Here is some more footage of one of the first Parkour groups La Releve in and around Lisses and Evry (to see the first video we posted of the group please click here). La Releve consisted of many of the original Tracers including David Belle. Those featured in this video include Sébastien Foucan, Stephane Vigroux, Johann Vigroux, Kazuma, Sébastien Goudot, Jerome Ben Aous and others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2ws7zaCUzE
Most Parkour enthusiasts have only seen David Belle fall once. That of course was his famous slip at the UCLA Campus. However there is another fall from David that was captured on film many years ago and we at MisterParkour.com are happy to be the first major Parkour website to ever feature the footage.
This video is not solely of David Belle, but is instead an interesting compilation of film. In the seven minute edit the video has six distinct parts. The first part is a mix-tape edit of Kazuma, then second is the Le Chat Effravant (Scary Cat) - Behind the Scenes video from the Nike Presto shoot, the third part transitions into an old Nike commercial featuring Kazuma, the fourth features rare footage of David (including his fall), the fifth includes a complete version of On r’met ça with alternate music, and finally the compilation ends with some more clips of David.
Although the footage throughout is rare and is well worth watching and studying in its entirety, the main draw to this video and the portion we want to emphasis is the footage from and fall of David. Not only is this film of David extremely rare to say the least, the fact that he falls in it makes it even more unbelievable that this video has never been prominently posted on a Parkour site! Ultimately the fall, although violent in many regards, is neither incredibly moving nor ultimately consequential. Nevertheless, it is always good to be reminded that even the best Tracers make mistakes.
“I fall all the time—I fall like the monkeys—but it never shows up on film, because they just want the spectacular stuff.”
-David Belle
http://www.dailymotion.com/speedairman/video/x54r18
We used to think that only David Belle had attained the level necessary to jump the Man Power Gap safely and repetitively. However after seeing multiple videos, including this one featuring Kazuma, we have now been able to confirm that multiple Tracers have reached such a level of athletic ability. More than anything this reinforces the saying of many experienced Tracers “There are no secrets to improving your skill in Parkour, other than hard training” because it shows that these abilities are not innate but rather acquired through hard work. Even David (as he made known in his appearance at the New Yorker Festival in October 2007) was amazed at the level of many young Tracers confirming the belief that in the future there may continue to be athletes that newly acquire the ability to perform jumps of such feats.
This video shows Kazuma jumping the ever daunting Man Power Gap in
http://www.dailymotion.com/kazuma-vidz/video/x1rdt5
We have come to the end of our Top 10 Parkour Commercial Countdown. The series lasted two weeks, and was comprised 15 videos including the top 10 Parkour-featuring commercials of all time, the Banlieue 13 Trailer, Le Chat Effravant (Scary Cat) - Behind the Scenes, and the BBC-Coca-Cola commercial combo. Because the series was spread over such a long period of time we have decided to run back through the top 10 commercials in this succinct recap.
#10 Commercial: Two very similar K-Swiss ads shared the #10 spot. Race to Center Court featuring Levi Meeuwenberg and Even Playing Field featuring Tyson Cecka, Victor Lopez, were filled with great action, and the excellent production and the prominent
#9 Commercial: The BONT commercial featuring David Belle with production by Airmout was a quality edit that featured the best in the world performing in the world’s most famous Parkour training ground. Whether it was ever an official commercial or not, the production, location, and presence of David all contributed to this commercial coming in at #9.
#8 Commercial: The Coca-Cola commercial featuring Kazuma, Romain Moutault, and Dominique Lexilus came in at #8. As one of the first Parkour-featuring commercials ever made, this ad introduced Parkour to people around the world and established an advertising precedent for pure Parkour.
#7 Commercial: The first of three Nike Presto commercials in the countdown, Premier Amour (Young Love) featuring David Belle started with a highly creative concept and was carried through with a flawless performance by David. The presence of only a couple moves and the awkward comical ending kept this commercial from making it higher in the countdown.
