Background

The Journey of Making Point B

1. Parkour brought me around the world & introduced me to a vast array of people.  I was amazed at how welcoming all the traceurs I met were & I consider each a friend.
   

1. But this project was not easy, making a documentary almost singlehandedly with virtually no budget involved a lot of flexibility, coffee, & sleeping on couches...
   

1. 2006
   

2. February: watched Dvinsk Clan, my first exposure to Parkour
   

3. March: met with Ryan Ford & Matt Perry in Boulder, Colorado to take photos for the local paper
   

1. 2007
   

2. January - May: chose Parkour as my Journalism graduate thesis & began research
   

3. June: attended PK Cali’s monthly beginner class in Los Angeles.  The next day we went to UCLA for my first jam
   

4. July: jammed with NEPK in Boston
   

5. August: attended the 4-day Colorado National Jam in Boulder, Denver & Golden
   

6. August: filmed with Chris Levesque & NoSole in San Francisco
   

7. September: met Nik Sartain at an SLCPK jam in Salt Lake City, UT. Nik also brought me mountain running & on his suggestion I met up with  Devon Bardole
   

8. September: filmed with C4 in Chengdu while on a trip to China filming    the Women’s World Cup.  They were even nice enough to give me a lift home in typical Chinese fashion - squished 3 to a motor scooter
   

9. October - December: researched & wrote my thesis’ background  research paper ‘The Evolution of the Social Functions of Sport & the Advent of Extreme Sports’
   

10. November: filmed at Ryan Ford’s interview with ESPN360
    

11. November: went on a road trip over Thanksgiving break
    

12. stopped by Salt Lake City to see Nik & Devon
    

13. cruised to San Francisco to meet up with Chris Levesque & NoSole
    

14. interviewed Matt Perry just south of San Jose on my way to interview Victor Lopez in LA
    

15. December: sat down to edit my film, a process that took the next year
    

1. 2008
   

2. January: interviewed Alex Rozis at the ESPN X-games in Aspen
   

3. March-August: filmed the Helmet Cam extreme sports segments
   

4. April: successfully defended my thesis & secured a travel grant from my school’s dean for a plane ticket to Europe
   

5. May: met with Team Vayne in Colorado Springs
   

6. May: traveled to France & England with Ryan Ford & Matt Marshall
   

7. Day 1: visited Evry’s local training spots with local traceurs
   

8. Day 2-4: planned for the Yamakasi’s ADD Academy Inauguration
   

9. Day 5: filmed the Yamakasi’s open-to-the-public training     session followed by an ADD demonstration
   

10. Day 6: filmed & participated in Evry’s citywide jam
    

11. Day 7: trained with the Yamakasi in Paris
    

12. Day 8: visited the world-famous climbing spot, Fontaine Bleu,   with some local traceurs to practice Parkour in a natural setting
    

13. Day 9-11: trained with local traceurs in London & attended   2 Parkour Generations classes
    

14. Day 12-15: trained & explored Derby, England with Livewire, including the rooftop mission
    

15. November: first cut of film played at Asheville Film Festival
    

1. 2009
   

2. January-March: built and launched www.pointbmovie.com

A History of Parkour

1. The history of Parkour is both controversial & convoluted, filled with half-truths, endless debates, avid opinions & presumed speculations. Yet some facts remain...
   

2. 
   

3. The Natural Method
   

4. Georges Hébert was a French exercise theorist in the early 20th century.  Upon traveling to several primitive societies, Hébert was amazed at the high level of fitness of these peoples compared to citizens of the developed countries
   

5. Hébert attributed this effect to Industrialization & the sedentary lifestyle it created
   

6. As a result, Hébert developed the Natural Method, a fitness regimen replicating the survival activities of primitive man also adopting the motto ‘Be strong to be useful’
   

7. The French embraced Hebert’s ideology using Natural Method-inspired obstacle courses for physical education & military training
   

1. The Yamakasi
   

2. Raymond Belle learned the Natural-Method inspired techniques as a French soldier in the Vietnam War.  After his military tour, Raymond Belle employed these skills as a firefighter in Paris
   

3. Belle’s son, David Belle, along with friends Yann Hnautra & David Malgogne began imitating Raymond’s training roughly 20 years ago in the Parisian suburbs of Evry & Lisses
   

4. Several other friends including Châu Belle Dinh, Laurent Piemontesi, & Williams Belle joined in & founded the Yamakasi
   

5. Over time, the group disagreed over the definitions of Parkour leading to a fissure in which
   

6. Parkour defines the style of the sport keeping to the original goals of fast & efficient motion in moving through an environment
   

7. L’Art Du Deplacement (ADD), or the Art of Motion, is a physical training incorporating a spirit of service echoing Hebert’s ideal ‘Be strong to be useful’
   

