As we venture into the curiosity of a skate nerd through Skateboarding’s Greatest Hits, it’s great to see other fellow skate nerds putting in the extra effort to produce out of the ordinary things like EA Skate remakes. When it comes to these remakes no one does it better and with more attention to detail than Tom Fry. Fry has been animating some of our most beloved parts through way of EA Skate 3 for years now, and when he remade Jonathan Pierce’s Boyish part, I thought this would be a great opportunity for him to finally answer some of my burning questions I had behind these remakes. This and we have also contacted Jon to see how the difficulties of remaking the part compares to the actual making of the part. This is Skateboarding’s Greatest Hits The Remastered Interview.
How did you first get into EA Skate remakes?
I remember seeing maybe one or two remakes on YouTube, back then they were made on the first EA Skate. Unlike Skate 3, you couldn’t make spots back then so they were made using what spots the game had available. Ever since I started playing the game I always thought it was cool to see how close to real life it could look so I thought I’d give it a shot myself. My first remake was on Skate 2 and it was of Jimmy Carlin’s Capital Tour part. Tell us a little bit about the Josh Hawkins Remake did you win some sort of trip from Powell Skateboards because of it? I did get to meet Powell Peralta’s team (at the time). When I first started making these edits, I remade Josh Hawkins’ part from A Happy Medium and FUN. Probably two years after that, Powell’s team manager (Deville Nunes) got a hold of me and requested I remake Jordan Hoffart’s part from FUN. It took me about 4 months to get the first half done but afterwards, Jordan was pretty hyped and emailed me personally to say thank you. I asked him if he would be down to meet up and skate during my upcoming trip to San Diego. He was down, gave me his number and told him to let him know when I was there. So April 2012, my buddy (Peter Granberg) and I went out there and got to hang out with the Powell dudes for a few days. We both rolled out ankles the first day there, so we couldn’t do much when we were with them. Made us look like fuckin’ kooks. But we got to skate Jordan’s house and they took us to Black Box and street skating. Josh Hawkins was living with Hoffart at the time. I think he was helping Jordan fix up his house in exchange for rent. When I got back to Chicago, I received a box with 8 decks from Powell. In return I remade Josh Hawkins’ part from A Happy Medium 2. Guest Question! Ryan Lay asks: “How do people even make these?” Can you tell us a little bit about the editing process, from building the spots to the filming and other difficulties with remaking parts? Well before I start any remake, I watch and rewatch video parts. I keep in mind the skater’s/part’s relevance , trick selection, and whether or not the spot is recreate-able. I choose the video parts pretty carefully because I want the right people hyped.Once I start a remake, I usually pick my favorite clips first, I rarely do them in chronological order. Skate 3 has a build-a-park feature where I recreate every spot. They give you an empty lot and more than a handful of worldly items to choose from (ex. Square pads, bent yellow pole jams, etc).Every spot you see in these remakes are made from scratch. Stairs are made from individual pads merged to each other. Bushes are made from trees sunk into the ground etc.The game has its limitations. Rails aren’t size adjustable so the closest thing we’ve got are the bent pole jams. You merge about 4 of them to make a straight line.Building the spot takes roughly an hour. Once I’ve tested it, made sure it works (as in doing the trick at the spot), I then try to do the trick as accurately as I can. This has taken years of playing the game too much, learning how to crouch properly so you don’t pop too high/far, doing the trick over and over again until the animation on the landing looks about right. Once I get the trick done (anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour), I then film it in the game’s replay editor. In this editor, you set key frames for where you want the camera to be at a certain point in time. The zooming takes practice. It’s kinda weird, I’ve learned all of my basics in filming from doing these edits.Finally, once the clip is ready, I get it onto my laptop with this HD recording device I bought. It’s hooked up to the Xbox, the TV, and my computer. After which I edit the clip in Vegas, making sure the timing’s right (getting the pop and land as close to the real thing as I can) You have a pretty elaborate work space consisting of multiple screens and a projector. Does all of this help with the amount of detail that gets put into these remakes? Definitely. I pay attention to everything you can see within the frame including buildings and structures in the background Ok now I’m going to ask you and Jonathan Pierce the same questions to see how the actual making of the part measures up to the remaking of the part. How long did Jonathan Pierces Boyish part take to remake? TF: I started it four years ago but never really got to work on it. When I picked it back up this year, it took probably a solid two weeks. These used to take me four months to make but I’ve gotten a little faster How long did your Boyish part take to make?
JP: It took about a year and a half to film with Jackson (Casey), but there were about four other old clips that were about 3 years old that I filmed with Ryan Dent.
What was the hardest trick to remake and why? TF: I’d say the kickflip 5-0, heelflip, kickflip front blunt line just because lines are much harder to time. You have to build the spot with everything accurately spaced apart. I found myself counting out loud the seconds between each trick and adjusting the spot accordingly What was the hardest trick for you to make?
JP: Probably the 50-50 drop down 50-50, It took like 3 hours and I fell and sat on my ankle and I just kept skating through and after I landed it, like 45 minutes later I couldn’t even walk on it, I couldn’t skate for like two weeks after.
How hard was the Costco line for you?
JP: Wasn’t that bad, took like 20 minutes. It was on a day I was feeling real poppy so I could get the kickflip 5-0 up on that ledge somehow. If I tried to do that line now there would be no way.
What was the last trick you filmed for the remake? TF: It was the Ollie around the 2 minute mark. Not sure why I saved it, though I do tend to get the hard tricks out of the way first. What was the last trick you filmed for your Boyish part?
JP: It was the ollie down that 12 flat in Thailand, I hurt my ankle trying to kickflip it right after and wasn’t able to film anymore for the video after that. (Look at that they both filmed that same trick last for their parts!)
What’s your personal favorite remake? My personal favorite is still Josh Hawkins’ Happy Medium 2. I took the most time on that one and it’s probably my most accurate remake. I also really like the remake of Heath Kircharts This Is Skateboarding part too.
What was the quickest remake? How long did it take? Jimmy Lannon’s part from Static 4. It took about 4-5 days What are some dream remakes for you? I definitely wanna do a Suciu part or Bobby Dekeyzer but their skating is just too advanced to be remade. Any projects you are working on currently that you would like to share with us?
I’m about to start Jake Johnson’s part in Mindfield and possibly Johan Stuckey’s part in Cosmic Vomit 2.
