Remi Besse
“I’ve studied at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. It’s a Parisian art school, where I focused on trying to be an author. By drawing, videomaking, photographing or whatever, the essential aim was to express something cool. I started to make videos on my own, before school. I come from an environment far from production and cinema, so basically I initially thought it was very simple to shoot a film. I was thinking that find a camera was all that I needed to begin. I was quite naive but years after I can say that it’s a real chance for my generation to have the possibility to make stuff with a simple iPhone or a parents camcorder.”
“In 2015 I shot a film about graffiti in New York, commissioned by the pen brand Posca. The film went to Cannes Lions, from there I was able to meet producers and started to work in the industry. I had zero budget to do it but thanks to great reviews from urban art scene, a vimeo pick and a few web articles, the film reached a wide audience fast.”
“After this small success I received many propositions. It was mainly to do the same in others cities, to capture skateboarders and graffiti painters etc, so I chose to focus on others plans. Create and re-create the same thing would have been a nightmare. The essence of this job is to find new ideas, and it takes such a lot of time.”
“I’m a big fan of Nicolas de Crecy rotring’s paintings. In my opinion he is the best contemporary french drawer. I have been drawing and painting for a long time and it’s thanks to him I understand an image could be better and better and better. In another genre I like the work of Soulages as it’s pure and strong. Recently I watched series of short films from Pialat - I didn’t know these ones - there’s a true tenderness inside. His work was definitely modern.”
“I recently shot a film for Nike starring Edinson Cavani, then I developed artworks for a digital campaign. Nike’s team contacted me directly on vimeo, so it was great to discuss with them and to be free to make propositions. It would be great to collaborate again with more time and resource to make something bigger.”
“I don’t have a real daily routine, I don’t want one. What is great in this job is that each week could be different from the other one. I like to go in a café and start writing or drawing and sometimes I go at iconoclast office to discuss projects. Sometimes I go to the cinema, or on a park just to observe people. I suppose I have to find an author residency or something like that to focus on writing, if I don’t I’ll inevitably continue to drink wine with friends on evenings”
“My priority is fiction, so I write as much as I can. I also try to live, it may sounds stupid or evident but I’m convinced without living true experiences it’s impossible to produce great pieces of art. I work with the production company Standard films, the young blood roster of Iconoclast. We’re currently discussing about music video projects.”
“In the future I think I want to write great stories. I would like to film beautiful things to make people cry, be happy or sad, to make them hate my films, love them - whatever - to touch them.”