. . .hang out in the garage.

A couple of things fell through/in line to make this episode happen. The first was work, I had a shoot cancel with about one week's notice. Sweet, now I can be a part of the All City Showdown that Uprise was putting on..or so I thought. Well, that didn't work out either, we were too late to sign up. So, that left me with a Panasonic GH4 package for the day with nothing to do. Cut to 5 minutes later and get a call about painting some skateboard decks in friends garage...perfect. I think I was more excited to shoot this then any of the other opportunities that had fallen through that day. Lots of fun/beer was had and we even found a new spot. I've said it before, it's the surprise sessions that always turn out to be the best.

Skateboarding is still fun

. . .skate a little longer.

Sundays Episode 48 - Night Moves from peter w. on Vimeo.

. . .sweep that again.

Sundays Episode 47 Broken Glass from peter w. on Vimeo.

This time we were smart enough to leave the warmup spot while our old legs still worked. Even better, the spot was only a few minutes from the park. Way to think thing through for once guys. But yeah, Randy mentioned this closed down car dealership by his house that looked skateable. It actually was, except for the 2 inches of broken glass that covered the entire joint. We did alright though, Zach was the only one that managed to cut himself.

One thing that makes me laugh is the super arty footage of Larry skating the tiny out ledge. We decided to up the production value and dribble some broken glass in the foreground. It's pretty much "Saving Private Ryan Part 2."

Skateboarding is still fun.

. . .build a dumb ramp.

It feels good to be back.  Chicago's winter was the worst that I could remember.  We had our first 60 degree day and what do we do?  Build a dumb ramp out of scrap wood in Randy's backyard, it makes sense if you think about it...
So yeah, most of the plywood that Randy had was only two feet wide so that's how wide it ended up being.  Two feet is way narrower than you think.  Oh, and the coping was made of branches.

. . .get a job.

Sundays Ep. 45 Red Bull Daily Grind from peter w. on Vimeo.

If you watch only one office skatepark themed video with a Dolly Parton soundtrack, make it this one! 

Every once in a while, I get lucky enough to work on something that involves skateboarding.  It's great when passions collide (That may be the name of my next romance novel).  Back in November, we worked on Daily Grind with Red Bull.  Pretty much the idea was to build a skatepark on the 23rd floor of an epic office building in Chicago's loop.  Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be shooting this one but I was there to make it look like a real functioning office. Not ideal but still really fun. So we put up some cubes, hung a bunch of terrible posters, and so on.  It turned out really well, I think?

Even more fun than the set dressing (that's an odd statement),  was the skating.  The Daily Grind was actually skateable for about 3 weeks or so.  If you've ever been in Chicago in November, you know how much you need an indoor skatespot come winter.  Somehow, the Sundays crew was able to get in there and get a little bit of shred on (See shredding above).

Here's Red Bull's edit.
 

Sundays Ep. 44 All City Showdown Chicago from peter w. on Vimeo.

Two, maybe three, months ago the Sundays crew signed up for Uprise's All City Showdown (ACSC).  Inspired from the Seattle contest of the same name.  How it works is you have a team of 3 skaters and one filmer and you get 8 hours to get clips.  At the end of the day, everyone turns in their raw footage and they make a video out of everyone's footy.  So, probably the most epic Chicago skate video was made over the span of 8 hours.  I think there were 29 teams (That might be high) in the contest this year.  Crew's came from Michigan, Ohio, Dax even flew in from Arizona for it.  Needless to say, Team Last Place (That was our team name) was in for some stiff competition.  Spoiler alert, we did not win.  We had a few clips in the final edit, which you can buy from Uprise.

So, this is my edit of our footage from that day.  I decided to forgo the GoPro and use a big boy camera for the day, I rented a Sony FS700 from the boys at Magnanimous Media and borrowed a slider from Mo.  Not going to lie, I was really pulling for Best Use of Books Found Under a Bridge or Most Dramatic Shot of Sweeping but to my dismay, neither of those are real categories.

No one on our team thought we would win but this is skateboarding, it's not about winning.  It's about the experience and getting rad...which, I think we did a pretty good job.

