Frankfurt’s Frafimi is back with an epic edit featuring Fabian Michel, Matthias Ellinger, Kert Hollywood, Philipp Schäfer, Mark Metzner, Marc Stevens, Max Schöffer, Tim Thomas, Moritz Marquardt & many more. Great soundtrack even greater cast!
If you want to support those guys, click HERE.
Paul Herrmann has been working with us for years now and even though this is not an edit for Place we still feel close to Paul’s work. And in our opinion this is Paul’s best work yet, from the filming, the trick, spot and song selection everything works well.
Special shoutout has to go to T-Time aka Tommy Habermann who has gone the extra mile for this edit and made us want to see more.
In November 2018 I sent PLACE my last vid: “DORI’S DANCE”. Like one of my previous ones, “ANTR’S MIX”, I edited the complete montage to the music of one DJ or producer, whose music I value. I really liked the concept of editing the skating to the “weirdo” Stuff Frankfurt’s AVBVRN sent me, and also including my friend Dori, a professional actor and dancer. So I decided to work on part two, and this time I would start caring a lot about the mood and a little less about the highest level of skateboarding.
The edit culture of AVBVRN’s music is central to the vibe in “DORI’S DANCE 2”. In the Bootlegs/ Blends, I chose for the vid you can hear Mariah Carey, The Cure, and Burial… So the music seems preoccupied with temporal disjunction and nostalgia for a time in pop culture that I, born in 1993, didn’t even experience myself. The British blogger and cultural theorist Mark Fisher called the phenomenon “Hauntology”; I couldn’t even tell you what 2019 sounded like, because the music of the past won’t stop haunting us.
And then you have skateboarding with its obsession towards retro visuals, board shapes from the ’80s and the never-ending VX1000 look, that will always make you feel like you’re watching a skate video from the late ’90s…
The last track of the video is a Burial Blend. Burial’s music seems to be about the after-effects of Rave, about never actually experiencing it, as the music magazine Wire once put it. I think this fits the location the video was shot: “Club-Sterben” is a term to describe the crisis of night clubs in Frankfurt and in other German cities that are not Leipzig or Berlin. So when there is a lack of locations for parties with experimental club music, why not listen to it outside?
Thanks to Martin for the additional filming and for driving us to Strasbourg, Sriram for the titles, Dori for dancing, Ian (AVBVRN) for the music and all the skate homies for, well, skating. <3
Text & Video by Tom Weimar.
Photos by Max Barthel.
By now you have read the interview and seen the photos, so what is left? Paul Herrmann’s video itself, so press play, sit back and enjoy the ride.
Featuring:
Luis Waterkamp, Anton Jaeger, Tim Thomas, Steffen Grap & some other people they met along the way.
We are happy to present a new Video by Paul Hermann titled: “Transit Ride” filmed in the US – New York and LA to be exact. Since he’s been traveling for quite a while, we thought to ask him about the recent project and everything else he’s been up to lately.
Interview by Moritz Alte
Photos by Paul Herrmann
Hey Paul, what are you up to right now?
I’m in Frankfurt right now, for my sisters birthday. I just got back from Rome and I’m going to fly back to Berlin tonight.
Happy Birthday to your Sister!
So, looking at the video it seems like you guys had a pretty good time. Where did you go and which parts of the cities did you stay in, for how long?
Anton (Jäger) and I had an room in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We stayed there for over a month. Even though our area was more or less calm, I feel like New York was really loud and hectic.
After that we flew to LA, where we got lucky and stayed in West Hollywood for another month.
I can imagine…Did you feel a different vibe after going to LA?
Yeah as I said. It is a whole different vibe over there. It is almost like going to a different country. It was way warmer and sunnier than New York and it felt even bigger because we spent ages in the car, as everyone does.
In New York you were able to go street skating almost every day. We could just push around and just find spots. Compared to NY, LA was the exact opposite it was pretty chill. We checked our skate map and tried to hit about 2 or 3 spots a day around the same area. Sometimes only one a day.
Okay, so who’s part of the video/who came along on the trip?
