HEADLAND is a film compiled from Super8 footage shot at Lennox Head during the 70s. Various filmmakers contributed the footage whilst Murray Paterson and a host of musicians provide the bespoke soundtrack. Although the music has already been composed, recorded and mixed, Murray hopes to release it on the medium it deserves: good quality black vinyl. To achieve that end he's crowdsourcing the funding.

Swellnet recently spoke to Murray about the film project.

Swellnet: What is the purpose behind HEADLAND?
Murray Paterson: I had done a bit of soundtrack work a few years back on an Australian film called Beautiful Kate. Working to film was something that interested me and I sat by the phone after that waiting for another soundtrack job. None came but a proposed film set around Australian surf-culture in the 70s interested me so much I began doing some research and making some demos. That film is yet to go into production but I was so pleased with the demos I decided to work them into an album. I then decided to search out any old Super8 footage my friends had to work to in the studio. We would screen the footage, often slowed down and jam along. The choice bits of footage I edited into film-clips. I am still searching for more footage so if anyone has old rolls of Super8 under the bed, it's time to get them out. My aim is to piece together a whole film, my dream would be to play live in front of screenings.

What was your motivation for the project?
Well, the motivation was losing my job as a Visual Arts lecturer. I became a stay at home dad and on the couple of days a week that my kids are at childcare I got to work on the project.

And the inspiration? The inspiration is partly a nostalgia for the 70s and of the really specific kind of surf-culture that small towns have. You know Lennox had a very distinct vibe about it, very different from say Byron, which was only just up the road.

The other part of the inspiration was archiving in an interesting way the fragments of film that survive from that time.

Where did the footage come from?
People's garages, under beds. The footage you've seen was provided by Mick and Tracey Donovan. They gave me the footage of that Wednesday at the point in the clip for Halftide. Anyone who surfed around Lennox Ballina in the 70s and 80s would remember Mick, his blonde afro and big rack of shiny white teeth smiling out at you from the barrel. Local legend Terry Iredale provided a lot of the other footage, the origins of which are not certain: I am yet to sit down with Terry, who lives on a yacht, and go through the transfers.

Has all the footage been seen before?
Yes, bits and pieces have been transferred before and used for various local compilations. The difference with this project is the custom made soundtrack.

How many songs will there be on the album?
I demoed 30 tracks, that sounds like a lot but for film you are often using 20 or 30 seconds at a time, so I started with a lot of short pieces. The final album has 14 tracks, about 35 minutes of music.

How many musicians play?
The main body of the music was performed by Brock Fitzgerald (Wolf & Cub), Les Dorahy (Nashuaville), Skritch (Mary Trembles, Woolpit), Joel Silbersher (Hoss, Tendrils), Jon Schofield (Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls, The Wetsuits) and myself. Murray Paterson (The Dark Horses). We all play a bit of everything. Tommy Jones, Alison Baily and Nang Houston also contribute on a track each.

When is the album coming out?

It is an independent project. Everyone has pitched in their time, especially Skritch, Les and Steve Law who all helped with studio time and production and got paid with beer.

We are crowdsourcing a release on vinyl as well as CD and digital download, Crowdsourcing is where you put up a project on a website for people to look at and hopefully like enough to help with the funding. You can chip in ten dollars or ten grand. And there are different rewards for pledging different amounts. We have CDs, LPs and T-shirts as rewards as well as custom-made surfboards (Morning of the Earth by Simon Jones) and you can even name some of the instrumentals. Imagine that, having a track on a record with your girlfriend or boyfriend's name on it.

Anyway check out the link, there is only 12 days to go and we are still a long way from our target.

Editor's note: Find out more at the HEADLAND Facebook page. You can also see many of the clips and hear the songs too.