The Berrics Push Editing Contest

There is a contest that was put on by a skate company called The Berrics. The contest, called the Push Edit, asked those participating to download some footage of skateboarding and re-edit the footage into a video. There were no directions besides this. Participants were allowed as much creative freedom that they wanted.

I've been working with action sports filmmaking since I was in the 8th grade. I've done both snowboarding and BMX bikes, but never skateboarding. However these different types of action sports for the most part had a pretty straight forward recipe. This involved weaving lifestyle shots with scenes of tricks being performed. The focus of the film was on the tricks, as these represent the most interesting thing in an edit. Here's an example of one of my short edits that I made two years ago: 


Reverse Apathy from Wendell Frink on Vimeo.

To me, this is the way to go with action sports videos. It gives a nice combination of lifestyle and trick shots, with a majority of the clips being of tricks. With the Push Edit contest, many contestants entered in their films but emphasized lifestyle shots in slow motion, heavily edited trick shots, or had more lifestyle shots than trick shots. This really took away from the part that mattered: the skaters performing their tricks. Here are several examples:



The Berrics Push Edit Submission from Andrej Bucalo on Vimeo.



Now I'm not knocking these individual's ability to edit, just commenting on the fact that these videos are emphasizing the wrong parts of the video which make it difficult to follow and less like a skate film.

Close calls in downhill skateboarding and how they're portrayed/shared in the community

Downhill skateboarding is inherently dangerous, regardless of how you look at it. There are so many variables (cars, telephone poles, animals, other skaters, guardrails, rocks, road conditions etc) that skaters are doomed to fail eventually, and some of these fails happen to get caught on video.

While Ed remains completely safe and in control, there's a guard rail on one side of the road, a truck in the oncoming lane, and rocks to avoid in his own lane.

Everyone loves to watch videos of people failing, falling, getting hurt, you get the point. When it comes to downhill skateboarding its no different. However, downhill skateboarding is currently in limbo with legality and the public eye. Many people do not understand how "in control" we are while skateboarding, and how easy it is for us to stop quickly and in our lane. However, most of this knowledge stays within the downhill community, as does most of the standard videos. However, occasionally a video with someone hitting a car, guardrail, or extremely close call will go viral. 

The above video went semi-viral, and I chose not to share a video of someone getting hit by a car on purpose. When videos like this come out, its often the first and only video someone has seen of downhill skateboarding. They then get the impression that all downhill skateboarders have encounters like this very often and these things are unavoidable. 

This is a video that did go viral (3 Million + views), and features no unsafe riding. As a downhill skateboarder, watching videos where people mess up is fun, and I know not to judge all downhill skateboarding like this. However, I think it severely harms the sport when people do share those videos, which only hurts the downhills public image.

Skateboarding "Thesis" Update

I've begun the slow process of production for my (no longer) thesis, and we've hit many road bumps along the way. 

1. This will not be my thesis anymore. 

              Arturo was informed by the high ups in Park, and then informed me, that this project needs to stop production and will not count for any class credit. Recently among many colleges there has been an increase in insurance and liabilities because of some tragedies that happened among other schools. (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/04/18/emerson_student_dies_in_fall_from_building/) Because it will no longer count for class credit that's created some more road bumps along the way. I've been able to put less time and effort into the project because school work needs to take priority. I've also had a few crew members express less of an interest in working on this project now that it is no longer for a thesis credit. And finally I was receiving a bit of financial help on the project from my family and they are less keen on giving me money to make a skate film of my friend as opposed to something for thesis credit. 

2. The talent's busy schedule.

          Ed Kiefer, an internationally ranked downhill skateboarder, is really just a shit-head highschooler with a decently busy schedule. Ed will be away this weekend and next at races, and the weekend after that I will be fully committed to Porn so I can get credit for thesis. The previous weekend we could have shot on Sunday, but he was inside with 8 hours of homework to make up from missing school for races. So that rules weekends out. Then every day during the week he has school until 3, and stays after making up work until 3:30-4. He can never get a ride anywhere so by the time I pick him up from school, go home to get his skateboard, and get to the hill its at least 4:30. That leaves us maybe 2 hours of shooting before we lose light, AND those two hours are during rush hour, the worst time to shoot. 

3. The weather is only getting worse. 

       I was planning on gathering a lot of footage last week and last weekend, however, it was raining the entire time. For fairly obvious reasons we cannot shoot in the rain. This week so far has been overcast and dreary. While it is possible to shoot in these conditions, the shots will not turn out well. However, I'm being forced to shoot in these conditions because of the weather and time constraints. Conditions like this force us to get follow car shots which are much less creative, but shots from a tripod would not look good at all because of the weather. Also we are losing daylight quickly and with Ed's time constraints with school there is getting less and less time to shoot everyday. 

Overall, this project isn't going as planned for multiple reasons out of my control, however, because it is no longer counting as my thesis credit I am feeling less pressure. I still want this to turn out the best it can be, and I think it will. 

Follow Runs - Their danger and necessity in downhill skateboarding media

The most simple and common form of video in downhill skateboarding is referred to as a "follow run," or "raw run." Here are a few examples:


Raw Run - Justin Rouleau from SkateHouseMedia.com on Vimeo.


Fun fact: both these videos are filmed on the same road.

This type of filming produces very clean footage, and shows the skaters in their truest element. It is all one clip so you know the skater didn't take 15 tries to nail the right line. A skater's true style is apparent with raw runs.

However, good footage comes with high risk. To get a shot like this most filmers take a suction cup mount, put the camera as far forward on the hood as possible, and follow the skateboarder down the run. To make the footage look the fastest and most impressive possible a wide angle lens is often used, somewhere between 10-20mm. These lens create a slight distortion around the edges which makes the skating appear much faster than with something like a 50mm lens. Because of the short focal length this requires the driver to be dangerously close behind the driver, often 7 feet or less, all while going upwards of 50mph.

