Strange World Premiere Recap
Last night Zero Skateboards premiered Strange World to a packed house at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas, CA. The Chief, a smattering of random Black Box riders and Industry Heads and a various other skateboard types were mingling about outisde, catching up with one another and discussing who would have the best and last parts. At 7, the doors opened and we all herded our way inside to find an old-school concession stand with popcorn, soda and the like. By 7:30, everyone was seated, the lights were dimmed and Jamie Thomas took the stage to thank the crowd for coming and to announce that this would be the first Zero video to ever be completed on time (though, for now, a credits section had to be sacrificed due to the impending premiere). He took his seat next to his wife in the middle of the theater and that was that. It was on.
Strange World marks the beginning of Jamie Thomas new approach to video. Rather than struggling to film full parts from an entire team for a video every few years, Zero will attempt to put out a new video every year with full parts from some riders and montages from the rest. As an introduction to this style of video production, it will seemingly be effective. Strange World comes about a year after Ride the Sky, in which many of the Zero team had full parts, resulting in Tommy Sandoval, Tony Cervantes, Jamie Thomas and Chris Cole to have already used a majority of their footage from the past five or so years of filming. In Strange World the bulk of the skating was handled by the remainder of the team, who don't ride for Fallen. Garrett Hill, Keegan Sauder, Marisa Dal Santo, Elissa Steamer, James Brockman and Dane Burman all have full parts with Tom Asta sharing a part with Philly homie, Chris Cole (to Young Jeezy no less) and an additional two montages featuring the remainder of the team (Ben Gilley, Sheldon Melishinski, Donovan Piscopo, Dominic Dietrich, etc.) round out the remainder of the film. Garrett Hill opens and Jamie Tancowny closes the show. Marisa Dal Santo put out a hell of a part, showing the boys that the work Elissa's put in for the past 10-plus years has definitely had an effect. Dane Burman's part will definitely turn some heads as well. You'll have to watch the video for yourself, because a full breakdown won't really do the video justice.
So far it seems the Chief has found another successful formula for what Black Box is looking to accomplish. Strange World is a good sign for things to come from the Black Box camp and next year should prove to be another fruitful year for skate videos..
–Christian Senrud
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