Oahu Showings for the Destination 3 Degrees Movie
Come join us on Oahu December 11 and 12 for our Destination 2 Degrees Movie screenings. We will be showing the movie on South Shore from 6:30 to 9 on Saturday, December 11, and from 7-9:30 at the Waialua Community Center in Haleiwa on Sunday, December 12. The North Shore screening is a part of the North Shore Surf Film Festival. Come check us out!
Destination 3 Degrees: The Movie
Thank you to everyone who came out to support our showing of the Destination 3 Degrees Movie at the Hobie store this past Saturday in Dana Point. We can’t tell everyone how much we appreciated your support, and now we are really looking forward to this upcoming weekend.
Destination 3 Degrees will be showing this Saturday at 8pm in Oceanside, California as a part of the California Surf Film Festival. Join the D3 Team for our film festival World Premiere event at the California Surf Film Festival in Oceanside, California on Saturday October 9 as part of the 4 day film fest! We are so honored to be invited to screen our film as part of this prestigious festival benefiting the California Surf Museum. The festival is dedicating this night to all things SUP with many companies from the community coming in to participate
Saturday Night October 9th
Grace Theater 102 N. Freeman st, Oceanside, Ca
VIP Dinner Reception at 6 pm With Preferred Seating
$25 for Calif Surf Museum Members * $35 for Non members
General Admission 7 pm $10 for Calif Surf Museum Members * $15 for Non Members
To purchase Tickets call 760-721-6876
World Festival Premiere of First SUP Feature Film
Destination 3 Degrees by Chris Aguilar
Starring Morgan Hoesterey and Jenny Kalmbach
Making The Movie
I had a tweet the other day where someone said they knew how hard we have been working on producing not just the movie but this whole trip. They were right. Since Morgan tossed this idea at me it has consumed the better part of a year of my life, and I have to admit to hint of sadness as the final touches are put on the D3 movie. It’s hard to say good-bye to a dream that has taken up most of your waking hours – caused tension with your job and even in my marriage. (I will never forget that phone call with my wife when I told her I would be gone another week and a half – that went over well). Behind the scenes the journey of 2TB of over 90 hours of footage being compacted into an hour seems almost impossible. Especially when you consider the amazing amount of things that happened to each individual along the way. Everyone definately learned something about themselves. For me, I came home changed. Some of the experiences of the trip taught me immense lessons about the kind of person I have been and who I want to strive to be.
In the moment of shooting and stressing about logistics, I forgot to really enjoy or take in each experience. But working on the film, I am reminded of different places I got to see and things I got to do. Most probably will only take place this one time in my life. If there was one regret that keeps coming up while looking at footage it was not shooting certain things. The start of the trip, I admit to being gun shy with the camera. I had never done anything like this before. It’s no excuse, but it is the truth. Eventually I got into shooting everything from us at meals to just getting coffees. With Morgan and Jenny, you kind of never really knew what would happen next.
How do you condense all of this footage, all of these little experiences into something that is not just a home movie of the Destination 3 team’s trip to Hawaii? It has been hard. A lot happened. The web videos focused on the fun of the adventure, but some real life, dangerous things took place out there. And in the movie, Jenny and Morgan finally have a chance in their own words to tell you about it. I cannot take credit for the story of the movie itself, only for trying to match pictures to their words. The result is a moving story about what is possible. Working on it has taught me to believe in a phrase left behind by my friend Darryl who passed away way too young of cancer – “Dwell in the Possibility”
Since coming home, I ended up locked in my room for months. The shock and reality of all that happened in the past year seemed to come upon me in one massive tidal wave. I came home with no job, the stress of my wife having to support us, and even a new apartment (we moved two days before I left for the trip). Not sure why I am telling you this – but so many have asked “where have you been?” and the answer is – crossing my own channel. The losses in my family, the stress of the trip, everything seemed to just catch up to me.
The challenge of this movie has been a daunting task since we came home. It has undergone change after change, story line after story line. It has not been easy. But to be at a place where it is nearing it’s final stages and we are planning premiers, I can now look back at all of the struggles - from finding sponsors – being on the trip and learning to get along with near strangers, to learning to truly “follow my soul” – it was all worth it.
Mostly because of what I learned what I was capable of doing and how far I am able to push myself. And also, probably more so, because of the friends I made along the way with whom I will always share a very special, unique bond.
Looking Back and Moving Forward ….
