Cian Basquille’s introduction to the world of free running was almost an act of fate
The teenage member of parkour collective Team PHAT just happened to be walking past a parkour jam in his native London, with a camera he’d received for his birthday a few weeks prior – and thought he’d start filming.
“I thought ‘This seemed interesting, I’m going to chill here for the day,’ and started to film,” Basquille explains. “I started speaking to people, and through that I made friends, and they started to invite me out again. And that’s how I came across Team PHAT as well.”
Team PHAT recently took part in a shoot filmed on London’s South Bank, all shot with the new HONOR View20 smartphone. The handset includes a host of world-first features – including the first ever 48MP smartphone rear camera and a 25MP in-screen front camera, allowing you to take exceptionally detailed photographs even from a distance.
It also has an exceptional steady-cam feature – essential for taking shots while flipping around, parkour-style – as well as built-in AI which will actually analyse and learn where your photos are dim and blurry, and automatically optimise them.
Parkour is the physical urban art of trying to get around an environment in the most impressive way. It’s full of flips, vault, leaps and all sorts of impressive movements. Proponents of the art show off their impressive achievements through videos shared online.
“Through social media and YouTube – they seem to be the main two point,” says Basquille. “As a team, you work towards making a big video and upload it to YouTube to introduce your team to the community. Then through that people make a name for themselves.”
That means to document their best moves, they need the best equipment. Basquille has been trying out the HONOR View20 and has massive praise for the model.
“The main problem that I’ve had with filming on phones before is the stabilisation,” he says. “A lot of phones lack an ability to steady the shot, especially when you are running low and trying to film someone. The View20 was very stable – the stabilisation was a lot better than any other phone I’ve filmed on.
“Seeing that it was able to record in 4K, that was amazing, especially the photo quality. When you are able to zoom in, it maintains the quality throughout. I thought that was impressive.”
Basquille was also wowed by the View20’s All-View display, which offers the best experience for viewing your own footage, as well as watching films and playing games.
“Watching the video back was very easy, it was very quick to respond. Being able to turn up the volume on the screen itself was something was actually quite a plus, I hadn’t seen that before,” he says.
Originally developed in France in the late 1980s, parkour has become a worldwide phenomenon – to the point where it’s almost hard to find new places to tackle. “For the most part, a lot of London has now been explored in regards to looking for new spots,” adds Basquille.
“Some spots have been known for 15, 20 years at this point. People are still finding new ones, and new places are always being built. Some people do go spot hunting when it is a wet day, or they are not really motivated.”
Such incredible displays of physical skill require incredible levels of fitness – but Basquille says he gets all his training done out in the wild. “I don’t go to the gym or anything – all the training that I do is outside. A couple of people in the team do end up going to the gym, but the majority for me is the movement itself and turning up outside with friends,” he says.
“Quite a few people take control of their diet as well, but I just eat what I want!”
Of course, it is also not without its risks. Basquille has broken his ankle falling off a 12-foot wall and also thinks he might have recently broken a finger. Does it take a lot of guts to do parkour?
“There are two kinds of people in the Parkour community. There’s those who rely on purely adrenaline, which is a very small amount of people; and then there are others that are based on skill.
“Personally I am mostly on skill. A lot of stuff is built up to. There’s a lot of physical and mental build up. You’d always do ground-level practice before taking it to higher heights.”
Only two years into his journey, he has already been hitting those higher heights and hopes to one day open a parkour gym alongside his Team PHAT cohorts. But whatever happens, it is the community that makes it special. Unlike other sports and disciplines, it is all about self-expression, not competition.
“It is a very positive community, no one is very competitive,” Basquille says. “It is all about your movement, and how you express yourself through it. Everyone is really supportive, and always willing to welcome new people into the community as well.
“It has really always been that way.”
With a 48MP rear camera for the crispest shots and AIS mode to make sure that your footage is always stable, the HONOR View20 is perfect for when you’re out-and-about. Its 4,000mAh battery won’t let you down during those long periods without a charge, keeping you going all day. Find out more here.
