Lewis Ross; filmer, editor, campaigner, skater, and all-round rad dude from Norwich (UK), took the time to talk to Skateism about some of the highlights of his career, and what goes on behind the lens. We think you’ll agree that he there are some pretty interesting insights.
Hi Lewis, I think it’s safe to say you’re a very active member of the Norwich skateboard scene. Can you give us a quick run down of some of the things you’ve done to help it grow?
Hello, well I’ve been filming my mates since ’97, contributing to and making videos on VHS, DVD and now Youtube. I was involved in a thing called the Bedlum Festival with many others; basically a 1 day festival in Chapelfield Gardens (city centre park) to show the council that a skatepark would be a good idea,(avg turn out 500-600) with music from local young bands on a flat-bed-lorry and some ramps on the paths. Always a fun day, that was 97-2001. Then a private park opened up in the ‘THPS (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Game Series) Boom’. We kept Bedlum going but the council lost interest as the question of a park was answered! It shut in 2003 due to an insurance claim! I persevered in meetings with the council for 8 years (again with many other good souls) to get our public park. Making videos occupies most of my time now and I hope I can stoke people on their own scene and spots. Oh and I first sent a letter to my councillor asking for a skatepark when I was 11, 1988
Wow, nice stuff! So you’ve been filming now for nearing two decades. What about the production side of skateboard videos really fascinates you?
I kind of wanted to be a turntable DJ but never got beyond having a go on friends Technics while spending half my money on records, when I got a PC and started learning how to edit, it occurred to me that the timeline could let me mix music and audio, like I’d imagined, sample anything and time it up perfectly. I like playing around in the edit when I have the freedom and time to do it, even choosing music is great, I usually ask what people would like and then get given a whole new set stuff to listen to that I might never have heard if not, Working with people who know what they want their section to be like is always good. I want to represent the skater as an individual so their input is more than just tricks, then they are happy with the final outcome and hopefully want to do more.
You said you liked working with the skaters on your videos, and really care about their representation therein, can you give us some examples of people you loved working with, and any interesting anecdotes regarding your collaborations with them?
Ben Rowley, Frank Stephens, Sam Avery (owner of Drug Store), Tom Lock. Ben is good because he makes beats too, but it makes it harder to say “no, I don’t like it try this” because I don’t want to hurt his feelings! Thankfully he’s really good at it! Frank is a bit of a night owl and has laid hammers while the bakery-staff were having a fag break in the background. He’s dedicated. We went on a long weekend to Ipswich, it rained every day, but we went to the wasteland spot called Russia anyway because it was important to him to get some home town footage. This spot in particular: puddles in the run-up and roll-out, showers every 10 minutes, then a sunny spell, then showers, really windy. He built 2 dams to protect the run-up, but it was still soaked. we got drenched, and in the end after 3 trips there in 4 days, 4 boards snapped, 2 dams built and rebuilt, the desired trick was in the bag! He has a very silly/surreal sense of humour too, the section we are doing now for Wight Trash shows that side of him, watch out for it!
Sam asked me to make the Drug Store video “Dreams That Money Can Buy”.
Sam went to art school, like me, so we connect on various levels when it comes to art, music, skating, (the title was borrowed from a great surrealist film, check it outhere), we don’t always see eye-to-eye but most of the time we do, and we can talk about this stuff openly without fear of offence. Thats the best way a creative relationship can be, in my opinion. He gave me a CD of music and said ‘this is the soundtrack for the video!’; done deal…I objected about 1 song and he said that that was the 1 song he had reservations about too. It made making the video a different experience in terms of your question but it worked out really well. He wanted control of the mixtape, as he put it, before MP3s and CDs, we both made mixtapes for friends.
Understanding that element of musical juxtaposition is crucial for a good video, I think. A video is a long player, not a one hit wonder!
Frank Stephens was the only skater Sam trusted to pick their own song, I chose a couple for friends section tracks, beyond that he’s said that he trusts me to make something good more than he trusts himself!
