Photo: Jack Dekort
Over the years, surf films have left a strong impression on me. The sheer power of nature as it crashes across shallow, sharp reef and that tiny person on their little board, slicing the water with the ease of a knife through butter. Mix this with images of a laid-back lifestyle and a tropical carefree existence, a sort of fantasy land, and the appeal of the total package is magnetic.
From my sixth form film studies and my “film noir” trailers to the University of the West of England where I studied History, Media and Cultural Studies, specializing in film, I’ve had a continuous interest in filming and its processes. “Charging the Barrel” started off as a concept over a pint of ale in a warm Bristol pub in the autumn of 2013.
I’ve had a degree of success with my previous short film about river surfing in Munich (“Die Endliche Welle”) and wanted to use my filmmaking to explore surfing further. However, right at the start, I realized my own experience of surfing was radically different from from fantasy land. Gone were the perfect waves that propelled household names such as Kelly Slater along the sun-kissed stretch of golden sands of Hawaii. And in were persons clad head-to-toe in neoprene whose gender you could barely make out.
So, I planned a different exploration of surfing: one closer to home and closer to the realism experienced by most surfers on these islands. And a good place for me to start was Southwest England. I have a strong connection with Cornwall, though somewhat of a purgatory nature, halfway between tourist and local. My older brother has lived there almost his entire life and my girlfriend is from Sennen, a coastal village that became the central location for the filming.
I wanted to use local talent for the film – from the production crew and the interview subjects to the bands whose music runs along in the background. This focus made the film quite personal and, since it was to be a non-profit, independent enterprise created for the love of filmmaking and surfing, most bands that we approached were more than keen to offer their music for free.
We wanted to portray the cold, the grey and the unknown that characterize the Cornish coast, as well as the stark beauty of the exposed Penwith environment, surrounded as it is on three sides by the sea. Cornwall may not be textbook paradise, but in many ways it still echoes the characteristics of so many of those surf films, and the personal fulfillment of the Cornish surfers is clearly evident.
Filming the project took eight months which included a lengthy flat period over the summer months. Not much happened for surfers during that time, but in the autumn swells of September, some of the best surfing was had but the rough waves often prevented us getting clean motion footage. There were hours of film from which we chose the best and steadiest as the raw material for the film. In between filming sessions, I would edit our shoot. For “Charging the Barrel,” the post-production stage commenced during filming and continued after.
All in all, the project has been very rewarding and not just in the fascinating process of making a film. It’s been an enlightening foray into a unique slice of the surfer’s world and the surfers themselves.
Charging the Barrel from Pye Productions on Vimeo.
