Liquid Time
Liquid Time is an
avant-garde surf film featuring perfect tubing waves,
created by boat wake, breaking in the shallows of a
river. The 20-minute film received the Cinematography
Award at the 2004 Saint Jean de Luz
Surf Film Festival.
Buy Liquid Time VCD for $19.95
Film reviews:
"It's
hypnotically fascinating. The slow movements of the lip
coming down are just mesmerizing." - Paul
Witzig
"Mind-boggling! I must say I don't think I've seen a
film that is so beautiful. If there were Academy Awards
given out for photography, editing, concept and music in
the surfing arena, Liquid Time would take the lot."
- Alby Falzon
"Fascinating! Those microwaves break new ground in
surf film. The music, the complete camera techniques. A
superb job." - George Greenough
"Damn it, man. You've made something so
beautiful." - Jack McCoy
Digital technology has allowed the
surf movie to enter a new realm, writes Murray Walding.
In 1964, The Endless Summer, by Californian movie maker
Bruce Brown, surfed its way into our collective
consciousness, breaking surf-movie, boxoffice records
wherever it showed.
In Melbourne it premiered at the Brighton Dendy, and ran
for six weeks. It was full of giant green curls, bikinis,
bonejarring wipeouts, Hawaiian sunsets, and dodgy humour.
And against all this stunning imagery, Brown set a
magical soundtrack by surf band the Sandals. Brown's film
also included a segment that defined the term "the
perfect wave".
In South Africa, Brown and the two surfers who
accompanied him, Mike Hynson and Robert August, stumbled
on an unknown surf spot in the lee of Cape St Francis on
the south-east coast. Here Brown discovered a flawless
one-metre tubing wave that he claimed broke with perfect
shape for 360 days of the year. (It took surfers years to
work out that Brown had used more than just a little
poetic licence.) in fact, good surf is rare at Cape St
Francis. Nevertheless, because of the film, the area
became synonymous with perfection and remained so until
boards shrank to their present size, and the idea of wave
perfection became hollow, rugged and unpredictable.
For the next three decades surf cinematographers tried to
emulate Brown's vision and bigbucks success, but by and
large, his impact has never been matched.
But now that we have reached a new millennium, digital
technology has revolutionised surf movies, and northern
New South Wales surf cinematographer Monty Webber has
come up with one of surfing's most unusual films.
Liquid Time captures the most perfect waves ever seen on
screen, better than Brown's Cape St Francis beauties, but
there's a catch. These waves are impossible to surf, and
not because of the threat of sharks, or impossibly
shallow coral reefs, but because Webber's waves are
miniature, less than 30 centimetres in height.
They are, you see, boat wakes. These tiny waves peeling
down the shallow sandbars of the Clarence River on NSW's
north coast, are created by the wake of a chugging
fishing boat. The footage, which took two years to
compile, also features views from inside the breaking
tube.
So, how does Webber get his camera inside the tube of a
wave that reaches just above his ankle? He simply walks
along the sandbar, holding the boom-mounted lipstick
camera in the throat of the mini tubes.
Using digital technology, Webber has slowed his footage,
creating a mesmerising vision of waves that appear to be
molded from luminous Aeroplane Jelly, and Liquid Time's
sense of the surreal is heightened by its soundtrack.
Eschewing the current vogue for punk thrash or retro surf
music that characterises modern surf features, Webber has
chosen to use cuts from Tim "Love" Lee, a
London DJ who gained fame as keyboardist with Katrina and
the Waves, and his trancy soundtrack enhances the dreamy
cool of these tiny waves, and helps Liquid Time take surf
movies into a more cerebral realm.
CREATING WAVES The Age
In his staggering, mesmerizing new
film, Australian Monty Webber reveals that the world's
most perfect waves are only five inches high.
Monty Webber: It goes right back to when
me and my brothers were young and we saw Endless Summer
and its search for the perfect wave. We used to make
these little sandbanks down in this back bay and watch
little wind swells run down them.
Paul Witzig says: "It's
hypnotically fascinating. The slow movements of the lip
coming down are just mesmerizing."
Monty Webber: Filming them, well ... it
was like they were just little jewels we'd dug out of
some un-mapped mountain and now we had to work out what
the hell to do with them. Rather than inter-edit them
with actual waves, we decided to go mad and photograph
them from every conceivable angle and find a really great
piece of music and try and make an artwork of it.
