Author Topic: How much skate footage is there actually in Fully Flared & Pretty Sweet? A Study  (Read 2020 times)

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suckmadeck

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Introduction:
As many of you know, Ty Evans changed how people film skateboarding either for the better, or the worst. Introducing new camera movements like the dolly, camera cranes, and utilizing super slowmotion cameras and overall adding a Hollywood style to skate videos. Fully Flared was noticeable as it was the first skate video to feature the HVX200, the first some-what affordable prosumer HD camera to shoot to solid state cards. Ty had actually been in touch with Panasonic since 2004 when he shot The Hot Chocolate Tour (the interview and b-roll) on a Panasonic DVX100a. He formed a tight relationship with Panasonic, so far as to visiting Panasonic in 2005 whilst on a Fourstar trip (Super Champion Funzone) and got to see a prototype HVX200 (photos of this trip were on www.skatefairy.com but that's long gone). This was the beginning of a new style in skate videos.

With this new style Ty had started incorporating into his filming, his editing style had also changed. From the usual syncing clips to the music, to shots of people pushing, shots of spots with no one skating them, people just standing there looking melancholy. With Fully Flared people noticed how it was starting to look more Hollywood, and 5 years later with the release of Pretty Sweet, it was official. Ty had gone a bit too far (in my, and many other peoples opinions). Gratuitous shots of utterly random things just being thrown into peoples part, repeating b-roll to fill in gaps and to add to the length and just making the video feel incredibly bloated.

The mark Ty has left on the community is noticeable, and that got me wondering: what is the percentage of skating to b-roll in these 2 videos?

My rules:
Intro and credits would not be included, I included the intro's to peoples parts in Fully Flared as these weren't bombastic and actually had people skating in them (compared to Pretty Sweet which was all over the place).

I define b-roll in this case as anything that isn't the trick itself, lens hits, people high fiving, hoping on the board, timelapse, stress footage, hyping up themselves to do the trick. Basically anything that isn't skating. 2nd angles are included however that is up for debate if it counts or not, in my opinion it counts and I left them in.

Sources:
The source for Fully Flared came from the standard DVD release (not that weird version on YouTube with some VFX missing). The source for Pretty Sweet came from a download from Redbull, now this version should be the same length as the DVD/Blu-Ray release.

Process:
I sat down for a total of 8 hours (over 2 days) sifting through both videos using Premiere Pro and making a cut which only included the skating.


My timelines can be seen here:
Fully Flared =
Pretty Sweet =


Results:

Fully Flared:
Run time: 1 hour 29 minutes 5 seconds
Intro + credits length = 18 mins 31 seconds
Intro + credits removed = 1 hour 10 minutes and 34 seconds
Actual skating footage = 54 minutes and 41 seconds
B-roll = 15 minutes and 53 seconds
87% skate footage
13% b-roll

Pretty Sweet:
Run time: 1 hour 18 minutes 40 seconds
Intro + credits length = 15 minutes 50 seconds
Intro + credits removed = 1 hour 2 minutes 50 seconds
Actual skating footage = 45 minutes 59 seconds
B-roll = 16 minutes 51 second
75% skate footage
25% b-roll

(Now I rounded up some numbers so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)



Final thoughts:
Rewatching and sifting through Pretty Sweet was hilarious. The audio replaced with VX (and one DVX) sound, Mike Mo cheering to his own clip, the reuse of the same b-roll clips within 10 minutes of each other really just solidified my opinion that this video could have been good if someone else had edited it. The skating remains solid but it's a tough watch. The b-roll feels like it's just been chucked in at random to fill in gaps, and to add to the length. It feels incredibly rushed and rough around the edges. Fully Flared on the other hand whilst being the longer video, was far more enjoyable. The b-roll whilst prevalent did feel more fluid, and it blended nicely together.

These videos whilst comparable in length are actually 2 separate entities. Fully Flared is the skaters video. Incredible skating, great song choices and packed. Pretty Sweet on the other hand is something you could show someone who's never actually seen a skate video before and they'd get a somewhat clear idea of what skating entails etcetera. The music overall is very tame, easy listening, something you'd hear George Carlin mock. (of course MJ skating to Bowie was beautiful!)

Now not to say that Ty isn't talented, he clearly is, but with him leaving the Girl/Crailtap camp straight after Pretty Sweet came out it was clear that this was mainly just him showing off, a demo reel if you will. He has mentioned before in an interview that he was already planning to leave in the middle of production which in my mind didn't bode well for the overall outcome. I've spoken to a few well known filmers (who you can imagine wish to remain anonymous) whose footage feature in Pretty Sweet and a couple of them feel the same way, that this was a disappointment of a video and that Ty was basically making an extended demo reel.

