I’ve known Manhattan Beach-based filmmaker Brad Jacobson for well over a decade now, and I can vouch that the man is always cooking up something unique. I promise that if you go to lunch with the guy or just sit in his office for any amount of time, he’ll throw at least a dozen fresh ideas of a video he wants to shoot or a story he wants to tell in a way that’s never been told before.
He once had a Lego surfboard made because…well, why not? He used to (maybe he still does?) make videos testing out how many surfboards could fit into random cars, which is actually incredibly practical knowledge for surfers and something I don’t think anybody else does. The point is, he’s an impressively creative person who’s far from your standard point-and-shoot filmer you see at the beach every morning. He really enjoys telling stories and his approach has built a solid YouTube following over the years.
With that said, the story behind this video has Brad written all over it. For years, he says he’s wanted to get water level footage at Doheny from north of the lineup. While the street running perpendicular to the break isn’t tough to access, it’s not the most convenient location to post up with a long lens and a tripod. But capturing a wide shot with the hills in the background is one helluva image, as you can see.
“No drones, no water housing, just a long lens and a new perspective,” he says. “This isn’t your typical surf edit — but that was kind of the point.”
In the end, pulling off the shot Brad wanted did some experimentation during a collaboration with Natalia Wunderlich and Cormac O’Brien, the two surfers he brought out for a day of shooting.
“I wasn’t just filming surfers. I was capturing Dana Point’s hills, the beach, and the full rhythm of that coastline.”