Tom Lock I mention because it was the first time I really made a section! Before that I was just filming what happened and editing from cam to VHS, or sending it to John Cattle who did Viewfinder video magazine. In summer 2004, I was able to borrow a Mac for six weeks and 2 or 3 years worth of footage got turned into 1 video. Seeing it come together spurred us on to make it better in that 6 weeks. Tom had ideas, we would get up at 6 in the morning just to get a session on a specific spot before it opened for business. He chose music and was rewarded by Fos who put him on Landscape skateboards, Fos told me he has never and will never let riders choose music on Heroin videos and sponsor-me tapes should never have music, “If the person watching that sponsor me tape doesn’t like the band you chose they will probably turn it off and not watch to the end”. Fortunately for Tom, Fos was a big fan of the Cure, and his skating. Which proves there are exceptions to every rule.
Wow, so the music is clearly a massive part of the process, can you give us your top five tracks/parts, where you feel the music, skating, and general vibe of the video is especially good?
Number 1:
Ricky Oyola in Eastern Exposure 3, In ’96 I wasn’t a big metal fan but this section converted me; raw street skating that we in crusty-spot-ridden Norwich could relate to. It’s really really well edited too. In fact the whole video had a huge influence on me and my friends at the time!
Number 2:
Danny Wainwright in Playing Fields. I’m slightly biased here, having helped remaster and re-release this video on DVD recently, but this section still makes me want to skate. The tune by Courtney Pine complements his cruising lines and understated nonchalance perfectly. Word is even Powell Peralta were envious of how PF had captured a side of Danny they saw but never could transfer into a video part that did him justice. Big up Frank Stephens for song choice on that one!
Number 3:
Richie Jackson in And Now – Transworld video. I’ve been a fan of Richie’s sideways take on skating since I first saw him on Death’s Escape from Boredom video, all his sections are great, but the song in And Now; the lyrics at the start could have been written about him!
Number 4:
Tom Penny in Menikmati. The intro voice over from Geoff Rowley sets the mood and the classic 90s trip-hop tune from Air makes it a window into Penny’s world. It certainly helped build the Penny myth. I saw him at the Radlands comp in ’95, tapping his axle. The whole weekend he was so fucking rad and the most chilled! He’s the best, not that he cares!
Number 5:
Mark Gonzalez in Video Days. John Coltrane – Traneing in. Best Willy Wonker quote, then Jazz. Not everyone’s cup of tea and not exactly cool in the skate scene, but it works so well. I’m a bit of a fan, John Coltrane is a master craftsman and so is Gonz. They compliment each other. Also waking up in a tent at Livingston skate park Party weekend with a massive hangover was good (“In” the tent was a win) but then this tune blasting out of the sound system made everything much better! Would that have happened if not for this section?
I for one actually feel that some smooth jazz/lounge music can really go well with skateboarding, I’d like to see more of that collaboration. Nice selection…
I couldn’t agree more, Jazz is great for skating! I used another Coltrane track in a crew section for a scene video I made and someone told me no skater could really pull off skating to Jazz since Gonz did it so well. Who could match it? I suggested hip hop not be used again since Zoo York killed it with Mixtape, “Ah no thats totally different” he said… Ridiculous. What do you think?
So what do you feel is next on the cards for skateboarding? We know cameras are getting better and better, and skate-companies are already experimenting with different ways of editing/filming, do you think the trick-after-trick format will always be the go-to classic, or do you think there could be something new in the pipeline?
