The Skatepark on Treasure Island, Built by Skaters
Jeremy McNamara’s short documentary follows Josh Matlock and the work of building a skatepark on San Francisco’s Treasure Island.
A skatepark usually shows up in a skate video as a place to do a trick. Jeremy McNamara’s 2021 short documentary asks how that place got there. He follows Josh Matlock, a veteran skatepark builder, through the story of a spot that skaters made for themselves on San Francisco’s Treasure Island. They started building without permission.
Photo: Jeremy McNamara
McNamara directed and shot the film, and REAL Skateboards produced it. As you watch, pay attention to the work behind a place that can look finished when you see someone skate it. Someone has to decide where a bank should go, who can help build it and how the spot will keep going once there’s concrete on the ground.
Something worth opening.
Photography, film, technology, art and culture. Get new stories from Remjet Magazine in your inbox.
Check the museum’s visitor policy, then look for signs in the exhibition. A handheld photo, a tripod and a planned shoot can each follow different rules.
Walk from Charleston’s Waterfront Park to White Point Garden via Rainbow Row. Look for open harbor light, repeated facades, and the contrast between the oak canopy and the seawall.
Read a photobook through its page turns, captions, scale and sequence. A practical looking exercise, with an 1866 book showing how text and photographs work together.
Depth of field describes the range that looks acceptably sharp. Learn how aperture, focus distance and background separation affect a picture, with a repeatable exercise.
A separate camera needs a reason to leave the house. Compare framing, handling and the file workflow before assuming any compact is an upgrade from your phone.
Street life, railway stations and an imagined New York reveal how postcards could picture a place, sell an idea and change from one printing to the next.
Find the viewpoint, check the light and work out how to get there. A practical scouting plan for a photo walk, a day trip or somewhere you have never visited.
Explore Remjet 1.0 feature by feature: camera controls, RAW photos, video projects, color grading, audio, collages, exports, location scouting, and light planning.