Behind the Scenes with the Contrast Collective; Sim Warren and Mia Xerri
2 April 2014 - Exposed
Sim warren had an attraction to documenting blading and his surroundings at a very young age. His premiere UK video 'Montage' was made around the 1999 era which was then followed up by the highly acclaimed 'Enigma' team video!
Sim then went onto focusing a little more on blading and picked up a few sponsors along the way but he had always worked and practiced in the field of film. His skills and eye have matured to an impeccable level that, alongside his partner Mia Xerri, they have now brought back to life the 'Contrast Collective'. To launch the new creative endeavour they have released two very dramatic shorts that have been received incredibly well across all boards.
We decided to ask Sim a few questions about his new venture and life behind the camera...
First things first, what is the Contrast Collective?
The Contrast Collective is basically a film making partnership between me and Mia Xerri. Basically going on adventures and seeing the world, then taking this inspiration and feeding it into our work. We just want to make films that make people go WOH - wolves, owls, mountains, pyramids, slow motion, we love that shit.
Why have you chosen to do a video of this nature? What’s your background within blading?
From when I started playing hockey and skating in like 1992, then through to being in the SS1 crew, skating in Cali, filming the Enigma team video and skating for Deshi & the Conference, I've always had a camera and felt the need to capture things.
I guess after having been involved in blading / industry for so long I started to seek new challenges and wanted to filter my experiences into contributing and adding my own stamp. I then started working within video more professionally and learnt from filmmakers who weren't in the skating scene. This opened my eyes and made me want to show rollerblading in a different light, I wanted to focus more on the rollerbladers themselves and showcase the people behind the skating as opposed
to just the tricks.
Where did you and leon come up with the idea for the ‘How Many’ and blading in your dreams?
I’d wanted to do another blade edit for a while now but I didn’t want to put anything out there that was mediocre. We wanted to put out a rollerblading film that would stand out and appeal to non rollerbladers and to spotlight our community to new people. I knew it had to include slow motion, London and be super stylistic and gritty. This was just a look I wanted to create.
I’ve known Leon for a while now and have always wanted to use his voice or perspective as a core part of a film. Mia showed me the Forest Swords track and we knew we had to use it, so then we went to London and just sat down one evening and had like a 3 hour chat about rollerblading. Off the back of this chat we came up with the How Many narrative.
What kit did you use and why, what were the benefits to using such gear?
So I was really excited to get my hands on a Phantom camera, an opportunity came up where I could get one for 3 days and everything aligned so that we could use the Phantom for the Leon film. We shot handheld and the Phantom shots ranged from 1500fps down to about 600fps.
The shot of Aaron Turner 180ing off the roof was at 600fps and in order to get the dolly movement effect I had to go twice as fast on my skates. This camera is worth almost as much as a small mortgage so it was pretty scary carrying this around london on my k2 rec skates but I had the very talented Ed Inglis who had my back and also shooting on a Sony FS700 as a B camera shooting at 200fps. We also had the help from Tom Sharman and Diogo Atadini who were super productive in assisting the camera units the whole weekend not to forget Spike,
Hallsy and Kola!
Encounter any difficulties or hiccups?
We had an amazing turn out of bladers all giving up their time and being really patient with the filming.
When you film with the Phantom you’re constantly recording, so once you’ve seen something that you think is a take, you press record which actually stops it recording and then saves the previous 4 seconds of footage. Once you’ve done this it then takes like 2 minutes to buffer the shot and the higher the frame rate the longer it takes. So this was a real frustrating process because whilst I was buffering I was missing so many amazing tricks or the sun would come out then go behind the clouds when I’d finished.
Also on day 2 the weather was shocking, as well as filming in January where it gets dark at 4pm and the one thing you need lots of with the Phantom camera is lots of light. So it was pretty tricky having to use available light, but we just played this to our advantage by shooting and exposing for the sky instead of the bladers giving us more of a mood.
Why choose London to film in?
London has an amazing scene, its gritty, people all over the world recognise it, it has so much history and more importantly people that don’t rollerblade can relate to it.
How does it feel to be one of the Vimeo staff picks? Do they contact you about this or offer any benefits for future videos?
