My Daughter's Surf Film

General Discussion
1

My eldest daughter who is studying marine and natural history photography and film making at the University of Falmouth in the UK has just completed a short film as part of her final year project “Selling Paradise by the Pound - the effects of commercialisation on surfing in the UK.” Her thesis focuses on surf towns like Newquay but the sentiments are surely universal. Of course I am bias but I think its brilliant. It is provocotive and contraversial in many aspects so it will be interesting to see what reaction it gets. She has cut it to 20 minutes to enter a student film competition but has a lot more material if it needs to be expanded.

I would be interested to see what my fellow Swaylockians think of it. Thanks to my daughter’s bias I make a guest appearance. 

http://vimeo.com/45843525#

2

Very nice film, visually - she should offer subtitles or a yank translation so we Americans could understand!  Nice to watch, but I really found most of it unintelligable to my Yankee ears.

3

Thanks Huck. Good point. I’ll suggest to her to do this if she wishes reach an international audience with her message.

Look out for “Escape -  English film with Yankee subtitles”

4

Tell her that I appreciate the sentiment and that I yearn for simpler times.  We have a young bunch of longboarders in my area that have commercialized aspects of logging too. 

Well done…:slight_smile:

 

PS no subtitles needed

5

She has a great feel for The Camera Nice cinematography really captures a lot of mood.  Maybe her next film should Bea bio pic on the Hippy. That guy looks like a trip.  He Kind of looks like the wild child brother of John Peck.

6

This Yank could understand the language.  Geez Huck, you must live in Bakersfield or something.  My oldest daughter will confirm that I am a Phillistine when it comes to the arts, but I found it sad and depressing.  I like happy movies.  A lot of your reality starts with the thoughts in your head. What commercialization?  Just go surf and ignore the distractions.  Mike

7

Probably a combination of poor quality computer speakers and the low conversational tone of much of the movie - I normally understand Brits just fine

8

…hello Ilovesabrina,

I can speak about the filmography; it s fluid and have poetry; have a very nice arrange of the textures and explore really well the potentiality and the vibe of what is Surfing on a cold Island.

The camera work do not have too much motion, but the static angles and the shoots are well done. Also I really like (and want to know more about it) what  was used to make the film; type of camera and the film itself or is it some type of digital camera? Can you talk or ask your daughter about all of these?

Im very interested in that river wave too; it s a tidal wave, season wave or you can surf it in daily basis?

How long?

 

-What I do not get too much is why a not so skilled surfer in a super big longboard is soul and a guy in a modern shortboard do not…

 

-hey Rooster the film describe pretty good that weather, surfing there and with couple of nice touches; yes, may be a bit of sadness, possibly due the music and colors; but imagine other tunes and you ll see changes in your mind.

And not all places are Sunny south California.

 

 

  yes, your daughter has talent

9

Hi reverb,

As a refugee from sunny southern California I can say thank God not all places are sunny south California.  I prefer the wet and cold where I live now.  Wish it was wet and colder to tell you the truth.  

I found the music melancholy.  The cinematography beautiful.  Maybe I missed something, but wasn’t the message,'things were so much better in the old days and the new guys don’t really know what it’s all about?  That’s a common mindset with many of us old guys, but it’s a mindset I try to avoid.  The good old days are right now and surfing is still ‘bitchen’.

ilovesabrina,

I think your daughter is very talented and I know you are very proud of her.   Thank you for sharing her work and I hope you will share more. Mike

10

Very nice. For me it was a bit on the artsy side. I was a TV news cameraman for 1976 to 1989 and have been doing corporate video since 1989. I like the documentary style.

I would have liked seeing a bit more images to show what the people are talking about, like crowds, newbie surfers, etc. Otherwise I think it was beautifully done. Did she use a DSLR to shoot this?

I have seen the things the film depicts first hand. I live in Hawaii, and I am a native Hawaiian. I grew up in a small beach community and we all played in the ocean as kids. As we grew older we started surfing on belly boards then eventually moved to surfboards. Surfing was something we did at one time or another, but a lot of my friends and neighbors did not get bitten by the bug. I did and it is something that I continue to do after 45+ years.

