Sweet clip of Spike directing Kanye.

Behind the Scenes With Kanye from We Love You So on Vimeo.

A 13 minute chat with Lance Acord.

Lance has shot most of Spike´s music videos and feature films.
His work in Where The Wild Things Are is very nice.

In this clip he talks about how he got into filming, techniques, how they stayed away from computer generated shots for Where The Wild Things Are etc.. good stuff.

Spike Jonze talks about filming skating.

So yesterday MoMa in NY had a screening of a few skate clips, starting with stuff from the first Powell Peralta videos to the newest Lakai and Alien Workshop ones.
Read more about the show here:
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/events/7772

Patrick O´Dell from Epicly Later´d was responsible for having all these heavy hitters in attendance.

Lance Mountain talked about how he was possibly the first skater to become pro from being in videos. Saying his fellow Bones Brigade team mates won all these contests and he was a goof ball who did a good job skating in front of the camera, instead of contests. And back then contest were how you made a living being a skater.







Gonz kept referring to the scene from the first Powell video when Lance comes out of a chimney and skates around town as a great piece of skate video history.

Ed Templeton talked about that he used to shoot photos with Spike and how he and Jason Lee hung out with Don Brown (part owner of Sole Tech now who used to be a pro skater) in Huntington Beach in the late 80´s/early 90´s and took their slow moving tricks like the impossible and the 360 flip to the high school across the street and learned to do them down stairs.

Greg and Ty, who are probably the most "famous" skate video makers talked about, well not that much.. haha. Well they did touch on a few subject of how skate videos take a long time to make these days and that a lot of it is shot with multiple cameras and sometimes trimmed down Hollywood things like dollies.. I´m sure they could have talked about a lot more nerd related things in this little world of skateboard videos. But it was a long sitting and I was surprised to see older people there, and GIRLS. Like girls actually wanted to come watch skate videos and listen to Jake Phelps talk about how Ryan Schekler is a great skater, but a huge failure as a human..?

Gonz and Spike had some funny stories about filming for video days. Like how Gonz got pissed and threw a the camera out of the car once.

In one of skate montages there were clips of Gonz skating around NYC from the late 80´s (think the video was called Mondo Vision) and in that segment he did what I think was the first 50-50 grind on a real handrail.
When asked how if was to film in those days he replied - "I can´t remember".. haha.

Spike mentioned that he tried to capture how the Blind team skated, like showing lines etc. And picked out a moment / trick that he thought was cool to get on tape, Gonz´fs 360 ollie from Europe. And I remember watching that as well being blown away. Kien Lieu later took that tricks to another level, but that´s going deep into skatenerdism.

There was also talk about Video Days being the first video to have personal parts. Which from what Spike said sounded like a coincidence. That was just the easiest way to edit and organzine the shots for him / them...
If he only knew what he started. Even though Plan B took it to the next level and made it mandatory for skaters and snowboarders to have "video parts" to make a living...
In snowboarding it got really bad. Team managers would give huge incentives if the riders got a 2-3 minute in a major movie. Something that made my life hell. How creative can you get when you have to make a video with personal parts? Not very.
The riders would be bummed if I separated their shots into other session / travel based sections because then they didn´t get the incentive. Fucked up.


Tobin Yelland, a photographer, was also talking about how they went about doing the Stereo video "A Visual Sound", which Greg Hunt actually skated in. That video was artsy and pretty obscure. If you haven´t seen it I recommend you do.

I saw some people with video cameras in the theater so maybe this thing will come online soon.. who knows.
It was a great experience and I thought it was really cool to see all these skateboard legends in the same room together. And having so many people attend. I heard tickets sold out in 5 min.. I´m guessing that has something do to with Spike.. and his new movie "Where The Wild Things Are" premiering later that night (yesterday).


One thing I wanted to ask, but was too shy to was how they see the future of skate videos. They've been a huge part of my life, and theirs. But they've also only been sold on vhs and dvd's through skate shops to the consumer. That's in the past now. And I would hate for skate videos to become short contrived clips that companies force fed the kids.
Mindfield and Fully Flared are among the last videos to have decent sales. Far from the (guessing) the 200,000 copies the DC skate video sold.

Are skate videos dead, or dying out? Are we looking at a future with only tour videos for web distribution?.. I would hate if it came to that, even if that´s likely.
The dvd is pretty much gone, so how to we document and distribute compelling skating? I´m fine with the dvd being obsolete but what about the art of showcasing skateboarding through videos...?

But since videos are such an integral part of skating so I have faith that there´s a good future out there for them.

Three famous people to bring with you to a deserted island for a week?

I just responded to this scenario on a friends Facebook wall and I´d like to know who you guys would choose, and maybe with a short description why.

Well over 1,000 people read what I type here every weekend, so I´m expecting at least 10 people to make comments. That´s less than 1%.

Without too much thought I came up with:




Fredrik Härén.
He´s a very good public speaker and has single handedly changed how I view the industrialized western world more than anyone else. After hearing him the first time a few years ago I felt empty for days. It was the trippiest / greatest feeling.
I know for a fact if he would have spoken to me (at a school or on tv / radio) when I was in high school my life would have turned out differently, which it still might...

You can read about Fredrik´s project "The Idea Book" here:
http://www.theideabook.org/pdf/The_Idea_Book_presentation.pdf
Here are some Youtube links on what I´m talking about. Sorry, only in Swedish. But I´m almost compelled to translate the clips with English subtitles. He´s that good.
Part 1 here.
Part 2 here.
Part 3 here.
If you´ve missed his radio show from Swedish "Sommarpratare" in 2008, here it is:
http://www.sr.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2071&artikel=2123276






Spike Jonze.
For those who know me this comes as no surprise.
To describe who he is and what he does / has done is overwhelming. Basically the best creative person within music videos, skateboard videos and other creative visual media.
This short clip only touches on his talent:









Stacy Peralta:
He was a very talented skater in the 70´s and was part of the Dogtown & Z-Boys.
He also founded and did great things within the skateboard world with Powell Peralta in the 80´s and 90´s.
He´s also a filmmaker. His four biggest releases are Dogtown & Z-Boyz, Lords Of Dogtown (writer), Riding Giants and Made In America.
But it´s through the legendary Powell Peralta skatevideos I´ve seen his work the most. I´ve spent probably over a thousand hours watching them in the 90´s.


I was considering President Obama as well. Hmm, maybe Leif GW Persson (Swedish know it all guy) ..?
Dalai Lama...?
Or maybe George W Bush, Bin Laden and Kim Jong-Il and leave them there...?



Who are your three?