Skateboarding has been tied to audiovisual documentation since its beginning. Wether it acts as “proof” of technical advances or because of the aesthetic nature of skateboarding (or a bit of both), skateboarders have been photographed and filmed quite profusely. At first, set ups and formats were all over the place! There was no standardization as only a few brands and/or people even had the means to get a camcorder, and those brands were pioneering what would become skate videos. But even before set ups got standardized for the first time in the mid 90’s with the arrival of the mighty Sony VX1000 coupled with the loved and wide “Century MK1” fisheye, it’s the formats of videos that saw a type of conformity. The “contest” and “demo” videos got really popular quite early and would be for the upcoming 30 years, dying around the early 2010’s (and recently revived by Dime challenge or the Bunt?), “Full length” and “Promos” (essentially the same thing but shorter) would become the staple of core skate filmography up until this day, with tests as early as the beginning of the 1980’s (Powell Perralta and Vision definetly had their version of those till Spike Jonze invented the modern skatevideo with “Video Days”)… Add to this the change of means of distribution with the democratization of Youtube in the mid 2010’s to the social media hype that definitely had an impact, with the emergence of the straight to the internet solo parts as well as more modern and global formats such as Vlogs, documentaries, video interviews… Another obvious format change is ratios, from SD 4/3 (VX era) to 16/9 HD (Panasonic cams and DSLR) and recently 4/3 but in HD. So a few moons ago, the conversation broke out in the Bubble group convo, asking what is the future of skate videos? What format will the people want to watch? Which filmer will come up with the new formular, after the last major change in filming and editing style (from Ty Evans to Bill Strobeck) is quite a while ago. Everybody made some guesses, but we concluded that it’s probably best to hear the take and vision from the lensmasters themselves.
I think the next wave of skatevideos are going to use whatever setups, breaking all code of cameras and fisheye. If you’re good, it’s gonna look good. I seen a lot of shaky filming on expensive setups. Hopefully loads of skits because they always add something to the project, fun is always welcomed. I don’t think a video should be longer than 15min in the future, unless there’s skits haha
I think we’ll start to see a mix of lengths. Independent film makers will hopefully start to work on more full length style videos and put videos out on their own schedules. Songs can range more too – mixing music while still using full songs is awesome. I’ve done more of a score method in recent years. More throwaway videos! Hype up the big production. Doesn’t always need to go on instagram. Throw it up on YouTube like it’s 2011.
I don’t see skate video formats changing very drastically in the next few years. We’ve already seen full-lengths, video parts, raw files, vlogs, and documentaries, and a lot of different aspect ratios: 16:9, 4:3, 4:5, 9:16, even the occasional cinemascope (wink wink, Phil Evans). What could change is the balance between those formats. I can see more vlog-style content appearing on youTube, similar to what Kader has been doing. It feels like a natural evolution of the self-marketing that already exists on Instagram: longer-form content that’s more personal while the video part still remains central.
For me, being a skateboarder since 1990, I’ve seen the production of skate videos go through a lot of changes. I would say the main difference between now and then is the quantity of videos that are being produced. Back in the early 90s, only board brands were putting out videos, and they would make them maximum once a year. There were also a lot less board companies than there are today. If you lived in a small town videos were not easy to find. So you would basically have access to maybe 5 different videos in one year and just have those on repeat. Then around 1993, 411 video magazine appeared and that would come out every month. That was a big change, we could sort of follow the evolution of skateboarding as it happened. Then the internet came, but for a while I feel like the video formats kinda remained the same: the full length was still the standard. Videos would just be more accessible. Magazines started having their own websites so you also started seeing different content like interviews, talk shows, “day in the life” type things… But 411 was kind of already doing that. One big difference with the internet was that companies were not selling physical copies anymore, meaning they were not making money from them anymore. I remember in 2003 we put out the first Antiz video. The accountant said we should make more because the DVD’s brought even more money than board sales. By the time we put out the second one (2007), things had completely changed. So I guess from a certain point board brands started investing less in making videos. Shoe brands were thriving and therefore became the main producers of full length videos and maybe they still are to this day. A pivotal moment was when the Dylan Rieder Gravis part came out. I don’t know if it was the first solo part ever but this one had so much impact that it really became the thing to do. We had entered this era of quantity over quality (don’t get me wrong the Dylan part was really good), so now companies wanted to have stuff come out as often as possible, and putting out a solo part was obviously a lot easier than waiting for 8 or 9 riders to all have a full part ready at the same time…
"I remember in 2003 we put out the first Antiz video. The accountant said we should make more because the DVD’s brought even more money than board sales."
