Filming Crazy

Poetic Collective owner Tom Botwid's spins on ledge dancing most likely will make you dizzy, as the front truck specialist nails his into the coffin of many a bench spot all the way from his Scandinavian hometurf to the South of France; locked in around the cities of Bordeaux and Lyon, more specifically.

But just as Instagram is about to declare him the King of Gradignan, Léo Valls intercepts the other half of the timeline, only to remind us of his marble-rooted interpretative skills, of how Magenta are the people in charge here and of his nollie shifty flip, one we had been missing at least as much as the Bordeaux O.G.'s have been mourning the legendary Malraux spot ever since its demise.

"It was just good vibes on every session"

This being said, let it be LIVE's turn to remind you of this documentary DC Shoes produced on Léo's political actions in Bordeaux, as to better appreciate the context of relative harmony on the spots compared to how bad things could get, say, just a few years back...

Regarding the filming, Markus recounts:

"Yo, yo! This project appeared on my radar out of nowhere, in principle. Sometime in mid-August, I was out skateboarding in a D.I.Y. park in a suburb in Stockholm when I got a call from Tom telling me that he had been talking to Léo about doing a video project together for Film Trucks, and that they would want me to film it. I was nothing but happy and thanked them before Tom could even finish his question...

Ph.: Markus Bengtsson

Then we started filming just a few weeks later ) in Malmö. Léo came down to Malmö with some golden company from France, plus Ben Koppl was hanging out with us too - and it was just good vibes on every session. We filmed in both Malmö and Copenhagen for a few days, constantly adapting to, and around the weather conditions.

Ph.: Markus Bengtsson

Tom and I then had to go down to Lyon for the Film Trucks Slappy Challange, and there I met living legend Jérémie for the first time! He was so nice and welcoming and showed us around Lyon's quantity of spots - despite all the stress around organizing the competition. But even there, we got some clips of Jérémie and Tom that we could use for the edit.

Then, sometime at the end of October, Tom and I went down to Bordeaux and I was so stoked! Finally, I would get to visit this city I had seen in so many good skateboarding videos and besides, I would also get to skateboard and film with Léo - I was really stoked on this. The days we spent in Bordeaux were nothing but gold too - we were nicely welcome by Léo and the locals. In addition to all the spots we got to see and go to, we got ourselves a nice tour of what turned out to be a beautiful city - which actually sums up the whole process of the clip.

We spent a week in total there, filming but most importantly forming fine memories and friendships and in the end, now we have this clip of two incredibly driven enthusiasts of the skateboarding culture and, in addition, talented skateboarders with their own creative approach themselves! That's all I had to come up with, big up to LIVE for the great work!" - Markus Bengtsson

"I'm happy we got to film it with my good friend Markus"

Tom also duly claims a say:

"I've been a fan of Léo's skating for a while and had met him here and there around Europe, so when we both got on Film, I was stoked.

When we hung out in Malmö this summer, we started talking about doing a video together; shortly after that, tickets where booked and we started filming! 

Ph.: Markus Bengtsson

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