Alby Falzon says: "Mind-boggling! I
must say I don't think I've seen a film that is so
beautiful. If there were Academy Awards given out for
photography, editing, concept and music in the surfing
arena, Liquid Time would take the lot."
Monty Webber: About this time I showed
George Greenough and he just said, "Look you've
gotta get a little camera inside the tube." We had
already talked about this, but once George had told us we
had to do it, it really meant we had to do it. I thought,
wow, that's easier said than done, we'll need a little
mini George Greenough knee-boarder with a camera strapped
to his back. We ended up making our own perfect little
waves and getting the camera inside the tube.
George Greenough: "Fascinating!
Those microwaves break new ground in surf film. The
music, the complete camera techniques. A superb
job."
Monty Webber: There's a combination of
things that have to come together to make it work. Not
the least of which is that you've gotta have a really
still day. You've gotta have the current running the
right way in the river. It's gotta be the perfect tide
for the sandbank you're working on, for it to tube, I
mean right down to the very viscosity of the water. Like
if it's been raining and it's really thick water-like you
know, when sometimes you go out for a surf and it's been
raining and the water's really heavy, there's too much
fresh water and it doesn't tube properly-there's things
like that.
Jack McCoy: "Damn it, man. You've
made something so beautiful."
Monty Webber: My passion now is to try
and make these waves big enough to be ridden. Really
perfect, really long waves that break around this islet
of sand. I mean, can you imagine it? Designing waves. Not
just boring waves, but tubes that bend and warp and have
fast and slow sections-the only limit is your
imagination.
Monty Webber's Liquid Time ain't
no novelty. It's perhaps the most in-depth look at the
breaking wave ever captured by a human being, and on top
of that, it's absolutely be-yood-aful. It's caused a
magazine such as this, which normally distances itself
from the excesses of hippy babble, to be floored with
words like "mesmerising" and
"hypnotic".
"What's been the inspiration for this? It goes right
back to when me and my brothers were young and we saw
Endless Summer and it was like the search for the perfect
wave. We used to make these little sandbanks down in Rose
Bay, in the harbour back from Bondi, and watch little
wind swells run down them. Fast forward to two years ago,
I was driving into Yamba and Greg was flashing his high
beams at me from behind and he was in a mild frenzy and
he said (lowers voice). "Do you want to come and
film the most perfect little waves in the world?"
And I looked at him and was like, "Oh no ... he's
finally gone totally insane." But in typical Greg
fashion we went out and came back with some of the most
incredible shots we had ever seen, some of which are
actually in the final edit of Liquid Time. But at that
stage it was like they were just little jewels we'd dug
out of some unmapped mountain and now we had to work out
what the hell to do with them. Rather than inter-edit
them with actual waves we decided to go mad and
photograph them from every conceivable angle and find a
really great piece of music and just try and make an
artwork of it. About this time I showed George Greenough
and he just said: "Look, you've gotta get a little
camera inside the tube." We had already talked about
this, but once George had told us we had to do it, it
really meant we had to do it. I thought, wow, that's
easier said than done, we'll need a little mini George
Greenough kneeboarder with a camera strapped to his back
to do it. Atually (sounding upbeat) I got a friend up
from Sydney with a lipstick camera in a housing, and
without giving too much away, we ended up making these
perfect little waves and getting the camera inside the
tube and tracking alongside the tube.
Is it tricky?
Yeah. there's a combination of things that have to come
together to make it work. Not least is you've gotta have
a really still day. You've gotta have the current running
the right way in the river. It's gotta be the perfect
tide for the sandbank you're working on for it to break
and tube. I mean right down to the very viscosity of the
water. Like if it's been raining and it's a really thick
water - like you know yourself when sometimes you go out
for a surf and it's been raining and the water's really
heavy, there's too much fresh water and it doesn't tube
properly - There's things like that.
That knowledge must be ...
Yes, we've studied all of these causes and effects, my
passion now is to try and make these waves big enough to
be ridden, in a controlled environment. For the first
project at around two-three foot. Really perfect, really
long waves that break around this island, I mean can you
imagine it?... designing waves! Not just boring waves,
tubes that bend and warp and have fast and slow sections.