Actually, the main part is with all the boys from Germany. They came out to New York for about two weeks. We skated and filmed every day. The first weeks of the whole stay in the US, were the most productive. After the guys left, we still went skating, but it was rather chill. We crossed ways with a lot of skaters from all over the world. Almost everyone got a trick too!
Who would you say has standout appearance in the video?
Luis Waterkamp, Tim Thomas. No cap!
We can agree, always good to see some Wulle (Luis) footage.
Steffen (Grap) told me that a car crashed into a Deli, right next to the place they were staying at. Do you have a similar story like that?
(Laughs) What? I didn’t even hear about that!
Actually, it was the whole time that stood out. If I think back now the small things that I enjoyed the most come to mind. For example, the day the other boys left we went to a rooftop and had a slice of pizza at our local spot before they left to the airport. I also loved the trip to Vegas from LA that we did. Even though Vegas itself sucked and I had to drive the whole time, it was sick. We stopped whenever we wanted, in the middle of nowhere. One time we even found an abandoned Motel and skated the pool.
That sounds pretty sick…Any place you would like to go next?
I’d love to go to Valencia with all the homies, but I have to work, unfortunately. Besides that, I don’t have any plans at the moment.
Any projects planned for the future that you can tell us about?
You’ve got an exhibition coming up? Tell us a bit about that!
Yes, that’s right. I’m working on an exhibition, including a super 8 video. The whole project is called “I THOUGHT I WAS YOU” and is about my time in the states. I will be finished by the beginning of April or May hopefully. Besides that, I want to keep on traveling, creating and doing what I love.
Sounds really good, we’ll be there. Thank you for being in touch Paul!
Christian Kessler shows his Frankfurt am Main featuring some of his friends and other locals. Some good stuff from the money capital of our EU.
Paul Herrmann gets the honor of closing off our year with his best of 2018 montage. The video features some of Berlin’s finest and some of Germany’s best.
To be honest, it is nice to see that young filmers still wait to “build” montages instead of filming for a couple of weekends and then “just putting it out” in a sub-par fashion.
Surprises are nice and we believe in the fact that every skater can have something to add to a montage. To draw a parallel, in a band not everybody can be the lead singer, some people might be drummers or they might not even play any instrument but still, they are an important element of the band.
In “bestof2k18” Herrmann manages to show us all the bits and bobs behind his “band” and we hope you enjoy the results.
At the end of last week, Tom Weimar contacted us by simply sending us a link to his newest video, something that happens from time to time and is always appreciated. We wrote back telling him that we would check it out tomorrow and he wrote back “😻”.
From the first time we worked with Tom – launching one of his previous projects “ANTR’S MIX” – we knew we were in for a ride. After watching about a minute I wrote him back asking for some more information, you can read his response below:
Intro by Roland Hoogwater.
Text, video and images by Tom Weimar.
When you asked me why I made this video, at first I didn’t really know what to say. Putting out VX1000 style montages every once in a while has kind of become a routine. I do it primarily because I need to go skateboarding to relieve stress and when I go skate – at least during the summer months – I have my VX with me to film the sessions.
This year, around mid-summer, I had a couple of things filmed and a couple of my friends started to get ambitious, thinking about the footage they had and actively trying to get more. Because of them, I started to think about the editing process, selecting music and building a concept.
To be honest, I generally spend more time checking out music online than watching skate videos… Searching for Hip Hop, R&B, Funk, Soul, Experimental etc. is what I spend a lot of time on.
What links this video, “DORI’S DANCE”, to one of my previous ones, “ANTR’S MIX”, is that I wanted to edit the complete montage to the music of one DJ or producer, one whose music I value.
For this project I asked AVBVRN if he would be okay with sending me some of his tracks/bootlegs that could be matched to skate footage. And he did, he sent me some “weirdo” stuff. 🙂
To conclude, not only did I want to include all the skaters that I skate with but also my friend Dori. She is a multi-talent that can both act and dance. Making her part of the video felt natural to me. So, here is “DORI’S DANCE”, enjoy!
