The October leg of our short film competition Zag Shorts presented by GoPro has come to an end, and once again there were plenty of amazing entries to stoke us out and keep the judges on their toes. However, after careful consideration, Leg 5 goes to Marck Botha’s Discovering Durban, which takes the win this month for its epic water footage shot entirely on a GoPro!
Mark Botha’s Discovering Durban takes the win for Leg 5 of Zag Shorts.
Other than Marck’s entry, there were a number of other films that impressed us enough this month to deserve special mention. In no particular order these were; Bevan Willis by Graeme Brunt, Reverie by Josh Rowe and True Colours by Alan Stuart. If you haven’t yet seen them, click on the above three links to check them out and see why we thought they were rad.
Alan Stuart’s True Colours documents the surf-art programme taking place in Cape Town to help improve wellness in the lives of children in underprivileged communities.
Leg 5 Winner – Why we digged it?
Synopsis – Simple: mission around Durban for an entire winter – armed with flippers and the latest GoPro – swim out in cranking conditions at some of KZN’s most beautiful breaks, paddle your ass off to make sure you’re in prime position at exactly the right time, then capture some amazing pits and string them together to make one epic edit.
GOOD: When it comes to surf videography, you can teach your parents or partner to sweat it out on the beach and swing a camera while you enjoy your session being captured. But it takes a bit more effort and knowledge of the ocean to swim out and capture anything decent – let alone mind-blowing. With effort comes reward though, and while technology has evolved – introducing drones, gimbals and other such methods to enhance filmmakers ability to capture a wave – water shots (when executed just right) are still the holy grail of surf videography. Marck’s edit is testament to this, putting the viewer as close to the action as humanly possible. And for anyone who’s paddled out in six foot-plus surf and tried to line up a perfect tube shot before, you’ll know the energy (and a bit of luck) that it takes to nail it.
BAD: It could have been preferable to choose an original track to compliment the footage. Go to the free sites or pay for an original song to compliment your edit.
UGLY: Nothing ugly about this video, at all. (Just needed to round the above two headings off to mimic the classic film, clever hey…)
For his efforts, Marck Botha joins Leg 1 winner Josh Rowe, Leg 2 winner Grant Hewitt, Leg 3 winner Tao Farren-Hefer and Leg 4 winner Grant Beck in contention for the grand prize to be decided at the end of January 2016. Go to zagshorts.co.za to view all the entries and to vote for your favourites for the November leg, which has just kicked-off.
* HOW THE VOTING WORKS:
Zigzag, GoPro and the public all have an equal say in determining the winner, with each contributing 33.3% of the final decision. For the fifth leg, Zigzag and GoPro voted for Discovering Durban, giving Marck Botha the lion share of votes.
