by braithy
Darcy Ward is a filmmaker from the Gold Coast. He started out as a photographer on the Goldie where he looked up to guys like Ted Grambeau, Trent Mitchell and Andrew Shield’s work. He moved into film making where Talon Clemow from OnePalm Media took him under his wing and mentored him on all things film.
He’s friends list is like a who’s who of modern surfing with Connor O’Leary, Mick Fanning, Noa Deane and too many more for this one little sentence. Darcy’s most recent work, The Set Menu featured Derek Hynd’s nephew, Louie.
Darcy had the idea of the Set Menu a few years ago, and it just festered inside him until he couldn’t take it no longer. A year was spent making it, and he travelled almost all corners of the globe getting the scenes he had rattling around inside his head and turning them into a reality. South Australia to Ireland, to Tasmania and then off to a far out wave in Sumbawa where he knew they wouldn’t see another human for their stay. And they didn’t.
The movie won Vimeo’s featured Staff Pick of the month, where it was only in competition with a few hundred thousand other features and it also appeared on Apple TV, it was also nominated for a whole host of other awards, and when Surfing Life caught up with Darcy we asked him about the film.
What were you aiming to achieve with the Set Menu?
I wanted to put Louie in locations where people haven’t been before. I wanted Louie to express himself. He’s such a dynamic person, he has few words, and then boom, he can spring to life and just drop the most knowledge about just about anything on you. He’s always blowing people away like that.
I wanted to convey that to the audience, but to do it without any dialogue whatsoever. Just capturing Louie’s facial expressions, the way he prepares to surf, then of course showcasing his surfing. He’s such a diverse surfer. He came second at the Single Fin (The Burleigh comp held recently where Joel won) and in the final he was on a borrowed board he’d never ridden before. That’s the kinda surfer he is. Any day on any craft he’ll just blow right up.
You don’t post much on Instagram, like everyone else. Why is that?
Social Media is an illusion, and I don’t want any part of that. I’m not into big noting myself, and that’s all Insta seems like it’s for.
Tell us more about the illusion of social media.
Like, someone can snap off 500 shots in a session at D-Bah, where everyone shoots. There’s nothing new happening there. They take their 500 shots in auto focus and they might get 4 or 5 keepers from all of that.
And what do they do with it? They race home and upload their best of their best to Instagram. What the fuck for?
Then you get someone like Shieldsy, who travels to somewhere where no one else is shooting, shoots a couple hundred shots and every one of them are a keeper. He comes home and sends low ressies (Ed notes: low resolution photos are smaller files for emailing) out to all the companies and surfers … then a week later he might post his worst. His Worst! He’ll post his worst shot from that session to Instagram.
Then some surf company guy looks at everyone’s Instagram accounts because they need a photographer for an upcoming shoot.
They see the first guy’s best of his best on his Insta, and then he looks at Shieldsy’s, or Trent’s (Trent Mitchell) and they’re kinda comparable. Like this guy’s very best isn’t more than a disposable social media post for a guy like Shieldsy or Ted or Trent.
So … surf company guy hires old mate and his autofocus because he does the job for about a grand less than what a professional will.
And it’s only when they’re all knee deep into the shoot that they realise this guy and his point and shoot camera just aren’t up to the job. It’s a bullshit industry in that regard. Everyone lowballing everyone, and everyone loses, because we’re not seeing the best of the best, the best guys aren’t getting paid and the end product isn’t the best possible product.
What’s next for you?
Well I don’t really want to tell you. Haha. I’m going to go away and experiment with some glass (Ed: industry speak for lenses) I’m after retro lenses and experimenting with them. I picked up one recently and I love it. I think it’s going to make me a masterpiece. haha
I’d love to make a movie with people who surf fast. Mick and Connor would be insane for that, and just go full remote off grid and get them surfing super fast somewhere. I got so many ideas for that. Right now though, I’ll try and shoot Connor in the lead up to Snapper (in March) and do a few bits and pieces around home.
