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LIFEISCOMPLETE
“COMPLETE16 HAS REALLY MADE SHOOTING ON FILM A LOT MORE AFFORDABLE FOR LOWER BUDGET PROJECTS LIKE THIS.”
INSIDE THE
t was a comment made by their IAfghan taxi driver on the way to Heathrow Airport that first gave
director Orlando von Einsiedel
and DOP Franklin Dow a hint that they might be in for a few surprises during their trip to Afghanistan. He said, “When you land in Kabul you land in a different world.”
“He was spot on!” laughs Dow. “As we descended, the sky was black save an intense stripe of crimson light across the horizon and below us was a stain of inky-blue mountains. It was truly stunning.
“Our wonderment soon slipped away, though, when we taxied past row after row of military aircraft at the airport. I distinctly remember thinking, ‘errrm, maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.’”
Einsiedel and Dow had a very specific reason for wanting to expose themselves to this kind of situation. In the depths of Kabul, a very unlikely project is maturing.
It started in February 2007 when Oliver Percovich, then a 32 year-old Australian traveller, arrived in Kabul bringing his skateboard with him. Touring the city on four wheels with his partner Sharna Nolan, the pair became aware of how their unique method of transport captured the attention of the local children, many of whom subsequently begged Percovich and Nolan to teach them to skate.
Thus, the seed was sown for Skateistan: Afghanistan, and the world’s first and only co-educational skateboarding school.
“The Skateistan project is quite magic,” states Einsiedel. “I first heard about it from a friend who was doing humanitarian work in Kabul and my ears immediately pricked up. My background is in action sports [Einsiedel was once a professional snowboarder] and for the last few years I have spent a lot of my career shooting documentaries about social issues in places experiencing conflict.
“So the idea of shooting some sort of skateboarding documentary in Afghanistan seemed like a perfect fit for me. I put in a pitch to the Diesel New Voices film competition organised by Dazed & Confused mag-
azine and somehow managed to win a bit of money. From then on in, it was a crazy rush to get everything in order and shoot the film before the snow in Kabul set in. “
Einsiedel and Dow had first met through a friend the year before, and finding a mutual admiration for the work of the other, Einsiedel invited Dow to collaborate on the project. “I often work alone,” reveals Einsiedel, “but I knew that to do this project the way I wanted to, I’d need someone with Frank’s talents.”
The way he wanted to do it, was to shoot it on film. Fortunately, Dow was in complete accordance with this choice.
“Even though I believe digital formats have their benefits, this documentary needed an organic look that you can still only really achieve with film,” Dow says.
“I’ve recently shot a few music videos on Fujicolor ETERNA Vivid 160T and I knew the stock would give us the vibrant, energetic look we wanted for the skateboarding sections of the film. It’s a lovely glossy stock with fantastically rich colours, ultra fine grain and beautiful deep blacks.
“We also wanted to set the intensely harsh side of life in Kabul against the joy that Skateistan brings to the kids and so used a second stock, the ETERNA 250D to facilitate this, with its softer more naturalistic feel. I knew we were also likely to shoot some dimly lit daylight interiors and so the speed of the 250D helped us out there.”
Balancing the desire for the film to have that “timeless” look of 16mm, with the parameters set by their small budget, might have proved tricky for Einsiedel and Dow, but fortunately the new Complete 16 film and processing package from Fujifilm and ilab allowed that extra financial breathing space for the pair to achieve their wish.
This scheme, which Fujifilm have set up with film processing laboratory and next-door neighbours in Soho, ilab, allows filmmakers to buy, develop and light transfer a 400ft roll of Fujifilm stock to any SD format for only £125 + VAT or for £50.00+VAT per 16mm x 100ft
roll. “Complete16 has really made shooting on film a lot more affordable for lower budget projects like this,” enthuses Einsiedel.
Both Einsiedel and Dow make it very plain that they have got more out of their trip to Kabul than just a documentary. As Einsiedel puts it, “all we see are images of war and unhappiness from Afghanistan. Because of this I went thinking that the place was hopeless and beyond repair, however my experience there completely changed my perspective.
“While we were in Kabul, I saw a lot of hope and a lot of green shoots. Clearly the country has a huge number of problems, but the media would do well to focus on some of the positives for a change.”
Indeed, good things are afoot for the intrepid filmmakers and their unusual subject in Kabul. The courage of the Skateistan project has captured worldwide attention and at the end of November last year, Oliver Percovich accepted an award for Non Governmental Organisation of the Year at the Peace and Sport Awards in Monaco, just a month after the doors opened on Skateistan’s new indoor skate
park, also Kabul’s largest indoor sports facility.
Grain Media, the production company set up by Einsiedel with colleague Jon Drever has several more documentaries on their slate, including one about the trafficking of child footballers from West Africa, and are also working on their first feature. “If, over the next 10 years, I’m continuing to spend most of my time working on projects like this, I’ll be a very happy man,” says a contented Einsiedel. NATASHA BLOCK
The Skateistan film was originated on 16mm ETERNA Vivid 160T 8643 and ETERNA 250D 8663 through the Complete16 film and processing deal. Visit www.complete16.com for full details. www.grainmedia.co.uk www.skateistan.org
Photos: shots on location and second from right; Orlando von Einsiedel and DP Franklin Dow
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