Category Archives: Film Production
It Begins!
After months, nay years of planning, reading, dreaming and hoping we are finally on location filming ‘The Endless Winter – A Very British surf Movie’. We’re chuffed to bits to have assembled a crack team of the best surfers and surf videographers in the country all keen as mustard to tell the world about the history of their unique sport and to meet the people that started it all. A massive thanks to Ford who with the Ford S-MAX are presenting the project, without them none of this would be possible. Fittingly as soon as we set off for Newquay the heavens ceremoniously opened. It will indeed be a very British film shoot!
The Journey
Mr B Surf Videographer
Though surf videographer Mr B has been on the project since day one, we’ve only recently had the chance to see him in action. In the last week I’ve seen him battle some pretty messy Atlantic swells armed only with a pair of fins, a wetsuit and a camera. He intentionally puts himself in some lethal positions getting up close and personal with our surfers and their boards, the man’s a machine. For those of you that aren’t familiar with B’s work check out these vids, mind blowing!
The Life of an Endless Widow
Having offered years of support, given our opinions and born their offspring, the boys are finally off making The Endless Winter!
Some may think that the life of an Endless WAG is glamorous. Hanging out at the beach, checking out the surfers; bronzed, gym toned, sipping rose in our directors chairs whilst taking in the hustle and bustle of a film in the making! Unfortunately this is not the case!! Whilst our boys are off living it up at the beach, we are stuck at home, literally left holding the baby! Do we mind? Well, a little bit, but we are all proper chuffed that Endless is on the road, and excited to see what things are to come.
Whilst our children may temporarily forget their father’s faces, once they are old enough to watch Endless, they will be proud of their enterprising daddies; taking their place in the surfing world. Maybe it will inspire them to take up surfing, and they will take their place as part of the future of British surfing.
So, from the half closed eyes and weary fingers of momentarily single working mums, we the Endless Widows wish them well, and dream of that sun-kissed, bountiful, hazy future, when our husbands and partners return, wealthy and successful film-makers! Well, we girls can dream can’t we?
Good Luck to all the Endless boys.
With Love….The Endless Girls.
The Test Shoot
The weather’s fitting for the first day of ‘The Endless Winter’; dark and damp. It looks like a nightmare to paddle out to the breaking waves, but Mitch and Egor seem keen, so get suited up (wetsuited that is). There’s quite a few local surfers in the car park and they’re all saying it’s going to be pointless trying to film in the water and that I probably won’t even get out back. But as it’s a test day I decide to get the water housing on and try to paddle out there, even if only to dust off the cobwebs and just get wet.
After a long walk across the beach and very long swim outback, I finally make it into position with Egor and Mitch. Yurgen (Richie Mullins) is also out there. I get pounded by wave after wave, and even pinned to the seabed when one heavy inside wave lands directly on top of me – but we manage to get a couple good ‘hook ups’ and as well as plenty of underwater carnage footage! Egor takes off on a wave directly in front of me, luckily I have faith in his surfing ability to make the drop and to not run me over and take my head off, and so we get a nice unique angled shot. As the sun begins to set, the clouds part enough to allow some very welcome light into my lens, resulting in some pretty, but still foreboding finishing footage.
After an hour and a half of swimming it’s time to head back in, get changed, and go straight to the pub and have dinner with the crew. More talking kit, talking rubbish, then back to the luxury caravan to review footage and prepare for the following day. All in all a successful first day, with a bonus of bagging some nice water clips in the process.
“Our mission: Spreading awareness through music. Helping to conserve our oceans for future generations.”
CJ
Great to chat and interview Chris Jones in his shaping bay and see that his passion for shaping and surfing is burning bright…legend! It was a real insight into the roots and development of board designs in newquay where I grew up, from one of board shaping’s pioneers. Cant wait to order a new board off Chris after seeing some amazing looking twin fin designs.
http://www.chrisjonessurfboards.co.uk/
Egor
Postcards from the South West
Some behind the scenes pics from the South West leg of our journey. The weather was cruel, the waves were unreliable but the people we met were brilliant! As expected the Cornish were welcoming, entertaining and very proud of their rich surf history.
