I’m not much of a skate video fan, but when I do watch, I like them to be high concept…or just blooper reels of people taking handrails to the nuts. The clip above is Lakai’s LAKAIROMANIA and it’s a great example of the former. It’s an awesome bit of slowmotion fire porn, with folks grinding gasoline soaked rails. As their submission to the Transworld Skateboarding 2010 Skate & Create competition, the short blows the other entries out of the out of the water. Featured in the video is Ima Robot’s ‘Ruthless’, which like some of the music in Lakai’s other clips is suitably moody.
In researching this video, I discovered there’s a common thread in the other skate videos I’ve enjoyed over the years. LAKAIROMANIA is directed by Ty Evans and produced by Spike Jonez. The last skate video that caught my eye happens to be another Lakai production:
From 2007, Fully Flared is another type of slow motion porn, this time full of awesome explosions. Directed by both Ty Evans and Spike Jonez, it keeps things interesting by sticking the skaters in what looks like some potentially hazardous sitiuations. The score this time is M83, a band which if you pair any of their songs up with slow motion video, the result will be seeped in excess gravitas.
Going back one step further to Yeah Right,the first skate video that caught my eye happens again to be directed by the pair of Evans and Jonez. In the set piece of this one, they remove the rider’s boards via greenscreen. The result is strangely dreamy, people just gracefully scooting along on nothing.
The film’s intro scene is also interesting, shot at around 100fps from close-in on the board. From that angle, you get a peek into how the feet work on a double kickflip. Awesome.
Craft Spells – Party Talk
