“London’s Skate Rats in Timlapse form.
Short film featuring the timelapses shot during the making of City of Rats, with a few additional clips from the film thrown in for good measure. This was intended for the extras but for some reason or other was never finished in time to make the DVD.
What is City of Rats? its the first feature length film from Slam City Skates, Europe’s oldest skateshop established in 1986.
“At a point in time where a large section of skateboarders consider social networking props to constitute skateboard culture, it is extremely refreshing to see members of the younger generation still out pounding the streets like those who came before them. Don’t be one of those bellends who only watches skate videos after they’ve been cut up into bite-sized sections on some Facebook hero’s page: support real skateboard culture with your money, not just your ‘liking’ finger. City of Rats is more than worth the measly tenner they’re asking for it. Goon support should be mandatory.” – BEN POWELL, SIDEWALK MAGAZINE
Running at 57 minutes, City of Rats has 14 sections and features the entire Slam Team alongside the shop staff, London locals and vargrants.
Support independent skateboarding, buy now at slamcity.com/accessories-2/skate-dvds.html“
Timelapse Extracts – City of Rats
Posted in BMX, Skateboarding, Video
Shawn Mcintosh Desktop Wallpaper
Get it here, courtesy of The Albion, shot by George Marshall.
“Manual” Trails Photo Book
“For over a year we have been compiling a collection of photographs that sums up a trails riders’ common philosophy. “Manual” is a photography book telling stories about good guys who grew up together (or not) around a passion : digging jumps, going fast and flying high with their bikes. Even if sometimes they don’t know each other, all the contributors have put all their efforts to catch rare moments and share incredible photographs of their good times in the woods. After compiling these materials, we have mixed the photos our way and have tried to extract the essence of what trails means to us all. Surprises garanteed, even for the contributors!
As decided originally, this is a non-profit project. And as you may know, printing a nice book costs a lot of money. However, we decided to do it without sponsors and without any advertising, to maintain our independence. All of this to create a book exactly how we wanted it: 100% home-made, thanks to the talents of the international trails community.
We are about to launch a pre-sale of the book on www.banosdistro.com and we have put deadlines for the orders to launch the printing at the end of june (so we’ll print as much as ordered): PRE-SALE FROM JUNE 10th TO JUNE 30th.”
Photo of the Week: Attila Szabó
First off, this is quite possibly the best lighting we’ve seen from any Photo of the Week, ever. The composition is impeccable- tell me you can’t see “RideBMX” or “DIG” at the top there. The colors are pleasing and the red bike sticks out nicely. The rider is framed inside of that fence back there and all of the vertical lines are pretty much straight. There is nothing questionable about this photograph- it is so good.
“Me and Attila “X” Godi lives in the different place of my home country (Hungary). One day we decided to go to Budapest to take some pictures. Here are the best spots in the country so far. A few weeks before he looked out that rail. So we went to there to check it. Actually it was a very easy spot. No pedestrians, no security guards, no traffic on the road. I set up the lights, found easily a good place to the photo. He tried it a few times and then he hit it perfect. I really like where this all goes smoothly, there is no any disruption. I used three flashes. One-one booth side, it were two Metz 60 CT-4. The third Metz 45 CT-4 was up on the stairs behind him. I was shooting with a Canon 5D MK II + Sigma 70-200 2.8 lens. Settings were as follow : 146mm f/5.0 ISO 160 1/200 ”
More of Attila’s work can be seen here and here.
Add your images to the Flickr group for a chance to be next week’s photo.
Video Review: TeamSAF “Searching Acronyms Forever”
Plus there’s an extra section in the DVD that is just as entertaining as the video itself, with some riding that somehow didn’t make the cut. It’s clear that they worked on this video for a long while and had a hard time narrowing down the best clips. Any DVD extras usually give an insight into the team as a whole, with B-roll and outtakes, and this is no exception. Humor and crashes in equal proportions. DVD’s are available for purchase from the filmer/editor Nic Gironda ($10 domestic, shipped) by emailing him at nic.gironda@gmail.com.