It was a pretty hectic shoot from a crew point of view and it’s fair to say that mine and James’ schedule was a little ambitious! As a team we quickly bonded (sharing caravans makes that pretty essential) and we soon got in sync and worked through the inevitable technical teething problems, largely based around the nano-flash recorder that kept cutting out mid take!
All in all, an awesome first leg to the journey. Shed loads of footage in the can and a real sense that after months of planning we were finally making the film that we’ve all talked and dreamed about, very happy days in the Endless Winter camp!
Cornwall Rocks
When the waves are flat, the surfers aren’t surfing, and the rest of the crew are off filming interviews (or sleeping), Mr B loves nothing more than to crawl behind some rocks just so he can poke his lens back out again.
This raw footage was filmed at ‘the Cave’ at Great Western Beach, Newquay.
The Mods, the Rockers and the Surfers
One of the main reasons that we really wanted to feature Brighton in The Endless Winter was the cities rich social history. Brighton Rock is one of my favourite books and Quadrophenia is one of my favourite films so I was pretty excited when I read that surfing started in Brighton at the same time that the mods and rockers were running riot, what an amazing contrast!
What a privilege it was meeting with early Brighton surfer Jock Paterson and hearing first hand how he and a small group of friends found escapism in wave riding.
“Brighton’s always had a bit of a reputation, gang culture what ever you want to call it, you know mods, rockers, punks, it just went on and on. Generally we kept ourselves to ourselves we didn’t want to get involved with that, we knew the mods and rockers were around, we knew people that got involved in that stuff but we were just doing our own thing and we were happy doing that. Everytime you go out there [points to the sea] you’re in a different world.” - Jock Paterson talking to Mitch and Egor.
A Brighton Sunset Surf
I’d never been to Brighton before, and to be quite honest I was just expecting a rundown seaside town with too many stag and hen do’s. Well that image was instantly shattered on arrival, the town is vibrant, the beach is buzzing, and the piers and scenery are spectacular.
The highlight of the trip for me was heading out to the burnt out West Pier with Egor and Mitch. With an epic sunset backdrop, we paddled out to the ‘rib cage like’ burnt out structure. It was creepily quiet and eerie. Seeing the new pier a mile or so down the promenade was a constant reminder of all the British holidays that took place around this burnt out pier, the thousands of happy hours spent on 2p slot machines and other tacky British holiday quirks.
Topped off with a couple of ankle high waves on long boards and followed by a beer or two, Brighton turned out to be one of the unexpected highlights and confirmed that it’s not just the waves that create a vibrant, special surf scene.
Music: ‘End Of The Line’ by Mojo White
So the Severn Bore next, Yeeeehhhaaa!
What a trip to Brighton! We managed to meet up with two very upbeat characters, Sean Mahoney and Jock Paterson to get some great inside info on what it’s like to be a surfer in such a built up area and how the local non-surfers looked upon the so called surf bums in the early days. As the surfs so inconsistent down there, you can see how other board sports such as skateboarding and Stand Up Paddle Boarding have been a great distraction when the flat spells hit hard. (Find out more about Jock Paterson and Stand Up Paddle Boarding at www.tribalwave.org).
So the Severn Bore next, Yeeeehhhaaa! Me and Egor are so excited for this as we have never done anything like it. It looks so different to surfing in the sea, but you can still see that it gets the adrenalin flowing as it roars up river towards you! It’s so cool that so many people can surf the same wave and have so much fun. As there is only one wave it’s got us a little nervous about falling. One of us is bound to have a shocker. Haha.
The Severn Bore, A Birds Eye View…
As Mark and Mitch are surfing the Bore during a high autumn tide they will have 3 attempts at catching it, two early morning Bores and a night Bore (in the pitch black).
The setting for attempt 1 was pretty epic. After a 5.30 wake-up call we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise revealing a low mist that had covered the river bed. As we watched (and attempted to film) from the river bank all we could really see were shadows in the mist. Luckily we had Mr. B in the water with the boys so we weren’t going to miss a thing.
