Wednesday 13 June 2012

The meaning behind 'Y'

Filming bodyboarding has taken to me some weird and wonderful places. It has kidnapped me on a number of occasions, put a metaphorical bag over my head and run in the complete opposite direction from the safety of my comfort zone.

From sharing the back of a hylux with a couple dozen mice in South Australia, waking up to one sat on my head, nibbling my hair and the others destroying my shoes.


To taking a 29hr train to Scotland then finding myself clinging with all my might to the side of a cliff, in torrential rain that had turned the rocks so slippery any movement would send me tumbling into a deep gully of seawater, waiting for the boys to realise I wasn't there to film that amazing barrel and needed rescuing.


From standing on the pier at home in a wind chill of minus something-or-other for a whole day, promising each time to go home 'after this next set' and catching slight hypothermia.


To having to go to hospital for a course of steriods after being set upon by what seemed like every mozzie, midgie and sandfly in west australia while filming at the box.



So it's no wonder that people get a bit baffled as to why a girl, from Britain, who doesn't surf would want to film bodyboarding for seemingly no other reason than(as an australian once said to me)'for sh*ts and giggles. And to be honest I don't really have an answer for those people who ask why I did it. I just know that at certain moments I get to see and shoot things that are too amazing to miss. And these are the times that will always make me want to film, no matter what.

As my wordsmanship isn't quite up to scratch- I put together a short clip of these amazing moments. So the next time that someone asks me.
I can show them Y.
xXx



help!

This has been stuck to the end of my nose since I looked at the first page. xXx

the art of everyday existence.

Many moons ago now, a very good friend lent me a bodyboarding dvd after seeing me standing and filming on the pier for the first time. Putting it straight on when I got home my eyes were immediately transfixed on the screen. Images of perfect barrels, firework sunsets and mountains in the clouds hypnotised me. I was introduced to the incredible skills of Mr's Skipper, Player, Hubb and Rawlins. A life style and culture that I never realised could exist was shown to me for the first time. The film was called 'Against the Grain'

As I watched Ben and Mitch boosting the highest air forwards and reverses somewhere in the Canaries, the biggest clarity inducing lightbulb went off in my head.
From that moment on I spent most of my time watching and filming waves at home, on DVD's and looking at waves in all the magazines. Soon I realised that a certain name seemed to be appearing where ever I looked for inspiration. Every shot of some heaving slab, every lifestyle picture, every portrait seemed to have the same credit...Mickey Smith.

Not long after I watched the DVD and had started filming whatever sized swells rolled into home, a teacher sat me down for a talking to. I had been set a weekend assignment to film some cutaway shots for a horror trailer and had been given an hour tape that was already half full of other shots. However, as I had walked towards the reef to get what was needed, my eyes were distracted by a backlit wave peeling across the reef. Needless to say, there were no cutaways on the tape when I got to class on the monday morning.

Getting involved in that surfer lot, my teacher explained, would result in my wasting my life and never doing anything of worthiness. This has been echoed by many family and friends since. After leaving uni and spending plenty of time attempting to justify my filming I have often wondered if perhaps my teacher was right.

Then a clip started appearing here, there and everywhere on the internet 'Dark Side of The Lense'. It shook every single little doubt out of my mind. Most of you will have seen this by now. Mickey, with Allan Wilson produced something so incredible that it has won them accolades the world over. And rightly so.

"If there's no future in it, at least it's a present worth remembering"

I just hope at some point that teacher will see it.

Below is 'Dark Side of the Lense' as well as a talk from the DO Lectures. Everyone should watch them- the man talks a lot of sense.

xXx



home from home.

darn it nobbys....did you really have to look like this when I'm trying to say goodbye? xXx

very,very nearly here.

Thinking about finally seeing this at the pictures fills my stomach with so many butterflies I may just end up floating to the moon. xXx

all along the bottom.

adelaide to melbourne...we walked around the land before time, stayed in a prison, went to a station inside a station and saw an emu, a wombat and some koalas.

westerly wanderings.

some pictures of an interesting time way out west in australia. goodtimes.difficult times.amazing times with an amazing group. xXx

east is east

some things I saw when I went back out east. where the sea is hotter than our summers. xXx

Wednesday 4 January 2012

have yourself a...very merry funtime.

in desperate need of doing something a teenie bit more creative than drawing promotional posters, just before christmas i managed to persuade/trick/bribe the lovely staff at work to take part in a filmed spoof of all those brilliant music videos which are played on loop during the festive season... I couldn't have realised how brilliant these guys were going to be and the end result was heaps better than i ever thought it was going to be.
the final piece has been put on dvd and sold to raise money for ShelterBox...so to all of you that have helped in anyway....
thank you very muchly.
xXx

the very last bit of it.

here's a few shots from the last few months of 2011
xXx