Filmed & Edited by Tom Weimar
Additional Filming: Kertan, Martin (Hummus), Paul H.
Music:
Avbvrn x Smokepurpp: Seep x 6 Rings (Avbvrn Bootleg)
Avbvrn: MMM
Avbvrn: CO2
Lk Jogador, Mc Mary, Mc Wesley & Mc Code x Galcher Lustwerk x Lloyd SB: a Giro Louco x Galcher x 3X23 (Avbvrn Bootleg)
Eaves: Wound (Avbvrn Edit) (Remastered)
Avbvrn: Living in Ridgecrest
“Young kids grow older, parents are left with empty nests and new cities must be explored.”
Our video columnist Paul Herrmann moved away from his beloved “Franki” to join us in the streets of Berlin, thus this column can be seen as a goodbye to Frankfurt and its skaters.
Featuring:
Luis Waterkamp, Tim Thomas, Clemens Dembinski, Philipp Weil, Luis Kohl, Don Simonelli, Mario Ungerer, Julian Mack and American Max Schofer.
Text by Roland Hoogwater.
Paul Herrmann has been coming through on the regular with his video column and instead of showing another highlight reel from his “Welcome To Franki” project he hits us with a fresh dose of footage. We were positively surprised when we saw Mannheim footy pop up in this edit maybe we will see another one of our columnists in one of Mr. Herrmann’s edits soon.
Featuring: Yunus Ergen, Luis Waterkamp, Tim Thomas, Bernhard Glimm, Marcel and Deo Katunga skating around Mannheim and Frankfurt.
Intro
Since I wanted to write this article as authentic as possible, I decided to travel to the town of Essen in order to get to know every single one of the guys behind Europe Co. and also get an idea of their everyday lives. Essen is part of the so-called Ruhr Valley, a region situated in the west of Germany that consists of several larger cities located really close to one another; including towns such as Dortmund, Bochum, Duisburg and more. Thanks to their close proximity, you can easily switch between the cities in a minimal amount of time via train, which in turn unlocks an almost unlimited abundance of spots. The urban areas all have this rather modern architectural character with high-rise buildings, strict geometrical forms, and lots of concrete, steel, and glass. The cityscape tends to change at every street corner from snug to rough, from rich to poor, from vibrant green to gloomy gray. As I learned on my visit, this is exactly the environment the Europe Co. is rooted in.
The Creator
The main man behind Europe Co. is Niels Reimann. He designs all the graphics for the clothes, films and edits all the clips, and takes care of the daily business. During my three-day visit, I stayed with him and Deo Katunga. The two share an apartment in Rüttenscheid, a really pleasant district of Essen with smaller houses, parks, cafes, and restaurants. What really struck me was the fact that Niels has been doing all the Europe Co. stuff and all the filming for only a mere one-and-a-half years at this point. Before that, he was producing beats and also released a cassette on a French label called Cindys Tapes. As we were sitting in Niels’ room watching some snippets of the upcoming Europe Co. video called autobahn – and Niels also showing me some of the music he made years ago – I understood that he has a certain intuition to know what fits well together and what doesn’t. This is actually reflected in all of his creative work.
The Clique
What I really enjoyed about the Europe Co. guys is that they all seem to be one big family that I also quickly felt belonging to in a way. Most of the guys have been friends and skating together for many years already. It was also great to see how a motivated group of ten to 15 people would go out skating every day trying to get some clips. I personally have not filmed anything for almost three years now and suddenly got super hyped to try a guest line for their video as well. Unfortunately, I did not manage to roll away but still they brought back a feeling, which I thought I had lost some time ago – the joy of going out there and producing something. Which, of course, can be the most fun you can have with the right people around you. Speaking of people, almost everybody in the Europe gang goes by one or sometimes several nicknames, which made it really hard for me to learn all their names and sometimes almost impossible to follow their conversations. Luckily, Niels helped me out with this cheat sheet:
The G (Georg Anders), P Body (Philipp Bieronski), Pablo (André De Matos), Kicki (Yannick Skornik), Kaio (Kai Hillebrand), Pichl/Krishna/Skkinz (Matthias Pichl), Milky (Deo Katunga), The Coach (Timo Meiselbach), Bifi (Stefan Granitza), Kuyt (Florian Nass), Biber (Marius Paradies), Vman/Vitzke (Kevin Vietzke), Zyllek (Marcel Zylka), and Ching Chong (David Czichon).
