Bonjour Bastien, before we get right into it, do you wanna tell us a bit about yourself?

Haha, I’m living quite a busy life at the moment. I am finishing my master’s degree in digital marketing. I’ve got this contract at school, where I work two weeks as a digital project manager, then one week of studies. It’s like a part time job linked to my studies. At the same time I am a freelance film maker. I do filming jobs and edits for weddings, graduation parties, concerts, music videos, … pretty much everything. Back in 2016, I even got to film horses, bulls & flamingos in the Regional Natural Parc of Camargue close to Montpellier. All those flamingo shots in Film Trucks‘ „Flamant Rose“ actually came from that other project of mine (laughs). But yeah, filming skateboarding obviously doesn’t pay the bills. So I don’t even know how I found the time to work on „B(ee)R 2“, organize the premiere, find sponsors and all that. It’s just been a big big project.

Guess everyone’s happy though that you actually found some time to work on this one! So „B(ee)R 2“ starts off with quite some homages as well as a dedication. Could you tell us a little bit about those?

Sure. The video starts off with Clément doing a big Ollie right in front of a graffiti, that says „Taye“. „Taye“ was the artist name of Ronan Pointeau, a skater from Montpellier, always fun to be around with and always bringing so much joy to each session. Ronan had joined the army back in 2016 and passed away during a mission in November 2019. That was right about the time we started to film for the video. So from the beginning on, it was clear that we’d dedicate it to him. The song which is playing during that dedication sequence is actually one of the many songs that Ronan introduced me to. I got chills editing this one. Rest in Peace Ronan! As for the homages, I gotta say I am a big Quentin Tarantino fan and I like how he always puts some easter eggs into his movies: references to movies he likes, his reuse of music from older movies. I wanted to do the same with the intro and those skits and the skate nerd rated content. Obviously, there’s the 411 inspired intro. Then there’s that quick „Fully Flared“ homage and the Supreme skit. But don’t get this one wrong. I really like Strobeck’s stuff. That skit’s more of a joke, cause these days, there’s just so many who try to film like him and seem to think they’d be the next Supreme boys. We already had such a skit in „B(ee)R 1“. Same goes for a slightly different homage to „Fully Flared“, which also creates some continuity between the two „B(ee)R“ videos.

How’d you choose the big names for your 411 intro, though? Are there any links to you guys who play them?

Well, we just thought it’d be funny. So the selection was kinda random. I mean, I don’t really look like Chad Muska, but his style is so classic and identifiable that it’s fairly easy to mimic. For Théo we have this inside joke though, that he looks exactly like Vincent Milou. So he didn’t even need to dress up, we just put Vincent’s name there, and I think people will get it (laughs). Then there’s Pierre, who’s really not into Baggy pants and stuff. So we thought it’d be hilarious to dress him up as Wade Desarmo. Another inside joke, I guess.

Inside jokes or not, we really loved those skits! Are there any other easter eggs that you’d like to point out?

Yeah, there’s other easter eggs for sure. There’s a homage to my favorite TV series for example.We’re talking about „Twin Peaks“ by David Lynch here. You’ve seen those  visuals behind all the logos in the intro? Those are from „Twin Peaks“, season 3 episode 8. And the outro song for „B(ee)R 2“ is from that girl, Julee Cruise, who sings in the show.

How about the music selection in general? We were quite surprised to see Bastien Marlin skate on some hip hop.

Haha, I thought it’d be funny to have him skate on some hip hop, which hasn’t been seen before. Maybe cause he’s a bit of a control freak at times?! For his parts, he usually wants to choose the song, the tricks and all that. But for this one, I told him, he should just trust me and let me do my thing. When I went through the clips and saw how bad ass he looked on that first one – beanie on the side, angry as it gets on that day -, I just felt like he needed some equally bad as hip hop track. Then there’s Clément, who’s IG handle is @laa.nuit, who skates on a song called „Stars“, alluding to the night. Pierre’s song starts off with „Yo Pierre, wanna come here?“ As for the rest, I just wanted it to be diverse and match the skaters‘ styles: some hip hop, some heavy metal, some punk/hardcore, some new wave.

