H E A R T B E A T

“I’m Luca Botte, i’m 21 and i live in Cesena, a small city in Italy. I met Filippo Cinotti a long time ago… One afternoon i decided to give him my positive feedback about his movie works… Than we started to talk, and he told me that he was keeping in mind a project about ”a passion” but not a common or popular one, it should have been a passion different from the others and unseen. At the same time, i was thinking about how to spread my thought about my passion, and i was really sad cause i was enable to realize it… so we decided to put our ideas together, that’s how all started.”

How is born this project? What inspired you to join your experience to make it.

Heartbeat is born from the necessity to tell ourself and everybody the passion we feel, in this case the love for the fixed world of Luca. I found in him the way to express a feelings through images without creating something in particular, just like the videomakers of the last century did: filming subjects during their daily life without being an actor.

Your background.

Filippo : I was born as a video maker and than as a photographer in between 2010 and 2011. My career has been influenced by the love for cinema. I started to work with music videoclip, than I moved towards wedding and fashion world, till I came to create with a crew Vmultimedia, a group that works for cinema.

What fascinates you of the fixed gear world?

Luca: What is the most attractive things of this world? It’s a difficult question, maybe it could be easier to answer with what I like less, and for me has no relevance.. maybe for others is the most relevant thing and without it, this world would be no longer the same, but not for me… and I mean competition.

Fixed for me is a personal matter, I believe I’m different from the other cyclists, I’m not interested in being faster or having the best legs. In those last two years this is becoming a real discipline, so people change their attitude… they stopped to look who is cycling as a friend… it’s becoming a monotonous thing as the cycling we have always seen.

I have never loved the world of cycling for its rivalry. I really don’t care if you have a 5000€ bike with the best components, I do care only if you are interested in cycling and running with me, to share together this strange passion. There’s a thing that I love to do… Do you want to know it? Few years ago , I need a pair of wheels for my bike, so I was looking on the web, till I found a shop ”Dafne fixed” so I decided to go there and meet them… from that day my life changed. I found someone I could share my passion with. No one cares about going faster than the others, we only care about cycling and smiling together. We became a family… that’s what I love.

Filippo: As a lot of sports did in Italy, even the world of fixed gear has created a strong movement, that’s why I was interested in it, moreover this positive background has created also a new attitude in Luca and in his friends of ”Dafne Fixed”

How long did you take to film it? What approach and technique you have chosen?

Filippo: After an accurate consideration about the script and the storyboard, we decided to give to a short film a more dinamic impact, jumping from stabilized shoots on the road, others by foot and till those with free hand. The filming techniques have been different, realized in 4 months of filming around Romagna.

Luca: We started to film at the end of summer and we finished in December, It tooks all my soul, body and time. It took a lot of time cause we really want to create a good product, so we worked with no hurry even if I couldn’t wait the moment to see me on the screen… and I’m still waiting! It will be a surprise even for me!

There is a very specific concept behind this project?

Filippo: The concept behind Heartbeat is the Heartbeat itself. The emotion, the heartbeating that the passion for this way of living give us… all described with a narrator and images.

Your goals and your expectations about it. It’s the beginning of “a new journey”?

Filippo: We didn’t start with big expectations or goals to reach, the only aim was to create a product able to express at the best our narrators ability. Even if Heartbeat is really important for us, it’s still our second project as a crew, so we love to think big and keeping the expectations down. In any case we truly wish this could be an occasion for Luca in this fixed world.

Luca: Which was the reason that brought me to realize this shortfilm? A lot of time people ask me why about this choice, about this passion… I think in this world more or less the 85% of the people do the same question: ” Why fixed? Aren’t you scared? But if someone cross the street how do you do? How do you stop at the trafficlight?”

I have always been enable to answer to these questions… I really do not like to be like everyone else, I hate monotony… I just found what works for me, what keeps my heartbeat high, what is full of adrenaline in each turn… in each crossroad. Running through the traffic and monotony makes me feel free. The reason of this project is to surprise you, and let you feel what I feel everyday on my bike. I do not have a real goal, I really would like to remember that this is not a sport for everyone, it’s not the usual cycling… we should keep this world close without letting it transform in something different as the other sports. In any case, I’ll be cycling next to those who share my view.

Who has supported you to realize this video?

We did not receive any external budget and we do not have sponsors. It has all be done with our money and efforts.

“We have the impression that the entire movement has a vital need of projects like this. To communicate to a wider audience the difference of approach and culture compared to a ” more traditional and fundamentalist cycling.”