Today I had the pleasure of chatting to Dan Lewis from Eat Films.
Eat Films is an amazing brand that does all sorts of video content from fashion to music videos, but their main area is amazing BJJ films. Eat Films has done loads of brilliant work in the past including great pieces on athletes, events, brands and high light reels. However their most successful work is their ROLL Film.
You can't watch that here,
I think we can all agree thats pretty sweet!
Dan has another feature coming up and we can all get behind him to help him produce something we can all love and enjoy. I caught up with him to hear all about it.
Hey Dan, can you tell people a bit about yourself and Eat Films?
I'm a freelance Filmmaker and Video Editor based in London. I started training jiu-jitsu coming up 5 years ago and pretty much fell in love with it from the off. A few years ago I decided to combine my two passions and started producing free BJJ videos online. Most of the jiu-jitsu videos I make are done in my spare time around work, shooting BJJ films isn't something that pays but it's something that I enjoy and find really rewarding. I spend the majority of my time working on non jiu-jitsu related content.
What is the project and what are you looking to achieve?
I'm aiming to produce the jiu-jitsu film. I want to produce something that you can show people as an answer to "What is this jiu-jitsu thing you do?".
The project is called 'Jiu-Jitsu VS The World and it's a feature length documentary that aims to find out why we all train BJJ and what it is that makes the sport/art so addictive. In the same way as 'ROLL: Jiu-Jitsu in SoCal' the film will look at the origins of jiu-jitsu on both coasts of the US and how the sport has grown and evolved into what it is today. We've got a great mix of old school legends and new generation champions lined up but I wanted this film to be more about the average guy that trains jiu-jitsu - the 97%.
Throughout the trip we're going to be meeting some "average Joe's" and finding out about why they train jiu-jitsu and how it impacts their life in a positive way. I think every BJJ fan loves to watch videos on the their favourite jiu-jitsu athletes and the big names of the moment but for this film I'm wanting to focus more on people that we can all relate to, the guy/girl who is just like me and you, kind of a different take/angle than most jiu-jitsu videos.
I've chosen to crowdfund this project which is something that I wasn't too sure of at first but after talking to people in the BJJ community and asking for feedback in various forums I decided it was the best way to go. All of my projects in the past have been self funded and done when I've had spare time, and this is fine, it's something I enjoy doing. With ROLL it was a much bigger scale and a lot of work, myself and James from Progress covered the costs of the trip and production ourselves and made the finished film free to watch online. Unfortunately as of now I'm not in a position financially to cover the cost of making this film on my own and thats why I've reached out to the BJJ community to ask for help in supporting the project. Some of my friends have helped out by offering up cool items to use as 'perks' to those who back the project; things like magazine subscriptions to JJS, artwork by Chris Haueter and some awesome JJVSWRLD T-Shirts from Shoyoroll.
I've chosen to crowdfund this project which is something that I wasn't too sure of at first but after talking to people in the BJJ community and asking for feedback in various forums I decided it was the best way to go. All of my projects in the past have been self funded and done when I've had spare time, and this is fine, it's something I enjoy doing. With ROLL it was a much bigger scale and a lot of work, myself and James from Progress covered the costs of the trip and production ourselves and made the finished film free to watch online. Unfortunately as of now I'm not in a position financially to cover the cost of making this film on my own and thats why I've reached out to the BJJ community to ask for help in supporting the project. Some of my friends have helped out by offering up cool items to use as 'perks' to those who back the project; things like magazine subscriptions to JJS, artwork by Chris Haueter and some awesome JJVSWRLD T-Shirts from Shoyoroll.
Why should people watch it?
If you already train jiu-jitsu it'll make you feel good and motivated to train, if you don't train it'll make you pick up a gi and start!
Who inspires you to keep making awesome shit?
The feedback I get from everyone thats watches and enjoys my work. The response we received from ROLL was crazy, I've had countless emails and messages from people saying how much they loved the film, the BJJ community is pretty awesome and it's that kind of thing that motivates me to keep producing content and coming up with new ideas to make better films.
You speak about being THE Juijitsu film. Where do you think previous films have fallen short and why will yours be different?
It's not that I think other films have fallen short I just don't think this kind of story has been told as of yet. When I say The Jiu-Jitsu film I mean I want to produce a film thats the first film you think of when you want to show someone who has no previous knowledge of the art/sport what it's all about. If you were to ask me or probably 95% of the jiu-jitsu guys what their favourite film on jiu-jitsu they'd say Choke. Choke is such a good film, whenever i'm trying to get a friend into jiu-jitsu I tell them to watch Choke. That's the where the bar is set and thats what I'm aiming for.
Ok so how can people donate and help? Are there other ways people can help as well as donations?
You can help out by visiting the Indiegogo page http://igg.me/at/
You can help out by visiting the Indiegogo page http://igg.me/at/
Thanks Dan!
As you can all see it is an amazing project and we all need to get behind it! Even if you can only spare a tiny amount, please click HERE and donate!
You can also see more of Eat Films amazing work by clicking below,
Stay Healthy,
Mike
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