It turned out really well! Could you tell us a bit about the cast of the video and the Montpellier skate scene in general?

Well, pretty much all the guys with full parts have been some of my best friends for the last 10+ years. Then there’s my brother, who I share a part with. We actually started skating together. As for Bastien, it’s kinda crazy, cause I grew up watching his parts, seeing him on the pages of Sugar Magazine all the time and now we’re close friends. I’d say we all are a big family by now. the Montpellier scene in general is quite diverse actually. But I feel like not too many people are working on bigger projects here. There’s no photographer in Montpellier and I feel like I am the only one who is still working on full lenghts. I hope that’s gonna change after this one (laughs). Back in the day, there was the Mo’Fo‘ crew around Boris Proust, Luc Angles and all those guys. They were doing all the videos here. Every two years they’d drop a full length. The first DVD I ever had was by them actually. So I also wanted to pay homage in „B(ee)R 2“.  Those guys are all in the video and I reused a song they had used in a Mo’Fo‘ video back in the days.

Let’s hope your new video will spark some kids in Montpellier to work on some projects as well! Looks like you’ve got a bunch of spots over there?!

We do. Most of them are quite crusty though and harder to skate than they look like. There’s no perfect plazas or ledge spots, but when you go spot hunting you’ll find so much. We did do a few trips for the video – Marseille, Paris, Nice, Toulouse, Lyon & Perpignan- but most of it was filmed in Montpellier and its surroundings, like the beach towns of La Grande-Motte and Le Grau-du-Roi. We were actively hunting for spots via street view. We cycled around town to find new stuff and tired to skate some old spots that had not been skated in years.

Good on ya! Last one from our side: Could you tell us a bit about the filming during lockdowns, where the name of the video came from and about those struggles you’ve had to finally get it online?

Filming started off slowly during winter 2019/2020. Bad weather, rain and then Covid hit: lockdowns and all that. During the first lockdown we actually did not film anything. During the second one though – France went into this one in October 2020 – Popular Skateshop helped us out with some attestations of work. So we could go out and film without worrying too much about fees and all that. But I mean, what can I say? There was still a curfew at 6 p.m. So we always had to be done filming around 5 p.m., no after sessions to enjoy. At times it made me even doubt, why I’d be doing this, working on an independent video during all my free time, not getting paid, and then sitting alone at home as from 6 p.m. But we kept it going, made it out of all that and eventually even got to have this amazing premiere on July, 3rd. No restrictions and good vibes only. Then for the online release, I did have some struggles due to music rights. I mean, I had tried out the songs and all that, uploaded the video, everything seemed alright, but two days later it got taken down. I woke up to those news and that might have been one of the most frustrating moments ever. We’ve been working on this thing for two years, we’re just a local crew, not making any money from this, just wanna put this thing out to the world. But I mean, there’s no room for discussion with Youtube and it’s guidelines. So we put it on IGTV and I was surprised by how many people actually watched the video on their phones (laughs). By now, I’ve also got the video up on Vimeo, so you’ll get a chance to watch it on the big screen as well. That’s at least, how I, personally, like to watch skate videos after all. As for the name: it actually comes from the nickname I have whenever I skate with Bastien Marlin. People call us by our initials, when it’s the two of us on a session: „BM“ and „BR“. The latter, when you pronounce it in French, actually sounds like „bière“ („beer“). So when I tried to find a name for that first local video I made, I just ran with it.

Merci beaucoup Bastien!

Thanks for everything guys! Now I am gonna work on a derush for a wedding I had to film today and try to watch the Olympics at the same time (laughs). See ya!

Photos / Bastien Regeste (Ride on Smith Grind / Felix Maurugeon)