While the boys paddled out and waited we were lucky enough to meet Phil, a paramotor pilot who had come to fly over the Bore. Phil has very kindly donated the following footage to the film shot during his flight (look out for Mitch and Egor centre of shot at then end).
The Endless Winter: A Very British Surf Movie; The Teaser
This is the teaser for the forth coming feature length documentary and web-series ‘The Endless Winter – A Very British Surf Movie’.
Mitch and Egor travel the length of the UK in their Ford S-MAX on a road trip tracing the wild and unusual roots of British surf culture. This video features;
Interviewees: Roger Mansfield – Pete ‘PJ’ Jones – Malcolm Findlay – Charles Williams
Surfers: Alan Stokes – Gabe Davies – Russ Winters – Nate Phillips – Nigel Semmens – Steve Daniels – Carwyn Williams
Archive courtesy of: SWFTA – Three S Films – ITN Source.
Music: The Dakotas “The Cruel Sea”.
Next stop Cymru…
I was excited about heading towards Wales. Early surf trips as a grom for contests there were always fun and everyone in the Welsh surf scene seemed so welcoming and cool. Whether out at Freshwater in Pembroke, Llangennith on the Gower or Porthcawl, we scored great waves for contests on such varied coastlines.
They just all bloody loves it, see!
The Daily Mail online reports on big wave riding in the UK
The Cribbar has been working again this week, as dramatically reported by the Daily Mail online, including a very nice link to The Endless Winter; Episode One! Cheers
Scotland – The final leg…
After 5 weeks on the road there was a slight sense of delirium as we crossed the boarder into Scotland. We made it to our Bothy after dark and enjoyed a cosy night of man bonding before getting back on the road.
We couldn’t pass Loch Ness without a quick dip. After a morning of drizzle and fog the clouds lifted and we all enjoyed a half-hour swim with Nessie. Unquestionably one of the most stunning places I’ve been and a really amazing moment for all of us. Respect to cameraman Alex and soundman Joe who went in armed only with their good humour!
The charts had been disappointing in England and Wales but all signs suggested that Thurso was going to pump, by the time we’d passed Inverness you could hear Mitch, Egor and Mr. B frothing from 100yards!
We made it!
It was an epic journey to say the least and as well as growing impressive beards we’ve all grown a little bit as surfers and filmmakers. Over the past five weeks we’ve slept in caravan parks, Scottish Bothy’s, city youth hostels and one luxury pad (some of us even got to have our own beds!) We’ve met over 50 surfers and the boys have been for a surf/paddle in one Ocean, two Seas one Loch and one dirty River.
A massive thanks to everyone that helped us along the way and to all of the surfing crews that made us so welcome – still can’t believe they let us in the Badlands! Big up to the Ford S-MAX massive who made the trip possible, sorry about the missing wing mirror and the smell, that was Mr. B’s wetsuit.
Keep up to date with the edit on the blog. The next episode will be released online this Friday.
One last shoot for 2011
What better way to finish the year than to catch up with Mitch and Egor in Newquay for an end of year surf. We wanted to get a few shots of the boys surfing in some pretty undesirable conditions and the good old British weather kindly delivered torrential rain and howling winds all day, perfect!
A massive thanks to everyone for their support this year, the edit is coming together nicely and we’re all frothing about 2012 and the release of the film. Watch this space.
Meet the Filmmaker: Mr B
Great interview with our boy Anthony Butler aka Mr B about his amazing career as a Sea Otter. Some very kind words about Endless too…
http://www.londonsurffilmfestival.com/meet-the-filmmaker-anthony-butler
Green-Screen Animation Shoot
The road trip may be a distant memory, but filming still goes on… While Egor’s been juggling nappy changing duties with touring the Cornish breaks he knows and loves, Mitch has been sunning himself in Morocco and supping Guinnesses in Ireland, and all the while both are keeping their eyes firmly on Magic Seaweed, waiting for a killer chart to come along so they can go and get the film’s final section in the can.
However, in the midst of everything we did manage to get both the boys back in Newquay for a green-screen shoot with our animator Simon Ball. Simon’s currently animating a number of elements for the film, including map sections featuring a couple of characters that will look suspiciously similar to Mitch and Egor.
