The first time I met Francisco, was when I was going skating with some guys and he showed up as the filmer. He took out his old Hi-8 cam and all I thought was: "Oh, shit, this guy must be really poor, he can't even afford a simple VX 1000 for about 100 Euro on Ebay". Then he was filming from weird angles and did things other filmers wouldn't do. I thought then he must have just started filming and is trying his self out with the old camera he got from his dad. But after we met for a couple of times I found out he's filming with this thing, because he wants it that way, he's filming some stuff a little differently, because he wants it that way. And the following Interview didn't went the way I planned it, because he wanted it that way.
Hey Francisco, how
are you?
I’m good, just having an early morning coffee.
So let’s start with
how you got into filming.
I got into skateboarding back in Costa Rica, where I’m from.
My first exposure to skateboarding was through videos and magazines. And I remember some older guys, who were like
the original skate crew from Costa Rica, called themselves Chepesent (People
who are called Jóse are often named Chepe, mixed with the English word
represent, so they’re representing San Jóse, the capital). These guys were like
the first to make videos of each other skating. I became friends with one of
the Chepesent guys, Rafita. He got me into filming and always wanted to do a
big project before he passed away. I dug that ‘cuz my thing was always movie
making; I had always wanted to make films. So I started filming with him and
this really crappy handy cam. From that point on it developed and I bought a
DVX2100. I was using it for skate filming but also making short films and such
things. But the DVX is a total skate camera…
That’s what people
say…
You can make decent films with it, but it’s still a total
skate camera. I then moved to Boston for college, to study film, and really got
into skate filming there. My first skate film was a mixture of Costa Rican and
Boston skateboarding. I always liked this focus on the Costa Rican scene,
because it looks so different from US or European skateboarding. It has by far
the best scene in Central America, in terms of the level of the skateboarding
and how organized and into it people are. The skaters are also travelling more,
getting well known within Latin America and outside the Americas even. So, I
wanted to document the scene.
So what’s going on in
Costa Rica? Is there such a big scene?
Yeah, sure, four new parks have just been built, guys
touring around the country, people make their own brands and stuff. Its quite
impressive for such a small country.
So, it’s going off
there?
Yeah, totally, it’s really booming. And not only is it a
trend, but guys are getting really good. Back in the days you had about a dozen
good skaters, but now there are so many. When I was there in May, shooting for
my own project, I was filming a whole part with two guys within one month. The
level right now is incredible.
These guys seem to
rip, but what is that project you’re working on?
For the past 2 years I got away from skateboarding a bit,
focusing on short films and screen writing and all this. So, when I moved to
Berlin I saw how vibrant the scene was and I got the itch to start shooting
again. I had this idea to make a skate film, that is not particularly a skate
video, but not a documentary. Something in between – an experimental skate
video if you will.
With actors and a
story?
No actors, but definitely a story. But more like a documentary,
a wilderness documentary that you see on TV. The video is an all Costa Rican
skate film, with a prominent European part. My idea was to take it from the
perspective of a European for example or an explorer from another land coming
to Costa Rica and seeing these fuckers ripping! It will be like: “We’re in the
Sahara, look at these natives. Observe them in their natural environment!” And
then “But here back in Europe…” And then comes the European part from Barcelona
and Berlin. I shot the part from Barcelona last summer and the Berlin part is
still growing.
Growing Boneless
Growing Boneless
How do you see your
filming as compared to other filmers?
I’m someone sort of outside of skateboarding. My interest
right now is not to make money off skateboarding, it’s just a passion. That’s
why I shoot in Hi-8, that’s where skateboarding for me comes from, that’s how I
grew up seeing it: Skateboarding in really shitty spots in Costa Rica. I don’t
want to see skateboarding in HD; skateboarding is still a dirty thing for me.
If a skater would come up to me and say I want to film with you but it has to
be in HD, I’d do it, I’m not against it, but my priority, especially for this
project is Hi-8. I’m a purist; I will always see analog above HD.
Do you see Hi-8 as
part of the skate video structure?
In my opinion, the skate video is the original structure,
the original format, everyone else copied it: Snowboarding, Surfing, everyone
else. Now it’s been around so long it has become something you can play with,
because it’s an actual format. Its been around forever. Let’s deconstruct it;
let’s play with it. Hi-8, VHS, even digicam, iPhone, GoPro, use anything to
make it look handheld and raw again. Back to roots in a way.
