The Full Length
The incessant bombardment of short form visual and written media is admittedly intoxicating and it’s easy to trick oneself that you are consuming an incredible amount knowledge and inspiring content, but then the party ends and you’re left alone in the living room on a shabby couch in a house that you may or may not know the occupants listening to the incoherent ramblings of some guy with a lighter leash.
But out of nowhere HUF drops a full length that, dare I say, is the best skateboard video to come out since Photosynthesis. The early Transworld influences are obvious so I’m not dismissing those videos but they always felt slightly disjointed due to the singular nature of filming for those projects. Like Photo, this is a team video and it shows.
It sounds silly to say but this video quite literally made me feel better in all areas of my life. This feeling of, “Thank god we can still make art in skateboarding and why aren’t we just always doing this?”. Why is there a new behind the ad video every single day on Youtube? Just stop, we don’t need it. And that gets me to my main point.
The full length benefits everyone involved, (besides the brand if we are looking at this from purely a capitalistic standpoint and not a cultural stance, but the constant shadow of the almighty dollar doesn’t feel so great so let’s discuss this from the sunshine).
The full length first and foremost benefits the viewer because obviously sinking into 30-45 minutes of view time on a big screen just beats the living hell out of 3-5 minutes on a phone.
It benefits the skaters involved because they get more time to work on something that is incredibly difficult. The general public looks at street skating as a nuisance done by drug addled morons, which sometimes isn’t far off the mark, but that shouldn’t discredit how shockingly unbelievable it is to be at the level of a professional skateboarder. When we force said skateboarder to film a part in a couple months over and over again for no other purpose than to create content to sell a product, the end result is generally pretty lackluster. Tell me the title and songs used in a handful of single person parts over the last couple years. Now tell me the title, skaters, songs, tricks and quotes in full lengths from 15-30 years ago. I guarantee I know which one will be an easier assignment The full length allows skateboarders to curate a part over a longer period of time through travel and personal exploration. They can also feel a sense of pride in what they are working towards, as it will be added to the canon of skateboard culture. The full length just simply makes a bigger impact on skateboarding and those who put they’re life on the line to sell product deserve more chances to be a part of projects like that.
The filmmakers, the unsung heroes. Anyone getting into a creative field obviously desires the time and space to be just that, creative. You think they like pumping out subpar videos just so some brand can upload Joe Shmo’s two minutes of uninspired skating? Fuck no. They want to have their hands in something special. They want the time to let an aesthetic develop. In Huf’s Forever there are so many different visual formats used to document the lives of these individuals over the course of a year or two. Those different formats were impactful because they are spread out through the video, they aren’t just smashed together in 4 minutes because “Hey, VHS footage is hot right now so we better jam that in there.”. The editing gets to be playful and change with the different song choices. There are montages and the segues between parts are well thought out and smooth. Each part develops and expresses the character of the rider and team. There are rises and falls in emotion and all of this is possible because the filmmakers and editors were given the time they deserve to make a project that we can respect.
Details baby, it’s about details. Quality over quantity, all that bullshit, but it’s true. Make something worthwhile to add to the digital noise and it will stand out. That’s where the brand benefits, it may not be directly monetary but you handed this incredibly special culture the gift of giving a shit. You respected the viewer enough to believe that they had the brains to enjoy something art driven rather than content driven. Now keep doing it.
I know I’m old and I know talking about this will be grating to younger people but sometimes when the old one’s say it was better back then, it just was. Full lengths are better. Orange and yellow tapes were better. Waiting was better. Watching a skate videos with your friends was better. I don’t really know why I’m writing this but it’s been in my head since I first watched Forever and I guess I just needed to say it. Hopefully it strikes a chord with someone. Take care.
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