I'm not here to tell you what you think, if you enjoy Pretty Sweet then that's great! But for me and many others it was a great disappointment that did not live up to the hype. Fully Flared was delayed multiple times and ended up great. Pretty Sweet to my knowledge was never delayed and will forever be in the state it's in. Shigeru Miyamoto once said " A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad " and that can apply to skate videos.

HORSES

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You are using your limited time on earth very wisely.

suckmadeck

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You are using your limited time on earth very wisely.

Best part of lockdown

Lame_Nigga

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I enjoyed reading your analysis, and the comparisons of the videos seemed on point, but also everything about P.S and the editing, song choice, and Ty making it more accessible to a nonskate audience vs a core audience has been said plenty of times here over the past 8 years.

I remember going to the P.S premiere and getting that vibe too that it was very vanilla, didn't get me hyped but I enjoyed how clean the video was. With longer productions like this I prefer this corny, good times type of edit like a movie vs a dirtier more GX type.

suckmadeck

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I enjoyed reading your analysis, and the comparisons of the videos seemed on point, but also everything about P.S and the editing, song choice, and Ty making it more accessible to a nonskate audience vs a core audience has been said plenty of times here over the past 8 years.

I remember going to the P.S premiere and getting that vibe too that it was very vanilla, didn't get me hyped but I enjoyed how clean the video was. With longer productions like this I prefer this corny, good times type of edit like a movie vs a dirtier more GX type.

Very true stuff like this has been said before. And I could kind of understand, I know plenty of people who can't sit through the entirety of Spirit Quest

Baby on Board

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I watched fully flared for the first time on a 19” tv with av cables plugged in and it gave my young mind all the feels. Fast forward a few years, I went to the pretty sweet premier and was waiting for it to just end so I could go skate instead.

Loved your analysis!

OrangeVHStapes

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This is... A fucking exquisite topic. Please... Do more videos...

suckmadeck

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I watched fully flared for the first time on a 19” tv with av cables plugged in and it gave my young mind all the feels. Fast forward a few years, I went to the pretty sweet premier and was waiting for it to just end so I could go skate instead.

Loved your analysis!

Any skate video that was filmed on a VX and released on DVD should be viewed on a 4:3 CRT in my mind, that shit looks goooood. Also thanks!

suckmadeck

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This is... A fucking exquisite topic. Please... Do more videos...

Just by looking at your profile picture and username I already want to do Photosynthesis

OrangeVHStapes

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This is... A fucking exquisite topic. Please... Do more videos...
[close]

Just by looking at your profile picture and username I already want to do Photosynthesis

Photo and Mosaic would be good together, if you want to stick to the current theme. Would be very sick.

suckmadeck

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Expand Quote
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This is... A fucking exquisite topic. Please... Do more videos...
[close]

Just by looking at your profile picture and username I already want to do Photosynthesis
[close]

Photo and Mosaic would be good together, if you want to stick to the current theme. Would be very sick.

Photo and Mosaic would be quite interesting considering Alien and Habitat are known for their b-roll and shit like that, and the videos themselves aren't really that long in the first place so it'll be interesting to see.

art hellman

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Billy Bitchcakes

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Very good sir, bravo

Quote
Pretty Sweet on the other hand is something you could show someone who's never actually seen a skate video before and they'd get a somewhat clear idea of what skating entails etcetera.

Ty actually said this in an interview after it came out, he edited it aimed at people who didn't skate. Which is a super weird thing to do for a deck company's skate video and kind of disrespectful to the skaters imo

Quote
The audio replaced with VX (and one DVX) sound

What's this about?
During sex to prevent myself from ejaculating I think about Osama Bin Laden running my dick through a sewing machine.

pizzafliptofakie

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Honestly fascinating. It's funny how much longer Pretty Sweet feels than Fully Flared to me, though a part of that could be that there's more nostalgia attached to the latter.




