Our stunning 11 1/2″ 24K custom gold statuette is manufactured by R.S. Owens, the same company that manufactures the Oscar. The winner of our Best Short Film category will receive this award at no cost to them, while winners in other categories will be given the option to acquire it. Additional awards and prizes may be Read More ...
Title: Chau
Runtime: 5 min
Country: Switzerland
Director: Elijah Black/ Refrenantem
Placement: Honorable Mention
Competition: June, 2021
Synopsis: Refrenantem Presents: CHAU
Sunday on the 13th of June, finally the weather was in our favor, and we took a trip to St. Gallen. Saint City is nothing like how we expected it to be. The Skateboarding community is deep here, just like its roots. The people are generous, positive, and sick on the board.
We sat down with one of “The Outlet by Doodah” team riders, flat ground chef Mathias Chau.
Skills are on point with this guy, just like his style.
Starring: Mathias Chau
Special thanks to everybody present on that day at the skatepark
Location: St. Gallen Skatepark, St. Gallen
OR: What was the inspiration for your film?
EB: My inspiration was always skateboarding and film. I always had this vision on how my company “REFRENANTEM” could do short films about the skaters around the world and how we could share their stories.
OR: When did you conceive the idea for your film and how long did it take before it was realized?
EB: So the whole process was pretty easy, the fact that I am living in Switzerland at the moment, I have decided to contact some extremely talented skaters from here and start my journey here. I have explained to them my plan and the work that I am doing with the release of REFRENANTEM photo book RED and I am grateful that they agreed to help on the project. Matthias Chau was one of them and he is sick, the guy got some mad skills. Anyways, we have filmed it in one day and after that the post production around 2 days. I try to make the whole scene as comfortable as possible when I film. It’s not cool if anyone is nervous. We are here to have fun and work on something that we all love.
OR: What was the most challenging aspect of working in a short film format?
EB: The right choice of clips, the right choice of tricks, either black and white or color. Also music, should it be synced or not. That’s probably all.
OR: What was the most challenging aspect of your production?
EB: Praying to God it doesn’t start to rain. Switzerland is crazy this summer. I can not say it’s like this always because I am not from here, but this year the weather is horrible and the second thing, following and filming all the time, so I wouldn’t miss any moment or any trick that CHAU landed smooth like butter. It happened one time after a lot of tries and I didn’t film, luckily he landed again.
OR: Do you have any advice for first-time filmmakers?
EB: Just keep filming, don’t listen to anybody that tells you how or what you should film, if you want to make a movie or a music video, whatever It is, if it makes you feel good and happy, go for it.
