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Song Listing
Intro: Audionom – Kristall
Kellen James: The Spinners – The Rubberband Man
Joey Brezinski: MGMT – Time To Pretend
Bobby Worrest: Ultramagnetic MC’s – Poppa Large (East Coast Mix)
Montage: The Polyphonic Spree – The Championship
Corey Duffel: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Spellbound
Matt Beach: Jimi Hendrix – Bold As Love
Credits: Mister Loveless – In Wonder
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Credit to skatevideosite.com for soundtrack listing
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Introductory Musings
Since the release of the amazing, faith-reviving And Now last year, hype has been building about the first video project featuring only skaters from one particular stance, on purpose. That I know of. That part’s important too. Finally, their release has hit the waiting eyes of those desperate enough to seek it out, and I happened to be one of those people. I’d like to point out how interesting it is that the whole filming situation has worked out like it has for everyone involved. Pre-chris Ray, Jason Hernandez was Jon Holland’s partner-in-crime when producing TWS vids, and as some of you may remember, their quality began going steadily downhill after the classic First Love release. Hernandez leaves, joins forces with the corporate dogs at Nike, and what happens? Nike’s am-focused Debacle(review in the works) shatters the doubts many had that Nike could produce a truly fantastic video after the disaster of the Nothing But The Truth skits under Dan Wolfe’s guiding ‘talent’. On the flipside, And Now reached almost Fully Flared status, with many preferring it to the Alien Workshop offering of the same time, and the Digital installment as well. Transworld put themselves back on the maps as makers of classic videos in the vein of Sight Unseen, and surely Right Foot Forward will achieve that level of recognition as well. Fantastically put together and easily standing as my favorite video of 2009 thus far (with Powell’s Fun a solid second place), this video abounds with dolly-shots, slow mos, film burns, and all the other filming tricks we’ve come to appreciate lately, backed by hard-hitting and stunning parts from each and every featured skater, and the best Transworld montage to date. With the unfortunate choice of MGMT’s ‘Time to Pretend’ as Brezinski’s song aside, the music is also a highlight, making this video a truly comprehensive skate video, with all elements considered. This does not invalidate my love for Ben Hatchell’s Powell part by any means, but as a whole, this video takes the cake from Fun.
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Intro
The intro is ripe with flourescent bursts of lights and slowmo trickery, along with some interesting and ultra-modern editing techniques. I love the font they used for this; I also love Matt Beach’s frontside hurricane, the song, and Bobby Worrest. I actually feel like clapping when Ray and Holland’s names show up, as well.
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Kellen James
A ledge man to say the least, Kellen likes his halfcab rotations, and his bluntslides. He’s a little bit wavy with his arms on alot of things, which causes his style to suffer in parts. He also could stand to gain some speed on a few clips as well, but damn does this guy pull out some tricks I’ve never seen. The same goes for this entire video, actually. The song is relaxing, and goes well with the black and white interim clips, thought not so much with the Skate Mafia references. Interestingly, Keelan skates the most switch of this entire video, spending at least three quarters of his part skating Left Foot Forward. Watch for a sick nollie bigspin back lip fs 270 out on a ledge, some insane cab to slide variations, and a brilliant nollie bigspin over a rail into a bank, from the wrong side. Rodrigo TX does a nollie back 180 in this manner in eSpecial; if you remember that clip, you’d surely think I was lying to you. Also, his last 10 tricks or so make me want to die from pure surprise. Sickness.[br]
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Joey Brezinski
HOLY SHIT
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Bobby Worrest
A long-time favorite of mine due to somewhat similar stomping grounds and his ridiculous style in Krooked’s old Kronicles(which I lost), Bobby opens up perfectly with another classic Pulaski Park/Freedom Plaza clip, which he seems to like to do, and further ruins the spot for everyone. Worrest cracks me up with his general drunken slob appearance, his stripper’s cameo, and his switch tre down the Pit, a long, gnarly, sketchy-ground four block in DC. Wastell has a sick guest clip, and so does Zach Lyons. Worrest spends much less time skating switch than I had imagined, which is cool, because I really like the idea of skating goofy in a goofy-themed video, for some reason. No offense to Kellen. Bobby also lays waste to that round ledge everyone transfers over, amidst bobbing (pun) around to an old school rap song.[br]
