MEET: MATT PAYNE

|| MATT PAYNE  ||

Pic by: Adam Ferreira

Field || Filmmaker

Age || 20

Resides || Huntington Beach, CA

Inspiration || Syd Mead, Quentin Tarantino, Joe G.

Years in the game || 1 year.

Equipment Digital/Film || Panasonic P2 HPX-170 & Minolta Autopak  D-10 (Super 8)

Projects (present) || Dirty Harry Series, helping out on ‘0000’ and Globe web content, Nike Chosen ‘Crew’ Video

Your Dirty Harry mini-clips are very refreshing. Not just your average one or two surf clips with a cliche indie/electro song running behind it, where did your inspiration come from for that? || I feel like surf videos can get stale sometimes. Lately, most aspiring filmmakers tend to latch onto one creative person in the industry, and just cannibalize their style and technique. That sorta trend mentality makes it easy to blend into the vast sea of content floating around on the Internet… For me, that really takes away from the sacredness of a surf movie. No more VHS tapes on constant playback with your friends huddled around a TV; it’s all about a hip web clip that’ll spike and die after the blogosphere is through with them.

That being said, I want my work switch it up a little bit by giving a fresh and fun take on surfing at home. I’ll grab from my various influences outside of the surfing world and create a style for myself that can hopefully standout from the cliché. Although my dream of bringing back the tangible surf video may be far-fetched, I’m aiming for my work to have an engaging feel so it flows longer than a ‘two minute quit-it’ webisode. I’d say my flicks have a throwback vibe to them with the Super 8 and all because I’m really into early 1980’s stuff right now. But I’m sure it’ll morph into something else with time… Really my main goal is give people the chills when they watch my mini-movies and get them amped to surf, just like my old surf video collection still does for me today.

I also feel like there are many avenues that haven’t been explored in surf films yet. Being somewhat of a movie enthusiast myself, I feel like there’s a lot to be translated into our industry from narrative Hollywood movies of the past. There will always be a place for the rootsy surf flicks, but it’s interesting to see what’s on the horizon as far as creativity is concerned.

Any surfers you are shooting with or have shot with worth mentioning? What is it that they do for you? || I really love shooting with my buddy Jason Harris. He’s got a great work ethic. He may not be a marketing manager’s golden child, but he keeps his head down and plugs away. Super open to my creative misfortunes as well, which is a plus.

Lately, I’ve also have been working a bit with Dane Zaun and few other dudes who ride for Globe Shoes. The whole gang is so down-to-earth and talented to say the least. They really put in the hard yards out in the water to put some substance out there for the lenses on the beach. It’s also super rad to have guys like Joe G and the crew showing me a thing or two!

Matt’s rant || There’s a definite give-and-take to the Internet… I’m critical of the web here and there, but at the same time I figure it has also opened up a lot of opportunities for the little guys like me trying to come up in the world. It magnifies the ‘do-it-yourself’ mentality and really rewards creativity in a way that films can be shown to a very broad audience online. It’s almost like those no-name musicians who record some tracks in their bedroom and then blow up and get a record deal, ya know? Not that I’m that dude by any means, but its cool to have some hope in pursuing your passions even if you don’t know anyone that’ll give you a boost.