PREMIERE / "Trois Trois Trois" / Arthur Du Sordet / INTERVIEW

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LIVE Skateboard Media: Yo Arthur! New Cranscityclub "TROIS TROIS TROIS" video is so sweet: crazy local spots and tricks aplenty, perfect and inspired editing - what's not bound to raise questions there, really and that's in spite of having exchanged with you before, too. To start things off, perhaps you could (re-)introduce yourself to our readers, clearly? Where are you from exactly, how did you personally begin skateboarding, filmmaking and what's up with Cranscityclub? You guys are all based in Nyon, precisely, or aren't you?

Arthur Du Sordet: Yo LIVE ! Thanks for the satisfying feedback. Cranscityclub is our collective from Nyon, a small town in Switzerland, and its region. The whole crew is more or less from the area and, to this day, that's where we're still based.

Regarding my own story, I took up skating on the late - when I was fifteen. In a rather cliché way, too: I found my dad's old boards in the basement and started to skate the hill in front of the house, at first on a cruiser board that was completely flat that my dad had handicrafted himself. Just around that time period, my friends and my brothers were also getting into skating, and so it all caught on. I've been filming a little bit ever since I started skating, but then a year and a half ago I blew out my knee and that led me to start doing it a bit more conscientiously.

LSM: May you please describe what Nyon is like, both as a city and as far as its skate scene? The video is packed with ridiculous spots, which is unusual for a production filmed in a place with a population in the twenty thousands - so how much of "TROIS TROIS TROIS" was filmed on location exactly, and did you guys go on many side trips just to film? Or perhaps it all happened organically, and you essentially filmed you guys' normal holidays?

ADS: Nyon is a small city hidden in between Lausanne and Geneva, just by the lake. It's a small town, but it's indeed packed with spots, some of them amazing and some others a bit more on the ridiculous style, that's for sure... But for a place of such a size, we really have nothing to complain about.

"Showing that being outside
with your friends and
bringing life to the city
is cool"

Although that's true, after a while, you kind of feel like leaving and going around, seeing something else. And so, we've been taking many trips throughout Switzerland. Namely to Lausanne, Biel, Neuchâtel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva and oftentimes Zürich. Visiting new cities is always cool - skating different spots, and confronting the skaters to spots they might not necessarily get to come back to any time soon.

LSM: How long did the makings of "TROIS TROIS TROIS" take, you'd say? Did you know from the beginning that you were in for a full-length video project, or did you just keep collecting clips over time and the project just shaped up by itself; how serious was the general approach, and how would you describe the life experience that stemmed from that craft in retrospect?

ADS: By spring 2020, here, you were allowed to leave the house, but couldn't meet up and be in a group of over five people. And so we started filming around then; on the daily, five deep. At the time everything was on stand-by, everyone had some spare time and was thus was down to try and tackle such a full-length video project. Then we remained just as motivated the whole time, pretty much - the energy was just great.

On my end, I really liked working on this project because it drove me to film and edit a lot, which was good practice both behind the camera and in front of the computer. As far as the format goes, in a full-length video you can really highlight the differences in style and approach that exist from skater to skater, even within the same crew. And so it's interesting to try and craft a coherent ensemble, all the while adjusting bits of the final edit to this or that performing character in particular.

LSM: Let's bring up Cranscityclub again, do you feel like describing you guys' activity? How old is the collective, and what's its purpose? From an outsider perspective, it resembles your typical crew of tight-knit skate creatives who gather in order to, well, create even further. But precisely, what's the deal, and do you have any definite project besides world conquest?

ADS: Cranscityclub dates back to 2015; at the time, we were really trying to get a skatepark built here, and the city finally agreed but the condition was, we had to become a non-profit organization. So we did, and that's how the club came up.

"Within the collective,
everybody gets involved
in some way or another"

After that one project, we started organizing contests, as well as many concerts. On the side, we also started giving out skate lessons to kids within the region, in order to try and pass over the stoke. And then we also make videos, clothing and decks.

The end goal really is to fuel the energy in the Nyon scene, make the youth want to skate, shoot photos, film. Showing that being outside with your friends and bringing life to the city is cool. Because that's also skateboarding: giving life to the city.

"Actually, I like
this whole idea of
hierarchizing shots"

LSM: Would you like to introduce each skater from the video? The local scene really looks red hot, everyone has their own style and everyone seems to get involved in more than just skating, too - a noteworthy example being Ebly Kaeslin who contributed all the illustrations and animations, in addition to skating to one of Brigitte Bardot's classics. How did those contributions come about to organize themselves, by the way?

ADS: Well that matches with what I was just saying earlier: everyone has their own style when it comes to tricks, body language and spots. I find that to be cool, and so I really tried adjusting the filming and editing around what worked the best for each individual, and made their own difference shine.

Within the collective, everybody gets involved in some way or another. Everybody brings their own thing to the table. Since as a whole we do so many things, we can use everyone's skills, really. Regarding Ebly, he's been behind the art direction and club visuals since the very start. Talking with Théo about how we could spice the video up once the raw edit was done, we realized Ebly's drawings actually were a perfect complement once animated, and so we naturally rolled with those.

LSM: Going back to the filmmaking itself here now - the editing in particular is wise here, with a certain focus on nurturing a retinal rhythm, punctuating some raw fish-eye clips with quite the amount of framed atmosphere shots, or more or less extended use of black and white footage as though to save the viewer from this or that unwanted tone (the realest ones will recognize and empathize). How much did you study this whole thing, do you consciously follow a certain logic or are you completely self-taught there, and just edit with the flow? I find that the results really do work. Also gear-wise, you're using Mini-DV but not the typical Sony VX-1000, is that right?

ADS: Actually, I like this whole idea of hierarchizing shots. The tricks playing full screen, and the atmosphere shots being smaller. The altenating between both I find adds dynamism, and framing the random footage with blackness feels like it adds some value to its presentation. And for the sudden black and white here and there, you're not that off the mark [laughs]. As a technique that can be a lifesaver for some footage, and it's also another opportunity for the footage to better match the vibe of the soundtrack at times.

At the end of the day, everything I edit I base it on the music. I just find a good track, as soon as the first clips from someone that I happen to get; I throw everything together on a timeline quite early on and then just keep building up towards the final product, also looking for the atmosphere shots and random footage that's the most likely to fit in. It's all about the groove but, in order for the recipe to work, I think you do need a rhythmic link in between the skating, music and footage. And so sometimes black and white happens to work the best, and other times color.

Ah and regarding the camera, I started this project on a dying Canon GL-2 and then copped myself a VX-2000 to finish it.

LSM: Thanks heaps for your time, Arthur! If you and Cranscityclub have some more projects to announce for the future, or people to thank, now's the time!

ADS: Thank you Aymeric, thank you LIVE! And most crucially, big thanks to all my friends for their non-stop stoke and trust, bisous à vous!

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