As much a study on a city that has recently come into the global spotlight, as it is askateboarding documentary, the film “Shanghai 5”, by French videographer Charles Lanceplaine, explores the lives Chinese professional skateboarders,documenting the unusual challenges presented by Chinese culture for those who choose a non-traditional career. OMFC had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Lanceplaine about his most recent project, background, and dreams for the future.
OMFC: Sowhere are you from, how has your journey brought you to Shanghai?
CL: Hi, I’m Charles Lanceplaine, 24 Years old. I come from Plerin in Brittany, France, its a pretty lovely place where nothing is really happening, I studied languages and business there which led me to study for a semester abroad, before this trip I have never really been traveling a lot and I was pretty reluctant to do so, but my parents pushed me and then as soon as I came back from the States I realized that I wanted to travel more and that I wouldn’t be happy by staying in France, so I decided to move to Shanghai after graduating. I was only supposed to stay for a couple of months, but I found a job and decided to stay.
OMFC: How did studying languages lead to an interest in photography and video?
CL: I seriously got into filming a year and a half ago, before I was just playing around with a point and shoot camera filming my friends. One day I posted up a clip on Facebook and somebody from an advertisement agency saw it and sent me an email encouraging me to buy a camera and to keep up the good work. A couple of months later they offered me my first freelance job for one of their clients.
OMFC:We’ve noticed that you focus your work on a range of subjects; how do you decide on your subject material?
CL:Well most of the time it all depends on what the client wants, but I always try to bring my vision to the project. When it comes to my own projects I usually decide to try new techniques for each video, I always want to push myself. I hate making a video I’m not proud of. Most of my videos that I have been doing for the past 6 months have been contracted projects. The Shanghai 5 was a personal project I always wanted to do since I was younger. I grew up watching skateboarding videos and I always wanted to make one of my own, it wasa childhood dream.
OMFC:So we heard that there was apremiere for “Shanghai 5”, how did that go for you?
CL: It was great. We did a premiere only for the Shanghai 5 at Source (a store with a gallery space in Shanghai), it was a fun one, I wasn’t expecting to have so many people showing up I thought only my buddies would show up, not 200 people… I was really stoked.
OMFC: Fantastic! So would you consider that a milestone?
CL: For sure, I have always wanted to make a skate video.This was like a dream come true. The video has involved all of my friends in Shanghai, I think it brought skaters together and created some awareness about skaters in Shanghai even though it was the hardest project I have done so far it was as well the most rewarding.
I don’t think there was one person who was more interesting than anyone else andeverybody who got involved in this project were persons I was genuinely interested in.
OMFC: What kind of positive impact do you want to see from your art?
CL: I want people to get interested in filmmaking and skateboarding and share my vision of the world through my work. I think in the 21st century people tend to take things for granted and are not amazed by simple things like the water flowing or clouds inthe sky, they are more interested in their friend’s Facebook status updates or what’s up on Twitter. I’m not going to lie I’m like that too at times but it’s always good to step back and think that the world around us is amazing and beautiful.
I would like to see people getting more respectful of each other and being more positive,you know I come from a country where people are always very negative always saying that you should follow a normal career, not taking any risks, being a regular kid who plays soccer or other “normal” sports and that making videos is a dead end etc… I think people should instead push kids to create and express themselves instead of killing creativity.
OMFC: Is there anything else you would like to add?
CL: I would like to thank my parents for believing in me and supporting me all the way, my girlfriend for her patience, Annie Inyoung Kim for her help, Brian Smith, Mat Morgan, Johnny Tang and anybody else who helped me out during this past year.
Check out Lanceplaine’s documentary, Shanghai 5, below:Shanghai 5 from Charles Lanceplaine on Vimeo.
Shanghai 5 from Charles Lanceplaine on Vimeo.