The video opens with Chris Carter and his signature “hit everything” style, banging his pegs on all surfaces grind-able (some un-grind-able) hopping into tree stumps and nearly-vertical walls. His bike is in shambles the whole section but he wouldn’t have it any other way. The song selection is perfect for the riding- some sort of Fantasia piccolo, xylophone and string quartet ensemble that plucks with every bump and polejam. His rap outro segues into Marc “Stretch” Meeuwwissen‘s part, filled with incredible balancing acts on rails and in hang-5’s. Dude is like 6’ 1000″ and uses it to his advantage to hop astronomical heights and distances. He can spin like a madman as well. His last clip is simply crazy.
Casio spits a quick sermon about the existential uses of cellar doors and clocks a few new-aged old-school clips of his own.
Pat Quinn, a true grind-god, scrapes every part of his bike on unwaxed surfaces throughout the greater New York area. His part follows a loose formula of “spin-grind-spin” or “grind-spin-grind”. The second to last clip- an overcrook 180 out over an L- is astounding. Dude might look like he’s flailing around on some grinds, but he has precision when he needs it. His ender is an NBD, I’m almost positive.
Jason Byoun- the one skate part- is sort of an interlude with a mellow jazz bebop track, where he pretty much uses his skateboard the same way the team uses their bikes- wallrides between cellars, polejams and big hops. He even has a few riding clips. It seems he fears very little and has no trouble adapting to extracurricular activities.
Jeremy Anderegg, a North Carolina resident, may not look the part of SAF, but takes to the streets with the fury of an NBL pro getting amped for his next heat. His gap-to-wallrides are impressive to say the least. It’s funny to see his brakes come off halfway through the section. He is clearly 100% in control of his bike throughout his part. His last clips are some of the greatest in the video.
Next up are a couple mix sections, which include some Ben Hittle clips for good measure. Riders throughout the Tri-State area and beyond are featured in a few hip-hop montages. The street riding comes in waves between intermittent mini-ramp sessions. Still, grinds prevail and cellar doors are implemented in ways the original designer could never have foreseen.
Evan Gallagher has a shorter part featuring some truly dirty and technical grinds to a folksy-buddist rendition of the Beatles on acid. I don’t even know how to describe one the grinds in his part- whatever the horizontal equivalent of a 60/40 feeble is…
Eric “Ewip” Whitescarver comes flying in from camera-left with amazing feats of wallrides and crankarm usage. There are a few spots in his part that have been absolutely killed in the past decade, but he still finds a way to produce an original clip. The Hoder guest clips complement the section perfectly. Ewip can ride transitions of any varying degree, click tables past flat and hop on any bike with pegs and still keep up with the pack. Two of his last three clips were filmed the day before the video premiered, showing a great dedication and tenacity that can be appreciated by any entity making a video. I can almost guarantee that Ewip will be a household name by 2015.
I’m sure it was a tough choice between Ewip and Eric “Rosie” Schalles having last part, but Rosie ties the whole video together with a style that mixes Carter’s jib-ness with Ewip’s fearlessness. His section can most accurately be described by the namesake “Street As Fuck”. My favorite part of Rosie’s riding is that he will always get the halfcab off a curb if it is in viable distance. This section is filled with some of the steepest handrails to be found in New York and New Jersey- kinked, curved, 60/40- it’s all-inclusive. Technically he has a three-song section and not one part is less-than-par with the whole video. Truly an amazing section to close out a spectacular video.
You won’t find any progressive filming techniques or fancy editing styles in here. Besides a little bit of slow motion and basic graphics, it’s a pretty straightforward DVD- filmed mostly with a fisheye and published using iMovie. Again, DVD’s are available ($10 shipped in U.S.) from Nic by emailing him at nic.gironda@gmail.com. “Searching Acronyms Forever” will make a perfect addition to your collection and should easily earn a spot on the top shelf next to the LFS video…
Photo of the Week: Alex Herzog
What I like most about this photograph is the composition. There are a lot of geometric shapes and lines, from the brick bank he’s riding on to the windows and the slats in the wall. Then you have the rider disconnected from all of that, in the clear blue sky. It’s kind of metaphorical for the freedom BMX brings sometimes.
