The Mill Street Skate Park Short Film Series
Produced by Rowen Smith
rowen.work@gmail.com
+27(0) 79 647 0077
www.vimeo.com/rowensmith
INTRODUCTION Hello to you all. I am Rowen Smith, a passionate filmmaker from Cape Town South Africa with a great need to make an epic series of short films that form part of the Mill Street Skate Park. The Mill Street Skate Park or the Gardens Skate Park is situated underneath the Mill Street Bridge. I think it started around November 2013 when a few young Urban Designers won the Play Scapes Build Trust International Design Competition and started construction under the Mill Street Bridge. The park about 75% completed and I’m very excited to see the end result.
Ever since I’ve heard of the Mill Street Skate Park, I knew that I wanted to make a video of it, but it didn’t stop there, I knew that there was something more about this park than one simple video. This thing could go big and this park was a symbol for our South African Youth and a greater campaign had to be put in place. So I took a few months deciding what I wanted to do there, but I finally have it. A Skateboarding short film series. That’s what I want to do and I know that what they want to see and that’s what the media needs. ‘Getting the skaters aware of this great park’ and getting them excited to pull their skateboards out of the closets, switch their phones off and get out there…skating.
THE CONCEPT I know a lot of companies have already started their projects and I wish them the best, but this project is different. It’s not for one company, nor for two, but a collaborative team effort targeting the mass media with an amazing short film series that media companies can be proud of. It’s a series of videos that brings only good for the Mill Street Park, that resonates what it’s there for; To get the young ones skating again.
And it’s for this reason that I made this producer’s treatment, hoping that a few companies and brands will invest in my idea and together with a great team effort, we can launch this series of short films, documentaries and even go as far as hold a skateboarding film festival to showcase the films made. So why invest in this idea where there’s so many other skating events and films happening? Well, it’s a risk. It’s a risk for me too and just like a skater takes a risks to land that kick flip coming off the rail, I believe that filmmakers should take risks too, but this is going to be quite an expensive risk to take for one man and I’m going to need a lot of help coming from all angles. The faith is there and it’s there to stay. The Mill Street Skate Park will be the next big thing in skateboarding culture and I want all of you to be a part of it.
To make this project a complete and absolute success I am going to need teams of filmmakers, marketers, financial strategists, great project managers and young producers who can lead their teams and companies to get the series of short films at the best it can be, but before I go into details, let’s look at the project as a whole..
THE PROJECT It’s quite a challenging project, but I think if enough people get involved we can make this work and it would be a great success for skating in Cape Town. With all the short films, the adverts, the documentary and the launch day video, I want to create a film festival for the skaters to showcase their talents. Using the Cape Town International Airport’s Massive Square as location, we can surely have a great outside Open Air Skating Film Festival. Websites can be put up and the respective companies can all group together to show their skating videos online. The adverts can be pre-released weeks before the park is ready which can excite skaters. Competitions can be run for the brands that are part of the project. Below is a description of each category in brief.
10 Short Films
Each Company makes a 5 minute skateboarding short film. This short film can be of any kind and is to be shot whatever gear they require. As long as the skating short films promote Skating in Cape Town by showcasing a talented skateboarder as main character. These short films will be released when the park is launched for all the skaters to watch the night after their big day of skating at the Mill Street Skate Park.
10 Short Sponsor Adverts The 10 Short Sponsored Adverts will be 30 seconds to 1 minute Long, featuring a pro skater and their brand. Think of skating brands Like DC Shoes, Baseline, Dope Industries, Vans, Element, Etnies, Redbull, etc. The Adverts will be part of the overall marketing strategy that will screen with the participating companies’ short films and to be pre-released before the launch of the park.
1 Short Documentary Each company makes a short documentary on Skateboarding in Cape Town. They can do it anyway they want with whichever skater and with whatever gear they want. The documentary will also be screened at the film festival. As long as the documentary reflects the skate park and the awesomeness of it.
1 Launch Day Video There will be an official launch day. I know it. We all know it. When the park is complete I really want to see this amazing day of skating With competitions and trick contests and just a great day of fun With banners and scaffolding and media and camera operators Everywhere, filming the skaters do their thing. The launch day will showcase a few South African Pro Skaters who will be testing the park out showing everyone what they can do. I want a lot of branding to participate to make this day possible. Funding will be needed, but this day will all be worth it in the end, if everything comes together.
