Skate video

Film genre

A skate video is a movie of or about skateboarding typically showing new tricks and a series of skateboarders in a montage set to music.

Released in 1965, the short film Skaterdater is credited as the first film to depict skateboarding and therefore the first skate video. In 2015, The Berrics campaigned for the film's acceptance into the National Film Registry. However, the Powell Peralta company is often credited as creating the first skate videos proper that were not a part of a fictional film or a documentary. Their first video, The Bones Brigade Video Show (1984), was expected to sell just 300 copies on VHS, but it sold 30,000. From the invention of the skate video genre in the 1980s till the early 2000s, skate videos were distributed via VHS tapes sold primarily at skate shops. The conventions and styles of skate videos continue to evolve and redefine themselves alongside the sport of skateboarding.

There is a variety of skate videos that are produced, from independent individual filmmakers to those commissioned by skateboard companies who use the video to promote the brand. 411 Video Magazine was a popular bi monthly video log published from the 1990s to the 2000s. Film director Spike Jonze has shot several skate videos, including Blind's Video Days (1991) and Girl and Chocolate's Yeah Right! (2003). Throughout the late 2010s and into the 2020s, filmmaker William Strobeck has developed a style of producing skate videos which goes against traditional skate video conventions such as the use of fisheye lenses and sequential sectioned parts in favour of a more experimental approach. Many amateur skateboarders hold professional skate videos in high regard, and as authentic representations of skateboarding, and attempt to create their own videos. It is common to have the best highlight trick as the final trick in video parts, this is referred to as the ender. Most videos feature "slam sections" of tricks that end up in failure and spectacular falls where the skateboarder is hurt. They are macabre yet popular because they serve as a reminder that skateboarding is a dangerous sport. Another common feature is sections covering skateboarders off the board, covering their personalities. Often the videos are shot using a fisheye lens. Skate videos are also notable for featuring music soundtracks of punk rock, alternative rock, or hip hop music.