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Now In: Pete Crawford
Peter Crawford, Sailing Anarchy’s On the Water Action Shooter
If it blows in Key West, Reverend Petey will make sure the whole world knows it.
Note: Pete’s DVDs are available on his Penalty Box Productions page here at www.iniki.com. Not to be all commercial about it, but the Full Power Plus Ultimate Collection is a lot of perfectly legal fun for not that much $$$$.
How Pete shoots and why it matters for Sailing
Everybody’s talking about what a great sailing action shooter Pete Crawford is. I’m going to talk about why his work is potentially revolutionary for enthusiast/pro level racing. (Later, I will deny writing this; Pete’s confident enough already.)
When I first met Petey Crawford, he was a fast-sailing, party-lovin' Minnetonka guy who kicked around for a few years and then suddenly announced he was off to film school in California. Film school? Ohhh-kay.
Skipping ahead a bit, the Rev. Pete comes back to town and shares his idea that sailboat racing ought to look like actual racing, not like watching your kid’s graduation from 7th grade. So he uses digital technology to shoot simultaneously from multiple angles without worrying about pussy stuff like continuity, cuts it like a guy showing off a new Ginsu knife and adds his own brand of background music. No Aaron Copeland for the Rev, my friends.
And hot damn, it looks like racing. It really looks like racing, which almost no sailboat racing footage ever does.
It’s not like Pete is the only guy out there trying to do this kind of thing, but it turns out he’s exceptionally good at it. Before you know it, Pete’s knocked out a feature-length documentary on A-Scows that proves you can go very, very fast on one of those things, and an Ice-boating heavy metal reverie (my personal favorite) that’s like a Buddhist meditation for speed freaks. Then he shoots a very windy Melges 24 Regatta and Sailing Anarchy calls it the best Melges footage ever, or something to that effect. Suddenly, sailboat racing footage looks like something the ordinary person can get excited about--which, my friends, could mean lots of extreme sport attention being paid to what has historically been a pass-me-my-gin-and-tonic activity.
It’s great to see that Pete has hooked up with the SA On the Water team, funny smart people with a creative vision about wind sports and the will to get it done. I’m looking forward to Pete’s daily highlights which should be entertaining if it doesn’t blow, and downright breathtaking if it does. In any case, I hope you have a great time watching the Key West footage. It really should be the next best thing to being there.
Heather Fraser
Principal, iniki.com
Filmmaker,The Visionary, Street Gun, Thugs. (One movie, three titles. Long story.)
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