Guerrilla Filmmaking

my friend ard has the below video posted on his site.

i saw it a long time ago and couldn't help but be inspired by viewing it again.  proof of what one camera and a little creativity can come up with.  i wanted to do some similar shots with tyler's roadster for One California Day but we were never able to put it together (above are a few of the original storyboards i drew to map out the sequence).  Chris Reynolds was going to help me mount cameras but we were worried about el gundo police, who tend to be bored and in large numbers... we were going to shoot early with no permit - much like the video below.  in the end, we were never able to find a day that tyler could help us get the shots- damn,  it would have been rad.

about the video - as ard matthews tells it:

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris early in the morning. The film was limited, for technical reasons, to ten minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit. The driver completed the course in about nine minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets.

Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested. He has never revealed the identity of the driver, and the film went underground. 

The Drawer

i have a drawer full of crap.  i suppose many of us have drawers full of crap.  if we were to analyze these drawers we could probably get a pretty good idea of the person behind the drawer who throws all their crap into it.  every now and then i try to go through this drawer and deal with said crap - the funny thing is, every now and then the said crap is actually a gem. my crap varies from receipts for projects i'm working on to a spaghetti tangle of fire wires, usb cables and iphone chargers, the odd drawing utensil, dv tapes, a lego bobba fett key chain (a gem) and a few undeveloped rolls of film - super 8mm and 35mm stills.  it is the film that caught my eye last time - unmarked, unnoticed, un-claimed.  i processed the 35mm rolls and realized that it was the last decent winter swell to hit the south bay.  i love finding gems in my crap drawer.  i wonder what's on the super 8

The Real Deal

people always ask me if tyler really makes all his boards by hand or if that is just the image we convey of him in the films.  well, i recently stopped by to shoot a few things in his glassing bay for a little project i'm doing and there he was... as usual, quietly building boards.  now when i say building, i truly mean building.  over the course of six hours i watched him jump between four rooms, sanding in one, polishing a second board in another, checking up on a fin he was setting on a third, taping a new resin layer on a fourth and patiently keeping one foot in the main room for the various groms who kept stopping by asking for advice on their equipment. zeke is the real deal.

then he was off on one of his triumph motorcycles to grab some lunch.  i absorbed the quite space and reflected on the isolation.  the resin fumes tweaked my brain into a rather even keeled state.  just me and 5 beautiful works in progress.  the silence was a bit loud.

zeke motored back and we talked bikes - i've been wanting to do a motorcycle film for a while - i've actually even tried to raise some money - tough economy to raise money in.  we then talked cars.  the factory looks more like a car repair shop these days than a surfboard factory.  he put on a pot of coffee and we chatted about different design ideas and logos as we looked through old magazines from the 1950's.

i don't know if i benefit more from seeing his work ethic or just the passion he puts into building new equipment.  either way, he is focused and inspired and it's contagious.  

i told tyler about an old jacobs i had pulled from my neighbor mike's rafters - maybe a '64.   it was dirty and hadn't been ridden for ages.  i told mike that a sweet board like that needed to be enjoyed.  he agreed and before i knew it, we were pulling it down and i was off to the beach.  it was a small but clean el porto saturday, tall paul was posted up at rosecrans and i joined him. the board worked really well for me.  i grabbed one set wave and high-lined through a one block section (that's a decent wave in these parts).  upon kicking out, an older guy on the inside, bearded and weathered, eye-balled the d-fin on the jacobs.  i could tell he was calculating from deep memory about what year the board was built.  he stared long, he stared hard - it kinda made me uncomfortable.  the ride had been good but i thought maybe i snaked his kid or something, then unexpectedly, a slight smirk pierced through his lips.  he gave me a head nod and the double -that's right count 'em kids - two - the double thumbs up.  an elder's respect for riding old equipment well, my day was made.  it actually made my month.

i tend to like these "plankier" heavy single fins that i can drop knee turn and speed trim through sections - like it or not, i guess i've fallen into the 60's mold of a south bay power surfer.

tyler explained to me that my style and ability to sink the tail forgoes my need for a lot of rocker on a long board.  he said, essentially, the rocker throws off my flow from sinking the tail, pivoting the board and shifting weight forward to gain speed.  that's why- in his mind, i enjoy these older boards- they suit my style.

it wasn't long before we excitedly discussed the possibility of building me a new tyler off these older design theories.  zeke is thinking something in the vein of a 60's pig - with a really nice tail outline, a bit pulled in around the nose - limited rocker, no concave, some belly roll and super clean round rails.  i was stoked.  the next moment was unexpected - tyler walks me "out back" and lifts up a tarp.  now i've spent 9 years of making two movies around tyler but i've never seen this little area... it is here that my heart stops - some 7 or 8 classic 60s logs lie in a patch of grass - it was really weeds but grass sounds more romantic -  a velzy, a hansen, a jacobs.  he pulls out that jacobs and says, "here- try this one out, see if the outline works - we can adjust from there."

as life goes, since tyler handed me that board, i've been too damn busy to ride it.  but alas, i will put that beauty into some surf and he and i'll will sit down again, with another cup of coffee and we'll draw out my new ride for summer.

more to follow.  

