HD Worries

So my first official post will be about something that's been bothering me recently in skate video trends. I'm not too sure how I feel about this whole "HD revolution" going on right now. I'm not saying I don't want better video quality, but it seems like at the moment the depth-of-field and framerate capabilities of these cameras are taking over and turning fairly simple skate shots into long, drawn-out ordeals that sort of overdramatize the whole thing. Take "Fully Flared" for example. As much as I was impressed by the whole thing, I was sort of disappointed by one of the parts that I was personally most excited for: Anthony Pappalardo's. I always thought Popps was a great fit for Lakai, and I wasn't so much disappointed by the skating itself but more by how poorly it seemed to fit into the video. I've heard that a lot of his footage never made it into the vid, which would explain his departure from Lakai quickly after the video's release. It just seems like Ty Evans chose this whole uber-BIG aesthetic for the video, and in this case chose the aesthetic over the skater. I know the video had to be big, but if you're the editor you gotta make room for a skater who's been with the squad since pretty much day one. As far as HD itself, I think it's also just that time where all these guys have gone out and gotten this new equipment and don't quite know what to do with it, so they just keep doing the same boring slow-mo dolly shots over and over. I guess that's OK, but for now I'd rather watch 8mm and 16mm art footage, or, fuck it, digi-cam footage! I'll end this post with some bonus Bill Strobeck footage that I'm sure everyone's seen already, but it's still got a few Popps tricks that shoulda made it into the video.