This guide will hopefully help you edit your skate videos with a bit of steeze, whether its a one man Sponsor Me video or a full skate o rama.

Requirements:
Video camera (preferably a Mini DV, 3 chip if you're serious)
A pretty beefy computer (1ghz processor, 512 RAM recommended)
Video editing software (Adobe Premier, Pinnacle Studio
etc)
Steeze

Transferring and Archiving Your Clips

Ok, whats this all about then? Well you have all your footage on camera and you need to transfer it onto your computer for some hardcore editing. Your camera will either be digital or analogue.

Digital
You will require a Firewire card and cable. This is the easiest and fastest way of transferring
your skate videos. Simply connect your camera to your computer via the Firewire cable and boot up your Video Editing software. You can then simply record each clip
to your PC via your computer.

Analog
This is where it gets more tricky. Analog is not the best way of recording your skate videos as they will suffer bad quality and are harder to transfer to your computer. To transfer clips over you will need a WinTV (www.hauppage.com)
or similar product and decent software to transfer your clips. This can get pretty frustarting and complicated so I will point you to a great tutorial here (click here). An easier method would be to purchase an Analog2Video DV Bridge.

Which ever method you use it is essential when making a video that you store your files in an organized manner ( yeh I mean c'mon). If you are creating a video with multiple parts then you should create a directory for each skater. Each trick should be named with the trick name and location, and if you have more than one (in case you haven't decided which one you
prefer) add 01, 02, 03 etc at the end. So for instance if you transfered a clip of Sandy doing a 540 Bigspin 'behind the casino' (one of our skate spots) then the file would be stored hmnya:

c:\skatevideo\sandy\540bigspin - behind the casino.avi

For lines you could do the following:
c:\skatevideo\chris\line 01 - behind the casino.avi
c:\skatevideo\chris\line 01 - behind the casino.txt <-- text file

The text file could include all the tricks in that line (this is not completely necessary but might be useful if you have lots of lines filmed).

This whole process may be tiresome, but it will be worth it in the end because when your finally editing it can be a pain in the ass routing through hundreds of files named trick01.avi etc.

Putting it Together

Before you put together your video it's a good idea to have an arsenal of skate videos to refer to. Here are my top recommendations (not in any order):

• Adio - One Step Beyond
  The editing is sublime, and the effects make this video really shine out (and then there's the f**king skating)


• Transworld - In Bloom
  This is one of my favorite skate videos. It just makes you feel good about skateboarding. The
  filming is truly amazing too, especially in Rodriguez's part.


• Lordz - They Don't Give a Fuck About Us
  There is something about this video. Much better than I expected. One to watch.

There are so many more that I could mention, but quite honstly... I can't be assed. Watch Emerica - This is Skateboarding, Girl - Yeah Right and Flip - Sorry.


E=SK8²
There is a certain formula that many skate videos use e.g. intro, montage somewhere in the middle, best skater at the end, bails. Of course not all videos follow this plan, and in fact it's best that you come up with something original.

Lines are a Good Ice Breaker!
When editing people's parts you need to place the tricks out wisely. A good way to start of a part is with a nice long line (check Eric Kostons part in Yeah Right and of course the fookin' crazy Reynolds line in This Is Skateboarding).

Variety
Do not put 5 kickflips down different things in a row (in fact what are you doing with 5 kickflips anyways, variety people!). Space them out nicely.

Rifle off those babies
Sometimes if you have landed like 3-5 tricks in the same spot they can look pretty cool fired off one after another (like check my bad self, bang bang bang). Also try and space out lines, hammers and tech etc e.g. don't bunch all your hammers together (although this can look
okay when reaching the climax of your part).

Slow-mofos
Slow-mo is good, but don't over do it. If something
is incredibly gnarly then a good thing to do is to play
it once at full speed, and then play it again (yes again)
at slow mo (60% speed is a magic number). You can do
this the other way round too (e.g. slowmo then normal).
Multi-angles are always good too. Technical tricks can
look good in slow-mo too so the viewer has time to figure
out what the fuck just happened!

Save the Best till Last
To leave the part with some impact it can be good to have your best clip right at the end of your part (with all that slow-mo lark added in for good measures). Check out Koston's part on Yeah Right (the very last trick is a 360 Flip FS Noseblunt c'mon).

Quality not Quantity
Do not just put any clip in to lengthen your part. People want quality not quantity. So if one of your tricks is kickflip an 8 stair, don't have a 6 stair kickflip in there (unless for some reason its equally gnarly for some haggard reason). I'm sure you get my point, if you don't... leave, leave now.

Choosing Music
Music can make or break your video part. Would you really want to watch a video part with Linkin Park blaring out (James Grange you pikey)? No. There are a many genres that suite skateboarding e.g. rock, metal, punk, hip hop, motown (yeh baby) etc. Do not in any circumstance abuse someones video part with dance music. This is for two reasons, a) it sounds bad anyway, and b) it does not go with skateboarding in ANY way.

You can tell straight away when the right music has been selected for a video part. Here are some combinations that have worked:

Jerry Hsu & Louie Barletta in Osiris - Subject to Change (New Order - Age of Consent)
Braydon Szafranski in Emerica - This is Skateboarding (some gnarly heavy metal for one gnarly skater)
Andrew Reynolds in Emerica - This is Skateboarding (Jimmy Hendrix - Burning of the Midnight Lamp
Tony Trujilo in Transworld - In Bloom (Motley Crew - Kickstart my Heart)
Paul Rodriguez in Transworld - In Bloom (some basic loop that goes amazingly well)
Josh Kalis in The DC Video (Gangstarr - Full Clip)

These are just a few examples that I think go particularly well. For slam sections you could go down the 'slow, depressing road', the 'hardcore shiznits (death metal muhahaha) road' or have some funny music going down. The first works really well with some slow-mo. The second works well when it's all fast and gnarly. The third option brightens the tone so you don't feel as bad when seeing this dude break his balls on a 20 stair handrail.

Effects and all that Razmataz
Every skate video usually has something unique about it, something that separates it from the rest. If it doesn't, then quite honestly it sucks (unless of course the skating is sublime). The worst edited skate video I have ever seen is Emerica - Yellow. There are loads of parts, and each part is very short so the song cuts out halfway through. This indeed, is a bad way to edit
your video.

Adio - One Step Beyond is a video that is put together flawlessly. The intro is one of the best intro's I have seen in a skate video. Emerica - This is Skateboarding is another great video that has a very unique look about it.

Don't swamp your video with effects, because at the end of the day the best editing will be the editing that is not noticed at all. Your job is simple, to show of the talents of your fellow comrades.

Conclusion
The best thing to remember is that it is all about the skating, with that in mind... go nuts. Oh yeah, I don't have a f**king clue what I'm talking about. :P