Pretty juiced! One of the staff at Vimeo, Jason, I saw one day had liked it and I was hoping that this meant he’d put it forward for a staff pick. He then commented saying that he used to blade and that he had a pair of Salomons under his desk, so we got a bit of banter going but then nothing happened. I started to think that the views and interest would start to die down but then about 3 days later I got an email from Vimeo saying they wanted to feature it. Which was pretty rad - and now moving forwards this gives us a little bump up the chain I guess in getting noticed for future staff picks.
And lastly, when's the 2nd enigma video coming out?
Well me and the guys have been shooting out in Brazil for the sequel and we’re close to finishing off everyones sections. Wait until you see Yanis and Alan Dick's new section. Two words. Backflip, Soyale, Pistachios.
Check the links to watch The Contrast Collective's 'How Many' and 'Rollerblading in London'.
Words by Adam Kola. Photos by Adam Kola and Andrew Pearce.
Find out more at thecontrastcollective.com and follow the Contrast Collective on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram.
MORE LIKE THIS...
First things first, what is the Contrast Collective?
The Contrast Collective is basically a film making partnership between me and Mia Xerri. Basically going on adventures and seeing the world, then taking this inspiration and feeding it into our work. We just want to make films that make people go WOH - wolves, owls, mountains, pyramids, slow motion, we love that shit.
Why have you chosen to do a video of this nature? What’s your background within blading?
From when I started playing hockey and skating in like 1992, then through to being in the SS1 crew, skating in Cali, filming the Enigma team video and skating for Deshi & the Conference, I've always had a camera and felt the need to capture things.
I guess after having been involved in blading / industry for so long I started to seek new challenges and wanted to filter my experiences into contributing and adding my own stamp. I then started working within video more professionally and learnt from filmmakers who weren't in the skating scene. This opened my eyes and made me want to show rollerblading in a different light, I wanted to focus more on the rollerbladers themselves and showcase the people behind the skating as opposed
to just the tricks.
Where did you and leon come up with the idea for the ‘How Many’ and blading in your dreams?
I’d wanted to do another blade edit for a while now but I didn’t want to put anything out there that was mediocre. We wanted to put out a rollerblading film that would stand out and appeal to non rollerbladers and to spotlight our community to new people. I knew it had to include slow motion, London and be super stylistic and gritty. This was just a look I wanted to create.
I’ve known Leon for a while now and have always wanted to use his voice or perspective as a core part of a film. Mia showed me the Forest Swords track and we knew we had to use it, so then we went to London and just sat down one evening and had like a 3 hour chat about rollerblading. Off the back of this chat we came up with the How Many narrative.
What kit did you use and why, what were the benefits to using such gear?
So I was really excited to get my hands on a Phantom camera, an opportunity came up where I could get one for 3 days and everything aligned so that we could use the Phantom for the Leon film. We shot handheld and the Phantom shots ranged from 1500fps down to about 600fps.
The shot of Aaron Turner 180ing off the roof was at 600fps and in order to get the dolly movement effect I had to go twice as fast on my skates. This camera is worth almost as much as a small mortgage so it was pretty scary carrying this around london on my k2 rec skates but I had the very talented Ed Inglis who had my back and also shooting on a Sony FS700 as a B camera shooting at 200fps. We also had the help from Tom Sharman and Diogo Atadini who were super productive in assisting the camera units the whole weekend not to forget Spike,
Hallsy and Kola!
Encounter any difficulties or hiccups?
We had an amazing turn out of bladers all giving up their time and being really patient with the filming.
When you film with the Phantom you’re constantly recording, so once you’ve seen something that you think is a take, you press record which actually stops it recording and then saves the previous 4 seconds of footage. Once you’ve done this it then takes like 2 minutes to buffer the shot and the higher the frame rate the longer it takes. So this was a real frustrating process because whilst I was buffering I was missing so many amazing tricks or the sun would come out then go behind the clouds when I’d finished.
Also on day 2 the weather was shocking, as well as filming in January where it gets dark at 4pm and the one thing you need lots of with the Phantom camera is lots of light. So it was pretty tricky having to use available light, but we just played this to our advantage by shooting and exposing for the sky instead of the bladers giving us more of a mood.
Why choose London to film in?
London has an amazing scene, its gritty, people all over the world recognise it, it has so much history and more importantly people that don’t rollerblade can relate to it.
How does it feel to be one of the Vimeo staff picks? Do they contact you about this or offer any benefits for future videos?