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The Montage
Best song I’ve heard in a part in a while. The montage starts off with Lizard King blowing your mind, and continues right along with clips from the And Now crew (minus Hoyle and Jackson), along with several mind-blowing carcass-toss tricks by Theotis Beasley and appearances by Lewis Marnell, Devin Appello (Tucknee guy from And Now’s montage), Ryan Gallant and his beautiful style, Jordan Hoffart, The Nuge, and some quite notable Slash footage. Slash’s kickflip pivot fakie is a highlight, along with a crucial wallride front board from some dude I’ve never heard of, and a backside nosegrind nollie inward heel out on a serious drop ledge. Interestingly, without a hat it’s hard to tell Matt Miller and Ryan Gallant apart. Keep an eye on Miller’s clip, it’s quite sick, and off the wall for him. The montage makes you feel really good, particularly with it’s worst-rail-ever ending trick.
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Corey Duffel
Duff-man delivers again in a part full of hammers, although his part in this is significantly better than past parts (in my opinion) due to the music, which is a normal song for once. In fact, it allows you to focus on his skating, and the variety he displays in this via pole jams, footplants, grabs, grinds, wallrides and transitions. Also, his awkward style moments don’t really show up in this part, although a blatantly lame cheering session for one of his ollies is a bit of a bummer. Also notable is the lack of pink and otherwise-girly colors in his clothing, and honestly I really enjoyed his part, something I can’t say of his past parts, despite the longstanding respect I’ve had for his abilities. How he still has knees is beyond me, after watching some of his massive ollies and 180s. Watch out for a leg-breaking ender, although I personally feel like the trick that stole the show is a gap to fifty on a concrete downledge (shown above). It’s hard to explain, but upon viewing it, it’s obvious the danger involved in that particular clip. He also ollies into a ridiculously sketchy bank that I examined in a recent ad in The Skateboard Mag.
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Matt Beach
After a surprise magazine interview containing several sick photos including a fs smith hardflip out, Matt Beach caught my attention as someone who could really surprise in this video. Indeed he does, skating to a classic song with lots of variety and some insane switch tailslides. Watch for his switch tail revert into a gnarly ditch (screenshot!), and beware the flare on some of his ledge tricks. Much better than I had ever imagined he was, Beach is a great choice for ender by all accounts. I really like how you can feel the thought he put into each of his clips; the man doesn’t appear spontaneous, but rather more planned. A thinker’s skater. Like Brezinski, except with a completely different style. Oh, and his ender is straight out of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4…. the legitimacy of the trick is questionable to me, but the sickness of it is very real.
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Credits
After a pan across the stars sitting together, we digress into a calm outro with lots of talking, and some actually interesting clips. I find myself hanging on their words as Worrest ollies over a handrail in boots, and a fat kid bitches about his dad. One of the few watchable credits sections in the past few years. I wonder what’s up with the VX that the car runs over.[br]
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Outroductory Musings
Hitting just as hard, if not harder, than And Now, Right Foot Forward might suffer on the popularity scale due to the absense of fad-appeal from Richie Jackson, but among skaters and video watchers in general, this video is nothing short of amazing on all levels. My respect for the transworld guys and all the featured skaters in this video have somehow been elevated even further, and I’ll be spending money on it for sure. I like how it’s not a long, drawn-out affair like Blind’s recent release, although I do wish there had been more transition skating. Regardless, check this out ASAP, along with Powell’s Fun, for two of the sickest videos I’ve ever seen. Modern skateboarding is partially a curse; but to many of us, it’s also a gift. My jaw hath dropped.
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