“a happy medium between a simple motivational bmx video and a source of information and entertainment”

interview by dominik wrobel. photos by random rubb (straight stolen from videobitch), martin ohliger and dominik

circle is a new videomagazine which will hit the shelves with each freedombmx magazine starting early 2007. i had a quick chat with the guys behind the project. thomas fritscher and markus wilke tell you how it is....maybe you are interested.

when did the idea come up to start the project „circle“ ?

[M]: Early 2006.

what will be the main focus of the video ? you [thomas] told me about a „journalistic“ way of doing things...

[M] : We want to try out some new ideas with Circle and get away from the simple trick-trick-trick-formula that seems to dominate most videos. It’s definitely not going to be all artsy fartsy, but it won’t be stock at all either. You can expect the use of a microphone every once in a blue moon and random interludes, which people hopefully will find funny. We’re also trying to come up with different new ideas on how to present stuff. We’ll see how that goes…J

[T]: We'll try to find the happy medium between a simple motivational bmx video and a source of information and entertainment ... if that makes sense. We'd certainly like to use a microphone for more than shit talking and people trying to rap.

since the video will be published with each freedombmx how many copies will need to be pressed ?
[M]: Circle won’t be a supplement for each issue of Freedom. As of now, we’re looking at three issues per year. Of course we’re going to duplicate Circle in a number great enough to put one in every issue of Freedom that hits the newsstand. We’re also going to sell it through distributors worldwide. I’d say in total we’re going to make about 30.000 copies.

[T]: We figured since no one is buying videos anyway, we might as well give them out in large amounts to save people some bandwidth.

do you have a website in the works ? any plans ? you know that internet is the future...

[M]: We have a website in the works, as well as the regular promotional material such as t-shirts, stickers, etc. For now you can go to  www.circlebmx.com . The website doesn’t have much content yet, though, but you’ll be able to catch up the latest happenings and plans from the Circle camp on our website in the near future. We’ll also post clips and trailers when time allows us.

[T]: Stickers? Hmmm ... I'm not sure about that...

do you have a plan for the first issue ? can we get a sneak peak ?

[M]: We’re still trying to figure that one out ourselves.

[T]: We are starting production right now so it's hard to say anything. For issue 1 we will definitely focus on riders and happenings in Germany along with a few trips to European countries.

how can people get in contact with „circle“ ?

[M]: Try emailing us at  thomas@circlebmx.com or  markus@circlebmx.com. Good luck ;-)

thanks for your time. i wish you all the best for the project.