Spit Studio, Hermosa Beach

I was lucky enough to drop in on the SPIT studio opening for photographer Bo Bridges and Co. Bo's work is outrageously cool and his creative team has hooked up with David Carson, one of my print design idols.  Spit is part gallery, part creative firm and the boys put on a killer host bar event flowing non other than Primo Beer.  Talking surf, art, graphic design and Primo? hmmm... no wonder i had fun.  Not to mention that the girl in the skate shot above was serving the drinks. Cheers to the Spit crew on a seriously cool space - how often do you get to stand in front of a Teahupoo grinder and pretend you're Andy Irons getting pitted?  If you are anywhere near the hermosa pier, go by and check out Bo's photography. 

Jasonbaffafilms.com

JASONBAFFAFILMS.COM  is up and running.  This will be my central creative hub, with links to all the movies, my production reel, travel imagery and artwork.  I'll be updating artwork and videos often so please stop by and visit.

Docu. tour with Utada - queen of japanese pop

you may have never heard of "utada" but my guess is that you soon will.  she is the number one selling artist in japan - of all time!  she has broken all japanese pop album/song/music billboard charts and she is currently doing a marketing blitz in the US for the release of her new album and free video download on iTunes.

i'm about to get on a private jet with utada and her entourage.  we are headed east for nyc and miami - i'll post some updates soon.  my producing partner and editor of my films, one california day and singlefin: yellow - carl cramer, is along for the trip.  should be fun.

A visit with Danny Hess- SF, Ca

i had heard about danny hess through the malloys and his beautiful boards caught my eye at the wet sand surf shop in ventura.  later that year i shared some waves with dan malloy in front of keith's house and he was absolutely killing it on his hess shortboard.  he explained to me the parabolic stringer set up and the flex it generated through his turns - all this resulting in explosive speed off the bottom.  it was around the same time that dan got a surfer's journal cover shot riding the very same board at rincon.  

while spending a day in SF tracking down local glassers with brad gerlach, we decided to stop in and say hi to dan hess and crack a few Primos.  having spent a lot of time in shaping bays i was really excited to check out dan's set up.  meeting new people can go in many directions and we sorta crashed in on dan un-announced but with our case of liquid social lubricant in hand, everyone settled in pretty quickly.  this being one of the things i love about surfing, it never really takes long to relate on a really unique level.  i've also found that as a filmmaker, i really enjoy talking with other craftsman.  whether its a board builder, a contractor or an artist, anyone who's mastered a craft usually appreciates others who have dedicated themselves to something they do.  the process of having a creative vision, mastering tools to execute it, staying open to where the process might take you seems to relate well with filmmaking and to building surfboards.

dan's setup is as much a carpenter's wood shop as it is shaping bay.  tucked beneath an old SF home, two wooden doors open to a space filled with lumber, cork, saw dust, metal tools and the quite master craftsman himself.  when i saw all the wooden "hand guns" he is also making for bodysurfing i knew we would get along well.  my dad taught me to bodysurf when i was about 6 and my first love for surfing came from there.  no one was around to show me how to ride a board so i would just bodysurf.  i even made my on "hand gun" in mr. wydra's summer wood shop class.  i think mr. wydra gave me an "A" on the project but that's probably because dan hess wasn't in my class.  his stuff is unreal, functional art.

his hospitality was all time and his excitement for these sustainable wooden surf craft was infectious.  the stringerless hess boards are built within a wood/cork outline.  eps foam is then placed in the center and shaped for deck and bottom contour, wood panel sandwiches it all together with a final layer of 4oz glass and epoxy.

dan showed us a board he had ridden about 50 times and it looked pristine, literally, untouched.  the whole concept is sorta mind blowing.  he is utilizing recycled materials, organic materials and creates a product that is more durable than the competition.  finally, the damn things just look really f'n bitchin'.  

we had a great time chatting - and the beer disappeared pretty quick.  dan kindly gave brad a wooden "hand gun" for body surfing.  all in all it was one of the more memorable nights from our week on the road and i really want to thank danny for taking the time to hang and talk story.  if you want to check out his work you can visit

www.hesssurfboards.com