Zac Lovett: A Guided Essay
I never really intended to get into film making but like so many other creatives I can thank skateboarding for that one. Back in 2012 myself and Zak Pitter started a small Byron based skate company called FREE MAN Skateboarding. We designed some boards, had them printed in Vegas in the US and shipped over to us. Filming has always been a huge part of skate culture. I’ll never forget watching parts from 411VM on VHS during school to get hyped to skate at lunch time at Byron Steiner. Films of all kinds have always had a big impact on me. I had a 5D Mark II, which was kind of the camera that really kicked off the DSLR filming revolution and so we used that to start making skate films. We’d take the team on small skate trips and get as much footage as we could. In 2016 myself, Zak Pitter and my partner’s brother, Dylan Harris made a short skate film called ‘Coffee Run’ set around the Cape Byron Lighthouse and Wategoes. It got about 25,000 views on Facebook in one week. Not massive by viral standards but we were stoked! The film was super DIY, shot over 3 quick days with friends we convinced to be part of it. That was really a catalyst for what followed.
When ‘Coffee Run’ came out I was actually travelling around Australia and Indonesia for 6 months with my family. At some point during that trip I decided that I wanted to start a small film production company and work towards making that my full time job. I’ve always believed that if you really want to create something, you just have to kind of will it into existence. Hard work and blind optimism have proven to be a classic combo. So I called up Zak Pitter and laid out a plan to see if he wanted to start another business with me. He said yes and at some point Dylan Harris joined in as well. That was how Woven Motion came about. I’d previously been a graphic designer for about 12 years working in small ad agencies but I was never really passionate about that. Work has never just been about earning a living for me it’s also about the people that you meet through your work and the experiences that it leads you to have and film making has opened up a whole lot for me in that way.
Just as I never intended to get into filming, I also never intended to or thought I would film fashion. I got offered some editing work for Spell and ended up doing a fair bit of filming work for them which was amazing. The Spell crew are like a family and have been incredible to me. I absolutely love filming fashion, so I’ve really appreciated working with them and the opportunities that they’ve given me. Without them I never would have snuck my way into the fashion world. In January 2020, just before the world ended, I went over to New Zealand to film my first fashion campaign for Spell for their ‘Mystic’ collection. It’s hard to explain how rad that five days was for me. Working with incredibly talented people and exploring the epic landscapes of the South Island of NZ was pretty magic. When your job is doing that, it’s hard to see it as work, it’s just an incredible life experience.
I think film making is such a beautiful creative medium. The ability to convey light and colour through moving images is such a unique expression of creativity. Colour especially is highly emotive for me and an area I'm always learning more about and exploring. Film making is a lot like skateboarding in many regards. You’re always practicing, always improving, you never get it perfect but it’s that process that’s so rewarding as much as the end result.
I think film making is in a pretty interesting place right now. With equipment being (relatively) so cheap it’s now really about creating projects that are unique in some way. At the same time content is now so disposable as well. We consume photos and video at such a crazy rate that iPhone’s are being used more and more for film making as they are always on us and the film will likely end up being viewed on a phone anyway. So I guess it’s about finding your place within that dynamic. It’s also an amazing time for film making because the old system of study has basically been thrown out the window. I’m not saying that studying at University or the like doesn’t have it’s place, it does but for me I’d rather invest in gear than get a big Uni debt and then go get an education for free from YouTube tutorials and actual experience. There really isn’t a better teacher than just going out and doing it and learning from your failures.
Having spent the last 5 years building Woven Motion I’m now starting to really think more about what I want to create in the future. I’m excited to keep having fun filming fashion and to explore documentary work more and also to bring to life some creative ideas that have been percolating for a while. Despite what’s going on in the world it still feels like an amazing time to explore creative ideas and make things happen.