Every once in a while you stumble across something that you really love. Something that speaks to you in multiple ways and often you want to try and find out as much as you can about that thing. Well, when we first saw EVERYTHING SHIPS FROM THE WAREHOUSE by Seamus Foster in 2018 we felt that way. So when we saw that his newest video for Hathenbruck(™) was about to launch we got in contact with him and the results of that olive branch can be read below.
*Spoiler alert watch WEST CRYSTAL UNIT first.
Videos by Seamus Foster
Intro and Interview by Roland Hoogwater
Photos by Colton Morgan
Welcome Seamus, how are you?
I am good. In Salt Lake City just wrapped up a snowboard video. Feels good to be done.
Not to get into full interview mode and skip the pleasantries, but what are the differences between filming a snowboard video and a skateboard video?
The planning, so much more planning, and so much more gear. If I film street spots in snowboarding I use the same camera as I do for skating. But I also use a super 8 and a Panasonic AF100. The biggest difference is the budgets, snowboard videos have bigger budgets. I work for a snowboard company K2 and it is a dope job.
How did you roll into that job?
I don’t know, I am from Pennsylvania, close to Philadelphia and I started skating when I was young. In high school, I started snowboarding and got so hyped on it. And that has lead me to Salt Lake City, Utah. Which is kind of a hub for snowboarding, the mountains are close. When I moved here I had friends that snowboarded in winter and skated in summer, that’s how I settled in here.
Some double-dippers.
(laughs) double-dippers: there are a few double dippers. Forest Bailey is a sick pro-snowboarder. Fun fact: people that do double-dip seem to be really good at balancing boardslides on rails.
Also, Caleb Flowers who does Hathenbruck(™) used to be a really good sponsored snowboarder. But he transitioned into doing different things and opened up a store called Hathenbruck(™).
It started as a store?
It did! in Park City, Utah. But he grew Hathenbruck(™) into a brand and ended up moving it to Salt Lake.
How did you get involved then?
I met Caleb at the skatepark.
EVERYTHING SHIPS FROM THE WAREHOUSE was my introduction to your work. I remember going to Nick Boserio’s IG and seeing that line of his that you filmed for the last Polar video.
Yeah, I feel like Nick pushed us hard on IG, He was a big reason that video blew up. I actually filmed that line from the car.
I was drawn to that video because of the longer shots, it feels like a lot of videos now seem influenced by IG and pack a lot of things in a short time. So your video felt like it had breathing rooms in it.
That is cool that you say that. Because I really like slow-paced stuff, with everything, music, and movies too. Also, Salt Lake is pretty spread out and flat, you can see the mountains all around the city. That helps with that vibe too. The city itself moves at a pretty relaxed pace as well.
This is the fourth video you will be doing for the brand can you tell us a bit about NETNET & JUMPERCABLES the first two?
We just got into this groove, I had the camera because of snowboarding but in the summer I was just too hyped on skating myself to actually pick up the camera. So, my friend Jake Flood, he had a VX and he was the filmer back then. I don’t know.. one day I brought out the cam and that kinda broke the dam. I started bringing it out more and more and around that time Caleb moved to Salt Lake so it seemed logical to make it a Hathenbruck(™) video.
We filmed all summer and fall and in late fall we dropped the video. After that, winter hits and we all go into hiding and I start my work in snowboarding. Next spring everyone got stoked again, so we repeated the process and that became JUMPERCABLES. That same thing happened again for EVERYTHING SHIPS FROM THE WAREHOUSE. That was 2-years ago and so this video took a bit longer. I feel like for most of us we just got busier and skating a lot less. So last fall, it just didn’t feel ready.
EVERYTHING SHIPS FROM THE WAREHOUSE got a staff pick and that means more exposure did that change anything?
Hjalte Halberg seemed to notice it through Nick so he got in touch and that seemed to be the start of those Dancer – Hathenbruck(™) collab products. All the guys from Dancer were really hyped on the video.
Standard question WEST CRYSTAL UNIT can you tell me a bit about the video? It feels different from the last one, a bit more country.
I like the way you worded that (laughs). I don’t know, I have been doing a lot of camping and I have been watching a lot of western movies. I also went to Yellowstone & a rodeo on a holiday trip with my girlfriend and that is where I shot all of that super-8 footage. I filmed it just to film it, not for the video but I ended up playing with it. But you are right, there is a country vibe to it. (Colin) Brophy’s song is a bit country and he has a trick in a cowboy hat on in his part.
The whole opening section is at an abandoned race track that we went to for a couple of days to film and that has a country vibe as well.
This isn’t meant as a diss but one of the things that make your videos so different is the people in them. They look like normal people Colin Brophy for instance doesn’t immediately scream SKATER to me.
Actually, there is a funny story about that. He just finished school last year and when he was in school he had a class with this younger kid who clearly skated. So a week passed and the kid saw him at the skatepark and went up to him and told him: “Dude, I did not think you skated at all when I saw you in class” (laughs) So yeah, that seems like a true statement.
