Aaron Herrington Top-Ten Re-Edit Winners

7 years ago we launched an experimental contest on the TOA site allowing readers to download all of the original VX and 16mm footage from Pat Stiener's Static III part and do their own re-edit. In an era when downloading a 1 gigabyte file could take up to 24 hours, it was asking a lot of people. But, incredibly, we ended up receiving nearly 70 entries after it was all said and done. Flash forward to the future, aka now, and not only can you film and edit videos on your phone, but downloading a gigabyte of footage takes less time than boiling a kettle of water. So when Transworld Skateboarding asked us about doing a similar contest with Aaron Herrington's Static IV part, not only were we down, it appeared that technology was finally ready for the challenge.

But once the contest was made public, Aaron and I soon found ourselves victims of the old adage, 'Be careful what you wish for'. By the time the entry deadline had passed we were presented with a list of 220 edits to watch and narrow down to an impossible 3 favorites. After just an hour of digging through the entries, it was obvious that this was going to be an incredibly difficult task. There were so many good edits and so many different styles that even settling on 30 favorites would've been a challenge. We had to pick 3. So after a week of debates, and rewatching 30-40 of our favorites over and over, we came to the conclusion that there was no clear "best" and we'd just have to pick one of Aaron's favorites, one of my favorites and one that we both agreed to be in the top 3. That final pick was posted here today on the Transworld site.

Due to some of the legalities and rules of the TWS contest, some of our favorite edits were ineligible to win. Either because they were edited by readers outside of the US or because Aaron or myself were friends with the contestant. So, we decided to dig back through the edits and round up a top 10 picks from all of us here at Theories of Atlantis. No rules limited these decisions, just our own personal tastes and preferences. So here it is. Our TOA top 10 of the Aaron Herrington re-edit contest

1. We debated this one heavily because neither of us really felt like a comical re-edit should be awarded first place. We had envisioned giving first place to a dope, serious re-edit with well chosen tricks, an amazing song and creative editing. But after watching hundreds of edits over and over this one just kept making it back to the top of our list. Combining Street League and Static together demonstrated perfectly how insanely far apart the two worlds are and made for a pretty hilarious viewing experience. Overall, what it came down to was that this was simply the most memorable and enjoyable edit in our opinion. And that's what it's all about.

2. Nick VonWorsewitz's edit seemed to be possibly the most popular online, getting an insane amount of views before we even had a chance to review it ourselves. The concept of reediting Aaron's part to look like a lost Eastern Exposure III part was pretty amazing. And Nick's decision to keep the edit short and not use every single clip made this piece even more watchable. Unfortunately, the TWS rules forbid us from picking an edit done by someone Aaron or I knew personally. So this edit was ineligible to win the contest. But it's in the TOA top three.

3. This edit by Grayson Miller had one of the raddest feeling intros out of all 220 edits we watched. And then transitioned into two consecutive rad songs. Definitely could feel a heavy Bronze influence in the music choice, but it was nice to see a new angle to Aaron's part and the editing fit the skating very nicely.

4. The only entry of the entire contest to feature unique footage shot specifically for the re-edit, "Please stop snowing" grabbed us from very early on. But the song choice and dream-sequence-like concept of Khyber Jones' edit really hit it home. And not only was this a very original concept, it was done very well. And with an amazing song choice to boot. A song that we strangely very nearly used in the original cut of Static IV.

5. Judd Hertzler's awesome work with this re-edit would've guaranteed made it to our top 2 if it had been a little bit longer. Judd went the extra mile on this piece and Aaron and I both felt really complimented that he had put such hard work into it and done such a beautiful job. If it had just lasted a little longer and been wrapped up with some sort of ending, it easily could've won the whole shebang.

6. If you told me that you were going to set Aaaron's re-edit to Charles Bukowski quotes I would've given you an F right out of the gates. But something about the vibe of this song and the way the quotes create great editing opportunities that makes this all work really well. Again, a refreshing and unique song choice did a lot to make Jesse Braun's edit stand out for us.

7. The opening of this edit grabs you right off the bat and that is the mark of a good editor. And it flows into a song that, for us, was refreshing after hearing about 180 edits set to hip-hop. Our only complaint was that the edit was a tad too long or could've cut over to a second song. But overall, Jordan Ricca killed it with this edit.

8. The only reason this edit didn't place higher is because a song about Africa just doesn't feel like a perfect fit for an Aaron Herrington part filmed in NYC. But the editing is sharp and on point. And the song is great too. I feel like if Chris Smith had chosen a slightly more appropriate song he probably could've hit the top 3.

9. There were quite a few concept edits entered but this was one of the few that really worked. To be honest, it was just refreshing to see a unique idea and this one was pretty entertaining so it was an early choice that we found ourselves revisiting over and over and never really getting tired of it

10. This edit by Marshall Nicholson captures a very similar vibe to the original edit in Static IV. But it's done so well that we felt we had to include it on the list. Even though this Shyheim song was used in a Bronze video years back, this alternate version is so gangster, it's hard not to like this edit.