Thanks again Uprise. Also, big thanks to Team Last Place: Randy Korwin, Zach Martin, Bill Wiora, and Larry Dobson (Life Coach)

. . .paint more curbs.

Winter's coming and sessions are getting shorter and further apart. I'm not going to lie, I was a little bummed that the dudes wanted to skate some random Chicago suburb school with painted curbs. For some reason, I thought we'd end up somewhere epic...about ten minutes into the session, I realized this spot was epic! So yeah, we ended up skating our asses off for 2 hours, eating some lunch and then heading back to the school for another round of slappies. Somehow, we managed to film all this in about 35 minutes which is good because we're old and had nothing left in the tank.

If this ends up being my last outdoor session of the year, I'm okay with that.

. . .duck and cover.

Michigan City has one of my all time favorite spots but we haven't been out there for like eight years?  It's only an hour or so away, who knows... But yeah, it's always rad to get out there and shred.  It's kind of an eerie ghost town on Sundays, which works out fine.  We did manage to hook up with a local, Gordy Tharp, who destroyed the bank spot with some casual originality.  Gordy's trying to keep his scene alive out in Michigan City.  Here's a link to download his 'zine "The Lurker."

. . .fall down, sometimes.

It's not that often that you see the filmer (in this case, me) fall and manage to still get the shot of the skater who then slams too. I'm pretty sure if you watch this clip, it'll open up a worm hole or something like that.

. . .skate some more

Holy crap.  This is the 40th Sundays episode?  Crazy.  Tons of skating in this one.  We had a tight crew and actually fit into one car or skated from spot to spot.  Larry was our tour guide and totally came through with some random/awesome spots.  I kinda feel like everyone (but me) stepped up their game for this one.  Even crazier, we skated for 9 hours...

. . .have some fun at work.

Work's been busy this summer and we've had a chance to be a part of some pretty awesome stuff. As things slow down a little, an opportunity to create a few quick spots for rEvolution's new Social Assist program popped up. Of course, this was all done in sprint like fashion, we had two weeks to get it all done. I'm talking conception, writing, casting, prepro, shooting and post.

"Oh and that budget you mentioned, can you do it for half that price?" Which is a pretty common thing to hear now.

...alright, here we go. Now this meant I was to go at prepping this whole thing by myself (I barely know how to use excel/word so just imagine how awesome the call sheets and shot lists looked). Luckily, we had enough budget to hire a few ringers for the shoot day; Randy Korwin-one man camera dept/G/E crew, Tim Edson-Sound Wizard, Eric Gillete-PA/head popper upper, and Ebony Rogers-Hair and MU technician.

Don't Be That Guy: rEvolution's Social Assist™ powered by Tracx from rEvolution on Vimeo.

The luckiest break I had was reaching out to an old friend, Bob Ladewig, with improv contacts in Chicago. He came through with some great people from Comedy Sports Chicago. Not only were they funny, they also knew how to hit all their marks every time. I'm pretty sure we all ruined takes because we were laughing too loud.

Don't Be That Guy: rEvolution's Social Assist™ powered by Tracx from rEvolution on Vimeo.


Don't Be That Guy: rEvolution's Social Assist™ powered by Tracx from rEvolution on Vimeo.
It was an epic shoot day and everyone really pitched in.  Somehow, we wrapped early?  Who knows.  

. . .hang out in the garage today.

It was hot so we go started early this time.  Then the rains came so we got our mid '90's on and skated manny pads in a parking garage.  Of course, our warm up spot became our all day spot!  Randy channeled his inner Ronnie Creager and moves were made.  Also, we had had a guest filmer for some of this.  Jeff made his Sundays debut, thanks for the help!

. . .go back there.

"Yeah, I ollied that hip...in 1994," I said as we walked up to the spot.  Chad said he hadn't skated the downhill bank thing since 1990.  Crap, we're old. What you don't see in the edit is the horrible time we had at the Lockport park.  That place sucks.  We once found a bag of knives there and met a kid who made his own cologne in his closet.  Real talk.

. . .skate longer than an hour.

Sundays Episode 37 - Keep Going from peter w. on Vimeo.