#6 Commercial: Scion was the brand behind the great commercial that came in at #6. With a great performance from Sébastien Foucan and Jérome Ben Aoues, excellent production value, and a touch of creativity this Scion commercial was a high quality production that left the viewer remembering the product.
#5 Commercial: David Belle broke the top 5 with the Korean Canon commercial. The non-stop, fast-paced, incredible action, coupled with outstanding production utilization made this ad one that remains exhilarating no matter how many times it has been watched.
#4 Commercial: Nissan teamed up with David for the #4 best Parkour commercial ever created. Conceptually similar to Premier Amour (Young Love) David again scales a building and jumps from balcony to balcony in an attempt to win the affection of a girl. Great production value and product utilization made this Nissan commercial better than Nike’s, and an ending that leaves the viewer with a smile made this well deserving of the #4 spot.
#3 Commercial: Nike Presto and Wieden+Kennedy produced another Parkour classic with Le Chat Effravant (Scary Cat). Featuring David, Sébastien, and a slew of other great Tracers this commercial was the most talent packed in the countdown. Its inherent comedy and genuine filming location in
#2 Commercial: One of the first Parkour-featuring ads ever made, David Belle threw in an eye-popping performance that to this day mesmerizes viewers in the 2001 BBC commercial. Featuring one of the most famous Parkour jumps of all time, this ad is unforgettable and contributed greatly to the exposure and growth of Parkour around the world.
#1 Commercial: Barely edging out the BBC commercial for the #1 spot was Le Poulet de Colere (The Angry Chicken). Well deserving to be called the greatest Parkour commercial of all time, this ad demonstrated everything anyone could ever expect, want, or hope for in a Parkour ad. An iconic Tracer in Sébastien, incredible Parkour throughout, great production, and a unique and comical plot makes this commercial vastly enjoyable no matter how many times it is watched.
Will this top 10 Parkour commercial list ever change? Probably only slightly. Even though potential for Parkour utilization in commercial spots has only just started being tapped in the last few years, because of the influence and exceptionalness of these top 10 we doubt that anything will be created that could replace anything other than last few of the current top 10. With that said barring an extremely prominent ad that exposes millions of people to Parkour (e.g. a Super Bowl commercial), we also doubt that any commercial NOT featuring David or Sébastien will ever enter into the top spots. Think about these numbers: Of the top 10 Parkour-featuring commercials ever made David is featured in 6 of them (5 by himself) and Sébastien Foucan was featured in 3 (2 of them independent of David). With 8 of the 10 best Parkour commercials ever made featuring David and Sébastien the only way that we can see for this countdown to ever noticeably change is if those two continue to be involved in even more incredible and impressionable ads.
We have revealed the top 10 Parkour commercials of all time, but there are still years of advertising to come. Only time will tell the future for Parkour in the television advertising realm. Will Parkour based advertising ever widely extend beyond the cliché running, jumping and chasing themes or will companies follow Nike’s lead and continue to think of original concepts? And will iconic Tracers like David continue to perform for company’s commercial spots and if not will other Tracers become iconic figures in the Parkour world and being also making impressionable ads? These are just a few of the obstacles that the future of Parkour commercials will face, but from what we have seen so far we can’t wait to, literally, watch the outcome.
The number #8 commercial in our Top 10 Parkour Commercial Countdown was the Coca-Cola ad featuring Kazuma, Romain Moutault, and Dominique Lexilus. The #2 commercial in the countdown was the 2001 BBC ad featuring David Belle. In spite of the singular brilliance of these commercials as individual productions, an even more stunning (and just so happens more famous) video was created when footage from these two productions were combined. A hybrid edit of the footage from the BBC ad and the Coca-Cola commercial generated this action packed and influential edit that we have deemed as an honorable mention in our Parkour commercial countdown.