“Every photographer understands the sheer joy that comes out of the perfect pop-click-smack sound sequence that comes with shooting a bmx or skate photo. This photo of Terrence Webber absolutely roasting this Euro table at our local skatepark here in Foster City, CA is a prime example. There are tons of skateparks in the Bay Area, but this plaza at the local “teen center” as it is called gets sessioned pretty regularly. The plaza has a few fun jibby ledges but I’ve never been fond of this quarter. It’s awkwardly shaped, with a tight transition on the bottom with basically a bank to finish off the top half. Virtually every trick that can be done on this quarter, has been done. But seeing as there isn’t another tranny for miles around, Terrence chose this oddly shaped one to get what will be his last ever bmx photo. Literally as I was writing this, I saw on his facebook that he just sold his bike and will be moving on to other things. So good luck bud!
Photo Info – 1/200 s Exposure
– Brand X speedlite on the ground to the bottom right of the frame set at a 24mm zoom and 1/2 power
-Old Sunpak speedlite on a lightstand to the upper left of the frame, set at full power”
More of Alex’s work can be seen here.
Add your images to the Flickr group for a chance to be next week’s photo.
Squashed: Behind the Kink Video
(Photos courtesy of Jay Roe/Kink)
I think the first question on everyone’s mind is the title. What’s behind the name?
The name came from being on a trip about a year and a half ago. I think Garrett and A22 were having a bit of an argument on Twitter, and at the end, one of them just said fuck it, lets squash it. Someone on the trip said it once and then we all kept saying it whenever anyone on the team would have the slightest disagreement. A few trips later we were all still saying it and Jay suggested using it for the title. Everyone was into it.
How badly did the camera break when Hamlin’s bike hit it?
Basically destroyed the LCD screen, which isn’t a trip ender, but definitely makes my job a lot harder. Almost anything rolling long lens that I shoot is all LCD guided, so that was tough. Luckily all the other functions on the camera escaped major damage, so it could have been a lot worse. I was pretty bummed, and it ended up costing almost $1000 for the replacement screen. Tony felt really bad, it was a total fluke. Shit happens.
Any other hang-ups during the filming of the video?
Nothing too crazy. Random injuries along the way. I killed a nerve in my right arm sleeping on a long flight from Asia and my arm fell asleep for a solid month and a half. Couldn’t ride, film, or even pick up a glass of water with my right arm for 6 weeks, shit was scary. I think I ended up hurt for about half of the filming of the video, which sucked. Tony had an ankle problem for the majority of it as well, but he pushed through it.
How long did you guys film for?
Think it was about 14 months, we kind of started without getting the go-ahead from the office, the team all wanted to do it and guys were in town so we just started filming. It took some convincing from Jay and I for the guys back in Rochester to get into the idea. Full length projects are a pretty heavy investment of time and money, so not everyone was on board in the beginning. In the long run I think everyone is super psyched, the guys all killed it and we’re pretty proud of what came from it.
What cameras were used?
Everything I filmed was on a Panasonic HMC-150 and Canon 7D. Contributing footage varied, but there isn’t much of it anyway.
How long did you spend on the editing? What’s your computer setup?
I spent about 2 months of straight editing, usually when I do a project like this I start piecing stuff together early to get a sense of how I want things to look and sound. Most of the music was picked along the way, with a few exceptions. Once we knew we were done filming, I had a good idea of how things were going to come together.
I edited on a 2013 IMac with Final Cut Pro 7 for edits and After Effects CS 5.5 for slow motion and motion graphics. Dave Fortman did the concept motion graphics of the animated fists and Kink logo, while I did all of the text/motion in the video intro.
What was the first thing filmed? The last thing filmed? The most difficult shot? Your favorite shot? (My favorite shot is Hittle’s line at that desert looking ditch spot where he hops into that wedge then does like a manual 180 off a ledge, fisheye rolling shot, so smooth, edited perfectly)
The very first clip we filmed with intention of making a DVD was Jay breaking his foot manualing off the ledge in the crash trailer. Not a good way to start. Jay wanted to go hard for the video and things did not go well for him, haha.
The very last two things we filmed are Sean and Aaron’s enders in Austin. They both came through heavy on the last days of filming.
One tough shot that comes to mind is Tonys line at the MLK school in Pittsburgh that starts with the ice-bar. I had to be ahead of him due to the narrow sidewalk and film with my arm backwards until he catches up and ultimately passes me, I was pretty psyched on that.
That Hittle clip is literally my favorite clip in the whole video. The spot looks so crazy and that line completely sums up Hittles riding. It ended up going perfectly with that portion of the song, I’m psyched you mentioned that.
I know you guys traveled a lot to film. Any standout experiences on those? Which was the most/least productive? Your personal favorite?
