Interview with Steffen Vollert about “We’re Open”
Wow, what a video! Steffen Vollert’s and Felix Georgii’s edit is full of creativity. The story telling and creative riding fascinates both people inside and outside of our sport. We wanted to know more so we reached out to Steffen and asked him a few questions about this project.
1. Hi Steffen, the video is called “We’re Open” and was produced in the lockdown time. How did you come up with the whole idea?
Yes, that’s correct. That’s when we started to think about this project. This was around May. We just wanted to do something different. New tricks and new setups. That the story was going to have something to do with the lockdown, seemed pretty obvious.
2. How did you develop the ideas for the different sections? How does one of those brainstorms look like?
The basic idea was this: we wanted to cut through the natural limitations, that a cable has. We wanted to extend the setup and the park by winching. And we wanted everything to look like a single line (like Ben in Paris or the Drop The Gun intro). So the basic idea for everything did indeed form out of a brainstorm with Felix, Lukas Joas and myself.
3. Did you develop a storyboard and then strictly stick to it or did some things just come up while you were shooting?
There was only a trick list. Out of that trick list I then developed my own little storyboard so that the transitions between the tricks would really work out. Also the intro scene in the beginning was already certain. But the way the outro scene looked and that the janitor would show up was only in my head. And I guess it’s fine like that when you work with such a small team.
4. Lukas Süß was the ghost rider of the boat, right? Which part did the boys from The Bricks play?
Yes, correct. That was Lukas. I can answer that question pretty straight forward: without The Bricks crew this whole project would not have been possible. The boys just know what it’s about. And they are really dedicated. We don’t need to explain anything because we are on one page. For us, and I’m just going to go ahead and speak for Felix too, The Bricks really is the perfect production set for any cable wakeboard project.
5. Can you tell us which trick attempts did not make it into the movie?
We accomplished 90% of the list step by step. Only once a trick was ticked off the list, we’d move on to the next one. The last 10% are ideas which we didn’t put into action simply because we already had enough footage. All the things we didn’t do this time, we’re just going to keep for the next project.
6. At the end of the video the cable was running backwards. How the heck is that even possible?
This was made possible by Sebi Süß. Please don’t ask me how. But apparently this wasn’t a big deal for him.
7. The kicker hit in which Felix jumps through the tire is so unreal that some people thought the picture is a fake. Did you just extend the rope and put it through the tire?
The tire jump. Hmmm. Maybe this one will remain a secrete forever. No, actually it’s not that complicated. It’s the same concept as when we rode through the corrugated pipe in Felix’ Real Wake part.
Thanks for your answers, Steffen. We really are pumped about this project. Congratulations on what you put together!
If you now want to rewatch the edit section by section, you can do so here.