Colin is actually an amazing skater, he is from Utah as well most of us moved here. He was really motivated for this one. He would hit me up and ask if I would be down to go to this and that spot.
I do miss Mitchell McIver’s footage in this video though, he brought a lot to the last one. The scene’s with the darkslide, the tail scraper, the butterflies, and the little river. What happened to him?
He hurt himself a lot during this video. But I agree, I like the water clips, I tried to bring that into this video. Also for EVERYTHING SHIPS FROM THE WAREHOUSE, we skated this abandoned warehouse which was suiting because of the title and we did that the day before the premiere. I went home and got all stoned and added it in. But I tried to keep that same video alive for this video with the basketball hoop section.
That worked well. Just some skaters exploring a busted down hoop.
Must have gotten hit by a school bus or something. Cal Ross brought us there. Every time I bring someone to a spot, I just want it to happem so bad and it becomes destined to fail but if other people suggest spots it seems to work.
I think skaters need the feeling like it was them who came up with it. Make it their own, in a way. So when it comes to the names for the videos how does that work?
Well Caleb, used to always write when a new product would launch EVERYTHING SHIPS FROM THE WAREHOUSE. We would ask him what that meant? He wasn’t actually shipping it from a warehouse but we thought it was funny and I like long titles in general.
WEST CRYSTAL UNIT came about because Caleb bought a vending machine and is using it as a Hathenbruck(™) vending machine around the city. Selling sweatpants and hats out of it. So we wanted to go and film the vending machine in the middle of nowhere for the video. Google mapped a wildlife sanctuary zone and that was called West Crystal Unit Farmington Bay.
So did you instinctively know that was the title? It is a mysterious name, EVERYTHING SHIPS FROM THE WAREHOUSE is very brand connected. this one feels very Twin Peaks almost.
Yeah, right there we felt like that was the name for the video. but it is funny that you say that because I heard from a lot of people that my videos reminded them of that vibe. I didn’t even watch the show that much.
There are moments that work in that same way. Like where Jake Flood almost touches the bar.
He actually has only one clip in WEST CRYSTAL UNIT because he was so busy. I actually filmed that clip 3 years ago. I wanted him to have a moment in the video so I was going through my hard drives and found that one. I always felt it was funny and it worked.
Do you often save things for when the right moment comes along?
No, I could have put it in JUMPERCABLES but I didn’t. It felt like such a good transition clip. On a different but same note, there was a windstorm in salt Lake and a lot of trees fell down. Me and my girlfriend were quite worried that one would fall on the house. So after the whole thing settles down we went to drive and look around because there was this post-apocalyptic vibe going on. We found a lot of fallen trees and bumped up sidewalks, but one was like a spectacle, you could see the roots of this giant very old tree and we skated it.
That looks bombastic.
There were news crews around and one of my friends told me he saw us skating it on the news. I think I did a fakie flip on the news (laughs).
Should have filmed it for the video.
My friend Colton Morgan filmed a lot as well, he filmed some of my stuff but I just put it straight on the gram. I am down to film I was in PAPERCLIP that Mitchell made. But I can’t put myself in my own videos, there is no straight answer to it but I just don’t do it.
Does anyone ever ask you to take out clips? Is it their trick or is it your video?
Yeah, Brophy asked me to take out some stuff, but other times I told him NO because I like the clip and think it works well in the video. To answer it, it is both. But when it comes to the music this time it was pretty much all me. Sound is pretty important to me and that is what I like about Pontus’ work. He has really good sound in his videos I don’t know if he has help with that but the skating sounds so good.
Let me ask you a question. Do you think a video needs a strong ender trick?
No, but every video needs a clip that is an ender. Meaning that it closes off the video. I think about videos like PJ Ladds Wonderfull Horrible Life and the part does end with a great line but that isn’t an ENDER. But it does really end the video for you. In a way, to me, a skate video is a story so there should be a beginning, middle, and end.
I was having trouble with that, the last trick in the video is Paul Curtis doing a Bluntslide Kickflip fakie and that spot is kinda the joke spot. It is a cool little spot but people don’t really film on it because they don’t consider it a real spot. So I asked Paul to do a real trick on it to end the video.
Johnny Wilson did a very avant garde thing by just ending his new video.
I just watched it, and the youtube suggested videos pop up before you are even aware that it ended. Me, myself though I am a sucker for credits. And especially for this one I wanted to make some goofy credits. It came from the movies we were watching. The pandemic created so much time to watch classic westerns and that had an influence on the credits for me. I LOVE the American west, I feel like I will spend all of my life here. Maybe not in Salt Lake but in the Mid-West for sure.
To close it off I just wanted to give you a compliment, because your videos are not dependent only on the skating, the music, the surroundings but it is very much you, who whips it all together and creates the sauce and I just wanted to thank you for doing this talk and giving us the time to explore some topics.
Thanks, I think I texted you way back and I just want to see skate videos like I was a 12-year old kid. Where the skaters looked like superheroes. As you grow up you feel like skating with your friends is the shit and your friends are the shit so I just want to make them look like heroes.
Check out more about Hathenbruck(™) here.