arrow-right cart chevron-down chevron-left chevron-right chevron-up close menu minus play plus search share user email pinterest facebook instagram snapchat tumblr twitter vimeo youtube subscribe dogecoin dwolla forbrugsforeningen litecoin amazon_payments american_express bitcoin cirrus discover fancy interac jcb master paypal stripe visa diners_club dankort maestro trash

Journal

Royal Motel Room

Royal Motel Room

Story by writer/surfer: Margaux Arramon-Tucoo

Photos and Video by: Matty Snelling

Royal Motel Room is a photographic journey of an experimental surf trip and visual imagery of the east coast of Australia filmed through the lens of a Super8 Camera.

 

I woke up one morning early January, and called Matt on a very spontaneous move, I had a conversation in my head that we had when we met a year before in Portugal, and it was about doing a project together, making a movie all film, all analog, and far away somewhere.

« It's the day » I told him, we are doing it and I wanted to go back to Australia because years passed since the last time I went, and I felt like my vision of things today would be totally different.

     

I knew Matt would be up for it and I really wanted a productive and visionary trip, I  counted on his hyper activity and him and I have a very sharing vision of things concerning photography and art culture, we complete each other a lot in that way and that is why making this Film was so constructive for both of us. 

We got our tickets within one week before the departure dates and packed our bags full of films and cameras. We first landed in Noosa in a little caravan of someone's garden it was perfect. Candle light, a lot of rain and humidity, no kitchen barely any internet and a lot of thinking and writing, we had a lead and not...it was on the go. 

That week in Noosa was good, we got an amazing swell that led us to Double island point and filmed a lot there when Matt's waterproof Super8 broke down, that was the deal, no digital assurance and the trip just started. After a week of seeing him trying to make it work shooting with it fixing it every session we decided to have a chill and leave the coast to try and find different inspiration and forget about it. To be honest we had no idea whether we had some surf footage or not at this point it was good or gone. 

 

 

We landed in the Royal Motel of Tenterfield, a little lost town pretty affected by the fires as it was surrounded by burnt forests, we spent two nights there, taking photos, looking for good lights and finding a way to continue our project. It really was the highlight of the trip! I know most of our friends were wondering what we were doing there but it was our scene, old school Australia, cool people living their every day routine and a very 80's architectural vibe, we were in heaven really!

We drove back to the central coast, heads full of motivation and continued to film and fix the camera each time. 

It is such a good experience making movie without seeing any images of what he shot the whole time, we spoke a lot about what we want to film and how,  he was doing it and telling me what he shot, all I had was my imagination.

We wanted to give more than a typical surf trip video and I hope we did, we wanted something more cinematographic and I am super happy I got to work with Matt on this project, this is the fruit of a collaborative mind connection. Most of the music was composed by friends for the movie which was super important to us. I hope I get to work with Matt again in the future, I have got more very special projects in my mind that involve Art cinema and surf culture, there is a good new vision concerning surf movies and I am super excited to see what's cooking in the next years.

0 comments


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

Shopping Cart