Under Exposed with Jake Knapp
In this Under Exposed interview we chat with Jake Knapp, a NW based photographer and videographer and the creator of the 35th Avenue skateshop videos Balsamic Villagers, Sorry Were Open and many more.
If you are reading this and wondering who Jake Knapp is, he created an aesthetic for 35th Ave from 2004-2016. He created multiple videos featuring all of my friends, took amazing photos, directed and created our 40th anniversary video, tirelessly drove us around Tacoma/Sammamish/Bellevue/Seattle, consumed hundreds of subway sandwiches, despised salt and vinegar chips, taught me about music, showed me how to shoot film and push boundaries with creativity. And most importantly Jake is a great example of how to be a great friend and person who’s focused on commitment and excellence. Although younger than me by over a decade I look up to Jake in so many ways and could never thank him enough for all his contributions to 35th and my life personally. Thank you Jake. - Dave Waite
Photo by Andrew Snyder.
I gotta start by saying I am a big fan of you and the videos you've helped create over the years. The 35th videos were really important to all of us growing up and shaped how we saw skating, skate videos, local skaters, music and our whole region. So with that said, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer some questions with AB.
No problem, and that's really cool to hear. I've heard similar sentiments from a few folks over the years and it's still always a trip. We were always just trying to make something fun and different and I'm glad folks were able to identify with it.
Hell yeah. I've been chatting with Dave Waite while working up questions for this interview, and he's been sharing just how many rad things you've been a part of, it's honestly hard to know where to start exactly, so I'm going to keep it simple and just say tell me a bit about yourself, where you grew up, and how you got into skating?
I'm from Arkansas originally, I lived there until I was 8 or so, then my family moved to Pennsylvania for a few years, and on to Washington in 2000. I got into skating when we lived In Pennsylvania. There were a few other kids my age in the neighborhood and we all played hockey together, and there were a few that skated. We would all rip around on the curbs by the bus stop and all the other little spots in the neighborhood. I still remember watching my first skate video in my friend's basement in 3rd or 4th grade, Transworlds '4 Wheel Drive.'
I didn’t watch ‘4 Wheel Drive’ much, but I’m a fan of any video Reynolds is in. When and where did you start filming? and taking photos?
Aside from the disposable cameras my mom would let me shoot when I was a kid, I started filming/shooting photos around 7th or 8th grade. My family had moved to Sammamish by then. We would borrow my friend's dad's camera and film around the neighborhood, then I ended up with my own cameras early in highschool. There was a small darkroom in Issaquah down by the skatepark, and the people who ran it were always incredibly nice to me. I took some of my first proper photo classes there, and pretty much spent all of the time I wasn't at school or skating in their darkroom.
Damn that’s really special, not a lot of kids get to learn with real film and a dark room like that. What inspired you to keep going with it?
Skateboarding! I was looking at a ton of magazines and a ton of videos, and I would just try and figure out how people were doing things. Why did one thing look a certain way and another didn't and just tried to piece it together.
Same, man. I’m still kinda doing that today honestly, haha. Who were you filming with at first? And how did you meet all the crew?
Very early I was filming with some friends in my neighborhood and then that expanded out to my friends at school, one of whom was Matt Nielsen. We went to the same middle school and high school. I would see him skating all the time behind the QFC near where we lived and he was always killing it. Andy Snyder came into the fold around the same time because his cousin also went to our school. I remember the first time I filmed either of them we were just messing around on a shitty homemade flat bar in the garage at Andy's cousin's house. After that we started skating together all the time. We ended up linking up with all of the Tacoma folks because of the internet haha. We were all a part of the long-defunct digitalskate.net which was kind of the precursor to skateperception.com. We would see and comment on each other's videos and one day we finally decided to meet up, so Andy and I made our way to Foss to meet up with Eric Logan. We pull up to the park and immediately we see someone wallie up on top of the tall side of the green ledge, like the 3 foot tall part, and we both were just like whoa ‘who the fuck was that?’ Turns out it was Eric haha, ironically enough that day we showed up to the park someone had spray painted across the back of the ledge "Eric Logan rules." He swears it wasn't him and I've never seen him touch a can of spray paint in his life so I'm inclined to believe him. We went to Puyallup and filmed a ton of stuff that day, I dropped him off at home, and it was just an awesome kind of magical day. Through Eric we met Dave Waite, Jake Weger, Zebb Bruser, Josh Peterson, all the Tacoma people. Later on during the Balsamic Villagers days we started skating with Cody Sewell, Reilly Schlitt, Luke Elliott, Matt Gorman, Cory Thomas, Jordan Strong, Tim Henry and others.
Photo by Andrew Snyder.
What a great Eric story haha. I really love to hear the origin stories of everyone, that’s so sick. And although the websites are apps on our phones now, it’s crazy that all these years later we’re still making friends through the internet. And what about editing? Did you start editing right when you started filming, or did that come separately?
I didn't start editing until I had my own camera, so it must have been a few years after I started filming.