But I think the biggest change in term of format came from social media. Eventually that’s what the new generation started to pay more attention to. So now a lot of the skate content is filmed through a phone’s lens, which is not necessarily a bad thing, you can get creative and do a lot of cool stuff with your phone. But to me it’s crazy that some skaters have full on careers strictly on Instagram. I respect it cause it’s probably a lot of work to keep up and post quality stuff on a regular basis, but I really don’t know many people who are able to do it well. I’m still really attached to the full length (or at least full part) format. I get much more satisfaction from putting out something that is carefully crafted, where you have a concept, a creative process, something that has a story. And luckily I think a lot of people (including young ones) are still very much into that. Because at the end of the day you wanna create something that is meaningful, that you can premiere in front of an audience and be proud of. Imagine just putting out IG videos your whole career. At the end you’ll be like: “Check out my feed, 5 million posts!” Which clip are you gonna pick and say: “This is what I’ve been doing all this time”? So yeah I think full parts and even full lengths videos are here to stay. Also cause it’s a group effort and it’s more fun to work with other people than doing fucking selfies. People don’t realize how much work and stress goes into making a full length video, but I’d rather do that than try to please a fucking algorithm. Regarding documentaries, that’s also something that we’ve seen a lot more in recent years. I guess it’s natural because there’s now a lot of skate history accumulating and a lot of stories to be told. I was really a fan of the Love Letters. I would like to do it too but it’s a really hard equation when you need to find a good subject, have enough time and enough resources. And then you have YouTubers, podcasts and talk shows. There’s a lot of those but I feel like no one has really nailed it yet. It’s either too boring, too long, too vanilla or too hateful. The Bunt guys are doing a really great job though. But I’d like to see something in the format of a proper TV show, with a real set, kinda like the American late shows. Gary Rogers was the closest to that but it would be cool to have a good mix of jokes, interviews, music, fun stuff… All packed in a half hour show. I think I’d enjoy that. Then obviously there’s AI that might have an influence on the way videos will be made in the future. But I really have no idea how that’s gonna affect us. Maybe there will be too much fake stuff and people won’t believe what they see. They will want to see things in real life. So my prediction is: in the future there will be less videos but more events and contests, and demos are gonna make a come back!...;)
I think the future of skate videos lies in a clear evolution of form, not just content. Visually, there’s starting to be a saturation of the same thing, which is why it’s becoming interesting to mix old and new cameras, create contrast, and bring a stronger sense of identity. It’s something we’re already seeing, but I think it will evolve even further – moving towards a deeper blend of raw and documentary styles within the same video. It’s no longer enough to just string together well-filmed tricks. To hold attention, you need to build something more visual and emotional: changes in rhythm, faces, spontaneous moments, laughter… layers that turn the video into a more complete experience. Skateboarding is still the core, but it’s no longer everything like it used to be, when the focus was almost entirely on the difficulty or cleanliness of tricks. Now it also matters how it’s told, how it feels, and what kind of atmosphere it creates. Behind a good video, there’s narrative, intention, and a way of engaging that goes beyond the trick itself. At the same time, we’re living in an era where it’s hard to hold attention for more than 15 minutes. We’re used to fast, immediate content, and that makes it increasingly difficult to sustain longer videos. Even so, there’s still a generation – ours – that values full-length skate videos, with development and time to breathe. The question is what will happen when the next generations, raised on reels and 20-second videos, start shaping the direction. We’ll probably see more short-form pieces, around 3 to 5 minutes, designed for quick consumption. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of longer videos – more a coexistence: short formats to capture attention, and longer ones for those still looking for a deeper experience. The challenge will be finding the balance between both worlds without losing the essence. Because even if formats change, what makes a great skate video special remains the same: the ability to transmit something real.
