MAKING WAVES
surfing, it’s long-lens stuff from the shore. You’re going for beautiful lines, to show the perfection of the athlete and the scene. But I didn’t want that, I wanted to take people inside the storm, to show them what it feels like to do what Thomas does.” THE CREST OF THE WAVE To capture the action, Pirie and DOP Will Billany opted for an ARRI ALEXA Mini with Meru Anamorphics (supplied by rental outfit One Stop Films in London), utilising a drone for aerial footage and Panasonic LUMIX GH5 for filming in water. “Kit-wise, it was minimal. We had a slider for a few shots, but mainly everything was shot handheld,” notes Billany. “We knew we wanted this to feel like a documentary, but heightened, and anamorphics seemed the way to go. “We landed on the Merus as they strike a nice balance between having plenty of character and remaining relatively sharp and contrasty wide
open. Having the ability to shoot like that was essential, given we were filming a lot of this with available light – and we needed to be able to work fast.” Because of the reliance on natural light, the team put hours into scouting the right locations (mostly around northern Spain), and planning exactly
what time they had to be there to capture what they were after. When they needed to supplement the lighting, they incorporated practicals into the frame – or a light that was unobtrusive enough that it could be taken for a practical. “We used two-foot Astera Helios Tubes for much of the lighting, and I
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