We were fortunate enough to do a big Asia trip, the trip consisted of flying into South Korea and then heading to Tokyo, so several of us decided to have our tickets diverted to Bangkok and pay our own way from there to Korea. If you’re going to be that far away I like to take advantage and try and see something else while I can, so that was rad. The cultural differences in all three countries was incredible, and the temperature difference from Thailand to Korea was about 60 degrees; it was gnarly. We went from near heat stroke to miserable cold, so it was quite the experience. Some of our best stuff came from that trip though, it was unforgettable.
Almost all of the other trips were driving through the states and they really blend together, it’s hard to differentiate what footage came from what trip sometimes. There’s nothing like filming abroad, it’s the best.
I noticed that there isn’t much night footage in the video. I take it you guys are an early-rising crew?
Haha, yeah, it’s not really our style to film at night. It’s a pain in the ass and everyone prefers to mellow out at night. Our trips are really relaxed, we get going by noon, and we’re done after dinner. Night footage looks cool, but unless its necessity, we aren’t stressing riding at 1 in the morning.
How soon will you guys start on the next full-length? (Assuming there will be a next full-length)
We don’t have any plans right now, although I’m ready whenever. Sometimes it’s discouraging to work hard on web content and see the view count drop to almost nothing after a few days. I like to think that Squash It will be on rotation at people’s houses and bike shops for a while, it just feels like DVD projects make more of an imprint on the industry and viewers. Hopefully we can get going on another in the next year or two.
Get “Squash It” here for free ($3 for shipping and sticker pack) while supplies last.
Photo of the Week: Leo Furmansky
This week’s photo is proof that you don’t need a rider to be doing a crazy trick to make a great photograph. I’ve always been a fan of the super-wide environmental shot and this is a prime example. The most difficult part is lighting the rider without having the light source in the photo, but Leo did a great job with this. It’s busy but not cluttered. This would make a perfect magazine cover.
“We shot this just east of I-35 on this huge hill which has the banks that Shane gapped over the stairs. It’s funny I actually didn’t like this photo because I felt like I could’ve gotten more of the road into the city but with the bushes in the way of the bump and the pole sticking out of the ground I couldn’t shoot it how I wanted. I was actually bummed all night until I realized everybody loved the shot. I’m my own worse critic. I like to be hard on myself so I usually don’t know if its good or not.
I had one Vivitar 285 HV at 1/2 power off to the left side of the subject (Shane Goldstein) on a light stand.
I was shooting with a Canon 1D Mark II N with my newly purchased (same day) Canon 70-200 L f/4 I seriously fell in love with it its amazing what kind of composition you can come up with a telephoto lens.
The picture was shot at 1/320 sec. at f/5.6”
Check out more of Leo’s work here.
Add your images to the Flickr group for a chance to be next week’s photo.
Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Canon, Leo Furmansky, Shane Goldstein, Vivitar
Photo of the Week: Jacob Manes
Shooting at the trails can be fun and frustrating at the same time. It can be fun because there are all sorts of angles you can get and the only obstruction, more or less, is trees. But, the beautiful thing is that you can climb said trees and get crazy angles no one has seen before. It can be frustrating if you choose to light your photo with flashes instead of using ambient light. You need the right equipment and it needs to be used properly. Jacob pretty much nailed it in this week’s photo.
“As a ton of bmx related photos are, this was sort of a “spur of the moment” opportunity to snap a few photos on a set that rarely gets seen on a computer screen. Initially set up to shoot a photo of Will Blount, everyone got in on the session and I sat back, and snapped and grinned.
I set up an AB800 far left at 3/4 power and then a SB-800 behind the lip you see in the foreground mid right at 1/2 power. Shooting with my D300s and a 50mm 1.8 I snuck far back into the trees on my stomach to get a nice foreground and feel that is worthy of the woods in the winter.
The initial set up was 1/250th f8 at iso400 but it was later into the session and the sun was going down quickly so I ended up at f4 for this photo. Its always a struggle shooting strobes in the woods with the sun constantly being pushed behind clouds and lighting HUGE landings as you see here.
All in all I walked away content with a solid 4-5 photos as the sun dropped out of view and I didn’t have anymore ambient light to play with.
Shout out to all the locals who put up with my strobes and antics. Go balance some ambient light with strobes, its a challenge each and every time.
