Meet Ziggy, Ziggy Schaap a Dutch photographer, filmer, journalist, and skater. At the end of last year, our filmer Peter Buikema (Dutch) ran into him at the Vans Shop Riot in Breda and as filmers do they talked about filming videos. Ziggy happened to mention he was finishing up a full length and so Peter smelled blood in the water and asked if we could feature it. So, that’s the short story of how “Likkie Wax” got to be featured on our website. If you want the long story keep on reading if you don’t click play Enjoy!
Hey Ziggy, can you tell us about the video you made?
To be honest, it didn’t really start like we’re making a video. I got a VX a while ago, and I tried it out in a skatepark in Leiden. It ended up being a video filmed in the skatepark. That was fun but it was a project I did to get used to the VX. Then after that, I started filming more and more. That is where Pascal Moelaert comes in, I’ve skated together with him for quite a while now, ever since he was a kid (11/12 years old). He just turned 16 in October. So we’ve been out skating and slowly more people joined in. At one point Justin Wagener, Jesse Voerman, Pascal and me went out skating more and more and did like little trips. And friends of them would join, and friends of me would join, it all happened kinda organically. And at some point instead of asking “Heb je een waxie voor me?” (Translated: “Do you have a piece of wax for me?”), these guys started asking “Heb je nog een likkie voor me?” (Translated: “Do you have a sucky for me?”. Sorry, I have no idea how to translate this. It doesn’t make sense in any other language.) So then we thought: “That would be a good name for a video, likkie wax.” I thought it was a funny concept, you can do a lot with it, I mean every skater is familiar with little tea lights. So we made this video and for the premiere, we made a few shirts, we ’re thinking about starting a little brand, we will see.
“Likkie Wax” shirts?
Yes, at first we made black long sleeves for the premiere and soon we will make a shirt with Scrooge McDuck, who will be holding a tea light. And we made a graphic with a guy playing curling but then pushing a tea light instead of that thing they throw. We have quite a few ideas.
How long did it take to film the video? I mean you were just filming together with Pascal but at some point, you must’ve decided that you’re gonna make a video.
Yeah, at first I was just filming with Pascal, then Jesse and Justin started joining more often. And then when we decided that were actually making a video, I think we’ve been filming for like 5 more months. When I started editing it felt like we’ve been filming for multiple years but I think in the end we only filmed for about one year. That’s kinda short I guess, I mean it’s only those three guys with full parts, it’s not a super long video, but still.
But it’s a full-length, I mean it’s 23 minutes.
Yeah, and at first I didn’t really know, I thought maybe I’ll just make little edits and in the end a full video. But then when I was editing I thought I might just as well already make the full video. And then I’ll make another big throwaway edit later, there’s lots of throwaway footage. I mean lots of footage we didn’t use, doesn’t have to be throwaway. I’d rather call it leftovers.
The footage that just doesn’t really fit or isn’t filmed exactly how you wanted it…
Yeah, during editing we left out a lot of footage because either I didn’t like it or Justin, Jesse or Pascal didn’t want it to be used. Like footage that didn’t fit or wasn’t good enough. And some footage already feels super old even though we’ve been filming for just a year. So yeah, in the end, a lot of footage gets taken out, which is not that bad, it’s nice to have it all anyway. For me it’s also some kind of diary or something, you know? That’s what I have with photography or filming, it’s like a diary.
Yeah, I mean as the filmer you know for each clip what happened there, if it was a struggle, if you got kicked out and whatever… You keep all these memories with the clips.
Exactly. And with video, it’s easier to tell the story to the viewer than with photos. Because in the first place I’m more of a photographer than a filmer but with video, it’s nice that you have like more information than with a photo.
How is it for you to go filming while you’re actually more of a photographer?
Personally, I like photography better, it takes less effort. You can focus more on the look for example of the spot. You don’t necessarily need the skater to do crazy tricks like kill them self on a big stair set. You can also take a nice picture on just a good looking ledge spot, with a less crazy trick. That’s what I like about photography. I think my photography changed, at first I kinda made the standard skate photos and now that I filmed more with the VX, I feel like I want to pictures I shoot to look more special, so I’m looking for the more alternative angles. It’s also because of magazines, like you guys’ magazine and some more, the pictures are starting to look a bit different than your average Thrasher photo. I mean the pictures in Free, no offense, I’m a fan, their pictures are always good, but their pictures are really how a skateboard picture is supposed to look like. But then, for example, Danny (Sommerfeld), he really does something different which I think is super sick, that he really does something new. But yeah, I’m really into taking pictures, but I also really enjoy filming, you can be really creative while filming as well. But photography is still my main focus right now.
