Separating one's self from the pack is not easily done, especially when you grow up a haole Hawaiian at Pipeline. But over the past decade, Jamie O'Brien's managed. He's the only person I know of to grace all three major American surf mags at the same time, has been touted as a "world beater if he cared," and now, after numerous victories at Pipe and two moderately successful movie projects, O'Brien is about to put himself in the spotlight yet again. With over three years of filming in the can, his latest project is already turning heads. We caught up with the man to see what all the fuss is about:
How's it going with the film?
It's long. It's a lot of work. We've been filming for three and a half years. We're trying to focus on getting quality waves, and not just doing one of those things where you take one surf trip and your section's done.
When -- if ever -- do you expect it out?
It'll be out October or November. We'll premier it somewhere in California, then probably get on the road and tour it around a few cities. Get in the Red Bull bus and go. Then it's back to Hawaii for the winter.
And from what I hear and have seen, it's not just about the waves, but you're putting technology to work. You've been using different equipment to film?
There's so much available now. This project's a lot different than my other two because I pretty much did those other two on my own. I'd get the footage and edit all at my house, and that was kind of it. But I have an editor this time around, and a great little crew around me, so all I've been having to worry about is the surfing. But yeah, we've been using some cool stuff. We've shot some stuff with the RED camera, some stuff with the P2 and the 7D, everything's HD. We've done some stuff where we've mounted a camera to a little remote control helicopter. We're just trying to have fun with it and get creative.
Besides doing it all yourself, how has your approach to movie making changed?
I think I've learned to take more time, to be more dedicated to seeing the vision of it all the way through. We've included more of a storyline in this project, and we're more aware of how the pieces are going to come together.
And regarding storylines, is there one?
The storyline is more about telling who is Jamie O'Brien ... that's why it's called "Who Is JOB." Basically it's all about showing the viewer how I grew up. We figure everybody else's movies are about how they were a golden child and everybody always knew they were going to be this or that ... how they were born with a golden spoon up their ... you know what I mean? It's like all you ever hear is, "Oh he was just a perfect kid." That's not how my life was growing up, so we're going to show that not everybody that surfs is a "perfect kid." It was hard growing up. I've been through a lot of stuff, and I came out better for it. I don't know, I guess that's kind of the storyline.
And besides yourself, who's in it?
Not sure yet. A lot of friends are tied up on the 'QS, so it's hard for people to come and film with me because I try to go places when I know the waves are going to be good, and that doesn't fit with everybody's schedule. In Bali I'll be with two filmers, we're going to stay there for like a month, and we'll just rock up, get into the groove and start surfing. We'll just see what happens.
For full report by Jake Howard:
http://espn.go.com/action/surfing/blog/_/post/5413027
Photo credit : RIP CURL
