Having Dane Reynolds make a movie for you is probs the biggest compliment a surfer could get. Marine Layer Productions, which is always Dustin Miller and Dane, and sometimes Jason ‘Mini’ Blanchard, is the world’s best where progressive surfing and understated editing is concerned. Past extended-player projects like Seen Unseen and Dane’s semi-biopic Thrills, Spills and What Not have been, depending on your tastes, really excellent.
So, when it was decided that MLP would create a film for Craig Anderson, the cheeks beneath those curls blushed a deep shade of crimson. Dane doesn’t make a film for just anyone, but Craig ain’t just anyone. Yesterday on his site, Dane wrote in his short, tongue-in-cheek lower-case: “yep, we’re working on a serious high action surf video featuring sir craig anderson. craig has been killing it lately at life and also at surfing and we’re honored to record it for everyone to view and cherish. currently he’s filming and we’re looking to release it early next year.”
Exciting! But, what does Craig himself have to say about jamming with surfing’s greatest?
Dane's promo artwork.
Stab: How does one initiate a joint venture with Marine Layer Productions?
Craig: It’s been in the pipeline for ages but we’ve kept it pretty hush. I don’t wanna have too much hype and have people expect too much from me. It was a kinda mutual thing. I think possibly the idea came from Quiksilver. We’ve been hanging out a bunch, doing a few fun trips and, yeah… I dunno, I’m not really sure where the idea came from. I remember someone at Quiksilver saying something about it, maybe something like Dane doing an ad on me or some sorta collaboration. Just to do something visually. Then, the idea sorta spawned into a movie. I thought it’d be rad, and Dane and Dustin were psyched, so… for me, it’s one of the coolest opportunities ever. It’s all really early stages but we’re all on similar wavelengths and all psyched.
Do you hand over your footage and get an end product back, or are you gonna be peering over shoulders in the editing bay? Oh, we’re all involved, we’re gonna work together the whole way through. It’s gonna be pretty cool. I’ve never done anything like this before, I’ve kinda just featured in Kai (Neville) and Taylor (Steele)’s movies. I’m really psyched on all the things that Dane and Dustin do.
The style of edits we see on Dane’s site kinda vary from gritty-art-house to crisp-and-concise. Which end of the spectrum can we expect? We just wanna do something fun and not too serious. But it’ll still be a clear, clean and nice-coloured surf video.
Backside finner in the Mentawais, by Tom Carey.
Does Dane come part of the package? Yeah he’ll be in it a bit. He was psyched to not be a huge part of it, as far as featuring in the movie. I’m psyched to have all my favourite surfers and people I’ve looked up to, or guys who’s surfing I appreciate. Like, I did a trip with Rob (Machado) and Dane to Chile, which was one of the coolest trips ever. There’s guys like Ozzie in there too, just guys that’re rad. And Chippa, Dion, guys like that. People that are good to be around. But, it’s hard getting people on trips these days. We’re working on it.
Who chooses the music? I love all the stuff that Dane’s into and I think we have pretty similar taste in music. So, we’re just gonna sit down along the road and also when it comes down to editing the film, and see what we come up with. But with genres and stuff? I don’t think about that. I like all types of music.
What’s it gonna be called? We’ve been tossing up a few names but still not sure. It’s so hard to pick a title. It’s gnarly. But, Dane and (Dane’s gal) Courtney have been putting a bit of time into it, I think. They sent through, like, six A4 sheets all stuck together, and they’d just written words on every sheet, hundreds and hundreds of words. There’s some pretty cool ones and some really funny ones. It’s super tough, but we’re closing in it. – Elliot Struck
The backside helicopter that made it onto the cover of Stab issue 57. Far, far slicker than your average. Photo: Matt O'Brien
