Kiteboarding is a magical sport for so many reasons. It takes you to places you could only dream about, allows for creative flare and personal expression, opens our eyes to nature’s elements, grows friendships and above all, is a lifestyle and a bubble ready for total immersion.
Noe Font, along with Tom Court, Craig Cunningham, Colleen Carroll, Stefan Spiessberger and Aaron Hadlow, life, breath and are kiteboarding. Acknowledging this, Noe decided that this way of life is something worth portraying and sharing through a feature length movie that’s in the making as we speak. There’s a lot of buzz around the highly anticipated “The Bubble” movie and we want to know more.
The visionary behind the movie, Noe – the youngest member of the crew – is firmly in the driving seat and passionately piecing together the project. Hunkered down at home in his editing suit, the guys at North Kiteboarding touched base to chat with him to find out more”¦
How’s the Bubble coming together?
Well, it’s coming. We started almost a year ago now and we had a good start with a couple of very productive trips. At the time we didn’t really know what the concept behind it was, so there wasn’t much pressure to focus on the narrative side of it. Everything started getting more complicated at the start of this year when we set a deadline for this summer. We had a very clear idea of what we had and what we wanted to get and of course all the trips started piling up. I’ve had a very crazy spring with so many back to back trips trying to link up with everyone, finishing my part and also thinking about the editing, music, styles, narration. I’m currently at home in a very dark room cutting it together. Hopefully, it will be ready soon.
What phase are you most focused on at the moment?
Editing. 24/7. I try not to over do it because you loose inspiration very quickly when you force yourself to do it. But at the same time I know I need to get it done so I’m behind the computer as much as possible.
Where has the project taken you?
Woah! Where to start? The idea of making a full-length film is something that we’ve always talked about with Craig, Colleen, Aaron”¦ And when the opportunity came about we jumped on it. The first trip for the movie was in Hood River last summer. From there it was natural to hit up the lagoons of Brazil where everyone got banger freestyle clips. Right after that I went home for five days and headed straight to Western Australia with Aaron where we filmed most of his part and some of my own. We were there over Christmas which was pretty weird and funny at the same time.
After Oz, I went home again for a week and then I was off to Cape Town for more filming with Aaron and the King of the Air. Right after that, we flew straight to the Philippines which was the first KPL event of the season following which we did ten days of filming with Craig, Colleen, Aaron and I. We were super unlucky that week as the wind disappeared. Then it was home again for a few days before hitting the Caribbean with Craig.
The original plan was to get more of us out there but trying to link up with so many people and different schedules sometimes doesn’t work. I was planning on staying home for the whole of May to edit and have the film done by early summer but none of us were anywhere close to having our own sections done.
We extended and kept filming. I flew to Fuerte with Tom Court and filmed his first few sessions post injury. Then I visited the WKL event in Leucate (France). I then did a trip to Turkey with Vincent to ride the park there and finish my section. From there I went back home and got some footage there as well. In the meantime, Stefan went on a mission to Greece since he didn’t get the chance to link up with me over the winter and shot most of his part there.
I’ve just got back from the US which was supposed to be a quick trip for the Triple-S, but I ended up staying longer to get a few sneaky clips after the event.
What have you learned along the way?
I’ve been fully absorbed in this project ever since we started talking about it. Every day and everything I’ve done in the past year or so has been towards it. I get inspired and come up with ideas in the most random moments and struggle to keep a notebook close by to write them down. Never in my life have I felt like my mind can’t retain and process all the ideas and things I want for the movie, for all the sections, parts, from the artwork, to looks, colors, styles, music, cuts etc. I’ve definitely learned a lot this past year, about myself, working with others, logistics, linking up, photography… life?
What have been the highs and lows so far?
It can get very frustrating with conditions when you put so much effort, time and money into making something happen. With our sport everyone knows how it is. You find yourself looking at the spot with no wind, thinking of all the tricks you could put down if it was windy. There are also the good times which I find in front and behind the camera. At the moment I’m just as pumped to get a trick on camera myself as I’m filming someone else get one. There have definitely been lots of highs, tricks, moments on the road. It’s been a crazy ride and it hasn’t ended yet.
How have you personally evolved through creating the project?
Spending so much time working on the project makes you see it all from a new perspective. For me, I haven’t been riding as much as I normally do which is fine, but I’m learning a lot about myself and keeping my level of riding without practicing as much. On the cinematography side of things, I can think of what I knew a year ago and what I know now and I still can’t believe I managed to persuade all these guys to make a movie with me.
How do you stay motivated through such a big project?
It can get very hard to stay motivated sometimes. I’m lucky to be involved on both side of the project, so when I’m over riding I can go film and vice versa. I’ve been on, I don’t know how many trips this past year, all of them for The Bubble. You can get burned out pretty quick. I can defiantly feel it now but it’s part of it. The other guys have had breaks in between trips or gone out to do other things, but it’s been non-stop for me since we started.
What has been the biggest support?
In times like these, there is content on the web left, right and center. People put out one minute GoPro videos every day and get hundreds of thousands of hits. It’s crazy! Which brings me to North Kiteboarding and the huge amount of trust they’ve given us to spend pretty much a whole year in the shadows working on this one big film.
I’m extremely thankful for that and the fact that we’ve had full control over the project right from the start. There is an endless thank you list I could make right now and I should probably start working on it for the credits of the film. But yeah, the riders every single one of them, my family, Vincent who’s been helping out a lot, Toby, those who’ve worked behind the lens on various occasions. There are so many people involved so thank you all.
Which section has been the most challenging and which has been the easiest?
They’ve all have easy and hard times. We all want our section to be perfect. But I realized not long ago that they’ll never be perfect and that’s what’s fun about it. We can always go back and make a better one next year, but I’m still going over and over changing the tiniest little things.
Tell us about the camera gear you’re using?
The movie is mainly shot with my Sony FS5. We’ve used everything from RED’s to Super8 cameras and everything in between. Expect many different formats and color ways.