What do you exactly
mean by that?
So, a usual skate video has parts, every rider has it’s own
part, three to four minutes, particular music to show the riders’ personality.
Then people started to play with it, like Volcom and their videos, or Alien
Workshop. I’ve always been a fan of Alien Workshop videos. It’s incredible how
experimental the early ones were. Timecode and Memory Screen, with Rob Dyrdek’s
first part. I mean skate videos have been around since the 70’s, so play with
it.
So, you wanna create
something that probably been made somehow, but hasn’t been around too much?
Yeah, totally. Towards the end of the 90’s skate videos
started to have stories, but people hated it. Or they first liked it, but then
it was too much. Shorty’s, the Girl-Chocolate Tour, The End… All these videos
come from Animal Chin I feel like. I don’t want to have bangers and bangers, I
want to create an atmosphere, I want there to be a theme running trough it, so
you can notice it in the images, in the story, in the editing. That’s also a
reason why I still shoot in Hi-8, because it gives you special feeling.
So, how did you get
into skate filming, when you say you didn’t want to be into the skate scene too
much?
I think those who can’t skate film. [laughs] That’s
definitely my story. I’ve always been into skateboarding, tried skating, got
better, hurt myself, then sucked at it. I was just doing it for fun, but I
always had filming on the side. I think filming skateboarding is a
manifestation of what you can’t do and you want to see guys land tricks and you
film it. It’s like you’re landing the trick through them. I also like to film
with people I get along with, who have a great style. I can see myself in them.
I can’t project myself into someone I don’t like. I got into filming when I was
about 18 and my first project came out in 2005.
Did you have
something to do with the skate park built in Costa Rica?
No, I didn’t help building it, but I was there twice in May
when I was in Costa Rica. Christian Petzold is taking care of it and it’s a
really nice park and the town has some good spots as well. The only problem is
that its about 3 hours away from the city, in the mountains. And there is always
bad weather; it will rain most of the time.
Why did they build it
then?
I think the town got in contact with them, which is a really
cool thing. The town is called Perez Zeledon. They say that the most beautiful
women in Costa Rica come from there and there is a ration of 5 women to each
man, because in the 80’s all the men left to the U.S. for work and now there
are just nice girls everywhere!
Is the park good?
Yeah, I like it. You see the German engineering mixed with
the Costa Rican engineering. It doesn’t fit so good everywhere, but the bowl is
good and especially the wall ride tranny is good. It’s definitely worth going.
So, what’s a perfect
day behind the camera for you?
I think it was that day when we went there to the park. We
took this 3-hour ride, we chilled, hung out, had fun, skated park, skated
street, found great spots and got some footage. I mean you take your personal
time for the love of skateboarding and you just want to have a good time.
What do you do for
living?
At the moment, I’m editing a couple of documentaries. I also shot a short film last month and am
pretty much trying to set up my own small production company and trying to get
constant work from it. I used to freelance a bit more, like lighting, editing, artwork
on sets…
…the whole thing, you
did pretty much everything what can be done on a film set…
…yeah, that’s right. Right now I’m more focused getting more
work as a director and writing. That’s what I do more of lately. I’ve recently
directed a short film, which was my idea, my concept. I’m shifting in that kind
of space.
So, who are your
favorite directors or filmmakers?
That’s a tricky one. It’s always changing, I have my all time favorite guys like Stanley
Kubrick, Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke, Michelangelo Antonioni, Gaspar Noé, Francis Ford
Coppola, Chris Marker, Stan Brakhage. So many guys. But there are more recent
guys I admire like Carlos Reygadas, Béla Tarr (I recently got into his films)
Tsai Ming-liang, this guy from Taiwan. It’s really tricky, because I’m a film
geek. I love film and I love getting into new filmmakers and I love the idea of
the auteur. I think it’s a very important concept.
How many films do you have at home then? Can you even say?
I don’t have so many, maybe about 100 or so. I had friends, who are big collectors. A friend from New York had about 2000 DVD and 300 of them were only Asian. He had a big love for Chinese, Japanese… Asian Cinema. Downloading doesn’t hurt the artist it hurts the company. The company gives the artist about 2 Cents out of every film they sell. I don’t have any problem hurting the company
Spin that shit for fun
