Dick Dick Productions
3 / 5
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NO USE Dick Dick Productions
3 / 5 |
Firstly, let me comment on the packaging. PHUCK YEAH! You rarely get to see some DIY DVD packaging, and it was the first thing that stood out to me. A thick arty black card envelope, with hand drawn art work, and sealed on the back, shakespearean style, with candle wax, and what appears to be the back of an Espa–a 50 cent coin? The cover first appeared to me as random blue and silver squiggles, but later made sense in my mind as they took shape of the outline of a Super 8 film camera. Makes sense really as 'No Use' is the first Irish skateboarding DVD filmed solely on Super 8 film, and from the creative Dubliner hands of Philip Evans.
The vid features a whole host of names from up and down the country, including skate veterans Wayne Gallagher, Jer Evans, Al Collins, Jay Dords, Mini Brown, Richard Gilligan, James Black right up to the young guns Gav Coughlan, Tim Mills, Dion McGarrity, Dennis Lynn and more. While it's filmed all over the place, I do pose the argument that it's not "Irish" enough as it mainly sticks to the crews from Dublin and Northern Ireland.
Where's all the southern lads? And being a Munster magazine... well I had throw in that dirty dig! Sorry.
The soundtrack is so diverse and amazing and has been well thought out to suit each scene and skater, with a whole variety of genres, including even some random sound snippets from Bosco! Madness.
The flick is a jam packed work of art, giving Irish skateboarding a whole new perspective, with lurking-style footage of Ireland's urban landscapes reminiscent of Godfrey Reggio's 'Koyaanitsqatsi', old home movies and that creepy video from 'The Ring'. Super 8 film really does give an entirely different vibe to life in general. The quality can sometimes be so shit... it's THE shit!. Evans mixes up all the skate footage with a good dose of stop motion animation of random objects and friends. Also in the mix is artwork from Luke Broughan and Phil Evans himself, which is nicely and cleverly edited in with some still frames of the footage, containing some hidden messages of sorts. Which you could spend hours of your day, pausing every two seconds to see what they say. But who's got time for that! Sadly, I do.
Phil Evans has been making skate videos for quite some time now, and it's cool to see his progression in the works. 'The Scrum Tilly Lush' is his newest Super 8 production, and a step up from 'No Use', but this isn't to say that 'No Use' ain't good, it bloody is. And when you think of the costs, time, originality and patience put into something like this, it really deserves more than a bualadh bos.
I'm just looking forward for what's to come...
Shane Serrano
http://aulpups.blogspot.com
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