It’s been almost a month since our last channel crossing from Kauai to Niihau, which by the way, I do not recommend to anyone unless you feel like experiencing hell…but I will tell you all about that in my next blog! I am back in Kona and after taking a week off from paddling, I got back into it. I have a busy summer ahead with races and traveling so I didn’t have much time to rest and relax. I was back in the gym the day I returned, which felt GREAT at the time but left me aching for the next few days. After taking time of from paddling, it felt good to get back into it. It’s different training for sprint races after having done so much endurance paddling in the past few months but I’m enjoying not having to worry about going on 20+ mile paddles.
Next week is the Battle of the Paddle Hawaii. I’m excited to see everyone in the community and check out the race course. It’s going to be another great event and if you live nearby you should really come check it out! After that, I’m planning on competing in a couple of local races this summer, including the Molokai to Oahu race and then traveling to Europe for a couple of races there.
Looking back on what we did in April, it still hasn’t fully sunk in. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I am so excited to have been a part of it. We worked hard for so many months to make it happen and the best part was seeing it through and successfully completing what we set out to do. It would not have been possible without the help of sponsors, friends, family and so many others who supported us throughout the adventure. I will never be able to express how grateful I am to every person who played a part in making our trip a success but I want to say THANK YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Putting together a trip like this is not an overnight process and it took months of e-mails, phone calls, skype meetings, brainstorming etc to make it happen, but most of all it was largely due to the people who believed in us and our crazy idea and said yes. I have come away from this realizing that it does not matter how many times you hear the word “no”, you keep trying and if you believe in what you’re doing, someone will say yes.
Thank you to everyone who believed in us and said YES
Paul and Cassandra
Brazen Hazen Kona Coffee
Gordon and the team at Horny Toad Clothing Co. and MFA.
Curtis at Dakine
Hilton Hotels
Karen and Jeff at WetFeet
Michi at Naish
Joe Bark
Thank you to these great companies:
Pelican, Kaenon, Sweet Waterwear, Tiem, Watermans, 2xu, Vertra, Surf Stronger, ACR Electronics
Pure Paddles, QuickBlade, Del Mar, Infinit, OnIt, H20 Audio, Rite in the Rain
Our Wonderful Captains:
Mike, Nue & Earl – Big Island to Maui
Layne – Maui to Lanai, Maui to Molokai
Mickey & Kawika – Molokai sea cliffs
Jeff & Matt – Molokai to Oahu
Scott, Matt and all of the crew from Maggie Joe Charters – Oahu to Kauai
Steve G. – Na Pali Coast
Peter, Scott and Linda from Bubbles Below – Kauai to Niihau and Lehua Rock
Thank you to the Koppes and Garfinkle families for generously loaning us your boats!
Thank You To:
Pat Caldwell, Wayne Schaut, Jack Gillen, Reid Inouye, Jerry Bess, Barrett Tester, Odie Sumi, Pete Stirling, Chris Wyman, Katie Beers, Mary Edmonds, The Trout Family, Danny Haserot, John Immel, Jared Vargas, Nichole Madosik, Jeff Dietrichson, Stacy Spilman and Sanja Du Plessis.
To my family for showing me the beauty of following your dreams – Fortuna Favet Fortibus.
To Our Support Crew:
Ryan – worlds best boyfriend (biased? no way), board caddy, EMS, cook
Gregg – photographer, board caddy, joker, fisherman
Anders – board caddy, Swedish meatball maker, chauffeur
And a Final Thanks To:
Morgan – For dreaming up this crazy adventure
Jen – For the creative writing, proof reading, support
Chris – For filming and editing throughout and working hard before, during and after and most of all, for putting up with 4 girls.
Shannon – For the beautiful photographs
And of course thank you to all of our fans who followed us, whose comments motivated us throughout the journey and those who donated to our cause, Algalita Marine Reseach Foundation.
Thank you for being a part of our adventure!
Jenny K.
It Always Starts With Music
Music runs deep in my family – my father was a musician, my brother is a producer and musician, and my sister (a scientist) plays seven classic instruments. Me – I was born completely tone deaf. But I love music. If I had my way, I would have been a rock star. But God has a funny sense of humor. With all of this, it is no surprise that for me, when editing, it always starts with music. And I digest as much music as humanly possible.
If there is one question I get asked it is about how do our videos capture so much emotion- my response – it starts with music. Sometimes I will be driving in my car and a song will come on and I will just “see” how it will line up in a time line and what kind of footage will go with it.
