, strap the blades on and skate for the reason I started skating so many years ago, pure enjoyment.

So, no screen shots of any rollerblading, but being the busy body I am, I am up to something....

As most of you know, this is the weekend of the infamous Panhandle Pow Wow and, judging by the messageboards, the turnout this year is expected to be pretty big. Now unfortunately for myself, due to money and work constrictions I won't be able to attend.

So, since I can't go, I decided to put together 25 DVD's with some internet edits people have seemed to enjoy of the past couple of years.

Coverwork:

I guess its sort of my way of contributing to Blake's comp since I can't show up. There is a short trailer at the end, to show case a couple of the people that will be skating in the video, but it's nothing real fancy so don't get your hopes up too much.

If you like to grab one of these you simply have to go up and find Adam Mcmanus:

And ask him for your copy, and he should oblige, they are completely FREE.

In finality these are ultimately for your enjoyment. Of course, I want people to look at my motion/editing and get excited about future products, but the edits on this DVD are ones that remind me of how fun it is skating with my friends, and hopefully, will do the same for you. So find Adam pick one up, and let me know what you think, stop lurkin' and comment sometime!

Have fun at the Panhandle!!!

And if you're not going, come rollerblade!

Filming Update 04-23-08

So the beginning of the day starts at 10:30 on a Sunday and its up to Greer to go pick up Adam Mcmanus and in a very unusual haste, we get on the road to Spartanburg to meet Smiley and Dustin Hinson shortly there after.

We arrive at Dustin's place right on time and both he and I waste no time getting to work on this little side project that you'll find out about soon enough. So about an hour later, Dustin and I finish up and Smiley, Adam and Myself head out.

About some 2 and 1/2 hours later we arrive at the all too familiar Hickory High and much to our surprise are greeted by a mass gathering of Carolinas heads, including Thomas Martin (with Boone crew), Kenny Owens, Montre Livingston, Cody Dakota (w/Greer Crew) David Medford, Joey Adams, Phil Gripper, Jim Robertson, Joe Matty, and freshly back from a terrible leg injury Jon Cooley. So many sick tricks were laced and it would be awesome to post all of them......but I like to keep you guessing. Here are a couple of screen shots.

Cody Dakota with a 270 BS Unity to Makio in a line.
Montre Livingston with a little tap dancing.
Thomas Martin with a wallride in a line he threw down.

Now that everyone was warmed up we were off to the next spot, which were these nicely slanted blue down rails. Now I didnt' film here because I was trying this rail transfer trick the whole time that I never wound up landing, and its a shame because so many good tricks were laced here. And of all of the tricks, I would have to say I was most impressed with David Medford yet again. I, along with, I'm sure, everyone else there, am now a full fleged David Medford fan and I really can't wait to see him get more exposure and continue to progress, I would definitely say keep an eye out for him.
However, to see the clips I guess you'll just have to get either, Joe Matty's In the Norm or Kenny Owens' follow up to Say Word 2, Say Word 3 to see what all went down. After everyone laced their tricks, and I gave up with mine, we decided to head to the last spot.

The last spot, line rails, is sort of an infamous Hickory spot that everyone comes to skate if they come to town, so it was cool to get all the dudes together and do a little bit of shreddin there. Once again, such a productive spot, so much fun, so many laced tricks. There was seriously like a 5 minute clip of just amazing skating with no breaks in between. Everyone was going one after another lacing trick after trick after trick. I couldn't even begin to write down all the tricks that were done but I do have to say in addition to being a super solid/tech/consistent skater, Montre is a really cool dude.

Phil Gripper with a Backslide on the top and bottom

David Medford AO Negative Mistrial in a line
Joey Sweaty 270 BS Royale

Kenny Owens Mistrial to To Tru FishSmiley with the patented steezy TTS
And Jon Cooley back in the game with a BS Royale, welcome back man.

After everyone pretty much skated till they couldn't anymore we parted way with Montre, Kenny and the Greer Crew, ate some food, then parted ways ourselves.

On our way back, Smiley makes the mistake of taking a nap and entrusting Adam and myself with directions, which if you know our track record with directions, is a terrible idea. So through some poor directional sense, or another, we wound up getting stuck in Shelby, NC driving in circles, talking to bums and winding up in some sketchy factory parking lot. It was at about that time that Smiley woke up and learned of our situation. So we drive around lost for a few minutes and then through some prophetic OG knowledge, Smiley chimes in with: "Dude, if we can get to the waffle house, I can get us home." Puzzled but intrigued, Adam and I oblige and find the waffle and sure enough, he gets us home.
Apparently, Shelby used to be stomping grounds six years ago for the old man and according to him on one hallcenogenic occasion six years back he somehow managed his way home through this route and just never forgot....
So basically, we got home at 2:30 am with a new funny story to tell.
Thanks to all the heads that came out, and made this such a dope weekend. It seriously was just a rad weekend with a bunch of rad dudes.
Skate next weekend?

