The Story Film Makers Guild presents ‘0114’.
July 17, 2007
What is it? - 'Through the eyes of Ruby', Neil Chester’s first 'proper' skate video provides the opener to what effectively acts as a video history of the Sheffield/Yorkshire skate scene (and by extension the whole UK) from roughly 1995 to 2002 when Baines’ ‘Driving South’ was released. It should come as no surprise then that all four of the videos on this disc are absolutely full to the brim with classic archive moments from the last decade from just about anyone who's anyone in the British skateboard scene. In fact, the breadth of the skateboarding on here says as much about the career trajectory and scene involvement of the filmers involved, as it does about the skate scene as a whole. Of the four videos on here, Neil Chester is responsible for three of them, with Baines claiming the filming/editing duties on 'Driving South' - and as both those people (as well as contributing filmer on all four - Dan Magee) have been intimately tied to Blueprint from the beginning, there’s a lot of random BP footage scattered throughout. Despite Neil’s somewhat undeserved reputation for fastidiousness when it comes to video-making, I feel duty bound to draw attention to how high the production values are on all of these scene releases, especially TTEOR, which came out at a time when the idea of owning a 3chip camera and/or a decent lens was virtually unheard of. Chez deserves his props here - all of his scene-releases, and TTEOR in particular, really raised the bar for British video-making across the board and set a new level for those in his wake to aim for. This is a must-see collection for fans of the skaters featured, fans of British skate culture in general and a mandatory glimpse into the recent past for the newer skaters out there. Story’s Film Maker’s Guild is a terrific idea and one that deserves your support.
Highlights? - Baines mathematic execution of the Crucible bench set to Elliot Smith still holds its own today, as do what were breakthrough parts for Joel and Scott Palmer at the time. TTEOR also has plenty of good footage from a young Louie Slater, a banging section from John Winter, the inimitable Rob Ransford and even Chez himself. TTEOR also contains what may be the best UK skatepark montage to date, set to Motorhead’s ‘Road Crew’ and packed with footage from the majestic Rehab skatepark in Wakefield, (RIP), Northampton (RIP) and loads more. ‘Steady’ - Chez’s last independent video before joining forces with yours truly to make ‘In Motion’ The Sidewalk video in 2003 and then taking up the TM position at Blueprint and beginning work on what became ‘Lost and Found’ is the second feature. If you ask Chez himself, he’ll mutter in a disapproving voice that Steady shouldn’t even count as a stand-alone video and that it was just “something bone he threw together”, but I think that’s unduly harsh. The two amazing montages alone are worth the £1.25 it’ll cost you - Rattray, Woody, Manzoori, Shier, Palmer, Mackie, Billy Rohan, Paul Silvester, Matt Harfield, Joel O’Connor, Toby Shuall, Ozzie Battler, Vaughan and more besides. On top of those, Steady has a short but enjoyable shared Baines/Joel Curtis part, a mini Ali Boulala section and full coverage of pretty much everything that happened on the infamous UK éS tour featuring Koston, McCrank and a very young and extremely on-fire Paul Rodriguez. Perfect. The third film, Baines’ Sheffield video ‘Driving South’ follows in a similar vein: plenty of montages, Louis Slater Tazering himself, cameos from Ali Boulala, Erik Ellington, Carl Shipman, Dustin Dollin, Benny Fairfax, Richard Chung, Neil Urwin, Nick Mosely, Arthur Tubb, Rob Ransford, a tiny Danny Brady, Kenny Reed, Nik Jensen, Colin Kennedy, Joel Curtis, Baines himself and hundreds more UK-based folk. Despite the title, Driving South is the most heavily Sheffield-based vid on this disc so prepare yourself for oodles of House, Dev Green and ‘The Woodyard’ footage amongst the street stuff. That’s not meant as a negative though, these are ‘scene videos’ and those are the spots that the Sheffield scene revolved around at the time, (and still do today as far as the House and Dev Green are concerned). The final release on here is a 4-minute condensed version of ‘Hating Life’ the A4 UK Sole Tech team video that Chez made in 1998 (I think). For those who haven’t seen this before; expect eye-opening ripping from the likes of Greg Finch, Scott Palmer, Mark Baines, Dave Allen, Ali Cairns, Rodney Clarke, Pete Hellicar and Woody at the height of his handrail-chomping era.On top of all of the above: TTEOR also has extras in the shape of an alternative Joel Curtis edit, a nasty rail incident and a 5 minute montage of unused footage and Steady has a sick extra Boulala section complete with Geoff Rowley and Joel O’Connor cameos and a few different angles on tricks that made their way into Sorry.
Overall? - For a mere five-spot you could be watching everything I’ve just described so don’t be a pillock, go buy it. Contact The Story Store http://www.thestorystore.co.uk You can’t put your arm around a memory, but it’s good to have them on DVD when you want them.
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