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Video Days
Video Days
Video Days
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Video Days
Directed bySpike Jonze
Produced bySpike Jonze
Starring
Edited bySpike Jonze
Distributed byBlind Skateboards
Release date
  • 1991 (1991)
Running time
24 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Video Days is a skateboarding video by Blind Skateboards released in 1991, which is often credited as the most important skate video of all time.[1]

Video Days is the second movie/video directed by Spike Jonze and stars Mark Gonzales, Guy Mariano, Rudy Johnson, Jordan Richter, and Jason Lee. Legendary professional skateboarder Danny Way was briefly on Blind Skateboards from 1990–1991 and shot some footage for Video Days. However, he soon quit Blind, returning to his original team H-Street Skateboards and his footage for Video Days was omitted. A brief shot of Way can be seen during Gonzales' part in this video.

Synopsis

[edit]

The film starts off with footage of all 5 skaters driving around in a Blue Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency accompanied to the song "Low Rider" by War; this car becomes the central theme for the video. Each skater's name is introduced while riding in the car which is then followed by footage of them performing a trick. The car then drives along a road until out of frame which then reveals a sunset overlooking a forest.

Guy Mariano's name is displayed in white writing in front of a black background thus beginning his part. Then footage of Guy performing several tricks is shown before the accompanied song ("I Want You Back" by Jackson 5) starts playing. Guy Mariano continues to primarily skate in places such as schools, car parks and streets. His part ends with him sliding a rail and being in disbelief about it.

Jordan Richter's name is then displayed while the accompanying song ("My War" by Black Flag) starts playing. Jordan then proceeds to skate primarily half-pipes and vert-based skateparks (with some footage of him skating in car parks). His part ends abruptly after he performs a no handed air and the song ends.

Mark Gonzales' name is then displayed; then footage of the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is shown with Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) saying "We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams". The accompanying song ("Traneing In" by John Coltrane and the Red Garland Trio) starts playing. Mark then proceeds to skate a wide variety of locations including car parks, streets, ditches, basketball courts, half pipes and plazas. Short and silent snippets of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory do appear throughout this part. The part ends when Mark frontside boardslides a rail and then loses his board. Then footage of a young British girl saying "I hope you've enjoyed the skateboarding and everything else, that's all folks, goodbye. And this is from...", she then gives a confused look to someone off camera.

Then footage is shown of all five skaters riding in the Blue Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency interacting with various "Support our troops" protesters on the sidewalk. Jason Lee yells to the protesters the infamous line "No War for Heavy Metal!".

Rudy Johnson's name is displayed while the accompanying song ("Just Like Heaven" performed by Dinosaur Jr.) starts playing. Rudy then skates such locations as streets, car parks, plazas and Embarcadero (in San Francisco). Rudy's part ends abruptly as he performs an Ollie one foot to lipslide on a rail and almost runs into the camera.

Jason Lee's name is displayed before he addresses the camera and says "You know I'll give you a hundred bucks and I'll take you out to Benihana's if you slide that 75 foot handrail". He then pulls a face at the camera and says "I'll give you 600 tries, I'll be back next week". Then he proceeds to skate when the accompanying song ("The Knife Song" by Milk) comes on. He skates various car parks, plazas, streets, schools etc. in his part. About 3/4 of the way through his part the song changes to "Real World" by Hüsker Dü. Then a newspaper reading "AMERICA GOES TO WAR: COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE GULF CRISIS" is shown, then Jason Lee proceeds to sing a song that goes:

"There's a war outside of your window
It's destroying our world
So take the hand of a boy and a girl
And walk down the street and sing a happy song to make the make the world better
Peace on Earth
Environment
Religion and pray to God"

His part then fades to black.

Then a voice is heard which says "There's a liquor right there, dude, so pull over, it's a yellow sign". Then "Lowrider" by War is played again as several shots of all 5 skaters drinking alcoholic beverages while riding in their signature Blue Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency. The car then drives onto a narrow dirt road where it slowly starts to lose control. The car then falls off the dirt road and rolls down a big hill where it then crashes into a pile of rocks.

The credits then roll, with each skater performing a trick in slow motion, with "Cancion mixteca" by Ry Cooder playing and with "(birthdate-1991)" under the name of each skater (except for Rudy Johnson which the number 1-900-810-3611 is displayed).

Reception

[edit]

Video Days has had a positive feedback from critics and is considered an important part in skateboarding history and culture.

