Great Directors - Bruce Brown (Part II)

     

Robert August, Mike Hynson and Bruce Brown: they were about to make the greatest surf film ever
 Picture taken from(http://www.brucebrownfilms.com/endless.htm)

 Bruce soon began one of the best periods of his career: he travelled the world, sleeping on the beaches and filming every talented surfer he could. The result of those first experiences was Slippery when wet, the 1958 flick that is a relaxed, layed back documentary about the beach boys culture of the time.

As Bruce began to get more experienced about making films, the quality of his work improved greatly over the years. You can see that evolution in the next set of movies he made: Surf Crazy, Barefoot Adventure, Surfing Hollow Days and Waterlogged show the maturation process he was doing. 

In 1963 surf culture had already exploded all over the nation. However if it is true that more and more surf movies were being made to feed a growing audience eager to watch films with their surf idols, it is also true that que quality of those flicks was mainly of low quality. Something had to change and Bruce had the exact idea on how to make surf movies more attractive to mainstream audiences.

He convinced two friends, Robert August and Mike Hynson to participate in a journey with a simple purpose: to take advantage of the fact that while it is winter in Northern Hemisphere, it is summer in the Southern and vice versa, a fact that would enable both surfers to live an endless summer - the dream of every surfer.

End of part II

Great Directors - Bruce Brown (Part I)

 Bruce Brown was inducted to the Surfers´ Hall of Fame

    He is the pioneer and the first filmmaker to put surf movies definetely on the map of great cinema. When, in 1964,"The Endless Summer" went mainstream with a nationwide theatrical release, Bruce Brown had already made five other respectable surf flicks. However the path to success was not an easy one for Brown. The raise from the underground scene to international recognition was done with many obstacles, setbacks and advances, but above all with great determination.

   Bruce was born in San Francisco and raised in Southern California. At that time (50´s) Surf culture was growing and Bruce was one of the many children that started to adopt the local beach as a second home. Later, when reflecting about that period of his life he had only the following words to describe it: "I majored in not going to school". Instead, he spent his days on the beach taking photographs of the best surfing moments.

    As a proof that his life was always connected to the sea, Brown graduated from High School and enlisted in the navy. While in duty, he was assigned to Hawaii, already a world mecca of surf. It was in the exotic pacific islands that he started to take the first 8mm movies. After his discharge, Brown returned to California and worked some time as a lifeguard. What Brown did not know was that his films had already beginning to gain notoriety between the community of surfers and as a result of that, Dave Velzy, a pioneering surf enterpreneur offered him 5000 dollars to make a film that would promote the Velzy Surf Team. Brown had just been offered the opportunity that would change his life.

(End of part I)

More on Dave Velzy ( Surfing Magazine courtesy) - http://www.surfingmagazine.com/news/velzy_052705/

Bruce Brown Film (the filming company) - http://www.brucebrownfilms.com/

Great insight on Bruce Brown´s career (by surfline) - http://www.surfline.com/surfing-a-to-z/bruce-brown-biography-and-photos_768/

The Living Curl (1965)

Jamie Budge captured through his lenses the golden era of Californinan surf

"The Living Curl" is one of the local classics of the 60´that kept all its charm up to the present. Much thanks to the figure of legendary surfer Jamie Budge, who also became a prominent surf filmmaker, an activity that he began at an early age. He started filming with 8 mm with only 16 years of age. The stars of those first "homemade" filmings were Budge himself and his friends. However, Budge soon earned status as a film director and great californian surfers of the time (such as Dewey Weber, Lance Carson or Miki Dora) followed to be the main subjects of his next movies.

In "The Living Curl", Budge captures the Malibu scene in all its splendor. Another reviewer summed up with great exactitude the quality of this movie: "Great shots of surfers who were the icons of the day demonstrating their trademark styles as well as some front edge progressive moves. Great footage of early contests which were won more for takeoff rights in the line-up than anything else.

Essentially what you get with this piece of history is the essence of the golden era of american surf.

TLDR: For those of us that grew up surfing in the sixties, "The Living Curl" is like having Surfer Magazine circa 1961-1964 come alive.

Castles in the Sky (2010)

Taylor Steele reached excellence... once again

..nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people

                                                                  Mark Twain

Castles in the Sky is the incredible sequel to Sipping Jetstreams, the epic 2006 movie about Taylor Steele´s and Dustin Humphrey´s surfing travels around the world. What made that flick so appealing resided in the distinctive philosophy that both filmmakers shared on the whole concept behind the making of surf films . In their website it is written that "they decided to scrap the old surf-travel strategy of fly in, surf, fly out in a favour of true exploration of a culture - physical, spiritual, musical, and emotional. Ten-day trips were replaced with two-month sabbaticals. They gave up the `sure to score´ mentality that had dominated surf travel for decades in favor of a more rhythmyc journey into the heart of a place". You don´t get this kind of approach in many surf movies today, do you?

Because the project behind Sipping Jetstreams appeared to a larger-than-life enterprise, both filmmakers rapidly realized that the solution would be to make a new movie, where the new corners that were going to be explored could be included. For this second feature you also get a whole cast of world class surf pros. From the hottest beaches to the coldest waves, every surfer and his respective destination can even take you by surprise: Dane Reynolds in Iceland, Dave Rastovich in India, Rob Machado in Peru, just to name a few.

However, the great triumph in "Castles in the sky" (and of the duology) is the enormous talent of Taylor Steele. He expresses in his movies a sensitive look that goes behind the typical surf clip, a trait that puts is work alongside with any other masterpiece of cinema. Verdict: 9/10

TLDR: Sipping Jetstreams isn't just a film, a book or an article in a magazine...it's a movement.

To know more about the movie crew check here.

Magnificent Surf filming

Some days ago I posted this video and it was the most viewed post on Great Surf Movies. Like me, I presume you loved to watch the act of surfing from a new perspective. One of my interests in watching so many surf movies is to retain the filming techniques used by the best directors. When you want to catch the perfect ride, the use of cinematography plays the most important role in the whole process. So it is with great enthusiasm that I am happy to show you the HD super slow motion video of big wave surfer Dylan Longbottom. Just enjoy.

Shelter (2001)

 There is just something about 16 mm that makes it the perfect film for every surfing movie. The light takes on a nostalgic tone and makes the flicks look like the great classics of the 60´s. But not only the type of film used takes us back to the past. The objective of joining a bunch of great surfers in an isolated house on the australian coast, without any competitive or commercial reasons and just being there to surf for the surf´s sake, is one more peculiar feature to add to this movie with a touch of surf´s glorious past.

 But unlike other surf movies, the film´s quality is not only supported solely by magnificent filming techniques or a solid soundtrack headed by Joachim Cooder (from the award winning documentary "Buena Vista Social Club"), but by a true meeting of giants. What a cast you can expect to find: Rob Machado, Taylor Knox, Joel Tudor, Mick Fanning, Kelly Slatter, Joe Curren, just to name some of the few. And what better reason could there be to join so many big names than to make them just enjoy themselves, taking the waves without the pressure of competition and the feeling the surf with the detachment of ten year old kids.

I recomend this flick to all who expect to find in every surf movie an ecletic piece of art of its own. Taylor Steele and Chris Malloy had to face very difficult choices on editing the whole thirty hour footage and very good material had to be put aside to fit in the 42 minutes duration of the film (undoubtedly the biggest flaw of Shelter"). Like a fine piece of swiss chocolate you will have to bet satisfied with a tiny little bit of the stuff, but what great sensations it will produce. Verdict: 7/10