Concrete Circus: the films and music

Great feedback on Concrete Circus: Twitter trending, C4 online site straining, YouTube view clocking goodness. I’m very proud of the documentary and the films we made. The thing that’s invisible in the documentary is the process of my involvement with and input to the 4 films and their directors, but it’s possibly the most rewarding part of the experience for me. I loved the collaboration with Brett Novak, Kendy Ty, Stu Thomson and Claudiu Voicu – thanks guys!

Here are links to the new films and the finale of Concrete Circus, Barbican Bolero.

Keelan Philips: Release (by Kendy Ty)
Danny MacAskill: Industrial Revolutions (by Stu Thomson)
Kilian Martin: A Skate Illustration (by Brett Novak)
Storm: Origins (by Claudiu Voicu)
Keelan, Danny, Kilian, Paul and Phil: Barbican Bolero (by Mike Christie)

Also lots of people are asking about the music in Concrete Circus. The main score, along with the music used in Storm:Origins and over the Barbican finale, was composed by Ian Masterson and is available on iTunes. Thomas Beach also provided some of the documentary tracks used in Concrete Circus, as well as collaborating with Ian on the music for my documentaries Jump London and Jump Britain.

The music for the other 3 films:

Kilian Martin – A Skate Illustration: Rescue Radio by Soft Bullets.
Keelan Phillips – Release: track composed for the film by Oliver Boni.
Danny MacAskill – Industrial Revolutions: The Wolves by Ben Howard.

Thoroughly loved making Concrete Circus. Hopefully we’ll get it out to the rest of the world very soon. Watch this space for more details. The whole project (including all the new films) is © Renegade Pictures and ChristieHQ so don’t get any funny ideas ;O)

Concrete Circus trailer #1

Here’s the first trailer for Concrete Circus. This features a glimpse of one shot of each of the four new films, and one shot from the finalé…

CONCRETE CIRCUS (W/T), CHANNEL 4

I’m stoked about my new production for Channel 4, Concrete Circus (working title).

Inspired by the sporting and filmmaking talents behind the most amazing urban sports virals of the last 2 years, the film brings together the “stars” and directors from the four very different sports for the very first time: Urban trials rider Danny MacAskill; the mesmerizing skateboarder Kilian Martin (and his LA filmmaker Brett Novak); Storm Freerun’s Paul ‘Blue’ Joseph – a veteran of my film Jump Britain – along with British Parkouriste Phil Doyle and Canada’s Mathieu Ledoux (working with director Claudiu Voicu); and finally, worldwide BMX flatland star Keelan Philips (shooting with a director making his debut sports film, Kendy Ty).

The feature-length documentary will explore the lives and skills of all of these spectacular talents from both in-front of and behind the camera. But that’s not all. Concrete Circus will chart the creation of four brand new, breath-taking and beautiful films by the four filmmakers. Together these new films will be premiered as the centerpiece of the documentary.

The documentary conclusion – directed by yours truly – fuses the four different sports and disciplines together into a unique finale.

I’m making the film with my friends at Renegade Pictures and it airs on Channel 4 later this summer as part of a major season about street culture.

THE SECRETS OF BUILDINGS, CHANNEL 4

photo © Mike Christie

I’ve been trying to make a series about ‘space’ since 2004. I have pretty immediate reactions – some good, some bad – to different spaces. I’ve always thought the affect on behaviour and psychology of architecture was intriguing and yet relatively unexplored on television. It’s difficult to make because it’s hard to put your finger on. It’s easy to talk about architecture but not so easy to figure out what the spaces do to us and why.

So after hooking up with my friends at Renegade Pictures, we’ve got a series into production with the lovely arts department at Channel 4. It’s looking like a fascinating journey so far.

Presented by Tom Dyckhoff, it’s a 3 part series, and will air later this year. The (working) title is ‘The Secrets of Buildings’.

Broadcast article and press release.

Goodbye Fluff!

One minute I’m filming amazing Paralympians doing their thing – the next I’m making art out of a slow motion food fight LOL. Just wrapped on Jo Brand’s Little Cracker: “Goodbye Fluff” – a lovely little comedy drama set in 1972. It’s on Sky 1 at Christmas. Worth looking out for. Really good fun.

Behind The Scenes, Inside Incredible Athletes


The publicity is kicking off for the film I’ve spent the last 5 months working on, ‘Inside Incredible Athletes‘. It’s the official launch piece for Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympics 2012 and I’m very proud of it.

There was a great behind the scenes spread in Broadcast magazine last week: view it here.

And the trailer begins this week on Channel 4: you can watch it here.


Istanbul commercial – the directors cut


At the end of 2009, I directed a commercial in Istanbul for the Asian/Middle Eastern confectionary mega brand Alpella. It particularly excited me as it was the world’s first, first-person POV Parkour commercial.

Parkour Generations – who provided the choreographer and talent for the shoot – have uploaded my director’s cut to the YouTube. VIEW IT.

Jump magazine interview


Urban Freeflow – who featured heavily in my 2005 film Jump Britain – ran an extensive interview with me in the first issue of their new Parkour magazine last month. Anyone who liked that film or Jump London will hopefully find it interesting.

VIEW it or DOWNLOAD it.

St Trinian’s 2


My August holiday was interrupted by a surprise call asking me if I could 2nd Unit Direct an action sequence for ‘St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold‘. How could I say no? So, late August saw the St Trinian’s 2 cast and crew take over the South Bank, much to the surprise of the tourists and the delight of the paps and tabloids.

The sequence forms a chase across London and features some background Parkour elements (provided by Parkour Generations). The filming managed to fall in a decent spell of sunny weather and the South Bank – littered with it’s polka dot trees and newly painted yellow and blue staircases – provided an acid Tim Burton landscape for a suitably surreal backdrop for the mad world of St Trinian’s… Great fun!

Big Art

In the summer of 2003, my business partner Mike Smith had a brain wave in a pub toilet. It was called ‘Paint Britain’ and involved getting the British public to commission art. It was one of the first ideas we pitched when Carbon started in 2004 and after a year of development it went into production as ‘The Big Art Project’. The art in question was now to be found outside the gallery because the second realisation had been ‘what have the public got to do with public art?’

I had the pleasure of shooting the first phase in 2006; the site selection and some of the curator and artist selection, which makes up most of prog 1 and some of prog 2.

Four years after it’s commission, the TV series begins this evening. Four programmes that took four years and resulted in real change and debate in a number of communities around the UK. I don’t think there’ll ever be a TV series like it, because – quite simply – despite the fact it happened because of the TV series, it’s all so much bigger than that. An extraordinary journey for everyone involved. I hope you’ll watch it and see for yourself.