Trashfilter.com has praised Video Days stating that " 'The best skate video of all time? Really?' When you take into a number of factors into account, then you soon realise that it's a deserving title. The story behind the first video from the Blind skateboard team back in 1991 is a much-fabled tale. But strip everything back to the raw skating within and it still holds its legendary status".[2]

Thrasher has inducted 3 out of the 5 skateboarding parts (Jason Lee, Mark Gonzales and Guy Mariano) in Video Days into their "classics" video section.[3][4][5] Thrasher has praised Video Days saying "The Blind guys didn't set out to make skate history in 1991, and that makes this video's legendary status even better."[6]

Huck writer Jay Riggio both praised and described his history with Video Days stating "The video was almost too much to take in. From the mind-blowing skating to the documented personalities of my heroes, absorbing it in small intervals was my only option. I can’t go as far as to say that I recognized the genius of Video Days off the bat, nor can I say that I even placed much importance on Spike Jonze’s onscreen credit back then – I had only recognized his name from photo credits in skate mags. All I knew was that Video Days made me want to skate like never before. There was magic in it that to this day seems difficult to place."[7]

SkimTheFat reviewer "Thrashathon"[8] rated Video Days 5 stars (out of five), stating "Video Days has become a standard for skate videos for the last 10 years and will continue for the next 10. The street skating is amazing and still fires me up to this day. It features some of the all-time best skaters, and skating that is excellent even when compared with today's standards. Throughout the 360 flips, handrails, gaps, manual variations, and bluntslides, the eclectic soundtrack fully complements the video. I would highly recommend watching this video over all other videos."[9]

Jason Lee's impromptu song at the end of his part caught the attention of Clerks director Kevin Smith, who would later cast Lee in Smith's follow-up film Mallrats, thus launching Lee's acting career. [citation needed]

Although the car crash at the end was not intended to be serious, at the time, many people thought the team had actually died.[citation needed].

20th anniversary reunion

[edit]

For their February/March 2011 issue, Skateboarder Magazine organized a reunion photo shoot with all 5 skaters to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Video Days.[10]

Skateboarder Magazine's photographer John Bradford quoted on skateboardermag.com "To tell you the truth I was a little jealous of Jaime Owens when he told me he’d be shooting the Video Days guys for the article. He’s usually the one holding everything together down in the office while photographers like me and Mehring are out and about shooting what needs to be shot. Plus, I’m of an age where I grew up in the ’90′s (like Jaime), and can vividly remember the earth figuratively shaking when Video Days first dropped. I have a 2 decade old nervous tick of starting to whistle the John Coltrane song from Gonz’ part, which often reminds me of how many times I watched it before and after school, and on the weekends before I went skating… so I of course started drooling over the shoot when I first heard it was coming together. Anyway I digress. As the shoot happened I tagged along to be a fly on the wall (and to help out where I could) while these dudes all got together for the first time in many years to reminisce about how they innocently and unwhittingly (sic) changed skateboarding forever. My jealousy of Jaime instantly faded and the day became one of my favorite days of my career to date, just given who was in the room and what they were all collectively there to celebrate."[11]

A 3 part "Behind the Scenes" video series was then uploaded onto skateboardermag.com,[12] one of which had an interview with Guy Mariano about the early days of Blind Skateboards and Video Days.

Soundtrack

[edit]

The soundtrack includes many types of music, including rock, jazz, pop and punk.

(In order of appearance):

  1. War: Low Rider
  2. Jackson 5: I Want You Back
  3. Black Flag: My War
  4. John Coltrane and the Red Garland Trio: Traneing In (Credited as "Some damn good jazz")
  5. Dinosaur Jr.: Just Like Heaven
  6. Milk: The Knife Song
  7. Hüsker Dü: Real World
  8. Jason Lee: There's A War Outside Your Window
  9. War: Low Rider (reprise)
  10. Ry Cooder: Cancion Mixteca

References

[edit]
[edit]
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Video Days

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is a skateboarding video produced and released by in 1991, directed by then-emerging filmmaker . Running approximately 24 minutes, it showcases street skating footage from key riders of the era, including , Mark Gonzalez, , and Jordan Richter, emphasizing technical tricks in urban environments over the previously dominant vertical ramp style. The video marked a pivotal shift in skateboarding media toward raw, narrative-infused documentation of everyday sessions, blending high-speed action with casual interpersonal dynamics among the skaters. Jonze's direction, utilizing innovative and , elevated the production quality and , setting a template for future skate videos that prioritized authenticity and flow over polished montages. Its release coincided with the decline of vert skating's popularity and the rise of culture, capturing a transitional moment that propelled ' roster to prominence and foreshadowed Jonze's transition to mainstream cinema. Widely regarded within communities as one of the most influential videos in the genre's history, Video Days continues to be referenced for its enduring stylistic and cultural impact.

