Julia Scott-Stevenson

Julia is a writer and researcher of all things documentary, and even dabbles in making them herself from time to time.

Dark Side of the Lens

09 February 2011 | 0:00 - By Julia Scott-Stevenson

I’ve seen a few surfing videos, which basically means I’ve seen them all – insert a few big waves and a surfer or two saying how blessed they feel to be communing with the ocean and how they’re constitutionally different from normal people who sit in offices, then chuck in either a stomping or chilled out soundtrack, sprinkle with a campfire or two for atmosphere, and hey presto, surfing film!

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Someone clearly forgot to give this rule book to the filmmakers of Dark Side of the Lens, a six-minute online video about Mickey Smith, a surfer and photographer (and also the director). It’s now up there with my all-time favourite online videos, partly because of its refreshing take on an over-filmed topic, but mostly because it’s just beautiful.

Smith manages to talk about his passion for what he does in an honest way without lapsing into the well-worn clichés, and Allan Wilson’s camera work is incredible. It probably helps that this is Ireland, not Hawaii, and so the colours of the ocean and land add a kind of weight to the film. I could keep talking it up, but just watch it and experience it for yourself.

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Comments (2)

01 Mar 2011 20:20 AEST

johnny

From: melbourne

dark side of the lens

Wow! the man is part seal. Wonderful, vivid, inspiring and real. Loved all 6 minutes of it.

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09 Feb 2011 20:25 AEST

Teenie

From: Randwick

Dark Side of the Lens

This is one of the best! I agree--but a little hard to hear his commentary in the middle as the beauty of the images and the music override his words. But the images are enough--and just brilliant!

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About this Blog

Julia Scott-Stevenson Julia is a writer and researcher of all things documentary, and even dabbles in making them herself from time to time. She lived in the Pacific Islands of Fiji and Samoa for a few years, where she made a documentary about the inaugural Miss Tokelau beauty pageant and a short documentary about climate change in Samoa, which screened at the inaugural Pacific Climate Change Film Festival. While in the Pacific she was subjected to limited internet connectivity, and was staggered to discover the possibilities in online documentary on her return at the end of 2008. She has since been making up for lost time by undertaking a PhD researching cross-platform documentary, and also working on a database documentary about volunteers. Julia is also on the programming team for Antenna International Documentary Film Festival.

 
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