It was a new experience for the boys and one that unfortunately involved a bit of ‘acting’, but thankfully these days film is cheap so Simon should be able to pull out a few seconds of gold from the hours and hours of footage that we shot!
Episode 4; The Only Girl In The Polluted Curl
Mitch and Egor travel to industrial Port Talbot in South Wales, where Britain’s best ever female surfer, Linda Sharp learnt her trade in one of the most polluted breaks in the UK.
Despite the pollution, Port Talbot has been home to a thriving community of resilient surfers since the late 60s and is known to produce some of the best waves in Wales.
Archive courtesy of; Christos Stylianou & John Baxendale
Images Courtesy of; Linda Sharp & Pete Bounds
Music; Rory Gallagher – Crest Of A Wave www.rorygallagher.co.uk
A call for archive…
As Mitch and Egor travel the UK meeting iconic surfers, we want to show footage from every region and era – this is where we need your help!
Do you have footage from the 60s to present day shot in the UK? If so we’d love to hear from you with a view to using your footage in the film. We’ve managed to source some awesome archive so far from the likes of John Adams, Doug Wilson and Pete Bounds and it’s really brought the online episodes to life.
This isn’t exclusively a hunt for pro footage; we are keen to hear from hobby surfers, weekend warriors and holiday makers who have ever been on a surfing holiday (perhaps to the infamous Skewjack surf village in the 70s and 80s)?
Please contact info@levelfilms.co.uk if you can help.
Thanks, the EW team
Looking for soundtrack inspiration…
We’re very exited to be working with Blaine, George and John – aka Hotel Flamingo on a musical score for the film. On top of this we’ll also be getting our hands on some classic tunes from yesteryear…
So we want to know what songs/bands you feel have been (or are still) synonymous with the British surf scene? Whether from the 50s, 60s 70s, 80s or 90s what were you listening to and what sums up the era?!
As you’ll have heard in the online films we’re featuring Cream, The Dakotas, The Lurkers, Rory Gallagher and, for a present day sound we’re in talks with Ben Howard. But what are we missing??
Please post any suggestions below, add a link too…
Wales Needs You!!
We’re in the final stages of the edit now and we’re a bit light on great surf footage for the Wales section of the film – had a few quiet days when we were in the country!
It’d be a massive shame not to show off the Welsh coast’s full potential so if you have any recent footage (ideally HD) we would love to hear from you. It can be shot anywhere from Llantwit to Hell’s Mouth and everywhere in between. Don’t worry we’re not naming secret spots and won’t show any landmarks!
If you think you can help please post below.
Thanks
Episode 6; A World Class Wave On Scotland’s North Shore
Mitch and Egor travel to the North Scottish Coast, the unlikely location of what is widely considered to be Britain’s best wave – Thurso East.
While sampling a few perfect barrels, Mitch, Egor and a host of British pros from all eras pay homage to this world-class cold water surf spot. In the words of local surfer Andy Bain – ‘There’s no place like home!’
Interviewees; Malcolm Findlay, Chris ‘Guts’ Griffiths, Andy Bain, Nigel Semmens, Paul ‘The Gill’ Gill, Ben Skinner
Surfers; Chris Noble, Ozzy Rick, Dane Reynolds, Jayce Robinson, Rich Sills, Mitch Corbett, Sam Lamiroy, Nathan Phillips, Jesse Davies, Alan Stokes, Johnny Fryer, Micah Lester, Gabe Davies, Russell Winter
Archive courtesy of; Mr B Productions, Darren Manson, Andy Bennetts
Music; ‘Wave Theme‘ scored for The Endless Winter by Hotel Flamingo
The ‘Endless’ Edit – First cut ready to go…
After 6 long months in a dark edit-suite, we have emerged with the first cut of our feature film!!
There’s still a long way to go before it’s revealed to the public this summer but it’s definitely – a film, with amazing surfing, beautiful archive, a sick soundtrack and some pretty outstanding yarn spinning from over 40 charters in British surfing. It’s looking pretty darn good if we do say so ourselves.
