Mike Munzenrider | Quartersnacks

Name Dropping — Four Videographers On Putting Skaters’ Names in Videos

Features & Interviews April 13th, 2022 · 12:00 am · 22

Intro & Interviews by Mike Munzenrider
Illustrations by Requiem For A Screen
(H/T To Memory Screen on the research)

More than two decades ago, Rusty From Maine became the avatar for all viewers shocked by Ty Evans’ departure from skate video norms.

“I just bought your video number nine, The Reason. Man, the opening montage there, no little captions with the skaters’ names on it? What are you guys doing? You know how annoying that is?” asks Rusty in a voicemail immortalized in the opening minutes of 2000’s Modus Operandi.

At the time, the lack of skaters’ names in a Transworld video was a jarring experience, when — for the better part of the preceding decade — 411VM had served up captioned names for all. Then again, such titling wasn’t always the case. Go into the distant skate video past to a time before name titles, and skaters had to play the same detective games we play now, albeit without social media clues.

Do such clues mean we no longer need to be told each skater’s name? Is it a simple aesthetic choice to leave titles out of a video, or is there a responsibility to let the world know who’s in what clip?

We spoke to four videomakers to find out where they stand on the question.

Each interview is condensed and edited for clarity. They are presented in the order in which they were conducted.

The Best Skate Videos & Parts of 2021 — QS Readers Poll Results

Features & Interviews December 23rd, 2021 · 12:00 am · 20

Illustration by Cosme Studio
Ballot Count by 4Ply Magazine

The votes are in, the ballots are tallied, the blurbs by writer friends from the internet are written, and our annual exercise of trying to combat content fatigue and fried attention spans is live.

For anybody uninitiated: back in 2019, we asked QS visitors for the five parts and videos from the 2010s that they would bury in a capsule under the earth for future inhabitants to reference once all other evidence of skateboarding had been erased. In 2020, we adapted this concept to encapsulate one year. And here we are in 2021, with the results of the same excerise.

No commentary for the full-lengths or 20-11 ranked parts. Special thank you to all the writers that took the time to share some words about their favorites. (Lol that the order for the 4-1 writers is the same this year as last. Total coincidence.) Major shout out to Pete at 4Ply Magazine for compiling all the data.

If you are just joining us, this ranking was voted on by QS readers from November 29th to December 3rd.

The Best Skate Videos & Parts of 2020 — QS Readers Poll Results

Features & Interviews December 23rd, 2020 · 12:00 am · 25

Illustration by Cosme Studio
Ballot Tally Assist by 4Ply Magazine

One of the biggest cliches is discussing just *how much* skate content there is. Everything is available at once, and keeping track of it for one viewing — let alone multiple — is hard.

Last year’s decade poll aimed at a snapshot of skateboarding in a ten-year span, as it grew exponentially into the content waterfall it is today. It was very fun to do, but perhaps easier in that with ten years to reflect on, it was apparent what loomed large over tricks, styles and trends. We brought it back for a single year to try and form a canon at a time when so much of the conversation is geared around things moving too fast for a consensus.

Yes, you’ll notice an inherent recency bias here, and year-end content is obviously an imperfect art — the poll closed on December 4, which is before John’s Vid and Third Shift came out online, two projects that definitely would’ve ranked if eligible. (Honestly, John’s Vid might’ve ended up being #1 or #2 given the readership of this website.)

So here it is. No commentary for the full-lengths this round. Full-length skate videos capture a zeitgeist, and sometimes, it takes a while for those effects to truly make themselves known.

Shout out to all the writer friends from the internet who helped with write-ups, and extra major shout out to the team at 4Ply Magazine for the help on tallying the ballots.

And if you’re joining us, this ranking was voted on by QS readers during the first week of December, with voting ending on the 4th.

Units in the City

Daily News May 26th, 2020 · 12:00 am · 1

Summer 2020 QS stuff should be available at most, if not all, U.S. accounts now. Still arriving in Canada + Australia. Japan + Korea been had it. Arriving in Europe early June. Thank you to everyone who grabbed something from the webstore. We’ll be shipping all week, and yes, you will get a shipping confirmation + tracking when your order goes out. There’s still a good bit on there, though a lot of the tees are down to smalls and mediums. So funny how 3-4 years ago, it was XLs that were leftover, but now everyone seems to have sized up. Spread via Orchard.

The city is just installing randomass street hips for us to have fun on now?

Need To Know Basis — Three Skate Media Voices on the Economy of Sharing Spots

Features & Interviews April 29th, 2020 · 12:00 am · 5

Intro & Interviews by Mike Munzenrider
Illustrations by Cosme Studio

What is your first reaction when you see a new spot on a friend of a friend’s Instagram page? Is it straight to the DMs for the address, asking around, or are you a D.I.Y. about it, seeking out context clues in the clip? Does it vary by situation: what happens when you, yourself, are in possession of a brand new spot? And how does one catalog such information?