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INTERVIEW: KELLY SLATER
Getting deep with nine-time champ before IMAX premiere of 'Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D'
By:
Mike Cianciulli
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February 9, 2010
35414 visits
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Move over Avatar,
Kelly Slater's got an IMAX movie, too. Over the past two years, Slater has been working with an IMAX production team to bring surfing to the really big screen for the first time ever. |
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"One of the challenges for me was playing two roles -- I was behind the camera and in front of it," Raimana admitted of his jack-of-all-trades involvement in the film. "Ninety-nine percent of the population in Tahiti doesn't know what 3D is. I never knew about it until they showed me and told me the screen is as big as our coconut trees." Because of the IMAX collaboration, this wasn't exactly your next Modern Collective, amp-you-up surf flick. The film, approximately 45 minutes long, dives through schools of tropical fish and into the science of oceanography and coral reef/volcanic island formation. But for surfers, the 3D vision also plops you right onto the shoulder of a growling Teahupoo monster that engulfs you with everything but the wave's salty spit. Surfline managed to corner Slater for a few minutes on Monday night, prior to the film's world premiere at the California Science Center in Los Angeles and got the inside scoop from the man himself. HOW DID THE MOVIE COME ABOUT? Ironically, it was [director] Stephen Low -- who was not a surfer or surf filmmaker -- that came up with the idea. I told him we had to feel it out and have a certain amount of control so it wouldn't look hokey and also tell an internal story. I know we're really happy with the outcome. If anything, I wish we had one big, glassy, huge day at Teahupoo. But you can't always order that up. The couple days over the past two years that it did happen I was on tour somewhere. You can't just click your fingers and make those cameras ready either. COMPARE THE PRODUCTION OF MAKING THIS TO YOUR AVERAGE SURF FILM. You cant just go, 'It's pumping' and jump in the water and film. We almost had to be forecasters and decide what part of the day to go shoot. We did a lot of filming in August and they get a lot of rain then. So you don't just set up and shoot. If they're going to film from the water, they have to check the camera a thousand times make sure it's all functioning and then put it in the housing. The whole camera weights around 140 pounds. It's like carrying a person out there. If you even get close to the barrel with it, you're going over the falls. [Cinematographer] Mike Prickett and Raimana went over a few times. They sacrificed their bodies for this million-dollar camera. Imagine recovering a drowning person at three-foot west bowl Teahupoo. It's not that easy with that much weight. You realize how stressful that could be just by watching those guys...and I'd just be paddling back out, going 'Oh, another set is coming.' [Laughs.] HAVE YOU SEEN THE MOVIE YET? I only saw it two months ago on the computer screen, not on the IMAX screen so tonight is a first for me too. 'What's it feel like to drive 140 miles-per-hour and pass people? I guess that's what a good barrel feels like.'
-- Kelly Slater, on describing surfing to the mainstream.
IS THE MOVIE FOR SURFERS OR THE MAINSTREAM? The movie is made for the mainstream but it's surfy enough that I think people will enjoy it. There's a lot of educational stuff in there as well. IMAX tends to go into the educational side of things and science. It's easier to tell a story with not a lot of action and little bit of movement. And surfing is kind of a different deal so this is the first time surfing is captured that way. HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO COMMUNICATE THE SURFING EXPERIENCE TO NON-SURFERS? With anything, you have to relate it to what people know. If someone likes driving a car fast, then that's the easiest way to relate the euphoria of surfing. 'What's it feel like to drive 140 miles-per-hour and pass people? I guess that's what a good barrel feels like.' HOW INVOLVED WERE YOU IN THE MAKING OF THIS MOVIE? DID YOU JUST SHOW UP AND SURF? I trusted them to a certain point. I watched it and they gave me creative freedom to say yes or no. I didn't go in the editing room and tell them what to chop. It was more to just see what they got and go from there. They gave us the freedom to put our influence into the movie. WHAT WAS YOUR MOTIVATION FOR MAKING THIS MOVIE? Just the chance to work with that equipment. It was a big opportunity and obligation to work with equipment that has never shot surfing before. These cameras are one-of-a-kind. The idea to do this...somebody comes to you and says, 'Would you like to make a 3D surf film for IMAX that's going to be on an 80-foot screen and do it with your friend in Tahiti and we'll pay you for the experience?' It was like, 'Umm, yeah. I'd probably do it for free, but thanks.' ANYTHING ELSE SURFERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS FILM? I think a lot of people will get an educational experience out of it. The side of it that's not the hardcore surf film -- I think surfers will be interested in the science and geography. There's a lot of that through animation in the film. A lot of the parts about the waves are things surfers know, but it's kinda cool to see it verbalized and animated. WHERE CAN PEOPLE SEE THE MOVIE? It will be touring IMAX theatres for the next two years. These things stay in IMAX theatres for quite a while so I'm going to take my video camera in there tonight and film it and put it out on DVD in Bali. [Laughs.] MORE SURF NEWS SURFLINE HOME PAGE |