Hey Nick, thanks for taking the time. Before we get into the part, could you give us a little insight into how you balance skate videography with a real life job and raising three kids?

Well, I’m responsible for a mobile application, that’s used to monitor the condition of all the train tracks an switches throughout the country. I work Monday through Thursday and I try to spend time with my family on the weekends. But I always keep my Tuesday and Thursday evenings free for skating and filming. Every once in a while, I can squeeze in an afternoon or weekend session, but most clips you’ll see that I have filmed, were filmed sometime between 6 and 11 o’clock on a Tuesday or Thursday night (laughs).

You’ve done quite some projects in and around Bern already. Are you originally from there?

Nope. I’ve lived outside of Switzerland for a while and moved to Bern in 2007. Back then, I was still skating and filming a lot with them older guys from Bern. I mean, I’ve made my first homie video when I was 16 – I am nearly 40 now – and we’ve put out some fun stuff over the years. But as time goes by, priorities in life change and it doesn’t get any easier to get everyone together for some street missions, as we all get older. Actually, I even took a break from filming for about a year and a half from 2016 till 2017 and thought filming was over for me. But then, my partner Zois took the kids on a little two weeks vacation and all of a sudden, I found myself alone at home, wondering what to do. So I picked up my camera again and spent those two weeks out in the streets, filming skateboarding with my friends. Those two weeks turned into a video called “This VX is Dead” and during that process, I realised how much I had missed skating and filming. Jan (Hirt) was part of that project as well and through him, I got to connect with the new generation of skaters in the city. Bern’s a small city, the scene’s pretty small too, but it’s definitely a good one and people over here are quite invested. I mean, just look at AJVT Magazine, Mooswerk DIY, …

You’ve dedicated a full project to Mooswerk, didn’t you?

Not quite, but close: Last winter, I made “Hibernation”, a film about escaping the cold months in Bern. I filmed a part at Polar Pony, a nice temporary indoor park, with a lot for lgbtq+ skaters, an extensive mini ramp section with my older friends, who are all still shredding, and ended the video with the newer generation ripping Mooswerk. Oh, and there’s a bonus section at my own shitty micro ramp, that I’ve got in my cellar (laughs). I mixed it all up with some retro animal documentaries in order to keep it exciting. But the Mooswerk part is insane, definitely worth checking out, if you missed it! It’s really been a great way to get through the Swiss winter (laughs). 

I guess so! From “Hibernation” to your newest video project, i.e. Ramon’s part. How did this one come about?

Originally, I wanted to work on a full length with the young-guns: Ramon, Jan, Noel (Schaerer) and Lenny (Koller). But I mean, those guys are all travelling quite a bit and I’ve only got two evenings a week available for filming, plus I was also working with Manuel Schürch on his “Juntos” part. So, the full length never really came together. But Ramon had pretty quickly stacked a good basis of footage for a part and we agreed that we should at least keep working on that one. Ramon is the type of skater who knows exactly what he wants to do. He will always have a spot and a trick in mind and to me, as a filmer, that’s pretty amazing to witness. I only have to tag along and choose an angle (laughs). 

And how about the edit? You guys really did your own thing, which is refreshing to see…

Thanks! Well, maybe first of all, regarding the skating, I really just tried my best to show how Ramon skates. On a regular day, he might actually hit a ledge spot right after he’s done with his vert session, and that’s why all the footage is mixed together, instead of like a vert section, a DIY section and a street section. During the filming process, I even tried convincing him to film a manny trick (cause he’s good at mannys too, even if he won’t admit it), but he wasn’t too down for that, unfortunately (laughs). As for the animations and the whole look of the part, I owe it all to Zois. Ever since I’ve made my first, let’s call it conceptual video (“Bearings”, 2013), that was more than a homie tape and had its own look and feel to it, I wanted to keep going like that. For every single project, that I work on, I try to come up with something new, something that visually loosens up all the skating – at least a little bit. And I always make it a point to not repeat myself in respect to the artsy-fartsy stuff. But honestly, when it came to Ramon’s part, I felt like I had run out of ideas. But Zois and I have worked on a lot of previous projects together, she’s always helped me to keep things exciting and she really saved the day. She drew some short animations and added colours to the black & white footage, and I feel like we’ve managed to create a cohesive look together. We’ve talked quite a bit about doing visuals for skate clips in the past and the main challenge for Zois is creating art and animations that serve the flow of the video without taking away from the skating. Being sidelined to focus on the „empty“ spaces between tricks wasn’t always easy and Zois kinda had to switch off her “visual instincts” (laughs). 

Thanks for the insight. How about the format, though? Black and white 4:3 HD…

Well, the black & white has only been an artistic decision for some part. The other part of the decision’s linked to the fact that I’ve tried to include additional footage from four or five different cameras. I didn’t want anything to feel out of place, so black & white seemed to be the best solution to make it all look as similar as possible and luckily, Ramon was down for it. As for the 4:3 format, I gotta say that I just have a personal preference. Guess it comes from filming with a VX for most of my life. Plus, I feel like it’s easier to film well in 4:3, especially when filming fisheye. 

Alright, thanks again Nick and congrats on the Ramon part! Any upcoming projects? Any shoutouts?

I would still like to start working on a Bern full length and I’ve also got another project on my mind, some sort of a series, but we will see how things go and how much time I’ll find (laughs). As for now, I’d like to thank Ramon for being down to work with me, it was a blast! Thanks to Zois for all the animations and everything else behind the scenes, and thanks to you guys, of course! Much love!