PHOTOS: Respondek
Craig Anderson just wrapped up filming for his new film Slow Dance, which is being produced by Craig and the Marine Layer Production team, which includes Dane Reynolds and filmmaker Dustin Miller.
The other day Craig officially wrapped filming in some small waves at home with Chippa. They had a beer and called it. Now it's off to the editing bay. We caught up with Craig briefly as he thought back to the months of filming.
The full interview with Craig and more photos are after the jump.
WHAT YOUTH: NOW THAT YOU'VE WRAPPED FILMING, YOU STILL GLAD YOU SIGNED UP FOR YOUR OWN FILM? CRAIG ANDERSON: I’m definitely glad I signed up for it. It’s been a really cool journey making a film. Especially with the crew involved. It’s kind of like for the guys that compete want to be on the world tour and win titles and shit, I guess for myself as a freesurfer this is probably my world tour win or trophy: the finished film. I never thought when I was growing up that I wanted to make a movie — or it was never a real goal but it happened and I’m really stoked. Nothing in life is easy. And I went into this knowing that, so I knew what I had signed up for. Usually I’ll get a handful of waves in a Kai Neville or Taylor Steele film, but now I’ve had to try to fill up 30 minutes of footage (not all me), which is still a lot for me. I fall off all the time and nothing is ever smooth sailing. I’ve never sailed before but I’d imagine seas get rough all the time. Working on this has had its ups and downs. A lot of of ups, a few downs. I guess I always try to remember the good times though.
WHAT'S IT BEEN LIKE WORKING ON A CREATIVE ENDEAVOR WITH DANE? It’s been amazing to work with all the guys like filmers Beren Hall and Dustin Miller, who are just amazing humans and very talented cinematographers. Before this project I didn’t even know Dane at all and its been rad to see how he operates and get to know him. Apart from him being a really good surfer, I think creatively he has amazing vision. I think in the past he hasn’t been represented the way maybe he would of liked to see, which is why he’s taken a lot of things on himself. So it looks and feels how he wants, learning all the editing programs, Photo Shop etc. I also think its made him pretty sensitive on getting all my thoughts on things too. But a lot of the time I don’t really know what I think.
THINKING BACK ON THE LAST ONE YEAR, WHAT STANDS OUT? I like South Africa. I spent close to two months roaming around. I grew up there and I still call it home. I’m comfortable there, I have a ton of friends and family and I think it definitely gave me its blessings of waves for this film. Europe on the other hand was soul crushing, we did one “stitch up” trip where we drove all around Italy and Portugal looking for waves and it didn’t work out.
HOW WAS YOUR LAST TRIP WITH OCCY AND MATT HOY? That was the last trip for the movie. I’ve always found those iconic guys very interesting. I guess they are the heroes you grew up watching, they have so much personality and style — amazing stories, they are just real human beings, not trying to impress anyone, not biting anyone’s shit, they've done that for decades, same with Ozzie and Rob who have surfed on other trips with me. They are my favorite surfers and the stories are too unbelievable to be told.
FAVORITE BOARD YOU RODE OVER THE COURSE OF FILMING? IS IT STILL IN ONE PIECE? I enjoyed riding a Hypo Crypto 5’4” made by Hayden Shapes. I’m actually not sure how it’s still in one piece, but its old and yellow and is still my favorite board in the stack.