Historical Context

Skateboarding Landscape Pre-1991

The skateboarding industry in the 1980s experienced a significant boom centered on vertical (vert) skating, driven by innovations in ramp construction and high-profile video releases from companies like Powell Peralta, which popularized aerial maneuvers in halfpipes and backyard pools. This era saw rapid commercialization, with sponsorships, competitions, and product sales surging amid widespread backyard ramp building, but it also led to overproduction and market saturation by numerous manufacturers chasing trends. By the late 1980s, the vert-dominated scene began to falter due to factors including frequent injuries from high-risk aerial attempts, community backlash against noise and property damage from ramps, and municipal bans on vert facilities, which eroded public tolerance and access. Overcommercialization exacerbated vulnerabilities, as hype-driven expansions left companies with excess inventory and insufficient innovation in board design or riding styles to sustain growth. These pressures culminated in a fragmented industry, with many brands facing financial strain even before external economic shocks. The 1990-1991 U.S. intensified the downturn, contracting sponsorship budgets and on non-essential gear like skateboards and ramps, leading to widespread manufacturer losses and a contraction in professional opportunities. In this context, street skating emerged as a practical alternative, relying on urban environments for low-cost —using ledges, , and handrails—rather than expensive, space-intensive vert setups, fostering a perception of greater authenticity amid the backlash against vert's spectacle. Early indicators included street-oriented segments in Powell Peralta's late-1980s videos, which hinted at shifting emphases toward technical urban riding over pure vert airs. Blind Skateboards entered this post-boom landscape in 1989, founded by rider under World Industries distribution as a counter to established brands like Vision, emphasizing rider-initiated creativity in street contexts over manufactured hype. Operating in a market wary of 1980s excesses, Blind prioritized decks and teams geared toward innovative, ground-level skating, aligning with the organic pivot toward street as a resilient, economically viable path forward.

Founding of Blind Skateboards

was founded in 1989 by professional skateboarder in collaboration with entrepreneur , under the distribution of Rocco's . The brand's name was selected as a deliberate jab at Gonzales' former sponsor, Vision Skateboards, reflecting an ethos of irreverence toward established industry norms. This formation arose amid frustrations with the restrictive team management and growing commercialization at major companies like Powell-Peralta, which Blind and later satirized through provocative ads and graphics, such as the "Dear George" series mocking Powell's leadership. Blind prioritized skater-driven creativity and autonomy, diverging from corporate hierarchies by fostering a looser, rider-led structure influenced by California's West Coast DIY skate culture, which emphasized grassroots innovation over polished vert ramps and freestyle contests. The initial team centered on Gonzales, with as the first pro rider, followed by the recruitment of young talents like and Rudy Johnson, who were signed away from Powell-Peralta to bolster street-oriented skating. This assembly highlighted Blind's focus on transitioning from freestyle influences—exemplified by figures like in the broader ecosystem—to raw street progression, laying the groundwork for the company's inaugural full-length video project.

Production

Development and Pre-Production

Planning for Video Days occurred during the early U.S. economic and amid distractions from the , which began in January 1991, contributing to a post-1980s industry contraction where access diminished due to reduced sponsorships and venue availability. These factors, combined with ' limited resources as a nascent street-oriented company founded in 1989, necessitated a low-budget production emphasizing over elaborate setups. The creative direction prioritized street skating's inherent challenges—repetitive attempts against gravity and urban impediments like curbs and handrails—over the more controlled, ramp-based that dominated prior eras but required costly infrastructure increasingly scarce in the downturn. This approach reflected a deliberate shift toward documenting authentic, unscripted progression rooted in environmental constraints rather than polished spectacle, aligning with Blind's ethos of raw innovation amid resource scarcity. Blind recruited emerging photographer and filmmaker Spike Jonze, then in his early 20s and associated with skate magazine editor Andy Jenkins, to direct the video, leveraging his familiarity with the subculture for a narrative structure incorporating skater interviews and personal anecdotes to convey organic flow and motivation. Jonze's involvement, utilizing inexpensive consumer camcorders, enabled a guerrilla-style pre-production that avoided permits and formal crews, focusing instead on spontaneous outings to capture emergent street techniques.