I scanned through the video and one thing I might have missed is the way surfing has ruined communities. Those with money move into areas with really good waves and soon the area changes for the worse. The natives usually suffer the most.

Another thing we have problems with in Hawaii is longboards, not short boards. People ride longboards because they can catch waves easier, then paddle back out faster to catch more waves. The short board riders suffer from this. The new problem is people moving to the SUP for the same reason.

11

hi, i really enjoyed the film ,very well put together, i surf in newquay regulary , its my main place of surfing , for the last 30  plus years ,

 newquay has always been a surf town , its got seven beaches that all have surf, so its only natural that the town will and should exploit its main assets , its like haveing a moan that the alps are attracting too many skiers,

commercialism is ineveitable in anything , when i was younger you just bought a pair of tennis shoes as trainers now there are a million pairs endorsed by different stars , football boots , deck grips , boards, its pretty much the same ,

i don/t really agree with the comment in the film (there are soul surfers and arsehole surfers ) 

we all surf because its enjoyable , whether its your first wave or you last it feels the same to everybody ,

you can have soul if you have a retro,or long  board but the soul is./nt available if you are a short boarder!  

i own two surf tee shirts that were bought as presents, i make my own boards , i don/t need commercialism but some people do , whether thats a surf lesson where they just feel more comfortable in a safer and more controlled situation , or people want to buy a board that taj or jordy is riding , you need commercialism to suplly those needs ,

to think that you can turn back the clock 30 .40 50 years and have a time when the ocean was empty is;nt goning to happen ,

the worlds population has doubled in the last 50 years so the situation can and will only get worse ,

people may be saying how good it was in 2012 before the crowds got really crazy ,

i echo sharkcounties thoughts , cornwall has become a rich persons playground , communtities have changed and died by people buying second homes , if you  have the money you can buy into the surf lifestyle , its pushed up the house prices beyond what is more than anywhere  near  affordable to local people who generally earn a lot less in this area ,

its just the way it is , pete

 

12

Beautiful from the artistic point of view (I’m an artist and art teacher), but I don’t agree with the sentiment expressed in the film.  I kept thinking, “What a bunch of grumpy old men.”  There’s also contradictory attitude of “I don’t follow fads which makes me cooler than you.”  

I’m 51 years old.  Next year I’ll have been surfing 40 years (minus a few when I lived in Italy and Africa).  I just made a  6’-0" that is the best board I’ve ever ridden and I’m as excited as a 12 year old.  I had to laugh when someone made the comment about how you have to have a 6-0 to be cool.  I also surf in the singlemost overpopulated urban surf area in the world- Los Angeles county.  And I love surfing as much as I did when I was 15. I have to admit aI have no problem with surf commercialization. I occasionally ride along board.  SUPs are around but really haven’t bothered me.

 

It’s kind of timely that this post came up because I just read an article in Surfer’s Journal titled, “The Swarm.”  The author interviewed Mickey Munoz ,Gerry Lopez and Rabbit Bartholomew about crowds. I found Gerry Lopez’ statements truly enlightened.  You know they call him the “zen master,”  well, his attitudes as expressed in his comments are truly zen.  I’ll quote a few lines I liked.

 

“Not suprisingly, Lopez isn’t interested in looking back, the same way he is not fearful of the future. He’s aware that the situation as it exists has enraged plenty of people, but he says that those are precisely the people who will remove themselves from the sport. 'What I find is that people that are angry generally don’t last long.  Why would they continue doing something that makes them feel that way?”

“As for the increased crowds, he accepts them too.  'As attractive as it was to me and all my friends, why shouldn’t it be as attractive to everyone else? At this point I have no negative feelings that surfing’s gotten too crowded. That’s the way it was gonna be.  When they made boards small and easy to ride, guys were going to go out and get stoked on surfing, just like I did.”

 

His last line in the article is my new signature.

 

 

13

Bittersweet - sweet 'cos she’s done a good job of showing what it was and how it is. Bitter 'cos of how well she’s shown the fraud that ‘surf culture’ has become.

I spent nearly forty years in the surf biz. Out of it now and glad of it too.

doc…

14

Love the photography…IMO needs some more action…more surfing maybe…or something related to the title…I don’t have audio on my pc at the moment , so I cant really get the whole thing…