First Destination
We started filming for Minds Wide Open with a new destination, something very different in nature and action than a classic filming location like Maui, but not so far off in name: Cold Hawaii. Klitmoller, Denmark, site of the 2010 PWA Cold Hawaii World Cup, delivered stormy action. Sum the competitive atmosphere along with Sebastian Dorrs (Basti) and Andi Jansens cameras focused on the riders at all times and you get some of the sickest action ever caught on film. The cold weather and inviting landscape topped off the hard drives with more than enough for the first section of our movie. Things were looking up.
Ups & Downs
To make a windsurfing movie you need a lot of passion. You won’t get rich, and often you will end up spending much more than you planned. Any windsurfer knows that planning anything with this weather based sport is nearly impossible. Nature dictates when and where. I sent our 3 man team to Sal, Cabo Verde, for 4 weeks in November 2010, but Mother Nature said no. No wind, no waves. 7000euros flushed down the toilet. However we knew that Cabo Verde has its potential, so we all agreed to return to Sal on a good swell forecast. This ended up being in February 2011.
At this point I was declared “Cancer free”, so I joined the crew on this trip to Cabo Verde. On this occasion we scored perfect waves every day, and though I was not sailing, I had this great feeling of coming home every day exhausted and satisfied from filming, wanting just to eat and sleep. It is something you miss dearly when you are stuck in a hospital bed for months on end. Just the same as not having waves and wind for a while make the times when the surf and wind are up so much more exciting and appreciated.
Upon our return from Cabo Verde, I could feel a strong synergy growing between our crew of riders and cameramen. It was perfect. We found our flow, and that’s exactly what we needed to shoot the best footage possible. It’s not enough just to point and shoot when there is sick action, this flow is what is needed to get the atmosphere from each trip across to the viewers. That is what I feel is the most difficult, yet most important aspect of a sports movie production, and it felt like we were on the right track.
In Jeopardy Again
Not long after Cabo Verde I was thrown off track by fresh news from my doctors. The cancer returned. I was back into the flow of the hospital; operations, high-dose chemotherapy and radio therapy. Once again I had doubts about continuing the movie. I was going to be bed-bound for many months again, not able to film, and having to organize everything from the hospital. Nevertheless, the last successful trip from Cabo Verde kept my hopes high, so I decided to keep the movie going, cancelling my flight to Maui and sending Sebastian instead to get the footage we needed.
Trip after Trip
Packed with 150kilos of camera equipment, Michael Summereder (Sumsi) and Basti embarked on what seemed like a never-ending journey. They got to Maui just in time to catch Jaws on the famous 15th of March. We didn;t include any of that as it was all over the web. We wanted our movie to be different and pave the way with new footage. As you can imagine, that’s not an easy thing to do, on Maui particularly, as it’s the playground for most windsurfing film makers. Here our investments in some new techniques and technologies allowed us to create new looks and in the end score beautiful shots. That’s what we were looking for.
Maui always offers some good conditions, but most important for Minds Wide Open were the extraordinary moves that Marcilio Browne can stomp at Ho'okipa. The island also offers lifestyle footage that people have never seen before on film. Another great advantage of filming on Maui are the relatively cheap helicopter rides. We used our new Gyro Systems to shoot super-clean and stable footage while still being zoomed in on the action from the helicopter.
The next stop was a secret location in Egypt. Leading up to the trip things were looking grim. Gollito finished 4th place in Podersdorf which he was disappointed with, meanwhile Basti and Sumsi got overcharged for excess baggage flying down all the camera equipment. However when I saw the footage from their trip lying in bed it made me smile, especially the clip of Gollito doing a Flaka, jumping into shaka, jumping into shaka. What a combination!
The next trip was to Pozo in the Spanish Canary Islands. Sumsi went alone to film while Basti stayed back in Germany to start editing. Sumsi first flew from his home in Austria to visit me Hamburg and pick up all the equipment, and then off to Gran Canaria. The windiest place on earth delivered the conditions we needed, and we focused on filming jumping, especially Koester. We had a tough time booking the helicopter for shooting, but after 4 weeks of waiting for its availability during the right conditions we got the job done. Footage from Pozo looks really good from the beach, but I think from the air it’s something else; new angles and more radical. I was also happy to see that of the top 7 riders at the contest in Pozo, 5 were part of our Minds Wide Open crew.
