We should start this post off by saying, that Germany as a whole seems to be working hard to create a good reputation for video content, and it is through “Place Presents” content like this video by Max Strauss & Stephan Pöhlmann that we attempt to make this point. We don’t want to leave out one of our favorites Matthias Bednorz who is one of our most featured skaters who seems to be on a path to something special. Special, seems to be a word sticking to this Escape project so we decided to hit up Max & Stephan to ask them some questions about how this project came to be. Enjoy!

Interview by Roland Hoogwater.

Filmed & Edited by Max Strauss.

Graphic Design by Stephan Pöhlmann.

What’s up Gentlemen, what are you up to?

(Both) Work (laughs).

Same (laughs), let’s get to the project, how did it happen?

S: I went to Istanbul for work once and after that trip, I started talking with Max about going there.

M: Yeah, afterward I also went there and we kept talking about Istanbul as a location to do a trip to.

S: That was a few years ago, so in 2023 when I went back to do a workshop, I managed to add on a few days and that ended up being the trip. To be honest, it was immediately clear that Istanbul had a lot of potential as a city to skate in.

Ok, so you both agreed on the location, how did Matthias Bednorz enter the picture?

M: We wanted to do a thing for Stephan’s passion project “Escape” and all three of us are from Nuremberg. Matthias was down and for us, he was an easy person to travel with. Nuremberg’s MVP!

S: Exactly, he is a part of our crew and we felt it was cool to have him there.

To be frank, who did he take the MVP title from?

M: Stephan (laughs), it was close on this trip though, they had almost the same amount of footage, Stephan was on fire this trip.

S: To be honest, it is in good hands with Matthias. As for myself, I enjoy skating in my 30’s way more than in my 20’s. The sponsors are gone and now skating is something we do for fun and I am motivated on these types of trips.

You can tell by the amount of footage, how long were you out there for?

M: Five days, we left the apartment at 10 and got back at 10. We chose a location to start from and there would always be a pocket of spots in that area to choose from. Being a small crew really worked well because the city is really clogged up. So to be able to fit the whole crew in a taxi was a good thing as far as productivity goes.

S: I really enjoyed the fact that Istanbul still felt relatively unknown as a skate destination. The Atlantic Drift guys went there but we felt there were still many things to explore.

This video is called ESC.IST, which stands for Escape Istanbul, can you tell us Stephan, what the Escape project is about?

S: It is an outlet for me to do different types of graphic design not connected to my work life. It is not a brand, but we do make products from time to time. It is all based on what I want to do at that specific time. In my professional life, you have certain parameters and Escape allows me the freedom to experiment.

Escape has had some projects drop but this is the first time you worked together right?

M: Yes, it is, in this way at least, We have been out filming things before but not like this.

S: I hope we can do more things together because he is a great filmmaker.

You can tell that you both found each other with this project, from your graphics, and skating, Stephan to Max’s editing and filming, it seems to be a great match.

S: It is all on point, for me this was a new thing workflow-wise and I learned a lot, doing things this way, so I hope we can continue on this path.

M: We are looking at options to continue this partnership. We might go back to Istanbul because there are some tricks that we didn’t get this time. Our trip fell on the 100th anniversary of the Turkish state, so a lot of spaces weren’t open for us to skate. You can tell in the video, you see the flags in the edit. Because of these events, the security guards were on edge as well.

Ok, so part two maybe! Coming back to this video, what are your personal highlights?

M: The food, sailing on a boat on the Bosporus River, and the way we worked together as a crew.

S: I agree, it was a pleasant vibe.

Ok I think that is it for the questions, we love the edit and are happy you chose us.

Both: Thank you, we felt this was the right platform for it!