Filming Techniques and Locations

The production of Video Days utilized a do-it-yourself (DIY) methodology, wherein ' team members participated directly in footage capture during informal street outings focused on enjoyment rather than scripted sequences. This approach, directed by emerging filmmaker , leveraged camcorders prevalent in early 1990s skateboarding videography, yielding handheld shots characterized by unsteadied, low-resolution visuals that preserved the unvarnished dynamics of motion, crashes, and environmental interactions absent digital post-processing aids like stabilization. Filming prioritized urban accessibility and inherent hazards, selecting spots in —primarily the streets of —that facilitated street skating's guerrilla ethos against formalized public infrastructure. Common features included schoolyard benches, concrete ledges, and handrails, which offered low-barrier entry for repetitive progression while underscoring skating's tension with authoritative spaces like campuses and municipal areas. Specific venues encompassed the double-kink rail along Santa Monica's coastline, emblematic of the era's push toward elongated, technical slides on improvised urban fixtures. Additional sequences drew from locales, broadening the scope to diverse terrains within the state. To foster empirical authenticity, sessions spanned sufficient duration to record skill evolution organically, incorporating camaraderie-driven interludes, environmental quirks, and incomplete maneuvers alongside successes, eschewing contrived perfection for documentary-like candor. This technique mirrored the medium's constraints—limited takes due to analog tape and battery life—while amplifying street skating's iterative, risk-laden reality over aesthetic idealization.

Key Contributors and Direction

, then known primarily within skateboarding circles as Adam Spiegel, directed Video Days as one of his earliest forays into , predating his mainstream Hollywood projects. In this role, Jonze focused on capturing raw through rhythmic editing that highlighted skaters' personalities and unedited sequences of attempts, successes, and failures, eschewing special effects or polished narratives in favor of authentic progression. His approach emphasized the cause-and-effect dynamics of trick execution, presenting as a direct, unvarnished process rather than stylized spectacle. Mike Ternasky, founder and driving force behind , served as the primary producer, providing creative oversight to align the video with the company's rider-centric ethos, which prioritized showcasing team members' individual styles over commercial gloss. Ternasky, who established Blind under World Industries in 1989, ensured the production reflected a of empowering skaters like —Blind's inaugural professional and a co-inspirational figure—by centering their unfiltered performances. This direction maintained fidelity to street skateboarding's improvisational reality, avoiding contrived setups that might dilute the sport's inherent risks and innovations. While specific cinematographers are not distinctly credited beyond Jonze's hands-on involvement, early collaborators handled filming to document spontaneous sessions across urban environments, prioritizing sequential footage that traced trick development from ideation to completion. by Jonze further reinforced this by intercutting personality-driven montages with literal cause-effect chains, such as repeated line attempts culminating in makes, which became a template for subsequent skate videos. This team dynamic underscored Blind's commitment to truth in representation, distinguishing Video Days from prior videos that often favored highlight reels over comprehensive process.

Content Overview

Video Structure and Segments

The video opens with an introductory sequence depicting the team embarking on a in a rundown , which establishes the raw, communal ethos of street skating and frames the production as a collective journey rather than isolated clips. This narrative device recurs as a transitional motif, linking otherwise standalone street sessions into a cohesive arc that emphasizes mobility and camaraderie among the skaters. Spanning a 24-minute runtime, the content is segmented primarily into dedicated parts for each skater, sequenced to build momentum from introductory profiles of emerging riders to more polished showcases, fostering a sense of progression within the team's dynamics. Group montages and interstitial clips, including encounters like street protests, punctuate these individual sections to maintain narrative flow and contextualize the skating within everyday urban escapades. Throughout, elements of humor—such as exaggerated fails and lighthearted team banter—are interspersed to balance the intensity of the athletic footage, portraying the skaters as relatable figures amid their pursuits. The structure culminates in Jason Lee's extended part, which integrates stylistic flair and comedic vignettes as a capstone, reinforcing the video's blend of technical skating with accessible, human-scale storytelling. featured dedicated sections for five core team members, filmed during street sessions in 1990 and 1991, emphasizing adaptations like extended manuals and urban obstacle navigation over aerial emphasis prevalent in prior eras. Mark Gonzales' part exemplified artistic flow through fluid lines on stairs and ledges, incorporating creative sequences that prioritized movement continuity and environmental interaction, set to John Coltrane's "Traneing In." Jason Lee's sections demonstrated technical precision, including early popularization of the 360 flip and grabless vert transitions adapted to street curbs, with sequences showcasing speed and controlled power to drop-offs. Guy Mariano, aged 14 during filming, contributed raw power via aggressive approaches to ledges and manual variations, with footage capturing repeated attempts underscoring difficulty on urban handrails. Jordan Richter adapted his vert background to street challenges, performing manual balances and bank tricks in raw urban settings, as seen in his segment to Black Flag's "My War." Rudy Johnson's performance highlighted consistent street progression, focusing on switch-stance maneuvers and obstacle-specific lines to Dinosaur Jr.'s "Just Like Heaven," reflecting the era's shift toward versatile technicality.