What was for you the highlight in the video?
What I really liked is that we edited it all together, it’s really a project from all of us together. I mean I filmed pretty much all of it. But in the end, we really did it all together and that’s what I really like. Last year Jesse already had a part in the “L.O.G.T.” video out of Utrecht, and Justin had the ender-part in “Fandango”, filmed in Barcelona. Justin and Jesse filmed a lot already, but Pascal never filmed a part before. Pascal skates super sick, he’s still super young but he skates like a G. So because Pascal never had a part before, we put Justin’s part as the first part, he already had enough parts and ender-parts, (laughs) and we put Pascal’s part, his first part he ever filmed, as the ender-part. And that kind of stuff, like these decisions, that’s what we all did together. That’s for me the highlight, that it’s from us all together.
That’s cool! I have to say Pascal’s part turned out great. The song was very cool too.
Yeah, he came up with that song himself, which is funny for a 16 year old dude, most 16 year olds dont really know music like this. He came to me like: “Yo, this song is sick!” so we started editing to it, his part was also the first part we finished. And now this week, the week after the premiere everyone came to us like: “What’s the song from Pascal’s part? It’s been stuck in my head since the premiere.” (laughs). That was cool, that song really stuck to the people.
Yeah, I wanted to ask you how the songchoices came up.
Bassicly, I just did some suggestions and started editing to some songs and everyone would come hang out at my place and I would show it to them, we would edit together for a bit. So we pretty much chose the songs together. Pascal’s part was the easiest, the second version was already pretty much the final version. While for Justin’s part we tried like 25 song’s and different edits, we made a version with a Juicy J track which was pretty sick too, but that didn’t really fit the rest of the video. And for Jesse’s part too we’ve tried a lot of different songs. And for the rest of the parts, like the duo parts and all, most of those songs I chose by myself.
What was the worst thing during the making of this video?
Making decisions is kinda hard, like deciding this is it, now it’s finished. Because you can always keep on working on it or change stuff. Like when you made the final edit, later you watch it and you can think about 20 new things you want to do differently. That’s something I find to be really hard, to make the decision that it’s finished, that I will export it now and not touch it anymore. And while filming for this video the VX always worked fine and never glitched, but this one time in Barcelona, I was filming a pretty good trick from Magic (van Hoogwijk) and some tricks from Pascal, but the whole tape glitched, that sucked. It had to happen at some point… you know it will happen with the VX. But that it had to happen in Barcelona was shitty. But other than that it’s just good memories and good times with friends.
Will there be a sequel? Or are you over filming now for a while? I mean it’s a lot of work.
Yeah true, but it is fun to do. I mean these are projects that I’m not really making any money from. All I could gain is respect and I’m just really into capturing all these moments. So yeah, I will see. Last week I was skating with Aaron Tiekink from Zwolle, filmed some stuff with him. I’ll just see what happens and keep it spontaneous. With the Likkie Wax video too, I didn’t plan on making the video from the start, it was more like “Oh, we got quite some footage now, let us do something with it.” Maybe it’ll be cool to do some smaller edits instead of one full video. But at the same time its important that there are full-lengths coming out of the Netherlands. But I want to keep filming.
What’s your favorite Dutch full-length video?
I think it’s “Colorblind Army”. And the “Rollerdisco” Video from Huub out of Leiden.That was inspiring for me since I’m also from Leiden. And also “Agga Op Straat”, that was also a big inspiration for me. That soundtrack is sick, just as the soundtrack from Colorblind Army.
Where did you film for this video? Barcelona? London?
