Category: Free inquiry project

The first video I made for the free inquiry project was this which is a street skate part of myself. It took me from the beginning of classes to just last week to get all the clips in this video and edit them. I was hopping to get a few more clips but the snow came just a little too early for me to do that. I am very proud of how this video turned out and I hope I will be able to make a new one next year. Through this project I learned some basic tools which I used further in my second video such as colour correction, black and white clips, and messing with audio.

My second video took me a much longer time to edit and create then my first one but I am equally as proud of it. I did not have the necessary time to fully complete the video but I do plan to do this over winter break. What I did complete is the intro, 2 full parts and a b-roll transition from one part to the next. New things I tried in this video include using titles and transitioning them in, video chopping, lots of colour correction especially in the Intro, and special effects. The part of the video I am most happy about is the introduction, going into this project I could not see it turning out as well as it did.

The areas I still need to make to complete the video I envisioned is more B-roll transitions which will lead into the other parts I will make, as well as finding an actual name for it, and making a outro/credit part of the video.

The B-roll clip in-between the videos was also very fun to make but took a very very long time. This is due to me using strings to have the board and Po flying which i then had to crop out in every photo. In the end it was worth it though as it filled a vital spot in the video and was a very good learning opportunity.

I hope you enjoy the videos!

This is such a massive win for myself as I was finally able to complete a full section of the video letting me better view how the video will be organized. This lets me better plan what I need to do and what I have done.

Using this I can see what parts of the video I have completed and where I may need to focus my energy throughout the next few weeks. I Believe the focus moving foreword will be placed in brainstorming and executing b-roll ideas. I will also try to begin another part after sorting the videos I have.

Coming up with b-roll ideas is definitely the area I have been struggling with the most so far. Most ideas I have take much larger budget and equipment then what is available to me. One way I will begin brainstorming these ideas is by talking with friends about more ideas. I have found recently how working with other people allows me to better extend my ideas and with the help of others have better places to start from.

Through this week I was able to get what I think will be the ender for my skate part but that cannot be shared until the video is done. I was also able to record and add a few more videos into the intro to the movie, which is what I am sharing with you know. If the snow which recently came doesn’t melt I will be unable to get more street clips for my skate part meaning it is very close to completion. Due to a busy week it has been hard to work on skate videos an adequate amount so instead of showing the little progress I made I will instead share my favorite and most influential skateboard parts.

Starting this off with my favorite skate movie of all time is RDS/FSU/2002

This is the video which got me reallllly into skateboarding and especially making skateboard videos. RDS or red dragons is a Canadian skateboard company based in Vancouver BC, this means all the people and places they skateboard are from Canada making this video feel even more important to me. Recently skateboarders part of the RDS team came to Cranbrook and the choice shop and gave out 100 free skateboards to youth in the community. all this has made this video feel extra special to me making it my favorite of all time.

Another one of my favorites is Fully Flared by Lakia. This video has the most iconic intro in skateboarding and was one of the first skateboarding movies given an actual budget to work with. The intro is so iconic due to the many explosions but especially Mike Mo’s switch flip down the stair set as this is already a very very hard trick, adding an explosion meaning he had to get it first try makes it even more impressive. This video includes some of the best skateboarding of all time and was so ahead of its time. With this there are also so many cool b-roll sections and transitions making this video even greater.

The last movie I want to talk about is an actual movie called street dreams.

While this movie is very corny and includes some very bad acting the plot of the movie is very interesting and keeps you intrigued the whole time. The part that makes this movie really cool is how it was written, created and acted by professional skateboarders. The movie follows Derrick Cabrera try to be a professional skateboarder, he struggles to do this until he is able to land a nac (360-flip back crooked grind) (not a chance) at Tampa-am one of the biggest competition in skateboarding

Due to the cooler weather it has been increasingly hard to go out and get clips, while this sucks it does let me focus more on the editing process of the movie.