1. Parkour in Pop Culture
   

2. In 2003, some of the Yamakasi protege’s including Sébastien Foucan & Stephane Vigroux displayed  Parkour in a film called Jump London which aired on the BBC.  The film called the sport Freerunning, meant as an English translation of Parkour
   

3. Jump London caused two key effects
   

4. a rapid spread of the sport
   

5. a confusion about what to call this new sport
   

6. After heated debate, Freerunning has come to mean a method of moving through an environment however you like.  Freerunning is free of the restrictions of Parkour’s fast & efficient motion & ADD’s ideal ‘Be strong to be useful’.  However, newcomers to the sports & the media have perpetuated a confusion of the 3 terms
   

7. Parkour has continued spreading & integrating into pop culture via movies, commercials, & music videos.  Perhaps the most famous display of Parkour is Sébastien Foucan’s chase scene in the recent James Bond film Casino Royale.

The Development of

Modern Sports

1. When researching for this documentary, I delved into an exploration of why sports are part of our world. I discovered that like most aspects of society, sports were created to satisfy human needs. & as societies evolved, so did the sports.
   

1. A brief history of the social function of sports
   

2. Ancient societies used sport for practical tasks linked to survival such as hunting, skiing (for transportation), leader selection, & worship
   

3. The largest shift in pre-modern sport was from medieval times to the Renaissance, when sport shifted it’s emphasis from brute force to finesse
   

4. The Industrial Revolution was the major catalyst of sporting development
   

5. Workers used sport to cope with harsh working/living conditions
   

6. Employers encouraged sports as a means of social control
   

7. Industrialization brought many technology advancements causing
   

8. mass communication & globalization
   

9. the ability to measure distances & times with increased precision, facilitating a movement towards quantifying sports
   

10. the invention of new sports such as the bicycle
    

11. the creation of leisure time
    

1. The modern sportscape
   

2. Today sports act as a form of exercise in an increasingly technological world. The 1996 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity & Health says the age in which we live is the major barrier to physical activity:
   

3. Modern technology has reduced energy expenditure via motorized transport, desk jobs, and cities & towns being built with the assumption of motorized transport
   

4. Sedentary hobbies such as watching television, video games, and surfing the Internet have emerged as popular activities
   

5. Capitalism & modern sport are linked in their competitive nature, weighing success by achievement. This pressure to achieve can cause people & children severe emotional stress
   

6. Sport has exhibited a green tendency, with sports moving from special environments back into the open air
   

7. Sport has also seen a neutralization movement with sports rejecting competition such as yoga & hiking
   

1. How extreme sports have emerged to meet the needs of modern society
   

2. The Need for Adventure – technological advances & policing have eliminated many risks in society where people may be lacking enough risk
   

3. The Need for Community – joining an extreme sport may grant access not only to a new hobby, but also to a whole new lifestyle
   

4. The Need for Individuality – extreme sports are fundamentally individual in which there is no one way to play
   

5. The Need for Innovation – an athlete is only limited by one’s own imagination. The constant evolution of extreme sports is to perform the biggest, most innovative tricks, conquer the most difficult/dangerous obstacles or do something that no one else has done
   

6. 
   

7. But alternative sports face several issues
   

8. Maintaining the original ideals of the sport
   

9. Creating the philosophy & lifestyle of the sport
   

10. Sponsorship & commercialization
    

11. Competition
    

12. Professional/amateur status of athletes
    

13. Self-regulation
    

1. Where will sports go from here?
   

2. Future technological advances will
   

3. allow increasingly precise quantification of sports
   

4. advance the scientific engineering of equipment/facilities/athletes
   

5. create many new sports
   

6. Mass communication & the Internet will cause further globalization
   

7. Competition will lead many along a quest for record-breaking
   

8. As people struggle to find forums for sport within the city as urbanization continues, many may give up on sport & only exercise in gyms
   

9. In sum, many new sports will emerge and people will be more selective in choosing the sports they decide to play rather than being coerced into one by traditional & local tendencies
   

1. To read my full research paper click here

The Origins of Point B

3 years ago, I saw an Internet video called Dvinsk Clan (aka Russian Climbing) where a man attacks the city with creative athletics.  It kindled childhood memories of my own exploits trying to perform Jackie Chan’s stunts & the infamous ‘freestyle walking’ era.

As children, we explore the world climbing over the most interesting object in front of us, taking the ‘most fun’ route, & treating the world as our playground.

Dvinsk Clan symbolized this adventurous playfulness with the athletic prowess I had always dreamed of.  & I embarked on a totally new adventure...

1. The Origins of Point B
   

2. The Journey of Making Point B
   

3. A History of Parkour
   

4. The Development of Modern Sports
   

5. Full Research Paper - The Evolution of the Social Functions of Sports & the Advent of Extreme Sports

Top

Contact