Some old dudes skating all day long long? Yup, that kinda happened. Two Skateparks and some street spots! Villa Park and Woodridge and some random crusty ledges in between.

. . .uh, I don't know anymore.

So, I'm not too into the big name takeover in the skate shoe world (I know, I've owned a bunch of Nikes blah blah blah). I'd like to think I'm reformed or born again when it comes to supporting anything Skater owned/operated. However, the one thing I really appreciate with these bigger companies coming in is the time and money they put behind their videos (Hopefully, guys like Russell Houghten are making some money). It really gives these guys, the filmmakers, a great chance to do something different.  Don't get me wrong, I still love the gritty GX1000 series but the camera nerd in me loves to see new technology and techniques put to work.  This New Balance Numeric video, "A Place in the Sun," is a pretty great example of that.

I'm so confused...and hungry.

A Place in the Sun from New Balance Numeric on Vimeo.

. . .try going west sometime.

Finally we had a break in the weather and I had a break from work.  We rallied some troops and headed west to the Roselle skatepark and a pretty rad street spot.  Not shown, is our trip to Yeah Boardshop where we all stocked up on skate goodies. Thanks again Dav!

. . .check this band out (3 Days at Pitchfork).

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to shoot the Pitchfork Music Fest in Chicago for Goose Island/rEvolution.   The plan was to shoot everyday and post a recap by 10am the following morning. . .I needed to call in reinforcements on this one.  Mainly, super editor/handsome man Dan Marcus.  Dan signed on to work overnights editing each days footage (GB-age?, this isn't film).  Dan is a wizard, there are cuts in here that I would have never thought of!  So, armed with a Sony FS700 and some Canon glass we were off!  Oh yeah, it was about 100 degrees all weekend, rad.

Day 1 - The Beer

Goose Island @ Pitchfork Day 1 - 2013 from Goose Island Beer Co. on Vimeo.
Day 2 - The Music
Goose Island @ Pitchfork Day 2 - 2013 from Goose Island Beer Co. on Vimeo.
Day 3 - The Fest
Goose Island @ Pitchfork Day 3 - 2013 from Goose Island Beer Co. on Vimeo.
All three days. A look back on the entire weekend.
Pitchfork Music Festival from Goose Island Brewery from Goose Island Beer Co. on Vimeo.

I still haven't caught up on sleep.

. . . do it yo'self (Actually, have someone else do it for you).

I've seen this spot for a while and never realized it's pretty close to my house, I thought it was in Milwaukee for some reason. Also, I have no idea who built it, thanks guys!. So yeah, it was awesome to get out with some new dudes. This week we meet up with Marfa and some FA (faskates.com/) shredders. Straight out of the car these guys were ripping.

. . .go skateboarding, in the rain.

The original plan of skating from Grant park to Humbolt Park was rained out. I was really looking forward to shooting a gang of kids skating through Chicago's Loop. In the end, I think we (Randy and I) were even luckier to have had the rain. Sure, shooting with the FS700 in the rain isn't easy, I shot most of the rain footage from the back of my Honda Fit....that's why I always buy hatchbacks.

Eventually, we made it to Clemente for the GSD Jam that Uprise and NIke were putting on. It was good to see everyone. I'm pretty sure Reggie Destin was smiling down on us because there were some crazy wallrides happening. Also, the Fully Torqued RV crew was there with Clive Dixon, Clint Walker, Dirty, Adam Mills, and Trevor Vaughn.

Thanks Randy, for being such a trooper!

. . .let me see that.

Sundays Episode 33 - Combo Pack from peter w. on Vimeo.

Things have been busy lately.  Plus, the sessions haven't really panned out.  Whether it's rain, lack of motivation or whatever, sometimes there's just not enough footage to put together an edit.  This episode is from some of the days where we couldn't get our act together.  Except for the Villa Park session, we were rained out.  Oh yeah, we even were able to skate with Steve Davenport from Yeah Boardshop this past weekend too! The dude shreds.

A little back story on one of the clips.  Bill Wiora's double exposure line at :21.  We actually went back and refilm the first thing we ever shot together, the line at Tito Benches (10 years ago?).  I ended up laying the original line on top of the new version (turns out, both the skating and filming were better ten years ago! HA).