This week I really tried to understand how the text feature works in davinci resolve. Using YouTube and trial and error I was able to figure out how to make the writing glow in my own skate part. However while trying to do the scroll text following Remi in I got very frustrated and ended up taking so much time limiting my ability to finish more in the video. This is due to me not being able to find any sources to show me how to do this. Eventually after messing around with so many different functions and searching up so many videos I found out all I had to do was crop the text and keyframe it, while I was relived I was also a little upset that it was this easy of a task. Due to this and other factors this has been the hardest week to continue my free inquiry project, but that is alright as now we are past it and can focus on what’s next.

As for my plan going forward, I have a few things I want to accomplish within the next two-ish weeks. I am hopping to get close to finishing my introduction, I have gotten a few more clips I can use to finish it up. As well as get a few more clips for my own street part, including an ender. Lastly I want to rather continue Remi’s part or start another section of the video depending on how I’m feeling.

Ender: An ender in skateboarding refers to the last trick in a skate part, This is usually one of or the best trick in the video.

While I continue To get more clips of my friends skateboarding I decided I would spend this week explaining how I film and the materials I use. I would argue this is the most important step in a skateboard movie as it will not look good with bad filming. As well as adding diversity within your clips, if every trick in a skate part was filmed the exact same way the video would began to feel very repetitive.

Each type of camera has its importance and when they should be used, there are two very important factors when deciding which camera I decide to use and these are Lighting and what trick is being preformed.

iPhone 13 Camera

The basic iPhone camera is the most versatile camera that I have, this is due to the ability to zoom far out at 0.5 but as well to zoom far in. The iPhone camera is very good it any lighting giving it the ability to be used at any moment. I would say that this is the only instance the trick doesn’t matter as the iPhone camera is my “default” camera, as my other two cameras have very specific needs to be met before using them is viable.

The iPhone camera is great for long lense videos (shown above), follow cams (where I would follow behind on my skateboard filming), and still shots with different zooms. (shown below)

Death lens fisheye

This is not its own camera but an attachment you can place over your Iphone camera giving it a fisheye. The fisheye is very good with most lighting and can be used effectively in the day and night. However, the trick you are filming is very important when deciding to use the fisheye. When having a fisheye you are unable to zoom so tricks where you are able to get really close with are the best option. This means the fisheye is not the best option for lines and long tricks such as manuals. What the fisheye does great on is getting really close to the skateboard, this means the fisheye is best used when someone is doing a gap, grind, or slide.

One thing you may notice if you watch a lot of fisheye videos is that they are always filmed pretty close to the ground. This is because the further you are away from the skateboard the less effect the fisheye has, making high up shots with a fisheye look strange.

JVC Hard Disk Camcorder

My last camera I use is this old handheld camera I “stole” from my parents. This is my favorite camera to use but also the hardest. This is because the lighting really matters, if its at all dark this camera will not be able to pick up anything. This camera has very very good zoom in abilities and is best used in long shots. However the lowest it can zoom in is still very zoomed in meaning this camera cannot be used in shots near the skateboarder.

This is also my favorite camera to film b-roll on as the zoom in is so good and has a grainy filter making the clips look cool.

For this week I wanted to try and start creating an idea of an intro for the skate movie I am hopping to eventually create once I have Recorded enough clips of my friends skateboarding. I Plan to make this edit at least thirty minutes and will include multiple cinematic shots like this and b-Roll clips that are very hard to get.

Prior to editing the most important and hardest parts are taking place which is getting the clips to use and finding a song that fits what you are going for. Afterwards I would say editing is mostly trial and error until you get the video you were hopping for. You can see this play out a lot in the video of me editing compared to the “final” project.

The tools I tried to learn and improve on this time were: Key Frames (frames that you select to have a start point and will eventually connect to an endpoint to create some sort of movement), zoom in and out with key frames, colour correction, and colour correction utilizing key frames.