Topical too, cuz on this week's Nine Club they were talking about videos being too long and Chris mentioned something along the lines of people getting bummed that their footage was left out of PS because it's so hard to fit so many people adequately into one video. That definitely hits different when you see that a literal quarter of that video is b-roll.

suckmadeck

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Very good sir, bravo

Quote
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Pretty Sweet on the other hand is something you could show someone who's never actually seen a skate video before and they'd get a somewhat clear idea of what skating entails etcetera.
[close]

Ty actually said this in an interview after it came out, he edited it aimed at people who didn't skate. Which is a super weird thing to do for a deck company's skate video and kind of disrespectful to the skaters imo

Quote
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The audio replaced with VX (and one DVX) sound
[close]

What's this about?

I have to agree. Unless Rick, Mike and Spike all agreed to it, it just seems kinda disrespectful.

For the HD clips in Fully Flared, 99% of the clips in Pretty Sweet, and most skate work after Pretty Sweet, Ty has replaced the audio. He was digging through his old tapes for footage shot on a VX1000, and matching/syncing them up with the footage (poorly done in my opinion). He admits it here in this clearly not paid for promotional video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8yBBDyFOVY&t=5s

suckmadeck

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Honestly fascinating. It's funny how much longer Pretty Sweet feels than Fully Flared to me, though a part of that could be that there's more nostalgia attached to the latter.




Topical too, cuz on this week's Nine Club they were talking about videos being too long and Chris mentioned something along the lines of people getting bummed that their footage was left out of PS because it's so hard to fit so many people adequately into one video. That definitely hits different when you see that a literal quarter of that video is b-roll.

I appreciate when companies include like bonus footage of stuff that wouldn't fit, but when you see the clips they remove from parts, or whole people who aren't even in the video (I know Popps left but still, I'd love to know what happened to his Pretty Sweet footage) it just makes you question the editors judgments. I think that's why people are gravitating to more east coast videos. Shorter in length, some b-roll but not too much and it overall feels like actual skateboarding. That's just my opinion. Spirit Quest might be the most ambitious independent video ever made, that's nearly the same length as Pretty Sweet yet Spirit Quest flows so nicely, and Colin Read actually left an intermission in the premiere copy so people could grab a beer, stretch their legs or whatever. While Pretty Sweet is just all over the place, and to me feels like a bunch of YouTube parts thrown together into some sort of compilation

pizzafliptofakie

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Honestly fascinating. It's funny how much longer Pretty Sweet feels than Fully Flared to me, though a part of that could be that there's more nostalgia attached to the latter.




Topical too, cuz on this week's Nine Club they were talking about videos being too long and Chris mentioned something along the lines of people getting bummed that their footage was left out of PS because it's so hard to fit so many people adequately into one video. That definitely hits different when you see that a literal quarter of that video is b-roll.
[close]

I appreciate when companies include like bonus footage of stuff that wouldn't fit, but when you see the clips they remove from parts, or whole people who aren't even in the video (I know Popps left but still, I'd love to know what happened to his Pretty Sweet footage) it just makes you question the editors judgments. I think that's why people are gravitating to more east coast videos. Shorter in length, some b-roll but not too much and it overall feels like actual skateboarding. That's just my opinion. Spirit Quest might be the most ambitious independent video ever made, that's nearly the same length as Pretty Sweet yet Spirit Quest flows so nicely, and Colin Read actually left an intermission in the premiere copy so people could grab a beer, stretch their legs or whatever. While Pretty Sweet is just all over the place, and to me feels like a bunch of YouTube parts thrown together into some sort of compilation



Totally agree. It's been forever since I combed through Pretty Sweet's extra footage but I remember finding it after seeing the video and being very confused as to why a lot of it was left out. Didn't BA have an NBD at Hubba? Either way, that video famously caused some rifts between longtime Crail dudes who got dusted on that video, and seeing this makes me wonder how things woulda panned out if the video was, say, less than 20% b-roll instead. I feel like Pretty Sweet was more of a resume piece for Ty whereas Spirit Quest is a true experiment with the medium and that's why we still talk about it so fondly.

suckmadeck

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Honestly fascinating. It's funny how much longer Pretty Sweet feels than Fully Flared to me, though a part of that could be that there's more nostalgia attached to the latter.




