Skateboarding
Stuttgart as you’ve never seen it before!
Felix Löchel is a 27-year-old skater and filmmaker from Ravensburg, southern Germany. Bitten by the skateboarding bug on a board stolen from his big sister who used to skate (now that’s not a sentence you read every day), he acquired a VX2100 from Stephan ‘Fieby’ Fiedler at Fossy Skateshop and began “learning by doing”, as he puts it. An unapologetic product of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater generation, Felix moved to Stuttgart in 2010 to work as a video editor, but his experience of large creative agencies has ensured that he never wanders far from the “childish freedom” of skateboarding.
He describes editing skate videos as “10 percent technical, 90 percent personal”, and draws comparisons between skate and music videos in as much as “both are basically about rhythm and style”. We asked him for some of his insights, pitfalls, and tricks of the trade to go alongside his banging videofolio.
Here’s what he had to say:
Can you describe your everyday, go-to skateboard filming set-up? What is the reasoning behind your preferred choice? Handle, microphone, tripod… and most importantly a good cruiser with bigger wheels so you can film lines faster without shakiness or sound from your wheels. Currently I film with a [Panasonic Lumix] Gh4 and a Blackmagic Cinema pocket camera; the Lumix Gh4 is a good-value, all-around camera, for sure. The Blackmagic has got a huge dynamic range and its own more cinematic look. Also, bring bananas and water!
Let’s say you are talking to a newcomer to skateboard filming and editing: what are the big lessons you have learned which you can pass on? Get a real job? (laughs) Making a living within the skateboard industry is like a one-in-a-million chance. Film with people you like hanging out with. Always check your bag twice… battery? SD cards in? If not, go get 'em! Also, there is so much more to film than just skateboarding.
Has anyone ever hurt themselves doing something you said would ‘look good’? I never ask someone to do big shit: the skater should know what he is capable of. Always… but, if someone is making a claim and I take my time to go film it…he should try it at least once. During the filming process, skateboarders are so focused on their tricks that they don't bail that much. It’s always during the dorking bit where people eat shit.
If you had a blank-cheque scenario, what would you shoot, what equipment, with who and where? It is not about the equipment, or money... it’s about knowing what you are capable of in creative or rational ways: a good idea is priceless. I see VX clips on the internet like Josh Stewart’s Static IV and they are, like, the best thing ever produced in skateboard film history.
Has the internet harmed or helped the culture of the skate video? A coin always has two sides. Skateboarding was always a quickly changing subculture – fashions, choice of tricks, ways of filming… so the internet just changed the way we consume media. The filming part which is so deeply rooted in skateboard culture has sped up, producing something valuable which will last more than a day is getting harder and harder. People’s lives are getting faster and faster… the whole consumption model for media has pushed forward onto a super-fast data-highway. In the end, it is your own choice how you consume. You can take the internet as a huge library of opportunities – learning, and getting feedback. It’s never been easier to take the first steps in the filming process with tutorials and so on. When I started, there was so much excitement and hype in our crew about videos. You could watch a video a hundred times, because there weren’t parts being thrown at your face all day. Nowadays it is like the blink of an eye. One aspect has changed for the worse in my opinion: skateshops used to be the social centre of a skate scene. That is a part I see dying. You met there, watched skate videos in real life with friends, learned the lore from the older guys... you afforded the videos a little bit more respect.
Skateshops used to be the social centre of a skate scene. That is a part I see dying
Nowadays the kids don’t need that part. They ‘hang out’ in social media: post it, like it, hate it… everybody is a ‘professional’ opinion leader. That’s not only a problem within skateboard culture… hallelujah for Facebook. Maybe I am just nostalgic!