When watching the editing process you will see many clips and ideas that didn’t end up in the “final” project. This is due to me watching the entire video after editing and picking out things I don’t like or require a small amount of change. In this video I added a few clips that had quite a lot of colour, after watching the entire video I realized that these clips do not match the vibe I was going for so I would take them out entirely or change them to better suit what I am looking for.

A lot of this video comes from the inspiration of my favorite skate movie of all time called Mindfield by Alien Workshop. This video and especially the intro is where my passion for wanting to create this movie began.

At the moment I am trying to film for my friends sponsor me tape and do not have enough clips to make an edit. Instead I tried to take photos but found out that an iPhone camera reacts very badly with the movement of skateboarding. due to this I felt very uninspired to take more photos throughout the week. Instead I decided to write this weeks inquiry on the reason street skateboarding is important and a few “rules” that come with it.

Street skateboarding originated after the massive success of pool and vert skateboarding in California. Since most people did not have access to drained pools or large vert ramps skateboarders started taking their skills to the streets. During this time some classic skate videos came out of people just skating street spots Inspiring more people to begin street skating.

Throughout the years skateparks like we see them today started getting built, however most skateboarders only viewed this as a practice ground. This is due to skaters viewing street spots as a way to show creativity within your tricks, a skatepark is built with the intention and design to be skated, while a street spot is created with out this intention. Meaning that a skater requires creativity to find different spots and new tricks. This can be related to rock climbing, while climbing in a gym is cool and can help improve your skills climbing a mountain is a very different task that takes lots of thought and ideas to complete.

If you search up on YouTube “Thrasher Magazine” you will see how everyone’s skate parts includes no skateparks and only street spots. However even though skateboarders are excepted to make their parts with street clips their are a few “rules”. The first being NBD’s and ABD’s standing for never been done and already been done. If a skateboarder has done a trick on a spot for the first time ever this is called an NBD, If someone else then goes to that spot, does the same trick and puts it in their skate part this is seen as copying and “uncool”. The second unwritten rule is “illegal tricks”, these are tricks that the skateboard community have pushed out of the mainstream due to the perception that they look very bad.

Over the past two weeks I have been filming a bit more of my friends to hopefully get enough clips to make an edit. I was able to do this and made this video which I called believe, which to be honest just came because the person in the song says it.

I have made multiple videos of myself using editing software on my phone but this time I decided to try DeVinci Resolve, a free editing software online that is used in many professionals settings. While this change was hard to figure out with some help from YouTube and google I was able to try many new effects such as the overlay clips that the video starts with, placing text overtop of video, and messing with slow motion after taking the video. I was inspired to try these new strategies after watching a few skateboard videos through the week which I will link below.

I very much liked using this new software and I plan to continue to use it for the rest of this project and any other video I make for personal use. There are still a lot more ideas that I have and will try to learn within this editing software.

regarding the shooting of the videos I tried to take all the videos in landscape as this is the normal way of shooting in the skateboard industry. I Liked this a lot more then the common vertical filming I normally do as you can see more dead space and more of the area is filled with action.

For my next video I create I want to include more B-roll clip which is random videos of non skating in between clips. I also want to mess around with more filters overlay to create a different felling video to this.

For my free inquiry project I have decided to pursue my love for skateboarding in a different way. Since starting I have always enjoyed watching skate parts and looking at skate photos but have not tried to pursue this area myself until recently. With the ability too begin a project of my choosing in this class it seemed like a perfect time to start something I’ve wanted to for a long time.

Throughout the year I am hopping to take a lot of videos and photos of my friends and create skateboard parts with them. I am hopping to learn a lot about video and photo editing throughout this project and then be able to continue this passion throughout my life.

I also plan to continue to watch skate parts to find more ideas and to influence my videos and photos from professionals. My end goal that will hopefully be accomplished is too create a whole skate movie with my friends that i can be very proud about.