Back to the grind for Woodbury moviemakers
Don’t let the name fool you.
The skateboarders featured in a new video titled “Street Loafers” – shot and produced by two Woodbury men – are anything but.
The riders perform tricks most folks would have a hard time dreaming up.
The athletes slide gracefully down steep handrails and land on their wheels. They ride streets. They ride vertical walls. They ride ramps.
Loafing? There’s not much evidence of that.
“We’re not trying to be too serious,” said Dan Rusin, who made the film with friend Shane Brown.
The duo debuted the movie in December to a packed house at Summit Board Shop in Lake Elmo, where an estimated 200 people came to watch.
“I never expected anything like that,” Brown said of the turnout at the Dec. 9 screening.
The film, self-produced in limited quantities, depicts Twin Cities skateboarders ripping up the streets from Minneapolis to Woodbury. Both Brown, 20, and Rusin, 18, are among the featured skaters.
Other Woodbury skateboarders featured in the video are Dan Stein, Lou Greengard, Evan Alexander, Will Kigwana and Jimmy Hammarsten.
Stein called the experience “a lot of fun.”
“These guys did a great job,” he said. “It was an adventure every night we went out.”
Thirteen skateboarders are featured in the film – the second produced by the duo.
“Everyone in the video is an amazing skateboarder,” said Rusin, an East Ridge High School senior.
He and Brown said they got into moviemaking in recent years after being impressed by how instructive skateboarding movies can be at teaching riders tricks.
So one Christmas, Rusin asked for a video camera. Before long, he found himself behind the Sony VX2100 – considered the standard for shooting skateboarding videos – shooting videos of his friends.
The self-taught duo launched its first video, called “Suburban Skittles” in the summer of 2010.
“Street Loafers” doesn’t involve any narrative formula or script. Brown and Rusin said it’s strictly focused on showcasing riders’ talent.
“It’s kind of in its own category,” Brown said.
The latest video took the duo about a year to shoot and produce.
The heaviest dose of drama was saved for the final days before its release. Rusin said that one week before the premiere, his computer – the one loaded with everything he needed for the movie – crashed.
“It was basically unusable,” he said.
Rusin rushed the computer to Data Doctors, which fixed the machine up with just two days to go. After getting everything back in order, Rusin and Brown ran off 100 copies of the DVD with 24 hours remaining.
“It was pretty intense,” Rusin said.
Both moviemakers said they would entertain the idea of making a career of skateboard videos, but said that’s not the reason they got into the field.
“It’s just fun,” Brown said.
Copies of “Street Loafers” can be purchased at Summit Boardshop or by emailing Rusin at dan.rusin.iel@gmail.com.