Howdy Howdy you filthy animals, DRC here again with another ” DIRK VIDEA-REVIEW“
This week I’m going to change it up a smidge, I’m going to compare two videos from 2012 side by side.
“Shred hard” vs “Day in the Bay”
This era of Freebording has some of my favorite American team riders of all time. Also, this was right as our production quality as a company was starting to really become legit (as far as film quality, IMO).
That being said, check them both out.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV5C26WWJwM[/embedyt] [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyH4JofZWI0[/embedyt]
My Review
Alright, so, first off I want to talk about the name choices…
Neither one of the titles really have any personality to me, they are bland and generic. Why not just call it “Slide” or “Board” while you’re at it.. I will say that most of our video name choices are pretty vanilla, but these two are especially boring.. My mind keeps going to ” Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” for “Shred hard”..cause we’re gonna Shred….Hard. “Day in the Bay” makes me think I’m about to watch some vlogger ramble on about must-see spots in the Bay area for 25 mins ?.
Next, the music choices…
These videos are pretty different from one another, establishing distinctly different vibes. “Shred Hard” I really like the song, it makes me get hype to go out there and rip the streets a new one. “Day in the Bay” is more of some feel good bullshit where we should all hold hands and ride down the hill singing Kumbaya. I get that it was trying to reach a broader audience probably, not everyone likes hyphy songs to ride to. But this one just came off really soft.
The riding and quality of footage was comparable to one another. Again, a lot of these dudes are some of my favorites to watch.
(#bringbackTMU #vegapickupyourfreebord )
I would lean more towards the “Shred Hard” edit because it showed a more diverse cross section of riding (even without the bias of my first real Freebord MFG video cameo at 0:37…). Maybe I’m just brain-washed from watching Hoppe videos so long, but when I’m riding downhill I have metal ballads blaring in my head almost 100% of the time. It was a bummer Vega was hurt and didn’t get any shots in this video, because his riding would have fit it perfectly. I have also been told whoever edited it flipped and mirrored some of the shots, although it doesnt jump out at me, that is a no-no.
But, the “Day in the Bay” was presumably filmed in a day, so they were working with less spots and shots. I did enjoy it showing how we get around besides riding down the hills in the bay (ie. on public transit and walking up hills like Lombard) . The intro title work was really nicely done. Also, kicking up the plant matter on the post-apocalyptic hill in the sunset was a nice touch. But over-all, it has a (in the words of Lunar Lauren), “really cliche’ , basic bitch” vibe.