A massive thanks to everyone that’s helped us get to this stage – Ford S-MAX, Mr B, Simon ‘the animator’ Ball, John Adams, the Museum of British Surfing, Alex, Ross, ‘Crazy’ Joe Bone, and the list goes on…
We’re now off to London town to show the cut to some very important folk. Fingers crossed, this could mean big things for our little film.
Cheers everyone
Matt, James, Mitch and Egor
$100,000 for the best surf film…
For those of you that know about the Innersection Film Project, here’s this years winning section – The surfer is Albee Layer, the film-maker is Elliot Leboe – Nice…
For those of you that don’t know what Innersection is; it’s a surf-film contest, and it’s a pretty big deal in the surfing world. Renowned film-maker Taylor Steele invites Surfer/Filmmaker teams from all over the world to upload a short film to the Innersection website. The surfing world then votes and the top 20 vids get the honour of being on an annual DVD, released globally. The best section then wins $100,000 – not bad!
Congratulations also to Britain’s Reuben Ash and Tim Boydell who won through the rounds and were among the teams that made the final 20 – an amazing achievement and the only European’s to do so!
You Should Have Been Here Yesterday – From the Cutting Room Floor, no.1
Now we’re in the final stages of the edit we’re having to make some really tough decisions and inevitably we’re finding that some sections are having to end up on the cutting room floor… One tough call that we’ve had to make has come from Wales, where we’ve found that there’s just too many characters and stories to fit in!
Unfortunately the Welsh Dragon didn’t roar when we met up with Nate Phillips, Beth Mason and Dean Pageo in South Wales, so the waves were far from their best. None the less everyone caught some nice fun waves in a beautiful little spot somewhere near Cardiff(ish)!
An awesome day and a great night at Nate’s local boozer. It’s that old classic line “you should have been here yesterday!”
Enjoy
Surfers - Nathan Phillips, Beth Mason, Dean Pageo, Mark Harris, Mitch Corbett
Music – Hotel Flamingo; Travelling Theme
Hat’s off to surf-videographer Mickey Smith
A massive congratulations to Surf Videographer Mickey Smith and DOP Allan Wilson who won the award for ‘Best Action Sports Film’ at the prestigious Vimeo Awards last night.
Mickey and Allan’s film ‘Dark Side of the Lens’ blew us away with the beautiful visuals and story telling. What stands out most about this amazing short though is Mickey’s passion. The guy’s a lunatic on so many levels and he’s doing what he loves and making a living doing it. He’s managed to express that beautifully in the film and inspired others to follow their passion rather than a regular pay cheque.
Mitch has been in Ireland filming with Mickey this winter, and is due to spend a few more months with him later in the year, so we’re really excited to see the outcome.
Well done gents!
Wet Wales – trip highlights
All this ‘tropical’ weather is bringing back fond memories of our trip to Wales back in September. The waves were pretty small, the sky was grey, but the Welsh hospitality was warm as ever. Thanks again to PJ, Linda, Nate, Beth and the Llantwit Major crew…
Time to get this film seen!!!
So it’s been 9 months since our journey began, we’ve been some places, seen some sights, filmed a lot of things and we now have a full feature film very nearly ready to show the world!
There are no exact dates or locations yet but we’re planning to get the film to a cinema, beach and TV screen near you soon! Initial talks are with a very well know UK broadcaster, an open air venue in the South West and a collection of cinemas everywhere from Brighton to Belfast. It’s a British film so we want it to be shown all over Britain!
If you know of screening events/festivals that you think we should be talking to, let us know and we’ll look into it.
Watch this space for news of the Premiere very soon!
The Archive Hunt…
One of the best things about making a historical film is the opportunity to trawl through hundreds of hours of cine-reels, VHS and Super 8…and rest assured there are some absolute treasures that have been locked away in archive houses and surfer’s lofts!
Our favourite find so far came courtesy of Marj and Peter Ganz, wife and son of the late Viv Ganz. Viv was Wales’ first known stand-up surfer so we naturally wanted to find some footage or images of him surfing.
The footage of Viv and the early Langland crew is amazing, massive boards, dodgy wetsuits, classic haircuts, and all in glorious technicolor!