Most film schools and books on film making ask that you shoot first and score later. I have to admit, that is really the best way since it makes life easier on shooting and editing. But for event videos like Battle of the Paddle or even a session video (like Chuck Patterson’s that I just finished) the song comes first. The songs drive how I edit. The goal being to edit cuts into the movement of the song to create a flowing work. I personally get a little fidgety watching videos that are not cut to beats. It unsettles me and takes me out of the viewing experience.
One great example of music coming first was The Battle of the Paddle “quick edit” – I went to Dana Point with four songs that inspired me and a plan to pump something out that night. Going into a shoot with some songs in my head gives me a rhythm to shoot to. Thus, the whole shoot from start to finish is shot with a specific beat in mind. It is kind of a crazy process but for me it is the only way that I know how to make videos.
Some of the places I find good music- soundtracks! Soundtracks are full of rising and falling thematic tunes. Friends! I would say that every other person I know is in a band or is a musician and they have all kinds of great music that they want to share. My brother is actually a HUGE musical resource since he plays with about everyone in the LA area. Lastly, Pandora radio is the best thing since sliced bread. I have created multiple stations based on musical styles where I can hear some up and coming bands who may be willing to license me music.
Probably the band that has influenced how I edit the most is Explosions in the Sky. They are a post rock band that creates amazing soundscapes. All though I could never afford them for an actual DVD project – their music always inspires me when shooting and editing.
Coming from a family of musicians, music is really deep in my soul. Thus, at times when shooting, you will see me with my ipod listening to the same track over and over looking for things to shoot to that specific beat.
Every creative person has their own process. What works for me will defiantly not work for someone else. So all of the little tips and tidbits I write are just things that I do to make my little world work.
First and Last Outing with the Flip Camera
After two days of shooting here on the Big Island, we lost our first device. The Flip Camera. It made it’s maiden voyage on Thursday when the group went for a snorkel session here off the big island and I brought out the Flip to see what it could do.
Seriously – I spend ALOT of money on housings – none of which work. And I am really, really, really wishing that I could find a housing company like SPL, North Shore or Del Mar willing to sponsor me as I just cannot afford upwards of two thousand dollars for a good surf housing. So I was a bit skeptical that anything good could come out of a $150 camera and a $50 housing.
Seriously, just using the flip is actually a lot of fun. The camera just looks and feels like fun. Which is far from how holding a V1U or other pro grade camera is. There you are messing with things like iris, shutter, etc.. but the flip is using all auto pilot so you have no control over what you are shooting. But then again, it is HD for less then $200. As you can imagine, dark spaces are bad with this camera. And to give you an idea of how dark, shooting inside of a car rendered some really grainy, noisy images.
But once in the water, the camera was actually pretty impressive. Sure, it is not housed EX1, but for a small, easy to use, point and shoot camera it is a lot of fun. It never fails that when shooting in a tropical environment your housing will fog up. It is a matter of the green house effect – warm sun, colder water = foggy housings. Maybe it was the tight space of the housing. Or maybe just luck of the day. But even after taking the camera out of the water, it never fogged.
The picture is really similar to anyone who has used a Go Pro. Because of the high compression rates things look a little “shaky”. But again, HD under $200 – it’ll work. Battery life is really great, I shot for an hour at least and the camera was still running strong.
Hooking up to the computer was really simple and I did not bother with all of the Flip software – the macbook saw it as a drive and I just copied the folder containing the clips to my hard drive. The flies are M4P ‘s (mpeg4 H264) which again, are super highly compressed HD. The images do not have the depth you would expect to see from a higher quality camera. But again, HD – under $200 and a housing that does not break the bank. It works for the price point and delivers what I would expect to see. Plus (I hate repeating myself) but just the look, feel and use of the camera is well – Fun! It just feels like a lot of fun.
The problem came the next day. After feeling pretty good about the FLIP and knowing that to make it work, I really need to hold it steady (a challenge with the small form factor and trying to shoot free diving and snorkeling) to get a good shot. We arrived at our next location, and I took out the FLIP; powered it up and hit record – nothing. I restarted the camera. Nothing. I removed the battery. Nothing. The camera powered up but all of those buttons I relied on the day before were all useless. The camera was useless. A major let down since we had found some swim through spots and some of the clearest water I have ever seen. A major loss and disappointment.
The Destination 3 production body count has begun – one Flip camera is down due to technical problems with the device. At least it was not due to being lost at sea!
Would I get another one? I all ready have. And believe it or not, it was cheaper to order it over night shipping from Amazon then to purchase another one here on the island. I am hoping that I just got a lemon and that my second Flip will not die on it’s second use!