Stephane Daury
Machotaildrop
I really want to see this movie! Looks like the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory of skateboarding, which as far as I’m concerned can only be a good thing.
Found via Club Mumble.
Tagged: skateboarding RSS
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Stephane Daury
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Stephane Daury
Thrasher Magazine Wanna-Be Correspondent for a Weekend
It all started with a simple, frank message to Thrasher Magazine on Twitter last Wednesday:
@thrashermag: got anyone covering the @ZooYorkInst AM Getting Paid contest in Montreal by any chance? Tell them I’ll buy them a beer if so.
If it wasn’t blatantly obvious yet, despite being a web geek and dad of three, I’m also a life long skateboarder, bmx rider, snowboarder, and so on. I’ve resumed spending my spare times riding most of them a few years ago, now that (at least some of) my son(s) are old enough to follow along. These sports bring me balance in a life which could have otherwise turned “static”, to say the least.
In other words, the latter tweet was a humble attempt at ceasing a symbolic opportunity to show my gratitude and appreciation to this iconic magazine, for having been such an integral part of what makes me… well, me.
I’ll assume you will understand how I could barely contain myself when I received a direct message back, stating they had in fact no one on location and asking if I might want to cover the event or know someone who could.
Nothing out of the ordinary if you work in the publishing industry, which since it is far from my case, turned into an all out challenge I just couldn’t refuse. Project and team management is not only what I’ve done most of my career, it’s my true vocation. I happen to practice it in the software and web industries, but projects are projects, and I truly felt this was something I could manage with the crucial help of my oh so precious network.
Through the software/web world as well as through being a regular at most of Montreal’s riding spots, I’m very often given to interact and become friends with very skilled and talented photographers, cameramen, filmmakers, such as Eva Blue, Jereme Deme (Presence BMX) and many others.
I also realize that I’m very lucky to know an ever increasing ratio of the people who make up the local (and inter/national, online) extreme sports community and industry to be able to succeed with such a task, out of the blue and with only a couple days notice.
So armed with all this, and with the help and guidance of High Speed Productions and Thrasher’s creative director Kevin Convertito, I embarked on a mission to round up the right people to score the best possible footage and photos, planning on focusing on the organizational aspects such as getting full access press passes to the event for all of us, and everything else my team might need.
Unfortunately, being summer and all, it turned out that all of my contacts in this realm, except for Eva, were either already long booked on other events and/or out of town altogether… This could have put quite a wrench in the operation, but Eva and I decided that we wouldn’t even let it slow us down. I’d be handling the video footage, as well as the final video editing.
And shoot we did! We both spent most of Saturday and Sunday at the Taz, taking hours of video (over 16GB) and thousands of pictures (over 20GB combined), thanks to the freedom accorded to press passes, provided to us by Philippe Jolin through my friends Charles Deschamps and Marc André St-Jean.
Eva took some amazing photos and provided us both with mid to high end still camera equipment, but I had no choice to resort to using my recently acquired, cheap, barely appropriate pocket HD cam to handle the video. I mean, aaak, pistol grip form factor, low end processor and fixed lens, no fisheye, no real means of (or time to) color correct the video, etc. A challenge to say the least, but quite an ode to “gettin’ her dun, no matter how”.
And then of course, came the tedious, but rewarding, post-processing of all that media… Eva and I processed our photos Saturday and Sunday night, while I was also scrubbing through all the raw footage for valuable parts. There went a couple of 4AM bed time nights. Not that unusual for both of us, being night owls.
And finally, I ended up *forgetting* to sleep entirely in the night of Monday to Tuesday, as I painstakingly edited the videos (1, 2) and photos you can see on this blog. Talk about getting out of your comfort zone! I hadn’t done any such editing in over three years, and never beyond the obviously amateurish realm.
All that to, in the end, getting scooped by the Zoo York pro crew releasing their edit only a few hours before I was able to send them to Thrasher, and only because of my aging MacBook pro chocking on the final exports, upload time and the fact that I do have a day job that keeps me busy busy bee-zay. Oh well!
