Today we&re going to spread some DV nostalgia for a moment. It probably only lasts until play is clicked and the typically washed-out video look with its steps and steep edges catches the eye. Nevertheless, the video competition that Red Bull (a real master of brand marketing) recently held is quite remarkable.
Shooting for Viral Schpiral, Santa Cruz Skateboards
Four selected skateboard teams received a modified Sony VX1000 camcorder including MK1 Fisheye optics from Century Optics for the 
No Rewind Challenge. , a combination that was hugely popular in the skate scene in the 2000s. A MiniDV cassette was found in the camera, but it could not be changed. The camera&s playback mechanism was also deactivated - the teams could not fast-forward, could not repeat, and therefore could not even look at what they had filmed.
In other words, they had only 60 minutes of recording time to fill half-blind over the course of 14 days. They then received the video footage from Red Bull in order to complete a film contribution for the competition. The winner? "Viral Schpiral", Santa Cruz Skateboards, with some nice ideas:
A behind-the-scenes clip shows how the film was made:
Why the Sony VX1000 became THE camera of choice in the skater scene at the time is explained in the following interesting video - thanks to the handle, the camcorder was very flexible, especially for capturing the classic shots from below and the special quality of the sound recordings remained unmatched for a long time, for some filmmakers it seems to this day.
Interestingly, the competition&s "no rewind" motto isn&t all that far-fetched, because even then, many skate filmers avoided rewinding for fear of accidentally overdubbing spectacular footage. Those were the days...
Anyone who has now become really sentimental can read here which camera technology is also important for skate filming in addition to the VX1000 were - for example the Panasonic HVX 200. (via Petapixel)
;)
