The article was written for NZwakeboard.com but upon seeing it published I’m not as happy as I could be with the result, the format of the site is for what is normally run, photos and videos but not for words, every word is lost in every other one, I don’t want to read it. I would like to think this site is better but not amazing. I need to tweak my design so that words are readable, I’d like to see this on a iPad as I see that as a joining point between computers and books where maybe I will find this easier to read but until then here is that article.

I just watched Lipsmack for the first time and my opinions will change if I watch it again so I’ll write this now when I have some fresh ideas and a desire to shine some light on if you to should spend the $15 for the HD iTunes download as I did, there are also the SD and renting options cheaper online, maybe a DVD that’s more and it will probably already be on the torrents if you want it free but illegally, I won’t be going into if I think this should have been a free release on vimeo, it’s not, that means it’s not an option to discuss and let just deal with what we those we can control and those are my choice to pay that much of my hard earned cash and if I think you should too?

Before I brought the film I based that decision to pay on a a few reasons, starting with seeing the hype up to this film the trailers and stoke on the net, this showed off the main two reasons I did, The film is made by Patrick Wieland, he’s earned my respect as editor and producer of content for alliance online and he has personally helped me by running clips like the rail gardens edit so I’m happy to support him in a bigger endeavor. The next reason was I like Shred Town and the direction they have taken wake shreading but there net clips are just a touch sloppy so I wanted to see what they can do given a bigger stage, budget and more time.
Away from the net hype but still key to my decision to purchase were I prefer films to web edits, in general more thought has been put into them and they can give so much more back than a shorter clip, finally I like iTunes being the distribution platform Lipsmack has used but I hope this article is one more part to you and may now come into your decision making process.

This however wasn’t the film I expected, maybe I was only seeing what I wanted to in the hype, from the start Pat killed it in making this movie what it is, in terms of the technical side it is really well shot the cameras moves smoothly, it’s a lot better than his web edits, the shots are strong and clean the editing is controlled and smooth leading the viewer through the movie. Patrick’s style is tight on the rider, which is cool if your watching this on a smaller screen but sometimes looses a bit of context on the spot or feature and gives it a touch of web feel but as said he killed it.

Shred town kill it, they pulled through on the hype and show some of the most progressive rail riding and features.

Lipsmack is a film not an edit, it’s thought out, this maybe Pat, it maybe the riders or other producers but wherever it came from it’s well done it’s planned not just jam a camera on what’s happening, they tried to progress the riding, the filming and every part they could and they have, from shooting beautiful locations to a good selection of diverse music that I would be happy to have in my head while shreading. This film has been worked on and it shows in the quality and style

ITunes just does a good job as a commercial platform, I call $15 cheap from growing up in the $40 DVD era but it’s slightly more than the Art of Flight. It’s easy and almost instant I can click buy in NZ as soon as the Americans can and the HD downloads slightly slower than it plays so 45 mins after clicking buy I have watched the 30 min film movie in HD.

What I didn’t really realise until I started watching was this isn’t Patrick’s view of Shred Town it’s the Slingshot movie and there a diverse bunch, the shots are more boat tricks than anything else, the boat riding isn’t Defy and it’s not supposed to be trying to beat Harley trick for trick, the level builds through the film and shows tricks done well, there are grabs in there, not board touching, not patting the board like it’s a dog, and grabbing tricks not only straight airs and 180′s, something heavily missing from the New Zealand scene if this years Nationals were anything to go by. It’s not only boat tricks tho there are cable tricks, something I miss in way too many American edits but this is only in one part from the Euros and not really a feature of the film But in general it’s not a boat trick movie It’s a family movie. This means there are personal insights in the team hanging out together and who they are, this over shadows my vision of half an hour of Shred Town progressing trick after trick but not to the point it disappears, it’s just not what I had in mind, Shred town are an integral part of Lipsmack but only one part of something bigger at Slingshot which this movie show cases.

So with the original question should you buy Lipsmack? I may or may not have had $15 enjoyment watching the progression of Pat Shred town and the rest of the Slingshot family but what I am most excited about was this film builds over the 30mins but doesn’t really go out with a monumental bang, the last section is the best and dam it’s good but it’s beatable, in time this crew or another could do better, it’s a massive step in progression but I hope that my $15 will show there is a budget to continue that progression and make this another film I won’t be watching in five years but money well spent on the progression of high quality endeavors such as Lipsmack is.

Buy the film on iTunes