See it bigger (up to 1080p) on SmugMug!
Here is a first look at the Jamie O’Brien project. This is a reel of some of the best shots from the 3 week project. I would like to point out that this first look does not reflect our ultimate goal of producing a more in depth documentary that includes interviews with Jamie and other influential members of the surfing community. One of the reasons that it’s taken me this long to get this short cut up on the blog is that we’ve been working on the two cuts simultaneously. My goal all along has been to NOT make yet “another surf film” as those have already been made and made very well by some incredibly talented filmmakers – and shot over a much longer period of time where budgets and time allow the filmmakers to wait for the perfect conditions / swell. During the 3 weeks in Hawaii – we probably saw 5 days of sun, and 2-3 days of decent (but relatively small) waves. I was well aware of some of these challenges (weather is always a huge factor when shooting in the winter months in Hawaii) and made a point from the beginning to draw upon my experience as a photojournalist to work towards producing a different type of film. I hope to be able to share that with you at some point in the upcoming months.
For now I hope you’ll enjoy this first look. I look forward to getting back to writing more regularly on this blog now that this cut is done. A huge thanks goes out to all of the crew members, the sponsors who provided financial and gear support (many of them prototypes) and of course to Jamie.
So I’ve gotten 5 e-mails from friends in the past 2 days asking me if I as “OK.” Yes the blog has been very very quiet – it’s been almost a month – believe me I know. The reason: well I’ve been busy working on the post-production of the Jamie O’Brien piece – trying to work on two different edits simultaneously. For those of you involved in video/film – I’m sure you can relate on how much time post takes w/ the moving image relative to the still image. I’ve also been busy returning a lot of loaner gear (some of it just made it back last week in fact) and billing, not to mention covering Obama’s inauguration for TIME magazine, and bidding on jobs including one that involved 19 cast & crew. 