Pretty juiced! One of the staff at Vimeo, Jason, I saw one day had liked it and I was hoping that this meant he’d put it forward for a staff pick. He then commented saying that he used to blade and that he had a pair of Salomons under his desk, so we got a bit of banter going but then nothing happened. I started to think that the views and interest would start to die down but then about 3 days later I got an email from Vimeo saying they wanted to feature it. Which was pretty rad - and now moving forwards this gives us a little bump up the chain I guess in getting noticed for future staff picks.
And lastly, when's the 2nd enigma video coming out?
Well me and the guys have been shooting out in Brazil for the sequel and we’re close to finishing off everyones sections. Wait until you see Yanis and Alan Dick's new section. Two words. Backflip, Soyale, Pistachios.
Check the links to watch The Contrast Collective's 'How Many' and 'Rollerblading in London'.
Words by Adam Kola. Photos by Adam Kola and Andrew Pearce.
Find out more at thecontrastcollective.com and follow the Contrast Collective on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram.
MORE LIKE THIS...
Encounter any difficulties or hiccups?
We had an amazing turn out of bladers all giving up their time and being really patient with the filming.
When you film with the Phantom you’re constantly recording, so once you’ve seen something that you think is a take, you press record which actually stops it recording and then saves the previous 4 seconds of footage. Once you’ve done this it then takes like 2 minutes to buffer the shot and the higher the frame rate the longer it takes. So this was a real frustrating process because whilst I was buffering I was missing so many amazing tricks or the sun would come out then go behind the clouds when I’d finished.
Also on day 2 the weather was shocking, as well as filming in January where it gets dark at 4pm and the one thing you need lots of with the Phantom camera is lots of light. So it was pretty tricky having to use available light, but we just played this to our advantage by shooting and exposing for the sky instead of the bladers giving us more of a mood.
Why choose London to film in?
London has an amazing scene, its gritty, people all over the world recognise it, it has so much history and more importantly people that don’t rollerblade can relate to it.
How does it feel to be one of the Vimeo staff picks? Do they contact you about this or offer any benefits for future videos?
Pretty juiced! One of the staff at Vimeo, Jason, I saw one day had liked it and I was hoping that this meant he’d put it forward for a staff pick. He then commented saying that he used to blade and that he had a pair of Salomons under his desk, so we got a bit of banter going but then nothing happened. I started to think that the views and interest would start to die down but then about 3 days later I got an email from Vimeo saying they wanted to feature it. Which was pretty rad - and now moving forwards this gives us a little bump up the chain I guess in getting noticed for future staff picks.
And lastly, when's the 2nd enigma video coming out?
Well me and the guys have been shooting out in Brazil for the sequel and we’re close to finishing off everyones sections. Wait until you see Yanis and Alan Dick's new section. Two words. Backflip, Soyale, Pistachios.
Check the links to watch The Contrast Collective's 'How Many' and 'Rollerblading in London'.
Words by Adam Kola. Photos by Adam Kola and Andrew Pearce.
Find out more at thecontrastcollective.com and follow the Contrast Collective on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram.
London has an amazing scene, its gritty, people all over the world recognise it, it has so much history and more importantly people that don’t rollerblade can relate to it.
How does it feel to be one of the Vimeo staff picks? Do they contact you about this or offer any benefits for future videos?
Pretty juiced! One of the staff at Vimeo, Jason, I saw one day had liked it and I was hoping that this meant he’d put it forward for a staff pick. He then commented saying that he used to blade and that he had a pair of Salomons under his desk, so we got a bit of banter going but then nothing happened. I started to think that the views and interest would start to die down but then about 3 days later I got an email from Vimeo saying they wanted to feature it. Which was pretty rad - and now moving forwards this gives us a little bump up the chain I guess in getting noticed for future staff picks.
And lastly, when's the 2nd enigma video coming out?
Well me and the guys have been shooting out in Brazil for the sequel and we’re close to finishing off everyones sections. Wait until you see Yanis and Alan Dick's new section. Two words. Backflip, Soyale, Pistachios.
Check the links to watch The Contrast Collective's 'How Many' and 'Rollerblading in London'.
Words by Adam Kola. Photos by Adam Kola and Andrew Pearce.
Find out more at thecontrastcollective.com and follow the Contrast Collective on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram.
