bleronk

Bleronk, twin brother of Tonyo in some previous shots. These guys are all smiles all the time. This session was really fun to be out in the water for. End of day, rain, and low tide fast little barrels at 66 beach. The current was so strong out there, though everything looks pretty calm here.

Looking at the camera: when I started on this film, I had this idea that I'd film surfers as they lived their lives, and the camera would be invisible. The surfers wouldn't be looking at the camera. That was my idea. I thought this would make the film feel much more genuine. More like sitting in on someone's life, seeing what its really like.

When you have a camera out though, everyone wants to look at it. So that right there makes my original idea sort of hard to pull off. The more you film with someone, the more comfortable they get with having a noisy camera pointed at them. But guys like Bleronk will look at the camera nearly every time I have it out. Every time they pass me by, even if we've been filming a lot. They have fun with goofing off and getting shots.

Somewhat to my surprise, early on when I started getting footage back I realized I was getting some of my best shots when people looked at the camera. If they were comfortable, and looked at the camera, their real personality just shined through. The shots had feeling and soul. I decided well, with this film, anyone can look at the camera any time and its ok.

The moment you ask someone not to look at the camera, they are acting. They have to consciously pretend you are not there. And therefore, you are no longer getting the real person. You have an actor in front of you then.

dusk

This was after an end of day session in the rain out at 66 beach in Bali. Young Diah from Seminyak was out there with some of the guys from Padma, surfing the left at low tide. Its mostly fast closeouts, and surprisingly heavy with a really strong current when its really low and there's enough swell. When we came in, Diah's grandfather(in the hat), was fishing with his net near the shore. He had all these little fish strewn about on the sand and Diah and him were combing through them.

There's an interesting juxtaposition of old an new along this stretch of beach. Out of frame to the right is a row of dance clubs that go off all night long, and the beach is often crowded with tourists. There are also a few local fisherman who come out at the end of the day and fish from the beach. Diah's grandfather would have lived through the rapid change that happened in his home village. What was once empty rice fields between their family's homes and the beach is now a maze of hotels, villas, shops, traffic, and dance clubs.

In this film frame, left to right, is Tonyo, Diah's grandfather, Diah, Demian, Bleronk, and Dylan.

raju vs blacky vs kadek

Not really sure what the rules are for three player chess. This was right before an end of the day surf in Padma. Brothers Tonyo and Bleronk are looking on. This frame is from an HD transfer, though I did downsize the image. Decided to include the full super 16mm frame in the transfer, and I love the look. I like seeing the dirty edges of the film gate. Seems to add a lot of character, and make it seem more genuine.

I'm doing my film transfers in Chicago at Filmworkers and Astrolab. Ryan Emerson is the colorist on this, and all the footage I've transferred there. Just want to give a big thanks to Ryan, Duke Shin, and Chad Rohrback. They've been awesome to collaborate with on this, and have really gone out of their way to help me out with this no-budget film project/dream. Thank you for believing in this project, guys.

Ryan invited me in today to see some of my recent footage projected in their theater, cinema quality digital projection from the HD transfer. After more than four years of shooting, this was the first time I've seen my footage on a big screen. I was so happy to see what it looks like projected big. I thought it looked beautiful. The super 16 bolex footage looks like a painting in motion when projected big. Like a pointillism painting in motion. I had been really unsure of how this footage would look projected in a theater...I had concerns it might be too soft, or just not hold up. It holds up beautifully though, and I'm excited about that.

jason lukas

One of the local boys getting barreled in Legian, Bali.

walking out

Bleronk cutback, East Bali

I'll never forget this sky. We had bakso(meatball noodle soup) here on the side of the road after a long day of surf in East Bali with the local crew from Legian.

Koming's house

Dom

dusk in Seminyak

Jason Lukas shot these photos on a trip we took together to Indonesia. We decided up front to shoot film for almost everything. It took Jason a while to get through all the processing and scanning. I'm really digging the results though.

Jason's work can be seen in person right now at Barbara & Barbara Gallery in Chicago(1021 N. Western)

His blog is here: http://myeyeswontfocus.tumblr.com

above photos ©2010 J Lukas

spray

There are three sets of local twin brothers who surf regularly along this strip of beach from Seminyak into Legian. They all rip. There's Deduk and Dedik, Bleronk and Tonyo, and Daniel and Damien. This is either Daniel or Damien, though I'm pretty sure it's Daniel. He kept flying down the line after I shot this.