11 Years In The Making, Thomas Campbell Debuts His Magnum Opus

At a packed house at La Paloma in Encinitas, filled with fans and friends, Thomas Campbell shared his latest and greatest film, Yi-Wo. Filmed on 16mm and featuring some of the world's best surfers, the end result was worth the wait. From the opening sequence, where Ryan Burch and Craig Anderson go back to back with mind-blowing barrel rides, to the end the credits, Campbell delivers yet another creation that'll go down as one of the defining films of this era.

Rather than fast-paced editing that rifles through clips in an ADHD fashion, Yi-Wo slows down the ratio the time-to-wave and invites you inside the realm of both surfer and filmer. In the opening wave, where Burch expertly weaves a shape-shifting tube, the angle and frame rate allows us to really see the contours of the wave and how he adapts his stance to pump and thread his way through--you could almost feel every head in the room tilt and wonder, 'how did he do that?'. This was a question I kept asking myself throughout the experience, not just of what was happening on the waves, but what it took to produce something of such magnitude.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DSbLuFm5PA4

In his opening remarks, Campbell spoke in regards to his part films, Sprout and The Seedling, and how he thought about how this one could be different, "The other films were kind of educational, like, 'you can ride this type of board for this experience, and that type of board for that experience'. Whereas, with this one, I grappled with, 'What would be new?'"

Given the events that transpired earlier in the week, Thomas shared something personal that really touched a nerve, "It's a difficult time right now, with all that's happening that's just so heavy, it's not cool. In this country, in other countries, totalitarianism. It's not right."

He continued to say, "Ultimately, with this film, it was about asking questions, exploring our connection to the ocean, and love (to which, everyone cheered). The films asks existential things, it's nonconventional, it's poetic. I thank you all for coming out to see it and for everyone who has supported this is so many different ways."