Notable Tricks and Innovations

Mark Gonzales' segment exemplified switch-stance proficiency, wherein skaters execute tricks with their non-dominant foot forward, necessitating recalibration of torque and weight distribution to maintain stability on ledges and stairs—fundamentally extending freestyle's emphasis on board manipulation to irregular street geometry. His wallrides, involving perpendicular board contact with vertical surfaces before transitioning to slides or grinds, relied on precise impulse forces to redirect , bridging controlled freestyle pivots with unpredictable urban inclines. Gonzales further adapted the darkslide—a maneuver inverting the board to slide on its trucks—to a in caveman style, showcasing empirical mastery of inverted balance and frictional control under dynamic loads, predating broader street applications despite Rodney Mullen's foundational invention in flatground contexts. This required sustaining center-of-mass alignment against gravitational pull and rail , highlighting causal links between torque-generated spin and post-landing equilibrium. Jason Lee's sequences advanced grind variations, including 50-50s on edges, which demand sustained axle-to-surface and corrective micro-adjustments to counter , serving as precursors to more complex rail maneuvers by quantifying balance under prolonged lateral forces. His repeated 360 flips illustrated rotational physics through coordinated pop and flick impulses, achieving full board inversion and realignment in air, thus empirically pushing the limits of aerial application beyond 1980s norms. Collectively, the video's skaters escalated street progression by integrating tricks on multi-step stair sets and down handrails, departing from the ' predominant focus on low curbs and manuals toward higher-risk drops and slides that tested impact absorption and speed-generated stability. This shift, evident in sequences like ledge transfers and Lee's rail attempts, marked a quantifiable in obstacle scale and commitment, fostering causal advancements in protective gear and technique resilience.

Soundtrack

Track Selection Process

The soundtrack for Video Days was curated primarily by the featured , who selected tracks for their individual sections to synchronize with the tempo and stylistic nuances of their footage, prioritizing raw alignment with skateboarding's improvisational flow over polished commercial synchronization. This approach underscored the video's commitment to unfiltered realism, drawing from punk, hardcore, and alternative genres that resonated with the DIY independence of the early 1990s skate scene. Director Spike Jonze oversaw the process to ensure cohesion, but deferred to skaters' personal choices, as exemplified by Mark Gonzales opting for John Coltrane's "Traneing In" (from the 1957 album Blue Train) in his segment, where the track's winding, exploratory solos complemented Gonzales' abstract, balletic maneuvers like off-kilter grinds and inventive ollies. Similarly, selections like Black Flag's "My War" (SST Records, 1984) and Hüsker Dü's "Real World" (Warner Bros., but rooted in indie punk origins) emphasized aggressive, underground energy that amplified trick rhythms without relying on contemporary radio hits. Tracks were sourced from independent and alternative labels active in 1991, such as SST for fIREHOSE's contributions and for Helmet, reflecting limited production resources and the era's preference for accessible, non-corporate licensing within skateboarding's insular network rather than high-cost major-label clearances. This method avoided mainstream pop, instead favoring material that echoed the subcultural rebellion of acts like Black Flag, thereby reinforcing the video's ethos of street-level authenticity over broad market appeal.

Integrated Role in Video

The in Video Days serves a function by underscoring sequences of failed attempts followed by successful tricks, thereby emphasizing the causal process of perseverance inherent in street skateboarding's trial-and-error methodology. This musical layering conveys emotional highs and lows, fostering a rhythmic assembly that connects viewers to the skaters' iterative struggle and triumph, as director articulated in reflections on effective skate videos incorporating to evoke emotion and rhythm. Unlike the bombastic, heavily synchronized editing common in earlier vertical ramp-focused videos, Video Days employs a naturalistic approach to music integration, with eclectic tracks selected spontaneously to complement without precise beat-matching for every maneuver, preserving the raw authenticity of the DIY . This restraint avoids contrived , aligning instead with Jonze's directive to minimize distractions and prioritize unfiltered depictions of skating's creative and social dimensions. The choices reflect a broader crossover between and punk influences in skate culture, reinforcing skaters' self-identification with an expressive, anti-commercial underground identity distinct from mainstream trends.

