Some Guys Who Make Skate Videos

On Wednesday night (April 27, 2010), after a long day of typing at the IASC Skateboarding Summit, we drove up to LA to attend the Levi’s Film Workshop’s Skate Video Night at the Vista Theatre.

The evening, hosted by Epicly Later’d’s, Patrick O’Dell, was part of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s current show Art In The Streets. An audience of more than 500 packed into the theater for a series of skate video montages broken down by decade (80s, 90s and 00s). Between each decade Ty Evans, Rick Howard, Aaron Meza, Greg Hunt, Tobin Yelland, Stacy Peralta, Lance Mountain, Spike Jonze, and Ed Templeton would take the stage and answer questions and discuss the skateboard filmmaking process.

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Panel photo: Mikey Tnasuttimonkol

Of everything covered what amazes us most is how two of the world’s most famous skateboard filmmakers (Stacy Peralta and Spike Jonze) accidentally got their start in filmmaking. Stacy Peralta explains how the Bones Brigade Video Show got made:

D. David Morin was the former editor of Skateboarder Magazine and he lived next door to me in Hollywood,” Stacy said. “And he said, “Hey, I’m going to film school with a friend of mine Dan and I think we can make a skateboard video for your company.” . . . “And, I went great idea. We were set to shoot at Lance’s ramp lance and Mike McGill and Steve Caballero. D. David was also a commercial actor and he got his first commercial acting job that day. So I went out to shoot this video with his partner Dan. I didn’t get along with Dan and I fired Dan after the first day and decided that I would try to make this thing happen myself. I had no intention of being a filmmaker and that’s just how it started. I had a 3/4 inch video camera and a small editing system set up in my apartment and 8 months later we had The Bones Brigade Video Show. It just kind of happened.”

Spike Jonze, who moved to California to shoot BMX photos for Wizard Publications quickly made the transition to shooting skateboarding and then fell right into making videos.

How I got into skate videos was that I was doing photos for World Industries at the time,” Jonze said. “The company had just started. They had two pros Jason Lee and Vallely and Jesse Martinez. Jason was amateur. And as the team got bigger I asked Rocco if he was going to make skate videos and he said he wanted to but he didn’t have time and did I want to do it. So he gave me the company credit card and I researched the camera and a lot like Stacy described just like bought the equipment just started shooting and bought the editing equipment and tried to figure it out and that’s how I got started.”

During a question and answer session that followed the video presentation someone asked the filmmakers if they were going to continue pushing the high production values in future films, or whether they wished they could go back to the more simple times and low-tech modes of filmmaking. The question seemed to stump the panel. No one wanted to talk and panelists looked back and forth wondering who would answer. Finally Ty Evans jump in, “Why is everyone looking at me?” he said. The audience laughed.

What seeing all these videos made clear (and what Evans seemingly eluded to) is that skateboard filmmaking can never go back and that’s part of the reason why it is so important for these guys get together and tell and retell their stories so the next generation of filmmakers will have a better idea of what they’re standing on when they recreate the entire genre in their own way.

Click here for photos from the evening.

FILM PROGRAM:

1980’s
Bones Brigade Video Show (1984) – Noteworthy: Stacy Peralta, first skate video
Future Primitive (1985)
The Search for Animal Chin (1987) – Noteworthy: Bones Brigade skaters, first skate video with a plot
Sick Boys (1988)
Streets on Fire (1989)
Psycho Skate (1987) – Noteworthy : featuring Mark ‘Gonzo’ Gonzales
Mondo Vision (1988)
Public Domain (1988)
Ban This (1989)
Shackle Me Not (1988)
Hokus Pokus (1989)

1990’s
Video Days (1991) – Noteworthy: featuring Mark Gonzales, Jason Lee
Memory Screen (1991)
Useless Wooden Toys (1990)
A Soldier’s Story (1991)
Love Child (1992)
Questionable (1992)
Virtual Reality (1993)
Tim & Henry’s Pack of Lies (1992)
Gold Fish (1993)
New World Order (1993)
High Five (1995)
A Visual Sound (1994)

1995-2000s
Mouse (1996) – Noteworthy: featuring Spike Jonze, Rick Howard – Girl Skateboards
Welcome To Hell (1996)
Eastern Exposure (1996)
Penal Code (1996)
Fucktards (1997)
The Chocolate Tour (1999)
Photosynthesis (2000)
Baker 2G (2000)
Sight Unseen (2003)
Yeah Right! (2003)
The DC Video (2003)
Gnar Gnar (2007)
Naughty (2008)
Fully Flared (2007)
Mind Field (2009)
Stay Gold (2010)

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