Posted by B.I.G at 23:35Two members of South Africa’s most prestige Parkour movements, Moya Afrika and Team Gigima were recently selected to appear in the country’s second advertisement featuring Parkour.
31 May 2006
Today was an epic and very exciting day for Thando and me as we found we were going to appear in the new "Cell C Connecting People Everywhere" advertisement; an amazing opportunity for the both of us to learn and spread the movement of Parkour with media exposure. We met the Director Adam from Newzeland and the rest of the crew at Zoo Lake where we discussed brief information and concepts of the advertisement and where we might shoot and what movements would be included. The concept of the advertisement was to have people throwing Frisbees everywhere to other people to create the image of "connecting people". Catching Frisbees was not exactly our "cup of tea" as we glided through the air a few stories up from the ground; the last thing we wanted to worry about was to catch a Frisbees of all things!
4 June 2006
"Wardrobe call"... Yip, getting dressed up to do Parkour... After numerous clothing changes and photo shoots we headed off with the filming crew to Braamfantein where we scouted an abandoned building where the old WITS technikon used to be. The team discussed different areas where we could flow it. The first area was at the entrance where we could wall run up a story and then jump through a window frame. The second area was an area where the structures were very close together so we planned a run up two stories by doing numerous wallruns and tic-tacs, a purely endurance effect to catch a Frisbee. The next area the roof, an area where the director most wanted to film because of effect. The first jump was between two structures about a story high (bearing in mind we are six stories up already) about four meters apart. The second was a five meter jump from one story down to another but the fall could upend to a seven story drop… We scouted a few other places on the roof and decided on what would be the best technique to catch a Frisbee; we tried different jumps and tic-tacs and decided to call it a day.
7 June 2006
The day of the shoot... We arrived on set at about 9am in the morning all excited and watched them film the first scene at Johannesburg Park Station where many people walked around with about a 100 Frisbees being thrown everywhere! We then went off to wardrobe next to change into our allocated outfits for the commercial; make-up followed and we waited till our call... At about 2pm we were on call and moved to a road next to the old WITS Technikon. Before our scene we met Sisco, Francesco and one other professional Frisbee thrower from France and wow were they amazing friendly and hilariously funny people! The scene was a Frisbee being thrown above us and we had to run after it, we had several takes done and it played out very well. Our coordinator Neil then informed us that they had had problems with the Technikon so a new area had been allocated; he also informed us that two members and a camera man from PAWA Russia had arrived to film the advertisement with us! We were both amazed and met D’Em, FiX and MiÇh from Russia. We exchanged words and then started to warm up with them before we were interrupted to film our second scene where after running for the Frisbee had to look for it and run off again. Lunch was next at 3pm where we could not stop talking about Parkour and everything with the Russians. The crew then packed and took us to the new allocated roof which was deeper into Johannesburg CBD; it was the building with the Citizen Watch on the roof. On the roof there were a few things which we put together but after filming other scenes there was not enough light to film so we decided to call it a day and film again on Friday.
9 June 2006
Today was an extra day set just too mainly film the Traceurs at work; everyone arrived at about 7:30am where we were taken to the Park Station roof, our new Parkour paradise. On the roof it was a quick warm up and it was off to work. We began with the four of us doing a gap jump between two buildings and landing with a roll and running off again, this was the first time we saw the Russians in action and were they spectacular! The next scene was us going two at a time jumping back from the one building to the one we just jumped off. Thando and I catted back while the D’em and FiX did an amazing kong-vault back. The sun was shining brightly now and the mood was flowing, little did I know that I was just about to witness the most amazing Parkour move... D’em wall-ran up a 5metre wall... That is all I have to say, you can just imagine everybody’s expressions!
The next shot done was D’em jumping back from the one building and catching a Frisbee and FiX followed him with a kong-vault, the experience of their Parkour was truly surreal. Thando then went to the other side of the roof for his money-shot. He ran along the edge of the building and caught a Frisbee then threw it and carried on to jump and roll. On the other side I filmed my money-shot where I kicked through a door and landed then caught an oncoming Frisbee and threw it away and carried on running; on the last shot it was perfect as the "falling apart door" was completely destroyed on the fourth shot. We then filmed some portrait shots and PKSA moved to a stairway area while PAWA stayed on the roof. We continued to film a little run where Thando monkey-vaulted to drop and I dash-vaulted to drop; we both continued to run down the staircase and turn-vault and drop carrying on with Thando running up another stairwell and I wall-running the same route. D’em and FiX also had a run planned where they ran and wall-ran up opposite sides of a building and stood on the roof and received and threw Frisbees. We wrapped up this area and decided to venture off to a delectable lunch of junk-food. After lunch we had PAWA teach us basics of jumping. landing and rolling, something I consider a very important aspect no matter how good you are because you learn new techniques even of simple things like your basics.
The next place was an illegal shot PKSA did at the old WITS Technikon building where we pop-vaulted and ran on a banister, then carried on to wall-run and jump through a window.
We met back at Park Station and then moved with the Russians to the Citizen Clock building. The crew then filmed many Frisbees being thrown from building to building which we all watched in amazement. I then shot a scene doing a tic-tac and catching a Frisbee from SISCO! Thando did the same on a curve wall over a couch with a Frisbee zooming past him. Thando and me then filmed a run where we both wall-ran onto a roof and gap-jumped onto a second roof and received Frisbees and threw them away. D’em scaled a wall using a pipe onto the roof next and FiX did some acrobatics on the ground. The crew filmed some final scenes of a floating Frisbee will we all waited to a surprise of SISCO running around howling in his underwear, suspenders and green goggles 8stories up!!! We took many group photos and it was a wrap!
What an amazing and special experience this was, something Thando and I will never forget. Thank-you to everyone and especially PAWA Russia which helped us excel to new heights!
Thanks go to D’em, FiX, Miçh, Adam, Sam, Naele, Gill, Lucy, Maggie, Francesco and of course last but never least...
SISCO!!!
JaX (Moyo Afrika)
