spencerwalling

Mike continues his travels through the southern United States visiting a series of small towns along the way. In White Hall, Arkan... more >

Mike continues his travels through the southern United States visiting a series of small towns along the way. In White Hall, Arkansas Mike meets up with 18-year-old Todd Givens who created his own skate scene by building ramps in his driveway, so local skaters would have a place to ride. < less

Here is a short video I made as a school project for my Participation In Government class three months into my senior year of high... more >

Here is a short video I made as a school project for my Participation In Government class three months into my senior year of high school in 1991. We were allowed to pick our own topic so of course I picked skateboarding. If I wasn't riding my skateboard, then I was watching a skateboard video and this eventually made me curious on how they were made and wanting to make videos myself. I had already made a video entitled, "Say Cheese", before this school project so I already had a head start. I already had filmed some skate footage of my friends so I went out and shot the couple of interviews out on the street and the interviews with my friends to complete the filming. I edited the video on two VCRs and borrowed some type of audio mixer from Radio Shack from a friend to add in the music and narration (all in one take). Total rig job. In typical school project fashion I waited until the last minute and made the video the night before. I didn't even have a fresh, blank VHS tape to turn the project in on... I submitted it at the end of one of those Vision NSA contest videos from 1986. I turned the project in on time and the next day in class my teacher made an announcement that she was going to play the video for the whole class. I was like, "oh shit!", everyone already hated me 'cause I was a skater, "now they're really gonna hate me." So, the video was played and people dug it and were kinda impressed I think because they we're reacting to the skating while it played and asked me lots of questions after. The point made in the video (is there even one?) is pretty poor but my teacher rewarded me with an A+ due to the fact that I actually made a video. All the other students just handed in crummy charts and graphs. She even played it for all her other classes. I win. Skaters in the video are: Eric Shugats, Joe Cassenti, Larry Ransom, Stan Knight, Chris Fritton, Chris Crenshaw, Mike Drinkwalter, Andy Gulkin and Salman Agah. Written on the VHS tape label: P.I.G. VIDEO SKATEBOARDING: IS IT A CRIME? LARRY RANSOM PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT PERIOD THREE NOVEMBER 1, 1991 < less