Specific Tracks and Artists

The soundtrack of Video Days comprises seven tracks, each paired with specific sections or skater parts in the 1991 VHS release, drawing from , , , , and alternative genres to underscore the video's raw, eclectic energy. These selections, unaltered in subsequent re-releases, emphasize high-energy rhythms and prowess that aligned with the era's street skating ethos of improvisation and defiance.
Skater/SectionArtistTrack TitleOriginal Release Year
Theme/Intro1975
Guy Mariano1969
Jordan RichterBlack Flag1983
Mark Gonzales with TrioTraneing In1957
Rudy JohnsonDinosaur Jr.Just Like Heaven1988 (cover)
Jason Lee (Part 1)The Knife Song1991
Jason Lee (Part 2)Real World1983
Black Flag's "My War," a cornerstone of 1980s hardcore punk known for its raw aggression and anti-establishment lyrics, accompanies Richter's section, mirroring skate culture's punk-rooted rejection of mainstream norms and embrace of high-risk maneuvers. Similarly, Hüsker Dü's "Real World," from their influential catalog, powers Lee’s second part with its fast-paced, melodic hardcore drive, reflecting the band's role in bridging punk's DIY rebellion with accessible intensity that resonated in underground skate scenes. Dinosaur Jr.'s cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" adds an alternative rock edge to Johnson's footage, highlighting the genre's noisy guitar experimentation that paralleled skaters' innovative line choices. In contrast, Coltrane's improvisational in Gonzales' segment evokes free-form creativity, tying into the skater's abstract style without overt punk confrontation.

Release

Initial Premiere and Distribution

Video Days was released in 1991 by , marking the company's first full-length video production. Exclusively available on tape, the format dominated skateboarding media distribution during the early 1990s due to its accessibility for home viewing among enthusiasts. As an independent release from a small skate brand, initial copies were produced in limited quantities to manage costs, with no mass-market retail push. Distribution relied on Blind's direct sales channels and partnerships with local skate shops across the , particularly in where the company was based. This approach targeted the core demographic through word-of-mouth promotion at ramps, parks, and events, bypassing traditional media outlets in the pre-internet landscape. Premiere viewings occurred informally at regional skate gatherings, fostering immediate buzz within the community without formal theatrical rollout.

Formats and Commercial Rollout

Video Days was released exclusively on cassette by in 1991, reflecting the era's reliance on analog videotape as the standard format for media, which allowed for affordable production and duplication within niche communities lacking access to digital alternatives. Lacking support from , distribution occurred primarily through independent skate shops and direct mail-order sales, emphasizing grassroots channels over widespread theatrical or broadcast outlets. The video's international dissemination relied heavily on informal tape trading among global skate networks, where enthusiasts duplicated and exchanged copies via and personal connections, amplifying reach beyond formal retail without centralized marketing infrastructure. Later efforts to reissue the content on DVD, including box sets combining Video Days with subsequent Blind productions like What If?, have occurred sporadically, but these digital formats often suffer from fidelity degradation inherent to transferring aging analog masters, resulting in compressed visuals and audio that fail to replicate the original tape's raw texture. Commercial rollout remained tied to Blind's independent model, prioritizing limited-edition over broad digital streaming, preserving the video's cult status through scarcity rather than mass-market expansion.

Reception

Critical and Industry Reviews

Thrasher Magazine lauded Video Days for its unpretentious capture of street skating authenticity, observing that "The Blind guys didn't set out to make skate history in 1991, and that makes this video's legendary status even better." This assessment emphasized the production's emphasis on genuine urban sessions over contrived setups, distinguishing it from prior vert-centric videos with higher production gloss. Industry commentary highlighted Spike Jonze's direction as a pivotal factor in the video's reception, crediting his integration of slow-motion tricks, humorous skits, and flair—shot on modest equipment—for infusing street footage with elevated cinematic appeal while preserving its gritty edge. Reviewers in skate media noted this approach as innovative for the era, blending entertainment value with technical skating documentation to appeal beyond core enthusiasts. The video's critical nod to pioneering street innovation was evident in its validation of urban skating's commercial potential, prompting industry-wide emulation of its raw, location-driven format over ramp-focused content by 1992. Publications recognized Video Days as a benchmark for shifting skate video standards toward realism and , influencing production choices at competing brands.

