Filming During the Summer

Posted by Neil Seward on November 15th, 2017

I finished my first year of graduate studies at UOIT. As is normal, I went back to filming in my free time with the firends I made last summer in Oshawa. It was great to get back out with people I had not seen in a while.

I was always critiquing myself when I was not filming. I would watch skate videos by filmers that inspired me and would notice things like how far away I was when filming lines, or how I could improve my long lense shots. Guys like Chris Theissen get insanely close when filming lines, so much so that they break several cameras in a year when doing so. I also noticed that my filler clips I used were weak.

Probably one of the best independant skate filmakers that I have looked to for inspiraction is an Arizona based filmer named Jackson Casey. His style of using the artwork created by his friend JJ Hornier makes his Pyramid Country videos so authentic. Drawing from that, I started looking into ways to create filler clips without relying on expensive super 8mm footage. I found someone in Oregon that makes modified video synthesizers that produce really creative videos from analogue video to crt monitors. I got a BMPC Fluxus kit once the fall semester started, just in time for when I edited these videos. Since then I've spend a lot of time researching how people in the video art realm make these incredible peices of work. Allthough what is included in these videos is beginner work on my part, I've become better are making glitch sequences from synthesizers and cannot wait to make more skate videos using this equipment.