All in all, the entire experience was nothing short of a BLAST. Can you feel the hype on that bold uppercase? Can you? :)
Given the opportunity, I’d do it all over again on a moment’s notice! Actually, scratch that, I’d do it all again with a bit more advanced notice next time, so I can really make the most of it and book the best people for the job instead of improvising it all. Seeing what we achieved in the short time and with the means we had, just think what we could have produced with even the smallest of budget: real-time online reporting, interviews, professional-level editing, the whole nine yards.
So if you’re a skateboarding, BMX or snowboard brand and are looking for a Montreal hookup to cover such events, you know who to ping. :)
Note to self though: next time, get a quick and dirty edit out extra fast, then work on a nicer cut. Heh heh, lesson learned. :)
Related content:
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Stephane Daury
Zoo York AM Getting Paid 2009 – Semi-Finals and Finals
Zoo York AM Getting Paid 2009 – Sunday from Stephane Daury, for Thrasher Magazine.
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Stephane Daury
Zoo York AM Getting Paid 2009 – Saturday
Zoo York AM Getting Paid 2009 – Saturday from Stephane Daury, for Thrasher Magazine.
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Stephane Daury
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Stephane Daury
BMX/Skate Spots: Rails, Rails, Rails, and More Rails
Montreal, July 1st 2009: Not sure why, but I got stuck on a rails trip as I was roaming the city this Canada Day. I’ll be frank, I wouldn’t even try quite a few of the following, but I thought I’d “document them” anyway. :)
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Stephane Daury
Fresh Batch of Montreal Street BMX/Skate Spots
If you’re a Montrealer, you’ll probably know most of these spots. If you’re not and happen to be in our great city, finding yourself wanting to ride them, I guess you’ll just have to ask me where they are. ;)
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Stephane Daury
Spots Spots Spots! Or How I See my Daily Bike Commute.
Well, I enjoyed posting Montreal BMX/skate spots pictures the other day, so here’s a fresh batch. These are some if the most obvious “drive-by” spots right on the path of my daily bike commute to/from work. :)
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Stephane Daury
Montreal BMX/Skate Spots Finding
Teagan, my 9 year old son, and I took advantage of today being a stat holiday in Canada to go on a three hours spots finding “mission” in the Old Montreal, the Old Port and downtown.
Here are a few of the ones we remembered to take pictures of.
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dudecctv
Dude! Sick spots, Lots of them i know cuz i live in montreal but, some i dint know and they are sweet!
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Stephane Daury
Montreal's Newest Skatepark: Le Taz – Panoramic Views
Here are some quick and dirty panoramic views (QTVR + frames) of the Taz, Montreal’s newest skatepark. Embed VR scenes from the pictures can be found below the gallery.
Construction happened during the Winter, so the even larger outdoors park (94,000 sq/ft) is not built yet. With 83,000 sq/ft indoors, I think we can wait another couple of month. ;)
Sorry for the abysmal quality, but I had more important things on the mind: riding, riding aaaaand, riding! :) Don’t worry, tons of pictures will surface online this week for sure.
Feel free to download the movie files if you want full screen. -
Damian, 
Erik and one other person are discussing. 
dudecctv is discussing. 
smoovebert 12:24 on 2009-06-25 Permalink |
been meaning to make a trip up there soon, it was freezing and no fun when i was there last.
Stephane Daury 13:38 on 2009-06-25 Permalink |
You should come in the late spring, summer or fall. It’s often beautiful then. :)
Erik 20:30 on 2009-09-06 Permalink |
nice spots man,
i live in montreal but i really dont know any of downtown, where’s #20?…
Stephane Daury 21:22 on 2009-09-06 Permalink |
Erik: 20, 21 and 22 are at the Berri Square, on the de Maisonneuve side.
Damian 18:48 on 2009-11-09 Permalink |
.. and how about #5? I’m just learning to ride street and this looks like a good spot.
Thanks!
Stephane Daury 23:14 on 2009-11-09 Permalink |
#5 is in the Parc Lafontaine, in the school yard (you can see the shadow of the tabletop here). #1 through 5 are all in the same park. Very quiet spot on weekends, ideal to learn. Lots of flat to practice too.