Well the current format trend seems to be one trick sketchily filmed on a camera-phone… Video seems to be becoming more disposable; starting with Youtube, Vimeo, etc and now Instaclips. Video has become devalued as technology has become better/more accessible. Everyone’s got video on their phone, so they film everything, I don’t like it but I don’t begrudge it. I’ve embraced Youtube but I’d prefer it if businesses didn’t do the instaclip thing, but you have to go where the audience is right? If I’d had the same bit of kit when I was 15 I’d have been all over it. I had those disposable cameras a lot, and then my Dad gave me his old SLR, I took photos and showed them to anyone who would look. I dreamt of having a video camera, even crap cheap cameras were £500 then (and £500 was more like £1000, or more in today’s money, (shit, I’m old)). I do understand the appeal. Skate videos I grew up with were hour-long, big productions like Powell’s Animal Chin, Public Domain, Ban This, H Street’s Shackle Me Not, Hocus Pocus, Girl’s Goldfish, Mouse, Dan Wolfe’s Eastern Exposure series, etc. So that’s what I wanted to emulate. I wonder what kids growing up in it today will aspire to, instaclips? It’s a tough one, and I don’t want to sound like an old man moaning, but I do analyse what I see and over-think most of it, so sometimes it comes out sounding negative, but I don’t mean it that way I just like to discuss it all. Or else skate videos just become adverts…something to tack a logo onto. We all know that skate-videos so much more than that. I am not a good little consumer! Some kids give me hope though, Liam and Callum Painter in Norwich run their own skate clothing brand called One8T, them and their mates make rad Youtube videos all the time and recently they made a full length DVD; i’m very stoked about this! Its in sections but everyone keeps turning up again and again; 2 or 3 sections each, spliced in with random daftness, a bit of a session, the random drunk people they met in town, jumping in rivers, more skating, slams, dancing to no music, etc. It’s a really good-fun vibe! It’s clear they are all great mates and having a laugh. At first I was surprised by the disorganised nature of it, but the more I’ve watched it the more sense it makes, and represents them as a crew. It sells the idea that those skateboards might lead to some fun times with your mates rather than the usual “Check me out and chill” factor that the classic format struggles to avoid. So is there anything new on the cards? I think the instant nature of the internet is having an effect and that will be the test-bed for new formats. I’ve done my own 5 trick-fix rip-off called Five Highs, I draw the line there, I won’t be uploading any single clips, its against my religion. Richie Jackson has said he feels sections don’t need to be 5 year endeavours anymore, and should be more instantaneous. Slap’s One In A Million proved that full on reality TV formats and skateboarding don’t mix, but we kind of knew that already. The first ones were OK, but the last one was pure shit trying to emulate X factor and Big Brother. Maybe the documentary style will take over, I really enjoyed the one Moch showed me about the Skate scene in Athens (The ATH Documentary). Nice to hear people talk about their scene. POV gopro stuff is a bit weird; oh yeah of course, see what the next big thing is in porn and we’ll be doing that a few years later! You know the Death Lens was developed for the porn industry right!?
There are many parallels between the porn-industry and skateboarding,
Jerry Hsu said it better…
I’m sure something new is around the corner but who knows how it will manifest. There is only so much you can do with new lenses and more pixels so it will be a production/editing choice and it will probably be borne out of a reaction against the Classic format but I think the classic will endure for all time.
So, what would you say to any aspiring filmer?
I’ve been asked this a few times, I always say film with your mates, have fun with it… and have patience with them. The more you film and make edits the easier it becomes to meet and ask new friends if you can film them, the better you get the more people want you to film them,etc.
Watch videos and think about what the filmers are doing to get those shots that way. Remember there are no rules, but there are also loads of rules which are there to be broken.
Do it for the love cos its never paid the bills.
I’ve hit a hatrick of cliches sorry, its really hard not to, advice is cliche!
So where would you tell your readers to check out next, in terms of the Norwich scene?
Definitely watch the One8T Xmas Edit, its awesome.
Drug Store is a skate shop and a label that does the best T shirt designs, I make lots of videos for them all on my channel 5 Eyes Skateboarding.
Milk Skateboards hook up a string of rippers on the east coast and are currently making a video. (There is a Milk Skateboards playlist on my channel.)
Justin Rawnsley and Jasper Pegg are most local and both are ridiculous on a board.
Ben Rowley is one to watch on 14:01 Skate Co, always productive and creative.
Jacob Attenborrow is a rail chomping rotter on Pariah and, Spanky, real name Tom O’Driscoll, is the next generation with mates, Olly Allen and Malachi Smith, all on One8T Skate-Team.
Thanks to all those guys: Drug Store Skateboarding, Milk Skateboards, Wight Trash Skateboards, 14:01 Skate Co and Pariah that help me out with boards, shirts, wheels, stickers, hats, shoes,etc. Thanks for keeping me rolling and dressed! And thanks to Moch at Skateism for wanting to do this interview, its been fun! And you too Osh, give me a bell when you’re back from Athens.
We really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, keep pushing…
Thanks to Lewis Ross for the insights, we at Skateism hope you enjoyed the interview. Lots more to come!