Ah ok, makes sense. I always loved the way you edited things and used b roll, roll ups, funny clips, random video snippets, etc. Who were your inspirations for videos and your style of editing?
I appreciate that! Fred Mortagne was my biggest influence back then, I would watch Sorry and Bon Appetit literally every day in high school. Same with some of the Greg Hunt/John Holland transworld videos, especially Sight Unseen. Later on I gravitated toward Workshop/Habitat videos, Blueprint videos, Static, etc. but a lot of the stuff I pulled for videos came from archive.org. There's a collection there called the Prelinger Collection, which is all public domain videos. There's a ton of super strange old films on there, old industrial films, weird PSA films, but a lot of them had a really rad aesthetic. Some really fascinating animation and practical effects, so that stuff was really inspiring and a lot of it ended up in videos I edited.
Dude I’ve definitely lurked on that archive site before, that’s dope. And French Fred videos definitely shaped me as well, especially ‘Menikimati’ and ‘Sorry’. So I am familiar because I grew up filming and skating here in Tacoma, but could you share a bit about the challenges of doing this shit in the NW in general, for the people who aren’t from here and have no idea?
Well first and most obvious the rain is a problem, so you just have to be willing to cut your losses some days and end up in a garage or long 6, which honestly to me isn't so bad. Those are some of my favorite memories just skating shitty half-wet spots with your friends for hours. The ground is harsh and spots can be harder to come by, but again I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing, it makes you have to use your imagination a bit more. That's one thing I really love about Tacoma, there are these really unique spots but you have to find them, and they usually aren't going to be easy at first. I feel like the peripheral industrial towns (Tacoma/Everett) and the outskirts of Seattle all have a really cool rough feel when you see them on film. The spots are barely spots sometimes, but I think it gives you the opportunity to do something different.
‘Not-a-spot’ spots haha that’s our bread and butter for sure. And we kinda talked about it but how did you get connected with 35th?
Long story short Matt, Andy, and I got connected with 35th after meeting Eric.
Ah okay, makes sense. How did the first 35th project come to be? I believe that was ‘Sorry We're Open’, correct?
Yep, Sorry We're Open was the first one! We were all just so excited to be a part of the shop and we were skating and filming all the time so it came together relatively quickly.
Gimme some background on making that one?
It was just a fun time, we were all skating as much as possible then. I would take every free day I had and drive to Tacoma to meet Eric and we would go to Foss in the morning then scour Tacoma for spots. It's amazing the places you can get into with a coffee mug and a little confidence. Some days I would drive down and pick up Eric, we'd drive all the way to Seattle or Bellevue or Mercer Island to meet up with everybody, I'd drive him back down to Tacoma and then back home to Issaquah or Seattle. Sometimes 4-5 times a week. We built a few spots, one of which was fully sanctioned by the property owner until someone ruined it by burning down a trailer that was next to the spot. Just kind of crazy and fun days, we just tried to make the most of it.
Damn you were putting miles on the car. Good times? Tough times?
Almost entirely good times.
Sick. Another influential project was ‘Balsamic Villagers’, which is a NW classic! How did that one start? Tell me about the name?
It was basically just an extension of what we were doing before trying to skate as much as possible, but we were all starting to navigate life outside of skating a bit more. Jobs, school, etc. It's probably the video we all tried our hardest for. Everyone really grew into their style at that point and I think we were able to get some really rad and unique skating down. I think Matt came up with the name, we didn't have one at the time, and it's just a lame pun but for whatever reason we were hyped on it and ran with it haha.
I can definitely see that, everyone was skating really good and it felt more developed for sure. Any good stories from that project?
Just so many good times, probably more laughter than at any other time in my life. We were together all the time and we were all driven to make something. I'll always cherish those days.
Love to hear it. What was the most challenging part of making the video?
The filming was fun, some tricks took a while, but all of that kind of fades away with time, but the editing took forever. I told everyone that I wasn't going to shave my beard until we finished the video and some 5-6 months later I had this terrible ratty beard, but eventually it all came together!
And I heard at some point your truck was broken into during the video?
Notice to any filmer, don't leave anything in your car if you can help it. Schlepping a backpack is a lot better than getting a camera stolen, and if something happens make sure you file a claim with insurance! Had cameras stolen a couple times, always a shitty experience.
Ugh, yeah, I’m pretty religious about never leaving my bag in the car anywhere. Especially in Tacoma... I could keep going on and on about your projects, but the last one I'll ask about is the 35th 40 year anniversary video. I go and watch that about once a year, it's so damn good. Was that your first documentary style piece?
Thanks man! Not the first documentary project, but the first longer form documentary project. Ben Ericson and I have worked together at Microsoft Research for a long time, and we have put together a lot of short docs about the projects they work on.
Word. I didn’t know you worked with Ben, that’s an interesting connection. Tell me about the making of that documentary?
