By Maysen Madrola, Megan Sullivan, Staff Writers/ Danielle Smith, Executive Arts Editor
Academic classes, sports, and extracurriculars can be hard to balance especially while also filming a documentary, but Senior Dylan Lenze learned how to manage it all as he spent over 8 months working on, Run, Paddle, Chug.
Run, Paddle, Chug, is a documentary that focuses on both the history of the event, and the current participants of the Hermosa Beach Ironman, which takes place on the morning of the Fourth of July. The Ironman consists of a mile run, mile paddle and at the end the participants must chug a six pack of beer.
“The event is controversial but also a point of cultural pride so there was a lot of talk about whether or not to continue it and if Hermosa Beach wanted to put their name on the Ironman,” Lenze said. “This controversy was what spurred the creation of the documentary.”
Lenze worked with the director, Robert Enriquez, as one of the cinematographers for the film. Enriquez is a mentor to Lenze and offered Lenze the position on the film while working closely with him throughout the process. Lenze also worked alongside Julie Nunez, who is the producer and a few other cinematographers. The crew was small which is unusual for a film this size, Lenze said.
“Throughout the filming, there was Enriquez, Nunez and around six other cinematographers,” Lenze said. “I liked getting to see how much work they put into creating this film and how much they cared about it.”
Lenze and the other cinematographers started filming the documentary in December so they could follow a few participants through their preparation for the Ironman as well as the actual event and they continued to film after the Ironman. They filmed for over 8 months and Lenze spent a cumulative amount of 75 hours on the project.
“The hardest part about making this film was scheduling around school,” Lenze said. “There wasn’t anything that hard filming wise, it was just making time for work and my classes, which is true for all film projects I do.”
Lenze is a member of the Mira Costa Cinema Club and had made many videos before, which he posts to his YouTube channel. Lenze has traveled to Cambodia, Cuba, and Vietnam to make documentaries. Lenze hopes and plans to continue to pursue his passion for filmmaking in the future as he travels more and gains new experiences.
“I have made over ten films for school and there are more on my channel, so I’ve had a lot of experience in creating films,” Lenze said. “I will even be traveling to Guatemala this year with the Cinema club to make a documentary.”
Run, Chug, Paddle, premiered on Friday September 30th at the Sunscreen Film Festival in Hermosa Beach. Although Lenze has made films before, this was the first film he made that went to the Sunscreen Film Festival.
“When the film finally premiered it was cool to see my name on the poster credited as a cinematographer which was something I had never seen before,” Lenze said. “I also enjoyed seeing everyone on the crew put so much work into it during the filming.”
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