Also among Viv’s reels were two unexpected treasures; a pair of classic Hawaiian and Californian surf films. One is a 1960 John Severson movie (the founder of Surfer mag) and the other is an amazing film called ‘Riding the Crest’ from 1939! Really rare finds and some mind blowing footage.
Here’re a few screen grabs from Viv’s reels, it’s going to make for a beautiful section.
Meet Oli Adams…
Mitch and Egor aren’t the only guys hunting for new waves in the UK… Meet Oli Adams;
While Mitch was in Ireland and Egor was at home looking after his new arrival, Oli Adams and Endless Camera Op Tim Boydell took ‘White Lightning’ (the Endless S-MAX) on a journey to find new waves in the UK. They weren’t disappointed! Beautifully captured as always by Mr Boydell…Enjoy!
Thurso – Northern Scotland’s surfing mecca
Looks like we’ll be heading back to Thurso to screen TEW in October, can’t wait.
We weren’t sure what to expect of mainland Britain’s most northerly town (think that’s right?) but even for us non-surfers there was something magical about this place.
It’s hard to know whether it was the delirium of having finished the road trip, the over excitement that Thurso was pumping while we were there or just the prospect of a night in Skinandis night club. But it was a massive highlight of the trip for all of us! Good times to come.
50 Years in the Making
We are absolutely stoked to announce that ‘The Endless Winter – A Very British Surf Movie’ will be broadcast on Channel 4 in August and September. In fact it looks like they’ll be showing it so much that you’ll all be sick of Mitch, Mark and surfing by Christmas!
As well as the full 90minute feature, C4 will be broadcasting the film as 3x30minute episodes. ’Episode One – The Pioneers of British Surfing’ is on this Sunday (Aug 12th) @ 7.30am/8.30am C4/C4+1. It will then be repeated next Tuesday (Aug 14th) @ 12.30am/1.30am C4/C4+1.
Thanks to everyone that has made this possible, we really hope you enjoy the film/TV series!
Your Thoughts – The Endless Winter Ep1 on Channel 4?
A mind-blowing 164 thousand viewers tuned in for The Endless Winter; Episode 1 on C4 last night, hopefully you enjoyed it?!
So, let us know what you thought. Feel free to post comments and questions below and we’ll (film-makers and surfers) get back to you.
If you don’t know what we’re talking about, watch this and get involved…http://www.channel4.com/programmes/surfing-special-the-endless-winter
Free National Screening Tour Announcement
Over the next two months we’ll be holding FREE screenings of The Endless Winter all over the UK.
Reserve your ticket for the first 3 tour dates by following the link below, tickets are limited so book now:
30th Aug (next Thursday) – Fistral Beach Newquay.
2nd Sept (next Sunday) – The Duke of York Cinema, Brighton.
9th Sept – The Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle.
Further screenings will be held in Plymouth, Swansea, Scarborough, Nottingham, Thurso and hopefully more. Dates to be announced soon so join our mailing list to be kept up to date. We hope to meet you there.
http://www.theendlesswinter.co.uk/tickets/
The Endless Winter – A Very British Surf Movie (2012 Teaser)
Here’s a little taste of what to expect at the open-air Premiere of The Endless Winter, Fistral Beach, Newquay, Cornwall, Thursday 30th August.
Get your FREE tickets here…
More Screening Dates announced – We’re heading North(ish)…
Two more chances to see The Endless Winter in the Cinema if you live in the Midlands or the North East…
Nottingham (The Savoy Cinema) 20th September.
Scarborough (The Spa) 23rd September.
Book your FREE tickets here http://www.theendlesswinter.co.uk/tickets/
The Screening tour begins…
A massive thanks to everyone that joined us in Croyde, Newquay and Brighton to watch The Endless Winter on the big screen. Croyde was the most mellow cinema ever with double deck chairs and a very warm welcome from the locals, Brighton was in a stunning old cinema with an HD screen, unquestionably the best we’ve ever seen the Endless waves.
Newquay was a bit of a risk – a screening on a pretty windy, chilly Fistral beach but it couldn’t have gone any better. Around 500 people joined us to watch the film and everyone seemed to enjoy it, laughing and whooping at all the key points. By the last half hour we were fully expecting most people to have run for the warmth of the bar but the crowd remained glued all the way to the end. In retrospect it may have been hypothermia that kept everyone frozen on the beach but either way it was a wonderful sight!