The shop has so much history, and so many amazing people have been a part of it over the years. A lot of us kind of grew up there and at 35th North, and it was amazing to hear how it has affected those who have been a part of it. It's incredible for any small business to last that long, especially a skateboard shop, and we wanted to do something to mark the occasion. I loved talking with everyone and going through the old photos and footage (massive shoutout to Josh Mclaughlin for capturing all of the footage) In the end I love how it came together, but it felt a little incomplete to me, there's just so many people who have come through, would have loved to include more!
For sure, I feel that. It’s hard to balance making something ‘perefect’ and actually putting something out, but I think that one is really good man. Throughout the course of these videos, how did your cameras and equipment change?
All the skate heavy stuff was VX's back then, the documentary work was made on our work cameras, Canon C300 Mk2's.
Photo by Andrew Snyder.
I would love to know specific cameras, lenses, etc.
I first started filming with a Hi-8 camera, the friend's dad's camera I mentioned before, and then I bounced between VX's. VX2000 with Mk2, VX1000 with Mk1, VX2100 with Mk2, then a modded Mk1.
Pretty classic skate setups, still in use today. Throughout the course of all of your projects, what projects do you like the best looking back on them?
The parts in Balsamic Villagers are probably my favorite skating wise, everyone was going for it. I really like looking back at Accept The Mystery though, and the video we made at Bumping Lake called Above the Clouds in Rainier National Park. Those videos feel more akin to what skating with everyone was like back then.
Good vibes on those for sure. How about general NW skaters / videos, what are some of your favorites? Ones that got you stoked?
Urban Rubble was a huge inspiration way back when. Any and all Reilly Schlitt videos! Any and all Dope Planet videos! Love what Brandon Jensen did with Beware of Sasquatch. Vic's Market videos. Currently, anything the Ben's (Ben Ericson & Ben Kaplan) put out is going to be amazing! Jordan Sanchez, Josh Mclaughlin, Trevor Stokes, Nick Satter, Josh Anderson, always get me stoked. I've got a soft spot for my Balsamic Villagers, always unique. Finally, Griffin Gass and Simon Bannerot are incredible, mind boggling skateboarding.
Damn so many good answers, love ‘em! Urban Rubble was on regular rotation when we were growing up. Dave said you even designed some shop decks? Tell me about design stuff? How much of that did you do?
Yeah! I only designed a few, nothing crazy, just things that kind of came up on a whim. A Polaroid deck, another collage I pulled together from pieces of The Last Whole Earth catalog, and another that was a photo of mine that was used in a 35th/Northern Co. collab.
Dope. How about photography? How does shooting photos fit into all of this?
Photography is something that I've always held near and dear, I just shoot for myself mostly. Sometimes I would shoot skating, but mostly I would focus on other things. I've compiled a lot of work that I'm weeding out into a few different projects, some of which should see the light of day relatively soon. I'm currently in the process of starting up a small photo book imprint to publish some of my work as well as the work of some of my pals. Hoping to have our first book out this year!
Oh shit, that’s exciting. Stoked to check it out. Is there a place you would direct people to see your photo work?
Instagram @jake_knapp, don't expect any skateboarding haha.
Noted. If you had to choose 3 videos or edits you’ve created to represent you in a skate video filmmaker exhibit, which ones do you choose? Why are those meaningful or important to you?
I would start with '40', we tried to create a loving tribute to a place we all love, and I think that comes through. The others would be the ones I mentioned before 'Accept The Mystery' and 'Above the Clouds in Rainier National Park', I think they best show our version of skateboarding.
Excellent choices. Ok, well I know I missed some stuff, so tell me about a video or photo project that I didn't ask about that you're fond of?
I made a small series of little cell phone videos a while back that no one watched called 'Hello, Hello'. There's some pretty fun and mellow footage in those.
And what are you doing these days? What does life look like?
Life is good! My partner Jes and I split time between Cle Elum and Seattle with our dog Cooper. Not skating as much as I'd like to, just a bit at the new park we have in town, but making up for it by snowboarding a lot more these days. Spend most days catching views up here on the mountain, walking with the dog, working the day job, splitboarding, and editing books.
Photo by Jessica Vachon.
Damn, I need get a split board. It seems like it’s the move. Are you working on anything new at the moment?
I've thought about putting together a proper skate video for 35th's 50th anniversary, but it's only an idea right now. We'll see what happens!
Ooooo, that would be such a good idea. I could ask you questions all day, but to be respectful of your time I’ll wrap it up with these silly ones. Instagram? Good vs Bad?
Good! It's made skateboarding less serious and opened things up a lot more. There's an audience for any type of skateboarding these days which is only a good thing.
YouTube? Good vs Bad?
Good! I love physical copies of videos, but I also appreciate easy access to videos.
Your glass is half full! Posi vibes. I love that. Any final thoughts? Shoutouts? Anything or anyone to keep an eye out for?
Just stoked to see how things have evolved at 35th over the years, from Dope Planet to you guys at Authentic it's amazing to see it keep moving forward!
Hell yeah, it is cool to watch. Thanks a ton for being down Jake!
Go follow Jake on Instagram, watch his videos on Vimeo and dig through his YouTube channel.