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WETHEPEOPLE FOUNDATION: Behind The Scenes

Wethepeople Foundation is one of this year’s greatly anticipated feature-length BMX videos and features a HEAVY crew. The team put in so much work over this past year whilst filming for this project, travelling to over 10 different countries, over 20 cities, hitting dream spots and taking some wild slams while defeating inner demons along the way.

We caught up with Wethepeople’s BMX Marketing Manager Paul Robinson for a bit of a chat about this incredible project as he is basically the brains behind the outfit, and it’s fair to say that he has put a huge amount of time and effort into this production.

– Out of the numerous locations you guys visited around the world whilst filming for Foundation, which was your favourite?

“It’s funny because we had these grand ideas of going to California and riding all those iconic spots out there but it never really happened, it’s easy for us to get on a plane for 2 hours and ride Spain, or France or England. In the winter we would go to warmer southern European countries and then in the summer we did Riga, England, Scotland, Germany and those Northern countries, then when it got back to winter again we went back to Spain haha. To answer the question though – I would honestly say Barcelona for me; it’s the real deal. I also think Lyon is an up and coming city for street.”

– It’s sick how many video premieres went down across the globe. Multiple showings in the USA, UK, Estonia, Germany, France… The list goes on! I’m guessing the team attended a few of them too… Which one would you say was the rowdiest?

“Well, the actual majority of the premieres were held in bike shops, its something we really wanted to happen and wanted to get the message across that BMX shops are at the heart of BMX. We support what they do and we know that most of them really struggle in recent times. I’m pretty sure though the Estonia World Premiere was the wildest, its nice to see so many people packed into a cinema, sat on the floor and stood in the alleyways. After the free beer was gone the rest was a blur.”

“We really wanted to get the message across that BMX shops are at the heart of BMX.”

– Tell us a few moments that meant the most to the team. Hardest pushes to get a clip, difficulties, technical problems, injuries etc…

“Like any other full length it had its ups and downs. I felt for Dillon when he broke his foot in China, he had more to give for sure. I also felt for Jordan in Malaga when he smashed his foot to pieces on a huge 360 (you actually see the slam in the intro). I think a lot of Mike’s stuff took hours and days; shout out to Josh for working that one. On the technical side it was all good, to say this was Cal’s (Earnshaw) first ever full length he handled it like a boss, I think he has backing up OCD though, he bought like 6 hard drives.”

– What was the first clip filmed for the video, and the last?

“Actually Jordan’s ender is one of if not the first proper clip filmed for the video. Then I know that Dan Kruk and Felix were out in Cali filming some real 11th hour shit.”

– Where does the name ‘Foundation’ come from, what does it mean to you and the team?

“It took a while, we had a group chat going on and we just threw names in every other week it seemed. I ended up somehow thinking of it for no proper reason and to me it related to a starting point, like when you build something you have to have a foundation. I feel like with this team right now we are really building something.”

– What were you trying to achieve with the video, what was your statement of intent, or what impact did you want to feel?

“We really took each day as it came, just clipped up and banked it…we went along like that. A lot of people have told me though that after watching the video they just want to ride so bad, like it evokes that feeling right away. So for me, I guess that’s what its all about.”

We also caught up with a few riders who featured in Foundation to ask each of them a quick question about the experiences they’ve had during the past year, and here’s what they had to say…

Ed Zunda

– Which spots were most fun/worst to ride on the trip?

“I think one of the funnest could have been the spot in France, long ass bank with a few ledges on the bottom of it, was fun riding it.. and the worst hmm not sure if we even got to ride the worst ones hah what comes to my mind the worst might have been the Sicily ledges, where Curley got hurt…”

“Like any other full length it had its ups and downs…”

Dan Kruk

–Are there any places you’d like to revisit?

“I’d like to revisit Barcelona, for obvious reasons.”

Mike Curley

– What was the sketchiest place you visited during the Foundation filming trips?

“Sketchiest place was going through the ghetto estates in Sicily in search for spots, we were getting stared out buy groups of men randomly hanging out on street corners, all the time thinking we had stumbled into gang territory like one of Vito Corleone’s many areas of control and we should promptly get the fuck out of there!”

Jordan Godwin

– There must’ve been some crazy shit go down once the bikes were put away and the beers came out to play, what would you say was the wildest trip night out?

“Wildest trip was definitely France and I feel like the wildest night of that trip was in Lyon when we went to the boat party, I don’t really remember much but I’m sure that’s a good sign right?”