You have seen Bill Strobeck’s videos. You are aware that his filming style has influenced multiple generations of skateboard filmmakers. This is known.

So if his signature style isn’t the subject of this edition of The Rules (it isn’t) , it’s because something else of great importance was on our minds when we thought about talking to Bill.

With a career of notable videos spanning decades, Bill has filmed many of skateboardings most beloved figures, and done it well. As is discussed in the following interview, he’s been able to do so through the magic of getting along with said beloved figures, both their best and at their least best. So, what does it take?

For this months Rules of Skateboarding, Ian Browning spoke with Bill Strobeck about the importance of the filmer/skater relationship.

How long does it take for a filmer/skater relationship to get comfortable for you? Has it ever been awkward the first time you've gone out with somebody?

Looking back, I guess the most awkward time was probably right when I got the job with Alien Workshop. But it was exciting. It was just such a different time than it is now, and I was looking up to the people that I was filming at that point more than ever. I was just starting and heads like Dyrdek and Fred Gall, Jason Dill and Van Englen, anybody that was on Workshop in Photosynthesis, I had all their numbers right out the gate. I've said this in many interviews, but I called [Anthony Pappalardo] first because he wasn't really known at that time. He was just the least intimidating of them all.

Anthony Pappalardo, the least intimidating of them all. Backside 180 fakie 5-0 180 out.

There’s probably kids nowadays that put a lot of people that I film on pedestals. That's how it was while I was younger. I was looking up to dudes or had pictures of them on my wall, like any other skater at that age.

Having been involved in the skateboard world for a while, I still think that people that make it in skating are super special, but it's a different feeling for me now. I've kind of grown into the world of it, as opposed to when I first started when I was just like, “Fuck, man, I will not call Fred Gall.” I'd been watching his footage for years, thinking he’s the fucking illest dude on the East Coast.

I was super green. I hadn't gone through life. I was hanging out with Dill and seeing all the shit that he was doing. When I first came here to New York, I would just crash at his crib. He would be out partying because he'd already been living the skate life for so long. Not even partying, but just being out late, bringing back tons of people to his house at fucking four in the morning. I wasn't really doing that in my life yet. When I was there and I'd wake up and be like, “What's going on? We're going skating tomorrow. I'm in New York to film you.” And he would wake up kind of on a buzz from the night before and be like (Bill does a Dill impression) “Fuck, dude, I’ve got to get it together. He's here to fucking film me. I’ve got to get it together and go skate.” You know? And that's what the footage for Photosynthesis was. Not every night was like that, but there were times where I thought that this dude isn't waking up till two PM the next day. So I would be out with Wenning and Pappalardo earlier in the day and then he’d call: “Dude, I'm up. I'll meet you wherever.”

It's different for me now. I think people know who I am from all the stuff I've done, and kids that are just getting into skating are excited to be in the videos that I'm doing.

Do you have a favorite filmer/skater combo?

Shit, a favorite one? That’s hard. Maybe [Mike] Ternasky and Danny Way. All that shit Danny Way did early on was super sick. The H-Street video shit.

Growing up for me, it was definitely Daniel [Harold] Sturt. I didn’t know who filmed at the time, but looked into it later and figured out how important the people behind the cameras were. Check it: [Sturt] used something that he either made, or something on the camera, so the sun would bounce off and hit the person. It’d give them a specific glow. He just did really cool shit man, and his style and photos were his own.

The craziest shit in *Underworld Element Fine Artists Vol. 1*

I didn't know until later on, but Dave Schubert’s shit is really fucking sick. He just captured some of the craziest shit: the Pulaski fight at the end of the Underworld Element Fine Artists Vol. 1, the video where the skaters basically jump this dude with a motorcycle helmet on. He also filmed the fight at the Brooklyn Banks contest where everyone's hitting that dude with the board. He filmed a lot of really crazy shit. I feel like he doesn't get as much credit as he should.

I was in Philly, I was around Dan Wolfe. I went to the Eastern Exposure 3 premiere at Sub Zero — sat on the floor with everyone else and watched it on a TV. I gravitated towards all things Philly, even more than New York or anything else. Fred Gall, Matt Reason, Ricky [Oyola], Stevie [Williams]. I really wanted to go there growing, and I felt like it was really representing the type of skating that I liked. Because 411 was coming out, and in 411 #3 there's a Philadelphia section, and it looks super raw and gnarly there, some “watch your back” type shit.