Yeah, I filmed some tricks myself in London. Before I went there I thought I would film some stuff there myself since there are many of these small fun spots. We also filmed in Copenhagen, I had to go there for the Copenhagen Open and brought my VX with me, Pascal, Jesse, and Justin were there too. So we went to Copenhagen, London, Barcelona, Berlin… That’s about it I guess. When the video was done I was like: “Wow, its really just the standard skate cities.” and that’s why were going to Israel next month together with Justin and the guys from Turtle Productions out of Austria. Just to do something different than Barcelona or whatever.
What’s On The Roll?
Well, On The Roll is one of the few skateboard platforms in the Netherlands. There’s Flatspot, Essay, Noise and On The Roll, there’s not really any rivalry, we all just do our own thing. Flatspot is a bit more commercial and Essay and we are doing it more as a hobby. It’s not really a job for me, I just do it for fun and its dope that people appreciate what we do. I’m just trying to do something for the scene in the Netherlands. Back in the day, there was Tacky, I did an internship there, that’s where it kind of started for me. And then D.J. the guy who runs On The Roll with me, came to me and was like: “I’m doing skate camps and maybe we can do a little magazine, would you be down to join?”, that’s where it started. Now we’re doing it for like 3 years. I kinda wanna start to do something with print. Lately if been sending some photo’s to Essay for their magazine. I think it’s really sick what they do.
I’m very happy that there’s finally young Dutch skater’s who are doing something. There was a long time not much happening. There’s also not really a Dutch brand that’s really pushing the Netherlands, like what Colorblind did back in the days.
Yeah, and that’s what I kinda miss. The Dutch scene is not that big and it’s a special kind of scene, like… for example, when there’s a contest, you know who’s gonna come and whats gonna happen and it’s just like a big group of friends, which is good, but people don’t see that there’s more potential and that you can get something out of the scene, like start a brand. In the Netherlands, all the skaters are more skating for fun, which is really cool actually, but on the other side are we kinda missing out on the commercial side of skateboarding. But it’s awesome to be a part of the Dutch scene with On The Roll. But what we as skateboard media do now is very important, it’s important for now but it’s even more important in 10 years, I mean if there’s nothing like us now there would be a whole gap in Dutch skateboard history then, in the way like how you watch Colorblind Army now and see like, that’s how it was back then. And that they took down Tacky, that’s such a shame. It’s a big part of Dutch skate history that they take offline. The kids nowadays don’t even know Tacky and Tagsters from back in the days, but I think it’s very important.
But as a Dutch skater, it’s also kind of our task to tell about that to the next generation.
Yeah, and I use On The Roll to share my view and it’s very cool to see that people appreciate what we do.
Let’s go back to “Likkie Wax”… My girlfriend is sitting next to me and started laughing when I said “Likkie Wax”.
(Laughs) Put that in the article!
(Laughs) We can do that. So, the footage of the Tea Light production, how did you think of that and where did you get that?
Should I tell the truth or should I make up a fun story? A lot of people think that we went to a Tea Light Factory and filmed it ourselves. Which was actually the plan, I was looking for a place and did a lot of research, but in the end, it’s hard to get in such factory’s or they don’t want you to film. Because I actually sent out emails to factory’s but it didn’t work out. In the end, I found this footage on youtube from “Tea Light Factory”. They’re also in the credits under “Additional Filming”. Yeah, so I just downloaded that from the internet, just like all the music, hope I won’t get in trouble with that. (Laughs)
It’s very tough with music rights, especially if you don’t have any budget.
Yeah, for the skatepark video I made before, I made all the music myself or with friends, and I was thinking about doing the same for Likkie Wax. But then again it can be much better with proper music.
That Pascal came to you with his own music choice, that is the kind of stuff that you otherwise can’t do.
Yeah!
Anything else you would like to say?
Hmmm… Well, I just hope that with everything I do I can inspire other people as well. Recently Bastiaan van Zadelhoff came to me, he was also very interested in starting to take pictures, he was also very hyped on Danny’s work, that’s what I find really sick when people inspire each other. I hope that people who for example watch Likkie Wax, or check On The Roll, that that triggers people to start doing stuff themselves. I think that’s also important for the scene, you need the media, the photos and art and such in skateboarding. Like Pontus says: “Inspire others to inspire themselves.”
Thanks, Ziggy!
Interview by Roland Hoogwater
Photos and video by Ziggy Schaap