The only limit is your imagination. In the designs so far
we are drawing on all of our surfing experience, but for
the moment the Desert Point into Speedies section is my
favorite. It's just a matter of physics to make the waves
bigger and money, the great unmentioned.
Reactions so far to the film?
So far it's been amazing. You know I only did a couple of
copies and being up here I've got a great PR man like Nat
Young who I gave a copy to. So he raved about it, he was
really excited you know. He said it was the most
beautiful thing he'd seen for a long time. So he showed a
few people, Rod Dahlberg ended up with it, then he gives
it to Gordon Merchant and Gordon just loved it. He was
like. (almost laughing) "You've made something
really really special. You know it's hard to come up with
unique images nowadays and you've obviously done
that." And Jack McCoy and Greenough?
Jack loved it. I could've retired the day I got the call
from Jack. First thing Monday morning he's rung up and
gone (loud American voice): "I love it!" And I
was tempted to say "Jack, can I get that in writing!
I need it framed on my wall. I'm retiring!" And I
mean it's pretty hard to blow Jack away. Especially with
no money and a handy cam. And Greenough ... he was a
classic, "Hey Monty, those Microwaves are
cool!" (laughs) He was stoked. He finds it
fascinating I think in the same way we do. It's a cross
between Gulliver's Travels and Endless Summer.
Your goals with the film?
I'm really happy for people just to see it. With
something like the 20-minute film on the mini waves it's
obviously more of an artistic endeavour than a conscious
surf-film effort for the market place. I'd really love to
see it on the big screen, but what's happened is I've
edited it to this amazing piece of music by a Pommy guy
named Tim Lee, and then after the mini-wave movie there
is four songs of actual surfing footage which I've shot
over the last year-and-a-half or so, some nice fish-eye
water stuff and a bit of your typical surf vid
state-of-the-art ripping. Mick, Taj, Kelly, etc. So
there's the 40-minute VHS and then the 60 minute DVD with
the Bonus section which is the best of Rise, my last
movie, which is Mick Fanning and Joel and Rasta and Trent
and even MP winning the '77 Stubbies, all rock solid,
really strong Australian surfing. So they're the products
I'm actually selling. But ideally I'd like to see the
mini-wave film in an art-gallery context where it's not
even necessarily a surf related film. It's a film about
the bizarre movements of water on this classic planet we
live on. That place where the water meets the land, that
dynamic, that ultimate place where a surfer either wants
to go to, or at least watch. Another landscape of perfect
waves that has gone undocumented for all this time. You
know it's just a total mind fuck and I really like that.
Your filming background?
Well, my brothers (John and Greg) and I started shooting
Super 8 in the early '70s. I mean we were classic kids
who just got blown away by Endless Summer, and then my
uncles got involved in a project called the Yellow House
in Kings Cross, which was where George Greenough showed
some of his early stuff and we saw Innermost Limits of
Pure Fun when we were kids, all this weird camera
placement stuff, and it just blew us away. Then we saw
Morning of the Earth just after it came out ... you know
that changed everyone's lives for ever. It laid down a
road map of how we were meant to live, you know. Paul
Witzig's film (Evolution) obviously had a huge impact as
well. I just loved the way those guys work with colour
and light and reflections and water movement.
What do you think the outermost limits of pure
fun could be?
The maddest thing me and my brother John - an
award-winning landscape architect - have come up with is
to design a future city of perfect waves. A place where
you surf your way down to the shops or off to friends'
places. Perfect waves breaking everywhere and everybody
really well tubed and happy. I honestly don't think you
can overstate how good it is for people to get barrelled.
It will be the new opiate of the masses! (laughs).
MIDGET BARRELLY,
AUSTRALIA'S SURFING LIFE
This is one of the coolest movies
I've ever seen. I don't want to give away the
surprise in store for anyone who will be lucky enough to
see this, but it's amazing. I hope you just trust me and
get this movie. I showed this thing to Benji and Jay
Larson. They sat there in awe for the whole thing. They
were so tripped out by this movie, they couldn't control
themselves. Benji walked out of the office with a weird
glaze in his eyes, and Jay just crawled under the table
and pondered life. Please do this now and your life will
be better.
-C.C.
Rating: Trippingly awesome!
"It's a cross between Gulliver's Travels and Endless
Summer."
monty.webber.net.au
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