Published on July 20th, 2017 | by Kayak Session
Jungle Soundz (Entry#17 Short Film of the Year Awards 2017)
Ben Drew, Colin Hunt, Aeon Russo, James Shimizu and Mike Ferraro band together on a constant journey of growth that most know as kayaking. Shots are all from Oregon and Washington at the Little White Salmon River, White Salmon River, Eagle Creek, and Sahalie Falls.
By: Ben Drew From: Usa
So the concept of the short film was to symbolize the mental and physical growth I have experienced this summer. The opening shots are on the Little White at lower water and we are doing some tricks. For me this has been my everyday run, so the little monkeys are supposed to help symbolize the training and playing around that we do on the run and how that has been the foundation for my personal growth. Next are the shots from Eagle Creek which fittingly are spliced with shots of a swooping eagle. The eagle is supposed to represent us sort of « getting our wings » and building up some confidence by running a few easier big drops. As the climax of the movie we have some shots of Colin Hunt and I running Sahalie falls and along with those shots there is a clip of a roaring lion and this one is the most meaningful to me. Sahalie is a drop that I have been thinking about for a while. I even have a picture of it back in my room in Georgia and I had a picture of Evan Garcia running it as the background on my phone for several months previous. So when I was sitting above the drop meditating to clear my mind before running it, I thought of a lion. A lion is fierce, respected and the king of all animals. At that point in time, Sahalie was a lion to me and I knew I had to bring that same intensity and fierceness to do a good job running the drop. I almost went over vert but I ripped a few last minute strokes to straighten it out and it ended up being one of the softest hits of my life. Oh yeah! And you can’t forget about the frog. The frog is supposed to represent the journey of learning that comes along with kayaking and how it never really goes away. The opportunity for learning is always there the same way the frog guides us from one river to the next in the video. I chose the frog because of the little plastic one that I have in my car. The lady I bought the car from left it there so I decided to keep it. We have got pretty close during the solo cross country drive.
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