Following a heavy part in Videograss’ latest, Mike Rav switched things up last season, returning to his New Hampshire roots and spending some quality time at Loon with Skylar Brent. When old friends reunite at familiar stomping grounds, old habits tend to resurface. For these two, that means the Plymouth State days get a warm revisit in the form of their fictional (or not-so-fictional) friend, the Snark. He might tie your shoes together when you’re not looking, he might throw a snowball from the lift—we honestly don’t know, and that’s exactly why we reached out to talk Snark, the process for it's latest installment, and everything in between.
Directed, Filmed and Edited by: Skylar Brent
Interview By: Ian Boll
We’ve been Snark fans since the beginning. Give us a quick backstory as to the origins of this storyline. A bit about the inception and first video.
Skylar: As far as how he initially came about, I honestly don’t really remember. I think Mike came up with it. He was living in Lincoln, NH and we were filming stuff at Loon. He randomly brought up this creature named the Snark who plays tricks on people. We drew him on cardboard or something and put it in the edit we were making. Super random [laughs]. Mike probably has a better backstory than I do.
Mike: We did our first one at Plymouth. And it came about totally sporadically. At the time, Skylar and I were always scheming on something colorful, fun, and mildly repulsive. The Snark was born out of a need to have something to just do whatever we wanted with. This little gremlin-esque creature who causes mischief. And looking back, a perfect reflection of the angst I was feeling at the time in my life and snowboard career. But this latest edit was the third installment. The real world took hold and it got shelved for a while. I was excited when Skylar brought it up…
Why make something like this?
Skylar: That's a good question. When I make projects like this I get a little nervous when it goes live [laughs]. It’s fun getting weird with it though. The Snark is kind of a sneaky character who stirs up trouble, reminds people that there are no rules. I think that’s kind of the message, or the reason we started making these edits years ago.
What does the Snark represent?
Mike: The Snark started as a sort of pest and villain. But this year I realized the Snark was a hero. He doesn’t care about trends. He doesn’t care about what other videos or edits look like. He doesn’t care about marketing plans. He doesn’t care about engaging the viewer. He insists that we act creatively and spontaneously—and if we don’t the Snark might come and tie your shoelaces together when you aren’t looking. The Snark doesn’t care about what you think. Someday I hope to be just like him.
What’s the best part of making these Snark videos with Larz?
Mike: I really just love the process of collaboration. Especially with Skylar. It all starts with one little idea… and then you talk and talk and talk… and all of a sudden you start to see and feel something. And if you start to love how it feels, it might just start consuming you. That’s what I love. Skylar can create something from our talks that far exceeds my initial ideas which is pretty special.
This is obviously a video completely out of the normal scope of what we see. How long does something like this take to put together just from the animation and conception side?
Skylar: We started filming some stuff early last season and it slowly morphed into this project. It was just going to be a random short little video at first with some leftover footage, but we were having fun with it so we decided to keep filming. Then I started modeling the Snark character and the other scenes you see in the video. We only filmed for a total of a few weeks last winter. Then I didn’t touch the video again until December, and finished it up in a couple weeks.
Is it more motivating to want to go make something like this than a standard video?
Mike: If I get consumed with filming a video part it would probably feel the same. But I was just coming off of filming my part from VG, which for me was a really great experience. I’m the type that likes to switch things up and do something different than the year before. I wanted to be closer to the mountains, riding that terrain more. This gave me a little more opportunity to contribute to something more than just filming tricks. I got to make all the music for the Snark myself too, so that was a fun little experiment.
Do you get bored making standard snowboard edits?
Skylar: No. After making this edit I’d like to go make something pretty stock [laughs].
Where does the Snark go next?
Skylar: Only the Snark knows.