I think short-form content will continue to be really important, especially for brands, since social media plays such a big role in how they communicate and market. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok aren’t going anywhere, and they’ll keep shaping how skate content is made and shared. At the same time, skate parts are still coming out, which is great, but they’re getting shorter. The bigger montages and full-length videos feel less common now. Overall, everything is becoming more compressed, both in format and in the time spent making it. Before, a project could take a year or more to finish. Now there’s more pressure to keep putting things out consistently, and I think that can affect how much time and energy people invest into longer projects. Because of that, some skaters don’t commit to longer projects in the same way, since there’s this feeling that if you’re not releasing something regularly, you risk becoming irrelevant. But I also want to be hopeful. I think the idea of a proper skate part, where a filmer and a skater really build something together over time, will come back more again. It’s still very important to the culture. It feels like the new generation is starting to see that too. With how much content people are watching every day, it can get a bit overwhelming, and I think that creates a new appreciation for something more thought-out and intentional. Skateboarding always moves in waves, and I think we’ll see a shift back toward longer-form projects again, at least to some extent. When it comes to filming, I think the long lens trend will keep going. It gives filmmakers more flexibility, you can film more skaters, move around easier, and get more content without the same physical effort. Fisheye is different. It takes more work, both physically and technically, and it really depends on the connection between the filmer and the skater. Because of that, it feels like there’s less fisheye filming right now, which is a bit of a shame. I think one reason is that there’s been a strong focus on a specific “industry standard” fisheye setup, especially tied to certain Panasonic cameras. That can feel limiting or even intimidating for newer filmmakers. If you don’t have that exact setup, it can feel like your work won’t be seen the same way. It also affects skaters, since they might feel it’s not worth filming fisheye unless it matches that standard. At the same time, that kind of setup is expensive and not very accessible, especially considering the reality of being out filming in the streets and the risks that comes with it. But if the industry becomes more open to different cameras and approaches, I think fisheye can come back stronger. It would make it more accessible again and give more room for younger filmmakers to develop their own style.
"Putting out rough cuts, putting out videos with no titles and no nothing, just trick by trick. This is for me the end of skate video culture and I hope this is not going to happen."
My my personal favorites are the storytelling formats and what I just worked on and what’s my favorite thing to do is “Abnormal Communications” with Mark Gonzales. It has more layers to it. What I try to avoid is to have people sitting in a chair talking about skateboarding or talking about what happened. For me it’s more like working with voiceover. While people talk you see the action that fits to it. For full length videos, my favorite part is to see a team that really skates together. That’s the most important thing for me. I really appreciate it if I see a Baker video, if you see people skating together. What I really don’t like: Hey everyone out there don’t listen to a Ninja. This is the worst scenario in skateboarding with this guy. Mobbing kids and girls and skate videos that have B-roll in it. I don’t even want to drop his name, but don’t listen to this guy, he’s the worst. This is the end of skateboarding video culture. Like putting out rough cuts, putting out videos with no titles and no nothing, just trick by trick. This is for me the end of skate video culture and I hope this is not going to happen. I need to see love in skate videos and not only tricks. I want to see a good soundtrack. I want to see a personality in skate videos. I want to see B-roll. Don’t listen to guys like Ninja. Videos are getting so flat with only one layer, trick by trick. This will come back as a boomerang. This is the end of skateboarding being interesting and no one wants to see these videos anymore. Keep the storytelling alive in skateboarding. Keep the creativity alive in skateboarding. Don’t put out rough cuts.