Philipp Bieronski – Crooked
Don’t Fuck With The G!
On the day I arrived in Essen, Niels and Kuyt picked me up at the central station and we took the train to Dortmund – only half an hour in the same direction I came from – to meet with the rest of the gang. Nothing unusual really happened, until a character known as The G appeared at the spot. Without greeting anyone he went straight over to some guy and snapped his board, which resulted in a short verbal fight with heavy insults while everyone else was just watching the show. A few seconds later, The G introduced himself to me with a big friendly smile as if nothing of what just transpired had really happened. It turned out that the other guy had cheated him out of a serious amount of money, wrecked the door of his car, and did several other uncool things. Since then, The G snaps his board whenever he sees him at a spot. A little later, the other guy came back with his gang trying to raise a quarrel. But in the end, nothing happened because nobody really wants to have a fistfight with The G, I guess…
Deo Katunga – BS 360
Kevin Vietzke – Crooked
The First-Try Guy
The Europe Co. definitely, has a strong crew that truly never goes home unless somebody gets a serious trick. I was really surprised by how much footage they produced within the few days I stayed with them. But still, one guy stuck out the most during the time I have been with them: Deo Katunga. I don’t want to waste your time with all the empty phrases that could be doled out at this point. But just believe me, this kid definitely has something special going on. Whatever spot we went to, he was like: “Yo, first try!” And even if he never really got a trick first try, he still made almost every trick within the first five or six tries. So after he piqued my interest, I soon began to like this weirdo and we naturally started talking about his roots, life, and dreams. Which is, at least to my mind, reason enough to bring a little conversation I had with him into this article more on that later today.
Text by Paul Röhrs
Photos by Laura Kaczmarek
“Ruhrpott” is in the building! The Europe Co. just released their brandnew and highly anticipated full length called autobahn, which is absolutely one of the top videos this year. Niels Reimann’s creative mind did a great job and the soundtrack choices are on point as well. So be ready to get sparked!
Featuring Kevin Vietzke, Timo Meiselbach, Max Matthias, Matthias Pichl, Kai Hillebrand, Florian Nass, André De Matos, Philipp Bieronski, David Czichon, Georg Anders, Stefan Granitza, Marcel Zylka, Deo Katunga, Tim Thomas, Sasha Gro, Dennis Laaß, Filip Labovic and Danny Goodman.
Today we are premiering “Welcome to Franki” a skateboard video by a young filmer out of Frankfurt named Paul Herrmann. The video was shot in Frankfurt, Berlin, Barcelona and the French capital of Paris. It gives you a good insight into what young German skaters are doing (mostly in Frankfurt and Berlin) but it also has some mainstay people like Kai Hillebrand, Valentin Cafuk, and Timo Meiselbach. All in all we back Paul in his efforts and are proud not only to host the online premiere of his new video but also to welcome him into the PLACE squad. From now on Paul will produce a monthly video column for all of you to enjoy but first things first, take a seat, make yourself comfortable, press play and welcome yourself to Franki.
Featuring:
Valentin Cafuk, Tim Griffel, Luis Waterkamp, Max Barthel, Philipp Weil, Lukas Bergener, Clemens Dembinski, Yunus Ergen, Louis Urban, Anton Jäger, Steffen Grap, Daniel Pannemann, Philipp Oehmige, Johannes Schirrmeister, Deniz Bul, Timo Meiselbach, Rahul Rahman, Nils Hansen, Sascha Scharf, Niklas Stube, Ollie Reinicke, Eric Erhardt, Max Obert, Timo Klein, Kai Hillebrandt, Tom Weimar, Martynas Katauskas, Andrius Kohrs, Tim Thomas, Matthias Ellinger, Kert Hollywood, Luis Kohl.
Photo by Max Barthel