New perspectives from unfamiliar sources are essential for creating inspiration. Thomas Courteille is a filmmaker and passionate skater (and now also a part of Bubble), and Manon Piven Verkade a multidisciplinary artist who first developed their arts outside of the skate scene. Collaborating on projects, like those for their crew Derby cc, this Parisian couple are continually inspiring each other.
Thomas about Manon:
Manon is a 28 years old French artist that grew up in Johannesburg. She uses lots of different creative means to express herself: videos, photos, animations, drawing, graffiti, collages… You name it! Along with the artistic side she is definitely a bit of a daredevil and quite drawn by sports in general. That mix of physical activity and creativity led her to skateboarding a few years ago, and she has gravitated around it since, first in South Africa and now in Paris. Last but not least, I gladly point out that she is a positive and solar person. Always trying to help and not afraid to try things. Her polyvalent resume and influences help her not care much about the rather strict codes that drive the skate community, which is pretty refreshing. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t know them or respect them, but if she wants to do something, she will just go for it. And that’s pretty fucking cool.
From a very young age I was drawn to creativity in all its forms. I hated rules, and to me, art had none. As soon as I finished school in South Africa I moved to Paris to begin my art studies, and that's where I dedicated 100% of my time to developing my artistic identity. Everything naturally followed after that. I did internships and eventually worked at agencies representing photographers and directors. This gave me insight into the industry and how it operates. Outside of work, I constantly push my creative energies further, taking on projects as I go, with the hope of making a living from it one day.
From everything that surrounds me. I get inspired by the movies I watch, the artists I discover, the music I listen to, the friends I surround myself with, and the simple things of my everyday life. I don’t ask myself too many questions when it comes to inspiration. It’s just there and I take it.
I think we inspire each other by sharing so much of our time and passion together. Our ways of thinking and seeing things are so different that, every time we face contrasting points of view, it adds to the inspiration we both have individually. Thomas has taught me to pay more attention to the technical side of things. I used to shoot with a camera even when the settings weren’t perfect. With him, I’ve also learned to work on a project from A to Z, whereas before, my approach was more freestyle. He’s really shown me how to take any project and make it more “professional”.
I think the skate scene has unconsciously influenced me to be a bit more raw and spontaneous in my work. It has also taught me to see cities, people, architecture, movement, light, and color in a different way. It's like a whole new world opened up to me. I learned how to capture emotions, because that’s what skateboarding is all about, too. A skater trying a trick can experience so many emotions — hesitation, frustration, disappointment, joy, euphoria etc. Whether alone or with a group, the emotions combined with the surroundings and the endless ways to capture them is something I never get tired of. Honestly, I feel like, for now, skateboarding gives me more than I give to it.
Working on projects together is actually pretty fun and easy. We trust each other’s vision and we understand it, so this makes this whole working process enjoyable. Also, I feel that it just gives us both confidence in what we do, having each other to support one another. In terms of projects, we worked on Stoopide’s video part for his pro wheels + back cover in Sugar skate mag and we worked together on the “Kollegues”, “Roget” and “Cheerskye” videos.
Netflix, a whole lot of Netflix. [lauging] I think what makes it work for us is that we share moments watching a good series or movie and then discuss it, without even realizing we’re in a creative process. We talk about the filming, the music, the color grading, the story, and what we can learn from it. On the other hand, our creative work is more of our personal time. He’s on his computer, and I’m in my own bubble, jumping from one thing to another. We always take a few breaks over coffee and CBD to talk about what we’ve been working on, offering each other advice without intruding on each other's space.
Manon about Thomas:
Thomas, a.k.a. Stoopide, is a 27-year-old skate nerd who recently graduated with a degree in marketing and is also the co-founder of the Derby cc crew. He comes from the southern suburbs of Paris, where the skate scene was pretty much non-existent. Stoop dedicates most of his time, energy, and passion to his crew and also helped Cyril with the Balargue skate shop evolution. He’s constantly filming, organizing events, planning trips, arranging sessions, scouting spots, while always thinking about the next video he’ll make. He can spend hours watching skate videos to see how he can improve his filming. Thomas is someone you can call passionate with what he does, and for him giving up is never an option. His motivation, courage, care for others, and how he's always there to give advice or help a friend is something pretty remarkable.
Filming and editing, as well as film photography, were always hobbies that I did on the side. I never thought I’d make it my job. There were lots of talented candidates and lots of codes of the industry I had no idea of nor ways to learn, coming from a small suburban town. But, it is true that since I finished studying, freelance filming jobs, both in and out of skating, have been my main jobs. Even a bit before… I still remember the first time I got an actual paid job for a skate video, I was already 24. That video was actually what I thought about from waking up in the morning to going to sleep at night. I feel this passion only expresses itself the right way when its about filming skaters, rather than some random events for insta content.
I started filming because I wanted to document my friend’s tricks. And then at 20 years old, after a few injuries, I started to think about and enjoy filming a lot more. Thinking about angles, edits, songs… From my early teens I was inspired by a trio of French filmers: Olivier Fanchon (which happened to live in the same town as me), Guillaume Perimony, and Romain Batard. They were so nice to newcomers like me, they would answer the random questions of a kid on Facebook. I asked stuff like, “Can I put on a fisheye on my moms compact camera if I glue a spacer ring?”, while those guys had VXs, DSLRs… I always loved to know how things worked, even if I did not use them properly. I always looked through the forums and manuals, but did not feel “cool” to do so. Those guys made me confident that there is nothing to be ashamed about in learning how your cameras work. European and globally, it’s hard to not be inspired by Ben Chadourne. Johnny Wilson, who took what Strobeck did (aka make long lens HD filming dynamic) and brought it to the next level, at least for me. Fritte Söderström is definitely an European inspiration for fisheye filming, even if I’m not a big fan of the DSLR in 2024… But what he does with it brushes that away for sure!
Manon introduced me to so much more than just filming skateboarding. She pretty much renewed my filmographic references, made me grab a film camera again, introduced me to collage and drawing. She also helps me cut myself some slack. A project never looks good or finished when you are in charge, she’s definitely helped me with being ok with what I produce. Just being positive, and sometimes doing things a bit more instinctively rather than trying to re-create an impossible ideal. She definitely was and is more mature in her creative process. She has been doing it professionally for a longer time and she definitely has some predisposition for creative productions.
It really depends on what role Manon takes on! For projects such as the Derby videos, she usually takes care of the animations, photo assets, and has a say in the color grading. She takes care of a part of merch design and recently did the layout of our zine with Polaroid that was released for our “Cheerskye” video. Most of those crucial tasks would hardly be done by anybody else from the crew, and definitely not me, so it is a blessing that she dedicated so much time to this! We also filmed a part together, when Haze gave me a filmer wheel. So I was skating and she was filming! Kind of weird at first, cause I felt like asking your girlfriend to film you is never the way to go – especially when you take three hours to land a mild manual trick. [laughing] But she made it a smooth process, learned to film fisheye, was involved in the whole creative process (designed the commercial) and it was an overall fun experience. She could probably go on tour as a filmer now.
Sorry to kill the expectations, but we are no better than anyone, we Netflix a lot in the evening. But on weekend mornings, we definitely talk a lot about what’s up next, what kind of things we want to try artistically. Sometimes we work together but that’s kinda rare. I’m in the dark with my computer, sd cards, and harddrive when she is usually by the window, painting, airbrushing, or scanning. We definitely don’t have the same work environment either. My work desk is so messy that it makes her mad sometimes (Sorry Manon) while hers is so tidy that it makes me wonder how she creates off that. At least we have the same taste for Netflix shows!