Skater Community Response

Skaters in local scenes across the emulated tricks from Video Days shortly after its October 1991 release, incorporating maneuvers like ' kickflip nosegrind and Rodney Mullen's nollie heelflip into grassroots sessions, as corroborated by amateur footage and contemporaneous accounts of street skating evolution. This adoption reflected a shift toward creative, urban-oriented skating, with skaters prioritizing the video's emphasis on playful execution over rote repetition, evident in early spot sessions documented in regional videos. The video spurred heightened interest in ' team, resulting in expanded sponsorship opportunities for amateurs inspired by featured riders like and , contributing to the brand's rider roster development through the mid-1990s. Early 1990s skate zines and magazines featured debates on style versus technical progression, often positioning Video Days as emblematic of stylish, expressive skating amid pressures for ; this , framing the mid-1980s to mid-1990s tension between artistic flow and trick advancement, critiqued overly mechanical approaches while praising the video's fun-driven .

Commercial Metrics and Sales

Video Days achieved commercial viability through VHS sales distributed exclusively via skateboarding retail outlets and mail-order services, bypassing mainstream theatrical or broadcast metrics typical of wider media releases. The tape retailed at $29.95, aligning with standard pricing for specialty skate videos of the era. Precise unit sales remain undocumented in public records, a common limitation for niche products not tracked by industry databases like Nielsen or box-office aggregators. Its performance nonetheless sustained amid the early 1990s industry downturn following the skate boom's collapse and broader economic recession. In the absence of centralized sales data, success metrics emphasized enduring consumer engagement, including repeated viewings at skate shops and homes, alongside informal circulation of unauthorized bootleg duplicates that amplified reach without direct . This model contrasted with higher-volume vert-oriented videos from established vert , which benefited from broader appeal during the ramps-and-pools era but lacked Video Days' pivot to street skating's momentum. While vert titles occasionally reached tens of thousands in units—exemplified by Powell Peralta's early efforts far exceeding low initial projections—Video Days prioritized cultural penetration over mass-market volume, underpinning Blind's long-term viability through targeted retail channels rather than blockbuster-scale distribution.

Legacy and Impact

Influence on Street Skating Evolution

Video Days established a foundational format for videos by structuring content around individual skater parts, transitional montages, and unfiltered depictions of urban tricks, prioritizing realism and personality over stylized editing or spectacle. This approach, evident in its lo-fi camerawork and narrative framing of skaters' road trips, influenced later productions like Plan B's (1993) and Girl's (1996), which replicated the part-based progression to highlight advancing street maneuvers such as extended manuals, stair sets, and rail grinds in improvised city lines. Subsequent videos built on this by amplifying technical innovation within accessible environments, driving cultural emulation of raw street sessions worldwide. Mark Gonzales' segment in the video showcased a fluid, artistic ethos—featuring wallrides, blunt slides, and spontaneous urban flows—that redefined street skating as an expressive outlet akin to , cementing his status as a pioneering whose influence extended to global skaters adapting similar creative adaptations of public architecture. This stylistic elevation encouraged a departure from rigid trick repetition toward individualistic lines, as seen in the trickle-down effects on international scenes where urban obstacles became standardized canvases for progression. The video's focus on street skating's inherent accessibility—leveraging sidewalks, ledges, and stairs without needing ramps or pads—facilitated a broader transition from the infrastructure-dependent vert era of the , correlating with street's ascendance as the dominant discipline and the skateboard industry's marked expansion through the via heightened media visibility and sales surges. This lower-barrier entry empirically boosted participation by democratizing the sport for urban youth, as evidenced by the format's replication in videos that normalized street as the primary mode of technical and cultural advancement.

Cinematic and Production Standards

was produced using a consumer-grade camcorder, diverging from the 16mm film employed in earlier skate videos like those from the Bones Brigade series directed by Stacy Peralta. This low-fi methodology emphasized unfiltered authenticity, capturing the gritty realities of street skating without the gloss of professional equipment, thereby establishing a DIY standard that prioritized raw energy over technical polish. Spike Jonze's direction innovated by incorporating narrative elements into the editing process, blending high-impact trick sequences with lifestyle vignettes and personality-driven inserts that added contextual depth to the skaters' performances. Features such as the film's iconic opening sequence—depicting skaters cruising in an to ""—and segment-specific , exemplified in Guy Mariano's youthful exploits, transformed skate videos from disjointed clip compilations into cohesive, character-focused narratives. This approach not only heightened viewer engagement but also influenced the structural template for skate productions, fostering a shift toward integrated amid action footage. The video's embrace of low-fi production served as a enduring benchmark against the CGI-augmented and high-budget prevalent in contemporary skate media, underscoring the value of tangible, unadulterated footage in conveying skating's causal immediacy. Its stylistic innovations prompted emulative raw-street formats in independent videos, including H-Street's Next Generation (1992), which echoed Video Days' focus on unscripted urban exploits and minimalistic editing.

