No Use - skate meets art?

Still from "No Use" - click to watch the trailer

Super 8mm film is synonymous with underground skate and surf films, with trademark hand held tracking shots making the most of the grain to vividly illustrate urban road and pool warriors.

As you know we love a good skate film, so when Phil Evans (he of Guitar=Magic Wand fame) told us about his new project we were more than a little interested.

"I've been working on a skate/art vid for quite a while now, and I finally completed and premiered it last week in Dublin. It's not like a regular skate vid, in that its not so trick based, so its far more accessible to those who wouldn't skate, its more a feeling of being out there doing it, the atmosphere, the fun, the strife, the triumph and of course the aesthetic of the whole thing"

Here's the thing - it's not like a regular skate film!

"No Use" is a brilliant mix of city centre montage, skate moments, intimate songs and audio snapshots. Whilst there's no particular narrative, it's immediately engaging. Sure the exposure's off and the focus soft in places - but that's what makes this film honest and very, very real.

Shot on the mean streets of Dublin town with a Canon 310 XL (sometimes with wide angle attachment) and a Nizo S48 for high frame rate stuff, Ektachrome 64T and Tri-X feature throughout. Processing was done by Frank Bruinsma in his Rotterdam lab, www.super.nl, and the film's Aul Blog tells of a hasty Dutch trip to retrieve the last reel as deadlines loomed.

But, it's all in the detail baby.

Hand made cover art

Each and every one of the DVD's for this 25 minute short comes in a hand painted sleeve, finished with a delicate wax seal - almost a shame to open it and ruin the concept that so much heart and soul has obviously gone into.

You can get copies from Phil by e-mailing aul.pups[@]gmail.com, after which he'll take a mailing address and send a Paypal money request. DVD's cost €10/£8/$15 and for the foreseeable future each and every copy will have its own individual artwork and beautiful wax seal.

Click on the image at the top of this feature to see the trailer on our podcast and remember you can;

• Click the image above to see the Flash and Quicktime (via the 'Select a format') versions of the film
• Subscribe to the Super 8 podcast via iTunes here
• See our Blip.tv channel for non iTunes solutions
• For more on the onsuper8.org podcast click here including how to get email updates