Monday 31 January 2011

Research

As the idea of the story is a man using his Parkour skills to get away from a monster I thought it would be a good idea to do some research into Parkour. Especially as I have personally had no experience with Parkour. I've seen some people doing it before and watched a documentary on it several years ago but still don't know too much about it. I thought that some research would broaden my Parkour knowledge and would help with finding a location. The research will help me to find a sufficient location because it will give me an idea of the sort of obstacles that can be used to showcase some Parkour skills.

So firstly what is Parkour?

I went to my faithful friend Wikipedia to find out exactly what Parkour is and it states that 'Parkour is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the moss efficient way possible, using only their bodies. Skills such as jumping, climbing, vaulting, rolling, swinging and wall scaling are employed.'

Parkour can be practiced anywhere, however it is most commonly practiced in urban areas as these areas are more preferable as they provide lots of obstacles. This piece of research is extremeley useful as it tells me exactly what type of location we should use for our project.

However Parkour does bring some confusion as it is commonly confused with the art of Free Running. Parkour does not employ the use of flips which Free Running does. My take on it is that Parkour is more of a natural sport or hobby and free running is something which requires stylish tricks and flips, therefore making it more showboaty than Parkour.

Parkour and Free Running

The link above is a video clip that shows both Parkour and Free Running but it helps you to understand what the difference between the two is and also shows you the skills of Parkour. Which is very beneficial as it gives me a clear view of the sorts of skills that Parkour uses.

Through my own research and a heads up from fellow team member Will I discovered that a man called David Belle is credited as the founder of Parkour. He has a very interesting background and seems to have lead the way of Parkour. Below is a link which is a video that shows the best clips of this extremely skilled frenchman.

The Best Of David Belle

I then started to wonder if there were any films or commercials that had employed the use of Parkour. So i started to look for some clips. As I started to rack my brains i remembered there being a chase scene that adopts the skills of Parkour in the 2006 film Casino Royale. The link below shows the whole chase scene.

Casino Royale Parkour Chase Scene 

I also remembered seeing a trailer in the cinema not that long ago which was a sports commercial. Its a 2D animation of a character running and over coming obstacles as the environment around him is being destroyed. Unfortunately I have searched everywhere for a video clip of this trailer but I can not seem to find one anywhere. I searched Parkour chase scene's in films in youtube and came across some very interesting scenes. One than stood out was a Parkour chase scene from the film District 13. Below is a link to the clip.

District 13 Parkour Chase Scene 

That same youtube search lead me to a short film which is basically just a Parkour chase scene. Below is a link to the video.

Under Penalty Parkour Short Film

I then tried to find some commercials which use Parkour. I found a commercial for an energy drink called Cheetah Powersurge. Below is a link to a video of the commercial.

Parkour Cheetah Powersurge Commercial 

I found these video's very beneficial as they influence and inspire thoughts as to what type's of camera angles/ shots we should include and the sort of locations and obstacles that should be included in our piece. I now feel a lot more prepared for the next stage of searching for an ideal location.

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