Heath Kirchart and Jeremy Klein

Here are some of the many reasons why my favorite video part of all time is not from any of my favorite videos or by any of my favorite skaters. Birdhouse did two things no one else had the balls to do when they filmed The End. They handed the creative freedom over to the actual skaters and they dropped the money for some real production quality. They went into this project with a $100,000 budget, huge at the time for a skate video. Heath and Jeremy managed to double that. They routinely called the director at 2 am, woke him up, and annoyed the shit out of him until he showed up at some random spot. This wasn't just one guy they were dragging out of bed, it was a small film crew. Here is a list of the other reasons why this is my favorite video part of all time...

1. They filmed at a gas station...where there was nothing to skate.

2. They filmed at a Blockbuster...where there was nothing to skate.

3. They filmed at other locations...where there was nothing to skate.
4. They filmed the entire part in brand new Armani suits.
5. They lit themselves on fire in those suits.
6. They blew up a shed
7. They blew up a van.
8. They skated off the end of a pier...in brand new Armani suits...on fire.

Rumor has it that after filming this they were never the same. In his book, Tony Hawk talks about how they would continue to light themselves on fire and blow shit up for months after this. Awesome.