Josh Kalis in Transworld’s *Sixth Sense*, fakie backside nosegrind & nollie nosegrind.

Ryan Gee filmed a lot of fucking sick shit. Gee and Kalis: that skater/filmer combo was really amazing. I want to just give Gee props, because he inspired me so much and taught me a lot of things about shutter speed and cameras. He was doing it pretty hard when I came to Philly, and if you ever get to see any of his log tapes, they're really special. He filmed Josh Kalis’s Sixth Sense part, I was around towards the middle of that and was hanging out with Gee. It felt like they were sparked, like they had a job to do. I like that combo because Kalis is an unreal skater, and both of those two specifically helped me out. I think that video is amazing. It's got Banks footage, it's got Love footage, some of my favorite shit.

[Dan] Wolfe and Fred Gall. And you know, probably Wolfe and Ricky to be honest. There was a job there to do, and Ricky was very specific about filming and what he wanted to skate. I think that's cool. That's the era that I'm hyped on, grew up in, and inspired by: any other stuff in Philly, any of the stuff in New York, any of the early East Coast shit.

Ricky Oyola as filmed by Dan Wolfe doing some East Coast shit. Bump to bar Ollies in *Eastern Exposure 3*.

Have you ever had a time where the skater got bummed on the way that a clip came out?

I don’t know, but this comes to mind off the top: It wasn't even about the clip, but my camera glitched once when I was filming Dill. He did backside 180 over a hydrant to wheelie, right at the end of his DVS part, and had to do it again. We were fighting for it and he did it fucking perfect, I went to rewind it, and somehow it didn't even record. My camera was recording, but then when I went to rewind, it just showed a glitch line at the top and nothing on there.

Jason Dill doing a backside 180 to switch wheelie filmed on what we now know to be a spray painted VX1000.

I was like, “I don't know, let me just rewind it a couple of times. Maybe it'll pull up.” And then it didn't. I could tell he was pissed. I instantly felt bummed, because I knew that he was battling it. He was like, “Fuck, dude. Maybe you should stop fucking spray painting your cameras.” I spray painted my camera black because I was on this kick…I didn't want have anything that was like anyone else. And I just liked how it looked: stealth style. I was doing that in Philly.

He ended up doing it again though, so I felt relieved. He did it a few tries later. But for those few tries, I felt guilty.

Traditionally the filmer has been the one that motivates the skater and handles the logistics. “Yo, I’ve got a spot, I fixed it up.” But you’ve filmed a lot of big personalities in skateboarding. Who is captaining the mission when you go out with a veteran? Are you ever like, “Yo, I’ve got a spot” to Gonz? Or do you let him run it?

I think with Mark, for example, I'll be like, “Hey, meet me and Sean Pablo at Black Hubba.” Then we get there and I don't need to do anything more. Mark's used to this already. He and Dill are good, they know how to turn on. It feels like I could bring them anywhere. I also feel the same with Tyshawn [Jones]. TJ can just literally skate and everyone's fucking hyped. He could go over a can and do a flat ground trick, and then maybe say a fucking few words to someone, and then you're like, “Alright, we're good. We got it.”

I don't need to tell Mark. Maybe I'll be like, “Hey, maybe instead of doing a manual on that curb, do it on this other one, because the sunlight is better on that one.” I'm directing it in that sort of way. And then there are some people that have no idea what they're even going to do. Maybe like, you know, frontside flip nose wheelie this little fucking thing, and let's see how many other little things you can get. And then we’ve got something.

The craziest part of doing it now is that you need content. It's the way that it is now. This is a job. It’s not back in the day. It's not like something we do for fun or to say, “Here, look at this.” If I'm posting little things from my phone, that's just in-between stuff. For the last few years I’ve been filming a video every day, like 10-hour days, you know what I mean? It's nonstop. I feel like I’ve got to continue the journey. That's what it is at this point. I would have quit years ago if I didn't like it. I love it.

Are there any similarities between filming and being a team manager? You're the TM for Violet, right?