The aim of the launch day event is to get all the brands together and expose each of them thanking them for their participation in this amazing event. The brands will have their skating ambassadors there who can showcase their skating talent. Branding can be put up on Scaffolding where we will position our master cameras who will record the event. A marketing plan can be set up weeks before the launch to get Cape Town Excited. Little things like stickers, banners, pamphlets and social media can play a role here.
REFERENCES Skating Short film --- DC Shoes, High Speed Cameras, Classical Music
Product Placement
Advert References Globe Skateboarding
Vans Advert
EVAN SMITH (DC SHOES Commercial)
Social Media, Public Marketing Campaigns and Online Branding
Documentary References Nike_X Les SkatePark
Making it official in China Documentary
The Launch Day An Official Launch day video is to be made by the respective companies and brands involved. This will go onto their websites and social media platforms as a finale to the adverts, short films and documentaries they’ve made.
THE SPONSORS
The Launch of the Mill Street Skate Park will be a great way to get a few funders involved who can market their brands at the launch, in the adverts, with the short films and the documentaries that will be made. Each project will have a specific funder attached to it who will sponsor the skater and the team creating that video. This is a great marketing tool for the respective companies involved to get their name out there and possible be linked with a professional skater to serve as skateboarding brand ambassador. Because the project is so big with such a great need for efficient camera gear, a collaborative sponsorship must emerge from a group of funders and skating brands to help steer the project on. Below are only a few Brands I’ve researched that could be involved in this short film series. DC SHOES
BASELINE Studios CT
DOPE INDUSTRIES
www.dcshoes.co.za
www.baselinestudio.co.za
www.dopeind.com
ETNIES
EMERICA
INTENDE ACTION WEAR www.Intende.co.za
ALTAMONT www.altamontapparel.com
www.etnies.com
www.emerica.com
Johno’s Skate Shop
BOOGALOOS
www.johnosskateshop.co.za
www.boogaloos.com
The Legion Skateboarding Co. www.africaskate.com
The Berrics www.theberrics.com
The VERB www.jacohaasbroek.com
The list goes on‌
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM Like any new business venture, a proper social media platform is to be put in place which will be linked to all the collaborative companies and brands. Digital Print distribution like Blunt Magazine and Sessions magazine can be approached to get even more exposure on the project if the time is right. Other Skating Culture Websites include;
Skate Africa
National Skateboarding Association of RSA
Blunt Magazine
Sessions Magazine
Skull Candy
SOUND & MUSIC For epic videos like these, we’re going to need a sick soundtrack that enhances the epicenes of our skaters and their tricks. This is the perfect opportunity to approach local artists to give music rights to the collaborative parties for their videos and adverts.
Below are only a few local artists who resonate the grudge skating feel. BOMBAADA Cape Town
www.bombaada.com
info@bombaada.com
REDBULL MUSIC STUDIO CT
www.redbullstudio.co.za
studio@za.redbull.com
SURFING LOSER SPACE CULT
SHANGRI LA MUSIC
JUST MUSIC
THE STONE AGE CITIZENS
SURFINGLOSERSPACECULT@BLOGSPOT.COM
www.shangrilamusic.com
www.justmusic.co.za
LETSHAVEABEACHPARTY@GMAIL.COM
info@bandofskulls.com
info@justmusic.co.za
www.soundcloud.com/stone-age-citizens
ikeepmypimphandstrong@gmail.com
And many more…
TO CONCLUDE
I hope you enjoyed reading my treatment and I hope that all of you are as passionate about this short film series as I am. It’s not going to be an easy road to make these films, just like it wasn’t an easy road for the designers, the urban design team and the construction companies involved to make this park possible. My vision is for a group of filmmakers to collaborate into making these films possible and to have the best skating launch day Cape Town has ever seen. …At the Mill Street Skate Park. I’d like to thank each and every one of you for reading my treatment. If you are interested and would like to meet up, please contact me at any time
Writer/director/producer Rowen Smith Phone: +27(0) 79 647 0077 Email: rowen.work@gmail.com Skype: Rowen Smith Website: www.vimeo.com/rowensmirth
Produced by Rowen Smith Rowen.work@gmail.com
www.vimeo.com/rowensmith
+27(0) 79 647 0077