Next stop is Newcastle, some tickets still available so please join us this Sunday (9th) at the Tyneside Cinema. http://www.eventzilla.net/web/event?eventid=2138966991
The Endless Winter is on Channel 4 tonight at Midnight!
Set your alarms and/or recorders, The Endless Winter – A Very British Surf Movie is on Channel 4 tonight at midnight.
As proud as we are of the recent C4 episodes, this is the full 90 minute feature length version – as it was intended to be seen! There’s nearly 30 minutes of additional footage and for us it has a more natural flow and a real sense of journey.
We hope you enjoy it, keen to hear feedback.
Thanks, The Endless Winter Crew.
The Endless Winter selected for The London Surf Film Festival!
Text courtesy of LSFF…
We are thrilled to announce that we’re hosting the London Premiere of “The Endless Winter: A Very British Surf Story” at this year’s London Surf / Film Festival!
When we established the festival, one of our aims was to support and promote home grown surf filmmaking talents and when we heard about independent filmmakers Matt Crocker and James Dean’s hugely exciting very British project, we knew ‘The Endless Winter’ was a film we wanted to get behind.
Following British pro surfers Mitch Corbett and Mark Harris as they journey around our island’s coastline, the film takes in some of our best waves, meeting characters along the way who have helped shape our unique British surf scene. Combining archive footage, surf action, interviews and animation this really is a must watch for surf and culture aficionados alike.
What’s more we’re offering the tickets to the film for free, yes, FREE! The special matinee screening which takes place on Sunday 14th October 14.00 will be followed by a talk with Director James Dean and accompanied by a shortlisted Shortie, ‘The Dimming Tide’ which explores a very unique surf scene on the east coast of Ireland. Tickets are limited, so don’t miss out. To reserve your FREE TICKETS, click HERE.
The ‘Award Winning’ Endless Winter!!!
After many years of hard work we can finally call ourselves award winning film-makers after The Endless Winter picked up ‘Best British Film’ at the London Surf Film Festival last weekend.
As a pair of ‘kooks’ we [Matt and James the Directors] always wanted to make a film that the UK surf scene would be proud of, so this award means the world to us.
Huge thanks to Chris & Demi for their amazing job with the festival, and also to absolutely everyone who’s been involved in the project! It’s been a long ol’ journey but so so worth it!
Time to get the sequel off the ground… watch this space…
Click here to see all the winners
Images by Simon Plunket
Rick Griffin – Perhaps the most influential artist you never heard of
Our American chum Steve Barilotti (Surfer Magazine) is making a film about iconic Californian artist Rick Griffin. Steve is looking for funding to make this epic doc, to find out more and get involved please follow the link below.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/49615095/griffin-the-film
Griffin and British surfing…
Back in the early days of our research for The Endless Winter we heard about a 1960s American comic strip drawn by Griffin that mocked the very notion of surfing in the UK – we had to see it!
We eventually made contact with Ida Griffin and Steve Barilotti who very kindly sent us a copy of the comic and it proved to be a classic example of how the Californian’s viewed British surfing back in the 1960s. This cynical but humorous outsiders perspective became the inspiration for our opening mock-newsreel that Steve helped us to write.
As Steve Barilotti explains – “Griffin and Stoner In Merry Olde England” [published in Surfer Magazine] was likely drawn in late spring 1966 as one of the dozen or so Griffin-Stoner Adventures that Rick created for Surfer from 1965-1967.
Rick had never been to the UK or France or even Hawaii up to that point. Rick’s take on English culture was taken mostly from Mad Magazine and Hollywood stereotypes, which makes them all the more endearing. But you have to understand this in context. Up to the late 60s air travel was expensive and mass tourism has yet to manifest. When the Beatles and Stones landed here in 1964 the English were as alien as moon men (and just as comprehensible) to most Americans. In 1966 “English” meant Winston Churchill, Terry Thomas and Dick Van Dyke doing a ‘orrible Cockney accent in Mary Poppins.’
