Red Bull No Rewind: Real Skateboards
Video by Andres Bill. photos by Gabe Morford.
Red Bull No Rewind
4 skate teams are given a VX1000 with the rewind/eject buttons disabled and only 1 tape
Team: Real Skateboards
Real’s never been a brand known for flashy gimmicks and weird visuals—and despite having one of the best teams in all of skateboarding, they’ve never really come off as overly-competitive or jock-y. So it’s no surprise filmmaker Andres Bill stuck to their roots for Red Bull No Rewind, submitting a no-frills edit full of raw street skating (and a little vert for good measure). While this may have been Andres’ first official filming project for Real, it’s safe to say he’s no amateur with a VX1000. Push play and get stoked to see the team ripping in 4:3 again.
Ishod Wair, backside flip.
How did this project come about?
So I just started working for Deluxe and Tim [Fulton] had mentioned to me about Real making a VX edit for a Red Bull contest and that I would be filming and editing the whole thing. So it was pretty much my first project with the brand, which kinda made me nervous since I hadn’t filmed with a VX in like seven years [laughs].
It seems like you guys hit the streets pretty hard for this one. Why’d you decide to turn it into a full street edit as opposed to any other possible concept you could’ve come up with?
I just wanted to make it a normal skate video. I didn’t really like the gimmick idea. The fact that we had to use a VX was already something that could grab people’s attention.
“I just wanted to make it a normal skate video, I didn’t really like the gimmick idea. The fact that we had to use a VX was already something that could grab people’s attention. ”
Anything you wish you got while filming, or are you all totally happy with how everything came out?
I honestly can’t think of anything that got away while filming for this. I kind of just told everyone to just do whatever so they could land stuff quickly. A Hermann [Stene] clip or Nicole [Hause] clip would have been pretty beast though, but they were both not in town at the time.
Real’s VX1000 customized by Aaron Felix. Photo by Seu Trinh.
What was the biggest challenge you guys faced for the project, and that you faced while making the edit?
The biggest challenge for sure was getting used to the VX. I’m not gonna lie, I shook a lot while filming this edit and it definitely bummed me out. It’s just so light compared to the HPX extreme set up. Also, not being able to watch the clip to see how I was filming made it a little difficult, but not having the buttons wasn’t too big of a deal and we actually had 15 minutes of tape left over at the end of our filming time, so we definitely weren’t stressing on running out of tape.
The Jimmy Wilkins vert filming is pretty insane – doing doubles while filming was totally unexpected. Was that your first time doing an air on vert while filming? What was it like?
[Laughs] So that definitely wasn’t me airing over Jimmy. I don’t think I’d even drop in on that ramp ever in my life. I filmed all the stuff up top fisheye but the follow cam was our homie Shea Donavan. Shea and Jimmy skate that ramp so much and film each other with a GoPro so we figured to try it with a VX and it worked out perfectly.
“Shea and Jimmy skate that ramp so much and film each other with a GoPro, so we figured to try it with a VX and it worked out perfectly.”
Skaters are always used to checking the clip right after landing a trick, but that wasn’t possible here, right?
Yeah, definitely not possible here, but you kind of don’t wanna keep watching footage on a VX anyway since it’ll probably ruin the heads in the tape deck. They’re so fragile. Back when I started filming I broke like 3 VXs from watching footage too much.
Do you think that added any stress to you as the filmer or to any of the skaters?
I mean, I was for sure stressed about whether or not I was filming stuff properly, but i didn’t really want to take it too seriously and start tripping over every clip. The skaters didn’t need to stress at all. This project was more fun than serious so there wasn’t a need to stress. If we win that would be cool, if not all good.
Schoolyards and VXs are a match made in 4:3 heaven.
Overall, what do you like about the VX? How does filming and/or watching VX footage make you feel?
I love filming with the VX—it’s actually my favorite camera to film with. The colors always look nice and the mk1 is for sure the best fisheye ever made. I know people hate on VX footage all the time saying, “Why would you want to watch skating in bad quality?” But it looks great to me. Fools just always need to hate on something. No one is ever satisfied [laughs].
What about the sound of the VX? Everyone talks about how much they love the microphone on it.
The mic sounds so good. I don’t know what’s different about that mic and why no other camera brand can recreate it, but Sony nailed it with that mic. If we could just put that mic on an HPX it would be the perfect set up
“The VX will always have its special place in the skate industry... If it wasn’t for that camera, so many different styles of filming wouldn’t even be a thing. ”
Should the skate industry still care about the VX when we have so many other cameras out there to choose from? Why or why not?
Honestly, the VX will always have its special place in the skate industry. I, for sure, think we should care about it. If it wasn’t for that camera, so many different styles of filming wouldn’t even be a thing. I pretty much took what I knew from filming with VX and applied it to my HPX filming, so it holds a special place in my heart. I know so many of the older generation of videographers hate the VX since we have all the newer cameras, but I’m sorry, the majority of those cameras look terrible [laughs]. I’m probably gonna get hate for saying that, but it’s chill. I’d way rather watch a proper VX full-length than a full-length filmed with a DSLR or GH5. I will say Primitive does a good job with the higher quality cameras though—I do enjoy their videos.