Gear:
D300s w/ 50 1.8
AB800 w/ vagabond
SB-800
Phottix triggers
Manfrotto Tripods”
Check out more of Jacob’s work here.
Add your images to the Flickr group for a chance to be featured next week.
Posted in BMX, Gear, Photo, Tech
Tagged Alien Bees, Clint Reynolds, Jacob Manes, Manfrotto, Nikon
Focus On: Matt Hildebrand
My name’s Matt Hildebrand and I’ve been shooting photographs for 6 years now. I started riding my last year of middle school and going into high school I wanted to take electives that related to BMX. My grandma sent me her Pentax K1000 which was the only camera I really shot on for the next four years. My high school teacher gave us the option of whether to shoot film or digital and since I already had my Pentax I went with it. All of my skater friends shot photos and took art classes so I kind of just fell into their group. I went to a pretty well off high school so all of the pretentious kids had expensive digital cameras, the darkroom had a completely different vibe for me. Towards the end of high school all of my older friends had graduated and I would eat lunch and make chemicals with my photo teacher. She sort of made me realize that I should go to college if I had the opportunity. Around that time George Marshall came to Oklahoma to shoot an article for the first issue of The Albion and I got to see him shoot firsthand. Needless to say his work ethic and shooting style inspired me enough to buy a Hasselblad 500c with my graduation money. I’m finishing my second year at OU and working to get a major in graphic design, the university is structured so that graphic design falls under the art school umbrella. I get to take darkroom classes and can check out all sorts of equipment for free. I love both photography and riding because they’re constantly refreshing one another. I never get bored riding with my friends because there’s always an opportunity to get a clip or shoot a photo of something I don’t want to forget. BMX and Skating both have a unique and intriguing subculture which I think is important to document. There’s so much tangible passion in riding for me, whenever I shoot a photo I try and convey those feelings. This is why I feel it’s important for a photographer/filmer to keep pedaling, being on both sides of the lens makes it easier to decide camera angles and timing for me personally. When it comes down to it, the most important thing you can do is help BMX grow into something you can be proud of. Whether you dig trails, wax ledges, film clips, or shoot photos remember it’s all for the same love. (Photo by Luke Mouradian)
James Anderson decided to hangover this rail even though the camera died. He really just wanted to do it for his own satisfaction and I offered to shoot a photo. This rail is wobbly and I was surprised with how much of it he managed to slide. As for the angle I wanted him to be coming towards me instead of across the frame to reduce motion blur.
Mikey Babbel spent a decent amount of time on this curved rail to hop over. The clip was well worth it and the photo turned out better than I thought it would. I set up the photo so that you could see the entire rail while also giving Mikey room to move about through the frame. My favorite part of this photo are the reflections in the windows and the overall tonal range.
I got to tag along with Jeremie on a trip to San Francisco last summer and I really benefited from it. I made friends with new riders and shot this photo of Caleb Quanbeck gapping out to wallride at one of millions of Cali school spots. I shot It from the roof with my wide-angle and was nervous about dropping my camera from the impact of the wall. It turned out the shake of the wall I was hanging over helped with my timing and I took it right when he was sinking into the wallride.
Jabari Winters let us stay at his place one year when Cody Anderson, James, and I were on spring break. When you stay at someone’s house for a trip you get a better impression of who they are then just riding a spot. Jabari is easy going and will spontaneously send himself down some pretty heavy stuff. More than that he’s a very hospitable and helps everyone enjoy themselves. I’m hesitant to shoot photos like this sometimes because I don’t want the photo to turn out posed or make people nervous or act differently because a camera is out. Luckily Jabari didn’t seem to notice I was setting up and I shot this portrait of him in his old back yard.
Jeremie Infelise rode off this roof “completely blind”. The twig he had said up to mark where he should ride off at had blown away and he went for it anyway. Sometimes a simple hop looks the best and this was a nice treat after the hell he went through filming a clip around the corner. Both clips are in a James/Jeremie split edit for Delic.
James and I ride street together more often then not. It’s hard to tell from his current style that he used to live in the skatepark. When we started riding mostly street he kept up with table’s and can pop one out of anything including this steep bank. The horizontal lines in the architecture helped me compose my photograph and the cheaper quality film my professor gave me for this shot works well together.
Push It A Stop 