Filming Update 04-14-08

Well, well, well, happy birthday to me. And what better present from my friends than an excellent weekend full of filming and laced tricks. I guess everything kicked off Saturday with a session filled with really good locals. For the better half of Saturday, I was actually doing alot of skating and not so much filming. Joe and I had discussed filming a section for his new video and due to some very random and unfortunate events, we haven't been able to skate together in a while, so Saturday marked a good day to get some good ol filmin done.
After skating a few spots and taking a couple spills we (Adam Mcmanus, David Medford, Joey Adams, and myself) wound up at this bank to bank spot where we only wound up filming for like 30 mins, and both David and Adam laced really good lines but screen shots just really won't do either of them justice so for now...

here's joey with a couple wall ride variations:

I must say after skating the day away with Joey and David, I think I became aware just how broad their range of obstacles they can skate and how well they can skate them really is. And from what I understand from Joe, their sections in , are going to be very good, so be on the lookout.

Sunday rolls around, and after a nasty hangover and watching Clip 4, Adam and I decide to get motivated and go do the rollerblading thing. The first spot we arrive to is this dope little rail, that Nick Bates and myself personally dug out of the ground and made skateable, at a park that was made by some local skateboarders called Twin Towers. Adam laced two solid tricks and here is a screen shot of his AO makio to topside mistrial:

After Adam laced his couple of tricks here, we decided to head out to go meet up with everyone. On the way though, I remembered this rail I really wanted to show Adam, and our litte detour proved quite fruitful:

Top porn to Tru porn cab out

Mistrial to Tru Mistrial cab out

After our little detour, we head back up to the skatepark to meet up with Nate McGregor and Nick Bates to do a little more skating at a black kink rail we recently found and it was great to get to skate with Nick and Nate again. Due to conflicting schedules we hardly ever get to hang out, but its so good to still see Nick killing it with the ridiculously style you can't help but love.

Nick - Soul to Flat 180 the set

Nick - Torq Soul through the Kinks

Adam - Fish through the Kinks

After this spot we decided to take off and call it a day. All in all, it was a very sucessful weekend, and thank you to everyone who came out (Nate M., Nick B., Joe Matty, Adam M., David M., and Joey A.) Sessions resume on the weekend.

Filming Update 04-07-08

Chilled this weekend and just filmed some friends at park. It was a good session and smiley did a really sweet back fastslide for a really long time. Its 5:42 A.M. and I haven't slept yet so this is going to be really short.

Actually, there isn't anymore to say, pictures may be worth a thousand words, but a video does the talking for you, so just watch instead this time :P

YouTube



To DL/for better quality:

Click Here

Goodnight/Morning.

Filming Update 04-01-08

Alright.
So this weekend was another very chill just doing some skating by myself weekend, I actually didn't pick up the camera to film anyone, however, I did take some time and work on the name titles and try to accomplish this idea I've had for them for ever.
Since I've had the idea to start this second video, I've had the idea of bringing everything in on strings, like a marionette or a puppet or something, and the main problem i seem to be facing is the strings. I don't know after effects well enough to simulate strings dropping into frame and make it look somewhat convincingly real, so I went with a different course of action.

Supplies:

The Setup:

Basically what I was doing; is I tied black strings to a green piece of paper, the same green as the background, to give them some weight/keep them equal distance from each other, then tied the strings to the wooden dowel and recorded them dropping into frame on the green screen. And the idea behind doing this was to import the footage into AE/Premiere Pro and Key out the Green color so all i had left were the black strings that would eventually bring my titles in.

Well that seemed like a really good idea and makes alot of sense right? The only thing I was and still am worried about is the natural motion blur picked up by my camera. I believe it has something with the GL2 only shooting at 29.97 fps, and basically the problem is the motion blur causes the parts of the green screen to be darker greens than the rest which don't key out as well.

I may still be able to use it but I'm not sure, I messed around with it some last night before I just got too tired and went to bed, and will probably do the same tonight. And I suppose, if nothing at all, it makes for some pretty cool pictures. Well thats all the updates for now, more to come.