Criticisms and Counterarguments

Some observers have critiqued Video Days for its pronounced West Coast orientation, with filming concentrated in and locations that highlighted -specific street obstacles and vert influences, arguably sidelining the parallel development of East Coast street skating techniques, including early ledge grinds and handrail exploits in New York City's concrete environments. This regional emphasis, stemming from ' base, has been seen as reinforcing a of innovation centered on the at the expense of acknowledging contemporaneous East Coast contributions to urban skateboarding's evolution. Counterarguments to proclamations of Video Days as the singular "greatest" or most innovative skate video point to empirical precedents in earlier productions, such as H-Street's Shackle Me Not (), which featured comparable structural elements including rider-specific parts, street footage compilation, and rudimentary threading three years prior. Directed by Mike Ternasky, Shackle Me Not employed camcorder-sourced clips edited into cohesive sections, establishing a "modern skate video formula" of individual showcases amid transitional storytelling, elements that Video Days refined but did not originate. Such precedents undermine absolute claims of revolution by demonstrating incremental rather than discontinuous advancement in techniques. Debates persist regarding the video's depiction of perilous tricks—such as high-speed ledge drops and gap jumps accompanied by visible slams—which some contend glamorized risks inherent to street skating without foregrounding preventive measures like protective gear or technique refinements that gained prominence in subsequent skate media. Director himself sustained a broken during production, an incident emblematic of the era's unmitigated exposure to , yet the final edit prioritized stylistic flair over cautionary framing, potentially normalizing elevated physical jeopardy for aspiring skaters. This approach, while authentic to 1991's raw , contrasts with later videos that integrated more explicit amid rising and liability concerns.

Anniversaries and Recent Developments

20th Anniversary Reunion

In 2011, Skateboarder Magazine organized a 20th anniversary reunion for Video Days to commemorate the video's release in 1991, featuring a and gathering of its original cast of skaters. The event brought together , , Rudy Johnson, , and Jordan Richter, who reflected on the production and its place in skateboarding history during the session held at a familiar warehouse location reminiscent of the original filming sites. The reunion was documented in behind-the-scenes footage released by Skateboarder Magazine, capturing the skaters skating together and discussing the video's enduring tricks, such as switch heelflip and Gonzales' innovative lines, which participants noted had maintained cultural relevance without significant reinterpretation over two decades. Coverage in the magazine's February/March 2011 issue emphasized the event's role in highlighting Video Days' unchanged legacy as a foundational skating document, with no evidence of revised narratives or alterations to its historical assessment emerging from the discussions. The gathering reaffirmed the video's influence on skater camaraderie and technical standards, as articulated by the participants, rather than introducing new critiques or shifts in perception.

Remasters and Contemporary Reflections

In July 2025, archival remasters of Video Days were uploaded to YouTube, converting the original 1991 footage to 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second in a 16:9 aspect ratio, alongside a 1440p 60fps version preserving the original 4:3 format. These enhancements, produced by skate video preservation channels such as Skate Video Library, upscale the analog-sourced video for contemporary displays while maintaining unaltered editing, music, and raw street footage to avoid compromising the production's authenticity. Such remasters have facilitated broader digital access, enabling younger to experience the film's unpolished tricks and improvisational style on high-definition platforms without reliance on degraded copies. They underscore Video Days' enduring technical baseline, where Spike Jonze's direction emphasized natural lighting and handheld camerawork over polished effects, a method now clarified in remastered clarity. Recent commentary highlights the video's persistent relevance as a counterpoint to the professionalized skate industry, including events that prioritize judged competitions and sponsorships since their inception. Analysts note how Video Days embodied DIY principles—skaters self-filming casual sessions in urban environments, free from corporate scripting—contrasting with modern esports-like formats that some view as diluting street skating's organic ethos. This perspective, echoed in skate media retrospectives, positions the film as a benchmark for causal progression in skate evolution, where unscripted creativity preceded commodified spectacles.

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