Video Brief

William Strobeck: The New York videographer paving the way for skate culture and style.

Willaim Strobeck, has been the man behind the camera of the most watched and talked about skate videos of the past 5 years, with his videos garnering millions of views on youtube, capturing the most daring and stylish skateboarders of the time. Most famously he films for the billion dollar skate company "supreme", filming the brands skate team all over the world, as they sport the supreme clothing and skateboards. Through this, Strobeck has been able to position himself as one of the most influential skateboard videographers of all time, and develop a style that was unique to him. Strobeck has lived in New York much of his life, but being born to a single mother who battled schizophrenia much of his childhood, had a huge influence on his creativity. As a young teenager in the 90s, Strobeck first found himself behind a camera whilst filming his friends skateboarding outside the Everson Museum of Art, who allowed skateboarders to skate their plaza as the museum considered it a form of art.

He was soon hired for Alien Workshop as the company's videographer for their skate videos, a key moment in his career that led him to quit college to pursue his passion. Throughout the 2000s Strobeck's name became increasingly spoke about in the skate scene, as he began to film for increasingly famous brands like Krooked and Supreme.

Arguably it was Strobeck's 2019 video, Candy Land for supreme that solidified Strobeck's position as one of the most influential skateboard videographers ever, with over 3 million views and featuring the most famous and skilled skateboarders of today. But what was key to this video was the eye catching style, with Strobeck's signature purple tint seen in many shots, as well the choice of music throughout that compliments his work, and creates an undeniably distinctive atmosphere, drawing in many new people to his work.

My client:

Rather than taking a pre-existing brand and using them as my client, I instead want to take inspiration from some of my favourite skate brands and musicians to build my own. Through this, not only will my designs and content be all centred around my own ideas but I will be able to build upon this brand in future briefs, to make a coherent and detailed series of work that helps express my interests.

One of my main inspirations for the brand I am envisioning is streetwear brand "ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU SHOULD DO". The brand became popular in the midst of the 2020 pandemic, after skateboarder and founder, Nick Mason, began to sticker bomb London with positive message such as "Tell Your Friends You Love Them". This allowed the brand to gain a lot of following on social media, as people were attracted to the core positive message of the brand, something refreshing for such a grey time in many peoples lives. It is clear that the positivity the brand preaches, isn't just used as a gimmick, as they are heavily invested in community projects, such as providing human necessities to Brazilian favelas using money raised from their designs.

Since, the brand has been growing at an exponential rate, going from screen printing t-shirts in an east London bedroom, to collaborating with musician Loyle Carner. This is a great example of how skate culture and music is interconnected, with Loyle Carners 2022 album HUGO, having merchandise released with ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU SHOULD DO, featuring both the musician's and the brand founder's own style and designs. Similarly, I would love to create a brand which collaborates and works with musicians and skaters, in order to combine two separate yet interconnected cultures. The video, will therefore be a promotion of this "brand" (my client), taking inspiration from Strobecks skate videos, and streetwear brand "ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU SHOULD DO".

The plan:

When approaching the plan for my video I decided I wanted to focus on 5 main elements that would make it stand out yet also seek inspiration from my client and William Strobeck. These elements were:

Mixed media
Colour Grading
Music
Brand (Client) integration

To begin, I had to choose the music that my video would use, this way I would be able to direct my footage with the music in mind in order to have a fluid nature to the final video. I decided to choose a remix of a song used by PALACE SKATEBOARDS in one of their promotional skate videos. Through this I could use the music artist as a collaborator of the brand, similar to Loyle Carner x ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU SHOULD DO. The artist behind the song was AJ Tracey, someone who has been seen wearing skateboard brand SUPREME in multiple videos.

Next I had to choose how I wanted the video to feel and look like, whether that be the colour grading, transitions or footage length. It was easy to choose the length of the video as I felt it made most sense to follow the length of my chosen song, however there were many details that i hadn't before considered. My only camera choice was my iPhone however I knew I wanted a cinematic look, therefore the editing was going to be the most crucial part of the finished product. After much research, I decided Davinci Resolve would be where the bulk of my editing would take place, sorting out the time line, transitions and most importantly the colour grading. Meanwhile I would use adobe Premiere Pro, Light Room and Photoshop for other elements.

After exploring various different videos, I found a technique called mixed media and immediately knew I wanted to incorporate it into my video. Put short, I would individually print the frame of a specific clip onto paper, then individually scratch, draw or paint onto each frame (piece of paper) and rescan them in. Then I would allign each scan and create put them into a timeline to create the new video, fully edited. I knew this process would take ALOT of time however for little footage. Therefore I knew I wouldn't be able to use too much of this style/effect, and rather use it to enhance my footage instead of making it the focal point.

My Video

The execution:

graphics video brief.mov

The video is my own take on a skateboarding music video, drawing the bridge between the two worlds through the client of a clothing brand. Crucially, from my research of skate videos that promote a clothing brand, the advertising is at a minimum as they are tailored primarily to an audience who is already familiar to the brand. In this sense, I refrained from stickering branded messages throughout and instead opted for focusing on building an atmosphere, hence the strong color grading and intergration of music that matches the aesthetic. That however is not to say the video is vague in discovering who the client is, for the end gif provides the logo of my imaginery clothing brand made for the brief, as if to almost watermark the skate video with the client, without making the video itself about the client.

The execution of my video was a very long and difficult process, spanning over the course of a month. Recording everything was also difficult to keep track of, however I have done my best to explain the entire process. There were many elements behind designing and editing the video but I have filed them into 5 main sections. By clicking on each box, it will explain each element, from the reasoning to the step by step process.

Colour Grading

Mixed media

Transitions

Implementing the client

Page updated

Report abuse