Thanks again to Steve, Ida and Rick for giving us this brilliant insight. Very excited to see Steve’s film come to life and learn more about the infamous Rick Griffin.
The Endless Winter – Home-coming Screening. Bristol.
Since our preview screening in Croyde back in mid August, the Endless Winter has been seen by thousands of people in 15 different venues around the UK, and after nearly 3 months on the road the Endless tour has (nearly) come to an end.
A massive thanks to everyone that’s joined us around the UK, from Newquay to Nottingham, Scaborough to Swansea, it’s been an incredible journey and apart from the guy that fell asleep and snored in Newcastle, everyone seems to have enjoyed it!
Join us (the crew), the surfers and our friends from Wavegarden UK for our final screening in Bristol tomorrow night (Tuesday 30th October) at the Cube Cinema. Tickets available on the door only - MORE INFO
DVD ORDERS…
The Endless Winter will be available to buy on DVD w/c 12th November – ready for Christmas! It’ll be available on amazon and in all good shops. If you are a surf shop owner and would like to stock the film, please drop us a line at info@levelfilms.co.uk.
Thanks again everyone.
The first international screening of The Endless Winter will be in… ahem… Hawaii!
After a great screening tour around the UK we’re keen to take a slice of British surf history to international waters. First stop will be the Waimea Ocean Film Festival in Hawaii, January 2013.
We hope the Hawaiian’s approve of our (slightly tongue in cheek) take on Captain Cook’s exploration of Hawaii and Princess Kaʻiulani’s time surfing here in the UK.
The festival will take place in Hualalai on the Big Island 3-11 Jan 2013, so if you happen to be in the area come along, we’ve heard it’s very nice!
New Film from Mr B – Out in December.
Our fearless surf videographer Anthony Butler, aka Mr B has had a busy year and he’s finally emerged from the edit with a teaser for his new film – ‘Relative’. As we’ve come to expect with Mr B, it looks stunning!
The 30 minute surf film stars surfing brothers Ed and Jak Smith from Cornwall and has been produced by Mr B’s new venture Our World Is Blue. The film will be premiered on Saturday the 8th of December, guaranteed to be a great night, info below.
Mitch Corbett does Indonesia
While we’ve been busy promoting and touring The Endless Winter, Mitch and Mark have continued their explorations of the best waves in the UK and the world at large. They’ve been busy, surfing all over the globe, making an impression wherever they go.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be letting you know what the boys have been up to over the past few months. Where better to start than Mitch’s summer trip to the world renound break of Nias in Indonesia.
Over the years Mitch has gained a bit of a reputation for being a ‘barrell magnet’ – wherever he goes the waves seem to follow. His trip to Nias coincided with some of the best waves Mitch had ever seen at this celebrated surf spot. He was like a kid in a sweet shop and surfed till he dropped everyday. Here are some of his best waves from the trip, spigin’ awesome!
Endless DVD’s selling out!
Thanks to everyone that’s bought Endless on DVD over the past month, it’s really exciting that so many people want it on their DVD stack this Christmas. Sales have been so good that we’ve now sold 3/4 of our first run.
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We’ll be printing another batch in the New Year but if you’d like to get the film for Christmas grab it while you can from the following shops…
Thanks again
The Museum of British Surfing (in store only)
Rise Music Shop (in store only)
The Bay Surf Shop (in store only)
Next Stop Australia…
Our second international screening is now confirmed. On Wednesday 2nd January, The Endless Winter will be shown on opening night of the 2013 Surfworld International Surf Film Festival in Australia!
The festival will take place at the world famous Surfworld Museum in Torquay, Victoria – it’s the largest Surf Film Festival in Australia. For a British film to screen on opening night is pretty unusual but we’re confident the Aussie’s will enjoy a slice of pommie surf culture…
“England [Britain] has some great waves and a thriving surf culture. We are stoked to announce that we will be showing the award winning surf documentary THE ENDLESS WINTER as part of the 2013 Surfworld International Surf Film Festival. This amazing documentary looks at the long and very rich history of surfing in England. A must see at the festival!” - John Foss, Festival Director.
Let us know what you think Australia.