Taylor Steele locked away in the editing room, a bit earlier in the project. Before the Corona and Clif Bar sessions.
The movie is not the same as the website. The movie is not the same as the website. The movie is not the same as the website.
That’s my latest sermon. As Innersection’s online prophet, it’s been a year of educating our congregation. First: the concept. Then: the process, the rules, the voting systems, the rhythm of it all. And now: on the eve of our premiere, the final product. It’s always been about the movie. Despite the appeal of free content and casting judgment from the safety of your keyboard, Innersection’s website is an application system. The movie is the main event.
The sections are all re-made. Kelly Slater’s section is 90% unseen footage. Craig Anderson was holding back his best clips from the day one. Josh Kerr has done nothing but film all year. Innersection the movie (what we call “Innersection Blue”) is something you’ve never seen before.
I tried to explain all this in the beginning, but it seemed easier just to let a year unfold. Let it ride. We’ve been figuring it out ourselves. It was all just an experiment, really, and we had no idea if people would respond or not. We’re glad they did, even if they didn’t understand at times.
Innersection is complicated for a reason.
The four rounds exist to open up the four seasons of waves around the world. The voting system helps keep mob rule from shoving aside the best surfing. We remove the content after each round to keep it from getting stale, or holding anyone’s footage hostage. The “rounds” are live, and when they’re done they disappear. Everything is geared towards making this final product. This movie.
And next year we’ll do it all over.
Innersection Movie Trailer 1 from INNERSECTION on Vimeo.
For now, Year One is entering its final phase. Earlier this month I flew from my home in Bali to meet with Taylor in California. It was fitting being back in his old hometown, editing this movie in the tradition of Momentum, Good Times and Campaign. Cause that’s what this is…it’s a modern evolution of a long tradition. “Sections in Taylor Steele films.” They’ve become part of our surfing vocabulary. They’re something every young surfer dreams of someday achieving. And now the door is wide open to anyone who wants to go for it. (Well, maybe not WIDE open…but it’s definitely open. Just ask Matt Meola.)
We locked ourselves in that editing room and went to work. Surviving on Clif Bars and Corona. Filming on our GoPro. Sleeping on piles of OAM Traction Pads and reading back issues of Surfing and ASL every time we took a dump. (Insert LOGOS here! Just kidding.) The most important task was sequencing the sections so it all had a good flow. Fitting all the parts together like a puzzle, like a mix-tape. Song to song. Barrel guy to air guy. Brazilian to Hawaiian to Aussie to Californian. Every two-minutes, the film evolves. It keeps changing. And it’s anything but boring.
That was the most important task, but the hardest part was actually collecting everyone’s final projects. They were supposed to already be there waiting for us, but of course they weren’t. (Houston, we have a problem.) We’re dealing with 25 different filmmakers and 25 different surfers. Different time zones. Different editing formats. Different philosophies and technical skills. We had a seventeen-year-old director and a team of five pros with motion graphics and color correction specialists on stand-by. What a zoo. Good times, and lessons learned. Next year’s submission guidelines are definitely going to be more rigid.
Despite our Houstons, I left that edit room feeling pretty excited. The pieces fit together. The movie was a rollicking roller-coaster of surfing’s great variety. The talent was cutting edge. The music was fresh and fun. And I was already thinking about starting again. There are so many amazing surfers out there that we could Innersect for five more years and never step in the same river twice. And maybe someday we’ll pull all the sections apart and let you make your own mix-tapes of personal favorites. Push shuffle on your iPad and get amped in your own way. It’s an exciting time.
As I write this, I’m on my way to Hawaii. We’re organizing nearly 30 premieres for the same night (Black Friday, November 26th), but with surfing assembled on the North Shore, Hawaii seems like the place to be. Innersection is meant to be a community-based project. An evolving network. And I want to check the pulse of things on the thundering shores of Oahu. Who’s getting ready for next year? How can we improve the system? Who deserves the $100k?
But here I go again…rambling on about myself when all I really did was sit here and watch. The true credit of Innersection goes to the surfers and filmmakers who made it happen. And not just the ones who made the final movie (although they’ll be the ones remembered), but everyone who poured their love and effort into this experimental art collage of surfing and filmmaking. They each drove the standard higher with every submission, and now that we’ve educated our audience, I suspect Year Two is gonna be crazier than ever. We’ve seen what works. We’ve seen the final result. Now it’s time to raise the bar again.
Yes, that’s a challenge.
To all the Innersection Members who have participated in the creation of this movie, I just want to say THANK YOU. This is your movie. You picked the surfers. You gave the feedback that inspired the re-edits. You’re the reason this movie exists. So enjoy it.
[Innersection Blue premiers November 26th. Innersection 2011 starts again in February, so keep filming. Get more information about the project on Innersection.tv]
View highlights from Innersection’s first year below:
Innersection Summer Update from INNERSECTION on Vimeo.
INNERSECTION Winter Round from INNERSECTION on Vimeo.
Innersection — Fall Round Top 5 from INNERSECTION on Vimeo.
