Tim Bonython

‘Encoded Porch Thoughts’

When you love what you do for a living and live your life to the fullest whilst doing what you love, then your time on earth would have to be considered to be quite peachy; and for some of those lucky ones, such as The Director of the AMAYSIM Australian Surf Movie Festival, Tim Bonython – life could also be quite beachy.

Tim’s beachy life began growing up on the ocean in Adelaide, South Australia. During his teens, when Tim first combined his childhood love for the ocean and his passions for surfing and photography, his surf filmmaking vision was born and he has since travelled the world capturing some of the greatest moments that an ocean can offer.

Over his 35 year career, Tim has filmed some of the biggest surfing names riding 50 foot waves in some of the world’s iconic, dangerous and remote surfing locations. Tim’s beachy life, talents and creative eye, has earned an international reputation as the industry’s best; having won two prestigious Awards at the 2013 New York Film Festival - for Best Feature Film and Best Cinematography for IMMERSION THE MOVIE.

Presented by GoPro, the 11th Annual AMAYSIM Australian Surf Movie Festival (2014) is currently touring Australia screening two amazing features, ‘Wild Australia - The Journey’ and ‘Encoded’ – both delivering pure exhilaration as surfers take to the oceans to verse nature in arguably the greatest playground for surf filming options - the Southern Hemisphere.

Here’s a sneak peek…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oJBjkaA40c

I caught up with Tim (on land), where he pulled up alongside the highway north of Sydney on his 1000+ km road-trip to the beach surf town of Noosa, where beneath a shady tree, he explained his independent film festival, ‘will be showing at 30 venues between every major surf town on the coast before returning to Sydney and showing in clubs, pubs and cinemas in Melbourne, Adelaide, Western Australia and Tasmania.’

For anyone who doesn’t surf or live the beachy life, why is summer the best time in Australia for the festival to tour?
Now is the right time for the festival because it is summer and people definitely have a lot of salt in their nostrils.

30 venues spanning across Australia is massive for any type of festival to cover. How are you managing to produce sell-out shows in some city locations and surfing towns?
We provide a total night out for everyone. We are not just about providing a film like when you go to the cinemas. We have two film festivals with two 50 minute halves. There is an intermission between films where we have a musician (Jack Dawson) playing a live acoustic set that is youthful and quite laid back, so people can still communicate. When we finish the music set, we go straight into drawing our amazing door prizes offered by our sponsors. I am the only person really doing this type of festival and I believe I have the right formulae. It’s a great night out.

Why are film festivals important to you as a film producer?
Film festivals are everything to me. From 1981 taking my first movie on the road to show people surfing movies on the big screen was the very beginning of what I have been doing all my life. It’s exciting and people love it. A lot of people come up to me at the end of the shows saying, ‘keep doing it mate, it’s fantastic.’ There is currently no other outlet for a filmmaker in surfing to make money. The whole world of making a surf DVD is done and dusted. The online market is yet to be conquered. There’s not a lot of money in selling films online, but that’s the future we are all looking to forward to. So all we have now is selling bums on seats in film festivals.

You’ve been doing this for 35 years and have since won accolades and major awards around the world for producing films. What makes your films different compared to a simple download clip from the internet?
We like to show something that is totally unique. Back in the day when surf movies were created on 8mm cameras, there was no such thing as videos or DVDs. Nowadays it’s all surfing on the internet and that’s all it really is. It’s mainly two minute clips that have a bit of crazy action to show-off what surfing is and different locations at certain times. They don’t have any stories attached.

So how are you creating stories to differentiate the two?
I like to create exciting moments in surfing and then create the story around it. I enjoy getting in there and dealing with it including the life and death scenarios – putting yourself on the line in this type of sport, just like any dare-devil sport where there is going to be a fear-factor and it’s going to be dangerous. What I like to do is show people is what big wave surfing is really all about, including all the raw elements that come with it.

Why are professional surfers important to your cinematography and to help you capture a great moment in the ocean?
A great moment for me is when I capture a big wave surfing athlete. Surfing athletes train for this moment and they rely on me as much as I rely on them. If I didn’t have the surfers I would be just shooting waves. I rely on them to make waves look really amazing. Waves look amazing when you’ve got a little dot charging down a 50 foot face and maybe getting inside that barrel.

Why do surfers rely on your work?
Big surfers just don’t just do it for the fun of it, they surf massive waves because they want to be discovered. It is paramount for me to get that on tape and to be able to show that footage to the world. This moment happened at this location and here is the footage it. Everybody goes ‘Oh My God’ that is amazing.

