Color Fools, 5 W's!
Photos & interview: Benjamin Deberdt
“[…] After sleeping two hours in the airport, only to discover that the place had been painted over in bright green!”
You will have gotten it by now, Color Fools is not exactly like every other video, since that on top of the basic difficulty of trying to document your best possible skateboarding, the eight Fools, have thrown a little extra clause, on top: only being able to skate street furniture “naturally” of the color they had picked to begin with…
A little complication, fruit of the slightly monomaniac brain of the filmmaker, originally and still based on the French-Swiss border. A location that might have nurtured his constant desire to travel for spots, according to him. Interesting point: Julien Paccard has never really “put out” anything, while he has been filming for ten years now… Because, according to him, his projects were not “out of the ordinary enough” to do so. A fascinating young man, we tell ya!
Benjamin Deberdt
What gave you the original idea for Color Fools?
My friend Zanette was showing me raw footage, filmed on a trip to Sarajevo, I think, a couple years ago. By pure hazard, he randomly played three clips filmed on three different blue spots in a raw. It hit me right there!
When did the project turned into more than an idea to play with?
The very same day, I told two other friends in Barcelona: “Let's pick a color each, you, yellow, you, red, me, blue and everybody films a full part, only skating spots of that color!” They laughed, thinking it was cool idea, but just impossible to stick to. I still kept that in my head, somewhere, and a year or two later, I decided I was going to get myself a part together, uniquely on blue spots, as it is a color that quite stimulates me. Quickly, I came to realize it was do-able… Tedious, but possible. Little by little, I started to search a wider spectrum, asking friends to join in this crazy project.
Who picked the most difficult color, you'd say?
The most difficult color… I am not sure, either orange –because it is often too yellow, or too red– or pink. We once happened to reach a spot in a Madrid suburb, with the idea to skate that one sketchy old amphitheater of sorts, first thing in the morning, after sleeping two hours in the airport, only to discover that the place had been painted over in bright green! All the spots in the parts are “natural”. Nothing has ever been altered to make it easier on ourselves!
Where was the furthest you guys ever travelled for one single spot?
In terms of distance? I don't know, maybe Berlin? That really isn't important…
Why take Elna on board?
I met Elna during a trip to Zaragoza, two or three years ago. We skated together for a few days, and it was rad! We're similar… Looking for spots everywhere, skating things that aren't the most famous. Then, we ended up crossing paths a few more times, in different places, always to skate improbable locations. I discovered his artwork by seeing him put his own stickers around the spots we skated… Since I had the idea to create visuals for the video with some spots montages, I asked him to help me with it, based on my very own photo collages. He re-draw it all, based on those incredible images that sum up each part in a single image!
To keep you waiting till Monday, you can watch here the collaborative process between Julien and Elna for Color Fools:
