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.
Topic: How much skate footage is there actually in Fully Flared & Pretty Sweet? A Study (Read 2245 times)