To make a quality downhill video follow car footage is pretty much a requirement, regardless of how dangerous it is. The driver is knowingly risking the skaters life just to get the shot that will most likely be seen by less than 10,000 people. This is a shot I will definitely be getting for my film, however we are taking precautions to make it as safe as possible. 

There have been a few cases of people getting hit by cars while driving follow runs, however no one has died to my knowledge. Here are some videos of follow car driving going wrong. No one in these videos were hurt from the car, however in a few cases the car ran over the board or the board flew up and dented the car. 

 Skip to 2:54 for the dangerous part.

S1 Helmets / Bails Bails Bails Bails from s-one helmet co / s1helmets on Vimeo.


This can only end well.

"James Kelly - Burn It Down" and my thesis project.

I had to choose between taking Thesis and Motion Graphics in order to complete my degree. Last Spring when we were choosing classes I went through a long internal debate, but here I am, enrolled in thesis. After graduation I plan on working in rentals in addition to freelance camera assisting. I have little desire to direct/produce/shoot fictional narratives, so I was kind of at a loss for ideas for my thesis. Naturally I turned to skateboarding to fix my problems, and I decided to make a skateboarding film.

Random unrelated skateboarding photo I took

Pulling directly from Arturo's preliminary class email... "for some of you this will be your calling card in the job market you will soon be entering", "...an intellectual proposition you can defend" were just some excerpts that pushed me more towards doing a skateboarding film. Just as I have spent the past three years studying film, I have also spent the past three years learning the ins and outs of downhill skateboarding, the industry, and the culture, and I cannot think of a better way to tie the two together.

Arbor Skateboards :: James Kelly - Burn It Down from Arbor Collective on Vimeo.

This is by far the most impressive downhill skateboarding video I have seen in both terms of skating and production quality. This is the video I am taking inspiration from for my thesis film. I do not have access to the Sierra mountains or unique run down houses like Jack Boston, the creator of this film, does. However I do have access to a numerous amount of Ithaca hills and waterfalls, which will make this video unique in its own way. My knowledge of both video production and the Ithaca skate scene will be able to create a video in a way that no one else would.

Another unrelated skateboarding photo I took

My good friend and Ithaca local, Edward Kiefer, is currently ranked the number 1 junior (under 18) downhill skateboarder in the world by the Internation Downhill Federation. He's agreed to be the subject of my video. Matt Shalkoski is going to shoot it, and I have a slew of other talented individuals working on the production and I am excited to make a film that both season skateboarders and average viewers will enjoy.

The Art of Flight

Yesterday, I watched The Art of Flight (2011) on Netflix. This movie, directed by Curt Morgan, stars snowboarder Travis Rice and friends and highlights riders from the Red Bull team and others  as they take on unknown territory around the world and conquer the biggest mountains known to man. I've never snowboarded and the last time I went skiing was when I was about 13 years old but this is one of my favorite movies. The cinematography is amazing and there were many risks during the filming. For example, the riders ventured to a mountain in Patagonia that was known as a place "where the devil lives" and they only had forty minutes to make a run before the helicopter gas ran out. The crew had to film quickly and on the way back, they had to swim across a freezing river to get back to a safe place where the helicopter could pick the up. The riders invent new tricks and some get severely injured along the way. The film is amazing and although you may not appreciate snowboarding, you will appreciate the cinematography and the riders' stories about why they do what they do. The soundtrack includes many epic, full sounding songs that allow the viewer to feel the adrenaline that the riders experience. The movie took three years to make and it is one of my favorite movies as of yesterday.

I used to be an avid skateboarder, although I wasn't any good, and I religiously watched skateboarding movies. I stopped skateboarding when I realized everyone around me was getting better while I was the same and I switched over to filming my skilled friends. It's extremely difficult to film skateboarding because sometimes, you only get one shot to capture the trick and everything has to be perfect. Like The Art of Flight, some skateboard videos can be appreciated for their cinematography and directing even if you don't like skateboarding. Below are some of my favorite skateboard video scenes...

Lakai's Fully Flared Intro

These are some of my good friend's videos he filmed/edited. I hope to collaborate with him at some point in the near future.
https://vimeo.com/53915756 (skiing)
https://vimeo.com/30449234 (longboarding)

Paranoid Park

One of my favorite director’s is Gus Van Sant. Many people know him for his films like Good Will Hunting and Milk, but the one that I can watch over and over again is Paranoid Park. The movie is based off of the novel written by Blake Nelson. 

The film takes place in Portland, Oregon and the soundtrack stays authentic to it’s location. A lot of the soundtrack is Elliott Smith who is one of my favorite musicians of all time. He gained most of his popularity from Portland and played a big role in the music scene there. Since the movie doesn’t have a lot of dialogue, the soundtrack was crucial in the movie. Gus Van Sant has used Elliott Smith’s music in his past films as well, where his song Miss Misery was nominated for an oscar for Good Will Hunting.

Along with Elliott Smith’s music, Van Sant used a varitey of French composers and other artists to make complicated music for the scenes of skateboarding. The music made the skateboarding seem almost dreamlike and put it in another light. This movie is an example of how important sound can be. 

I also enjoyed his cinematography style. As seen in his his past films, Gus Van Sant used very long shots and uses different speeds through out the movie. He slows down the scene at major points in the plot. He also uses very soft lighting which gives the film a very eerie feeling which goes along well with the plot.

The movie is about a young skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard while goofing off on a train one night. The film is about his guilt and how he deals with the horrible mistake. Paranoid Park is more focused on the cinematography and skateboarding rather then the plot itself. I love this movie and it will always be one of my favorites.