Topical too, cuz on this week's Nine Club they were talking about videos being too long and Chris mentioned something along the lines of people getting bummed that their footage was left out of PS because it's so hard to fit so many people adequately into one video. That definitely hits different when you see that a literal quarter of that video is b-roll.
[close]

I appreciate when companies include like bonus footage of stuff that wouldn't fit, but when you see the clips they remove from parts, or whole people who aren't even in the video (I know Popps left but still, I'd love to know what happened to his Pretty Sweet footage) it just makes you question the editors judgments. I think that's why people are gravitating to more east coast videos. Shorter in length, some b-roll but not too much and it overall feels like actual skateboarding. That's just my opinion. Spirit Quest might be the most ambitious independent video ever made, that's nearly the same length as Pretty Sweet yet Spirit Quest flows so nicely, and Colin Read actually left an intermission in the premiere copy so people could grab a beer, stretch their legs or whatever. While Pretty Sweet is just all over the place, and to me feels like a bunch of YouTube parts thrown together into some sort of compilation
[close]



Totally agree. It's been forever since I combed through Pretty Sweet's extra footage but I remember finding it after seeing the video and being very confused as to why a lot of it was left out. Didn't BA have an NBD at Hubba? Either way, that video famously caused some rifts between longtime Crail dudes who got dusted on that video, and seeing this makes me wonder how things woulda panned out if the video was, say, less than 20% b-roll instead. I feel like Pretty Sweet was more of a resume piece for Ty whereas Spirit Quest is a true experiment with the medium and that's why we still talk about it so fondly.

I think BA had something but I can't remember what. It's honestly kinda sad, yeah there needs to be a spotlight on the new skaters and what not but you can't forget the people who brought the company to where it is. If I was the editor on Pretty Sweet I personally would have split it into 2 parts, one for the OG riders, and one for the new riders. They all can have parts with their own song, no Rick-McCrank-1-Trick part type of deal, and they can split trunk boys off into the playground where they belong

CossRooper

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Amazing topic. You're one of the best posters on here lmao. everything high effort.

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The audio replaced with VX (and one DVX) sound
[close]

What's this about?
[close]

For the HD clips in Fully Flared, 99% of the clips in Pretty Sweet, and most skate work after Pretty Sweet, Ty has replaced the audio. He was digging through his old tapes for footage shot on a VX1000, and matching/syncing them up with the footage (poorly done in my opinion). He admits it here in this clearly not paid for promotional video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8yBBDyFOVY&t=5s

this is fucking crazy. I did not believe you until i watched the video. Ty @Manolo 'd his own footage.

suckmadeck

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Amazing topic. You're one of the best posters on here lmao. everything high effort.

Expand Quote
Expand Quote
Quote
Expand Quote
The audio replaced with VX (and one DVX) sound
[close]

What's this about?
[close]

For the HD clips in Fully Flared, 99% of the clips in Pretty Sweet, and most skate work after Pretty Sweet, Ty has replaced the audio. He was digging through his old tapes for footage shot on a VX1000, and matching/syncing them up with the footage (poorly done in my opinion). He admits it here in this clearly not paid for promotional video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8yBBDyFOVY&t=5s
[close]

this is fucking crazy. I did not believe you until i watched the video. Ty @Manolo 'd his own footage.

Yeah, it's fucking crazy. It wouldn't surprise me if he had just left the audio as it is the actual video might have had more attention. I know there are a few clips with original sound but that's like, 5 clips. I can't even begin to imagine how long it took to replace the audio for 45 minutes of skate footage.

Gravity

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I wonder if you just edited out all the b roll of both how theyd be regarded right now

Imo grass is greener situation

CHONGO

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How did I miss this thread? You are a pimp

CossRooper

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@suckmadeck is 1000% the governor of the filming/editing section

yungthug

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Yeah WTF I missed this too, and wow one of the best SLAP posts I have seen in years.

yungthug

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Who's got the fan re-edit of Pretty Sweet? Re-doing Ty Evans' audio dubbing and all lol. But removing a lot of the b-roll and weird editing choices and keeping the skating with better music supervison.

People have done re-edits of more complex material like the David Lynch Dune movie or the Star Wars prequels.

I'm kinda surprised it hasn't happened come to think of it.

somethingmustbreaknow

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Amazing topic. You're one of the best posters on here lmao. everything high effort.
i second this. i also started gnarring suckmadeck for every post he makes in this section several months ago already.  :-*

for the audio-syncing admitted in this video above (which i did not watch) one thought: maybe it's not even true that he did do this and he only says this in order to spice up the legitness and consecutively the sales for this stupid wooden vx microphone thing which he seems somehow involved and7or paid by? whatever

suckmadeck

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I recently cut up a TV show to feature it's deleted scenes so i've got the urge to go in and do a complete b-roll removal of Fully Flared//Pretty Sweet. Shouldn't take me that long tbh, but it would be quite jarring with massive gaps in songs lmao. Also thank you for the kind words guys <3