Violet doesn’t need a full TM right now. It's not like we need to book flights, you know what I mean? Doing Violet right now is a few things a month. It's not anything that you can't handle within 15 minutes. I'm hardly even asking those kids for anything other than their opinions and what they like. They're able to do whatever they want, and my guess is they're fine doing what they do on the daily.

Efron Dazig, lipslide shove-it lipslide in *☆THE VIOLET PROMO☆*.

I think it's the most fun at the early stages of something that's going to be bigger. I'm working with all those kids on what we're doing, and they got a lot of really good shit coming out.

It's cool. I'm glad I was able to help them in any sort of way, because I had been filming with them for the last year and a half and just being like, I like these kids. I think they got something to offer the community. And also, they do other things too. It's cool because they can kind of hit everything that I like in the world, not just skating.

I have connections. I've been in his shit since ‘97, so when heads from Philly put out a video, I can hit up Thrasher and make sure that they're able to help them promote it. I just do my best for anybody that I think is cool and has a future. Even outside of my circle. I'm always trying to help get things in the position that I'd like to see them. With the kids on Violet, I make calls to get them gear if they want to. They don't even have to ask. I just do it.

Did people help you in that way when you were coming up?

It was different in that you couldn't get anything back in the day. If you went to Thrasher, you could grab some clothes if you're from out of town, or grab some Slap t-shirts. But now, kids get way more money for not doing as much, because people would like to have them involved with their company because they think they're cool. That's a better look than not having them involved. I'm sure it's going to turn back to being a little bit more rough around the edges, but right now, it's a pretty interesting time for kids that are just coming into it.

Would you ever let anybody else edit a Violet video?

I don't know. I doubt it. I’d be down to have somebody assist me with editing. I've thought of this so many times because it's even hard for me letting other people film. Johnny [Wilson] can mimic what I do pretty fucking perfect, where he'll know where I would stand. Obviously he films more according to what we're doing when he's doing it for us. There's definitely been some other kids that have helped, and I'd send them the footage and say, “Would you film it like this, from the angle I tried before.” I’ve ended up wishing I had been there to film it. Sometimes it's not exactly the aesthetic that I was going for. But I ain't mad. I like to work with all different styles of stuff and people.

With editing, your spirit goes into the whole thing. I let myself go, and it’s like, oozing out of me. It's draining as fuck, but it's pretty fun too. Because when I get through a little editors block, if I do something little and I like watching it, I get psyched on that. Then all the rest of it just kind of rolls out. It's really animal instinct, I guess.

Kevin Bradley at EMB as seen in *SICKNESS*. 360 flip, Ollie.

I’ll look back at something I did years ago, even SICKNESS, I wasn't used to coloring skate videos then. At the time, it felt like that was just it.

It’s funny, you could probably look the same way at shit you've written. You're like, “Maybe I would have cut this a little different, or I would have colored this a little different”, but at that time, it was at 100. It's just the moment you're in.

You’re tracking your personal tastes changing.

Exactly. I wouldn't change any of that stuff for the world, but I was just thinking that if I made the same thing now, I would have known how to spot color a little more because I know how to do some of that stuff. I'm not a technical person at all. I'm surprised I even know how to use the fucking cameras stilll. I don't geek out on that shit. I just want to capture images and people and shapes. I'm lucky enough to be around the best personalities in skating from my point of view. I've got a thing for that — I'm a people person. We did a photoshoot not too long ago with the Violet kids and the editor of the magazine was there for the shoot. He was like, “Dude, where do you find all these people?” I just zone in on someone that seems cool.

Even when I was younger: Pat Corcoran. I started filming with him a lot in Philly, right? It was with him, Rob Pluhowski, there were a few other heads. There was something about Pat. In my mind I just couldn’t wait for the world to see what we were doing.

It was the same thing with Jake Johnson. I knew it. The minute I saw him and then hung out with him, I knew he's an interesting kid. He was already as good as he is in Mindfield in person, skating flat ground. So when I did that article with The Skateboard Mag I was like, “This is going to be the first thing anybody's going to see, and he's doing switch ollie over a rail to switch 50-50 down it.” I get hyped on it. Then from Mindfield his career just rocketed. Pappalardo and Wenning — I filmed a lot of their early shit, and it's just been like that since. I found a rhythm with that, I guess.

The Rules of Skateboarding #22: Bill Strobeck