What is a recent example of that demonstrates the relationship between a surfer and a filmmaker?
This happened with Jamie Mitchell in the South of France a couple of weeks ago. Jamie is a Queensland Gold Coast surfer and is also a paddle board champion who can paddle the Molokai Channel in Hawaii and has beaten the world’s best 10 years in a row. He has now had his moment in big wave surfing where he caught a 50 foot wave in France. That moment needed to be captured and everyone wanted to see the footage. When footage like that goes out, if it goes viral, you can get as 2 million hits within a week. That’s footage is also available to the surfers and their sponsors which is important as the sponsor pay for the surfers to travel to those places.

What would you do when you capture a shot like that on camera in terms of your films?
For me, if I got that shot, I can actually make money further down the track. If I can build a story around it, that is exactly what I want. If I get that moment and the surfer gets that moment, then we are both happy. That’s what puts me on top of the world.

Surfing in Australia's oceans features in your first film in the festival – ‘Wild Australia – The Journey.’ How did Australia and other countries in Southern Hemisphere become renowned as big surfing destinations like Hawaii?
About 20 years ago they brought the Jet Ski into play for big wave surfing because they are not simple to find or determine whether they have the potential to surf. Jet skis will actually get into these locations and because the waves move so fast, it’s difficult to paddle a 20-30 foot wave and you need to be close. Jet Skis are so important in board wave surfing in Australia. Australia is now one of the biggest wave surfing playgrounds in the world, no just Hawaii anymore.

You invited the king of surfing Kelly Slater to join you in the film. How do you know when to pick up the phone to call your mates, in terms of predicting a massive swell to surf?
When I was in Shipsterns in Tasmania in April last year, I contacted Kelly and said, ‘there could be a swell going to South Australia and asked him if he was interested in joining us. We had been watching a swell develop on the bottom end of South Africa. We were thinking that swell may move across South Australia and it certainly did. Kelly contacted a few mates including Alex Grey from Los Angeles and I invited 16-year-old rising star Russ Bierke from Southern New South Wales. He came across and we all met up. That became the second story.

Australian oceans are notorious for sharks. Did they play any sort havoc for you?
This part of the world is beautiful but it’s raw. Raw tends to expose you to the elements such as sharks. They are there and well-fed, but if you cross their paths when they are slightly hungry, maybe that’s not the place to be. Kelly was definitely scared of what was underneath him, but he was more interested in getting towed out there. Towing allows you to be taken out on the back of a board, not just dangling your legs off the side.

How exposed are filmmakers to shark attacks?
The sharks are not too much of a problem for me because I’m filming on a boat or on the land. There are a couple of local photographers who document in the water and they are exposed to the sharks, but so far they haven’t been attacked.

Your second feature film in the festival this year is called Encoded that is part 3 of the your highly acclaimed Blackwater series about Teahupo’o wave located in the south western side of Tahiti. The wave was termed a Code Red in 2011 because it’s one of the most dangerous waves when it’s on. In 2013 it was termed a Code Purple on the maps which is a little smaller than a Code Red. What are the Codes and Maps?
As cameramen and surfer, we look at the weather maps that aim to predict these swells and the way these swells are actually predicted on a constant basis. We are looking at these maps on a daily basis to see what is coming and especially when it comes to autumn, winter and spring. Summer has a lot less happening when it comes to swells in the Southern Hemisphere. The Codes are in the maps and the maps are when you look at the swell maps they come in colours. Some of the most aggressive charts come with really dark colours termed ‘Condition Black’ and also codes such as ‘Code Red’ which were like the 2011 swells in my Immersion film.

What does Encoded mean in terms of the name of your latest film?
With all the codes on the swells maps and we were always saying, ‘Code Red’, ‘Code Purple’, ‘Code Black’, it really made me feel the waves are so encoded in our brains, the world’s most dangerous waves, let’s just call the film ‘Encoded.’

What is the story behind the film?
It’s a documentary about of how Teahupo’o has evolved and how the two amazing swells arrived back to back in a three week period. They both went to ‘Code Purple’ which was the high intensity of the swell. Last year I was there for 5 incredible days in two different trips to Tahiti, which I made the story from.

Why do surfers want to tackle a ‘Code Red’ or even a ‘Code Purple’ waves?
Everyone wants to ride the most dangerous, craziest and biggest wave that is out there. If there is a 100 foot wave and it is there, guaranteed there’s going to be surfers who want to become famous by riding that wave. If it’s rideable, people are going to want to surf it.

Over your amazing career, what is one thing you have learnt that perhaps future surf filmmakers can take on board?...(pardon the pun)
The most important thing is to have more batteries and tape stock than you need so you don’t run out. It’s pretty well-known that on a good day you are going to be shooting more than you expect. The worst thing is to not have enough battery power or tape stocks. Be prepared.

What is your Porch Thought For The Day?
“Being happy that I am alive. I am still living the life that I have always lived and really making the most of being part of this world.”