To this day we have not been able to corroborate the claim that this video was ever used as an official commercial or commercial production. This confusion is widespread and some claim this was a music video while others claim it was the BBC commercial edit for the
As one of the first Parkour videos ever posted on YouTube, this video is also responsible for being a prevalent influence that shaped much of the Parkour culture that exists today. For nothing more than being one of the first Parkour videos on the internet, this edit has prodded countless Tracers’ into the discipline. The influence of this video also extends to the music and clothing world of Parkour. With its inclusion of the musical composition 1980 from the French artist Diam’s’ 2003 album Brut de Femme, this Parkour video was one of the first of its kind to feature rap music. With no effort at all anyone can now view the overwhelmingly dominant use of the rap music genre in personal and professional Parkour edits and demo across the internet. Also, the clothing worn in this video, most notably the pants worn by all four participatory Tracers, and the shirtless style sported by David, has also greatly contributed to the clothing styles that we see today in Parkour training around the world.
Whether or not this video was ever a true commercial production, its cannot be understated. Including footage from the 2001 BBC commercial and extended footage from the Parkour-featuring Coca-Cola ad we have designated this video as an honorable mention in the top Parkour commercials of all time. With the athletic talents of David Belle, Kazuma, Romain Moutault, and Dominique Lexilus the richness of the Parkour exhibited speaks for itself. And just as noteworthy is the nearly unrivaled genuine and pure Parkour that is displayed for the audience. With the rap musical precedent provided by Diam’s, and the influence this video had on Parkour clothing style, this video is more than deserving of not only a mention in our commercial countdown but also a prominent place in Parkour history.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38ety
As the next commercial in our countdown of the top 10 Parkour commercials ever made Coca-Cola takes the eighth position with this short and fast passed TV spot. Well deserving of an inclusion in the countdown for many reasons, this advertisement not only showcases good clean Parkour, it also features the likes of some very well known Tracers including Kazuma, Romain Moutault, and Dominique Lexilus.
One of the first Parkour commercials ever made and an ending that leaves viewers with a smile, this production for Coca-Cola comes in at #8.
http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=4825368866488115366
This video is an old TV report from March 2001 that has just about everyone! It features David Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Stephane Vigroux, Johann Vigroux, Kazuma, Sébastien Goudot, Rudy D., Jerome Ben Roues, and Michael Ramoani, and they are all doing Parkour in and around Lisses and
We are starting to have so many videos on this site that we aren’t always sure which ones we have already posted and which ones we still need to post! Yesterday’s post from the Parkour Generation’s Rendezvous I workshop reminded us of a few videos we thought we already had on the site but upon further investigation we found out that we did not. A fair amount of these videos are from Julie Angel and Parkour Generations, and as such we have decided to continue for a time posting a series of their work.
Today we present a film called Parkour Generations: Vision which has already been view more than 200,000 times on YouTube alone! And there’s no question as to why it is so popular. Although it has no plot, the video features Stephane Vigroux, Forrest, Kazuma, and is nothing short of inspiring. Its description says this:
A rare insight into parkour vision by some of the originals of the discipline. When some of the best parkour practitioners in the world take their friends of equal skill and experience to a new spot, lines of opportunity appear. Not training, just fun, creative & chilled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-KQYi_ZI5Y
Here is a video from Rendezvous I put on by Parkour Generations. The workshop was conducted in London on the 13th and 14th of May, 2007, and prominent instruction was given by Forrest and Dan Edwardes. You may also recognize other famous Tracers who attended the event including Stephane Vigroux, Sébastien Goudot, Kazuma, Cicso, Thomas, and Yann Hanutra and Laurent Piemontesi from the Yamakasi. We posted three videos from Rendezvous II in our What is Parkour? series that we conducted almost a month ago. Unlike this video which highlights the physical training from Rendezvous I, those videos from Rendezvous II exclusively highlighted a questions and answer time with the Yamakasi. Divided into three parts, you can view the videos from that interview by going to our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th installments of that sequence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtJckTGvCcI