Sometimes u get to opportunity to see people grow, knowing that their “final version” is going to be very dope. Today with Ethan Moriceau & Noe Ishibashi Horiwaki we have that feeling! Whether it would be in skating or in film, art, or literature we feel that they are going to be doing interesting things. Don’t agree, why don’t you read up and decide for yourself? Whatever you decide “Don’t disturb their groove”.

Intro & Interview by Roland Hoogwater.

Film & Edit by Ethan Moriceau & Mati Bouhassira.

How did you guys meet?

Noe: Instagram, Instagram, Instagram. During the pandemic, I was studying abroad here. I was supposed to stay here for six months, but I was only here for three because of COVID. Basically, I met a bunch of Ethan’s friends, and through them, I got to know him.

So, where are you living now?

N: Right now I’m living in Paris. I’m from New York originally, but yeah. Some people in Paris sometimes tell me my skating has a New York style. I don’t really know what they mean by that, it’s always a bit weird to me. The spots are definitely different over here I think. I prefer skating in New York because there are just so many parks and spots. It’s hard in Paris to just ride around and find a spot as you go if that makes sense. You have to decide where you want to go beforehand and then that’s all you are going to skate.

So you enjoy being spontaneous, but when I watched your part I had the feeling that the ender definitely took some planning. 

N: The ender was a journey because we had to find a plank and that took so much time. 

Ethan: We took like 2 hours to find the wooden board. We snuck into a construction site and took it. The both of us carried it for like 20 minutes.

I really enjoyed the part, I love the music. Who chose it?

E: Thank you! I picked it. I never edited something this quick before. It took like maybe one or two hours maximum, everything made sense right away. 

N: So, Dane, the dude who owns Blue Couch, I filmed my first real part with him last summer. For that, he also chose good music and I was like “Oh shit okay, I’m down for this”. And for this part, I was thinking about what music I wanted to use… I was feeling like I wouldn’t pick a good song. I was asking mad people and I must have gotten at least 30 song recommendations. I liked none of them and I couldn’t find anything fitting. I felt like I’m not going to pick a good song. But then he sent me the initial edit and I was like “Okay, you got it”.

Yeah, I also think it’s nice to see the difference between the Lisbon clip and this one as well. 

E: Yeah. I wanted to show many, many different angles and colors. Like there are many clips I did some color grading on. In the first section, I wanted to make something work with blue colors. I wanted to make one part that feels cold and then in the end it turns warm. It’s like skating, at the beginning you’re not warmed up yet. Same with filming, it took us many times to redo everything but in the end, it turned out great.

Noe, I heard you get superstitious when filming.

N: Yeah, when it gets scary, I have to like get into the OCD rhythm. Another crazy thing that happens to me, especially for the tricks where I really, really want to land it, is that my mind goes completely blank. I realize afterward that I am rolling away.  

Ethan, this is your second video outing with us, can you tell me a little bit about what you’re working on currently? 

E: Currently when making videos I want to make portraits. I don’t know if you get the idea. I want my videos to be portraits of people. Every person I film I think has his own style and their own mentality about skateboarding. Each person is really different. For example, we told you that Noe is superstitious and really spontaneous and he`s the opposite of Hamza who doesn’t think things through but just acts without fear. Then Amiel is the guy that’s really into getting the style “just right”. When he learns the trick, he wants it to be perfect and puts value into the way he learns them. The process is important to him.

I Like the video of your videos as portraits! But I am wondering if a part of it is a self-portrait. 

E: In this video, I tried to find my own way of doing it. I don’t know how to explain it. It took years to find the right style of editing and filming. And I’m kind of working on that still. I don’t know if you noticed but in the transitions between tricks, I tried to add something different to this video by the way I choose the colors for instance.

I feel like now that I know the thoughts behind it, I will be looking at your work differently. What are some of your inspirations?

E: I wanna get multiple sources of inspiration for my videos, not only from skateboarding, I want to get inspiration from the arts, from music, from everything. One thing I get inspiration from is 80s & 70s cinema. That’s art to me.

We all at Placemag really enjoyed the part and we’re all really thankful that we get to host it! Especially since it’s showing the new generation.

E: Thank you. Yeah, I think Place has a more artistic way of showing videos. That’s what I really like about Place, it suits my way of working.