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ASHLAND Ashland High students aim for film festival Cole Coster and Theo Whitcomb finished documentary on football players' Japan trip last spring Comment By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Nov. 18, 2014 at 12:01 AM By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Nov. 18, 2014 at 12:01 AM » Social News When Cole Coster pressed “save” for the last time and knew that he had finally finished the documentary that was roughly a year in the making, he felt neither joy nor pride. In fact, he says, the feeling that washed over him the moment after he put the finishing touches on “Pacific Rim Bowl,” the 50-minute football documentary he co-directed with Theo Whitcomb, Coster’s first emotion was pure relief, a deep, heavy exhale one can only experience when a project that’s occupied every corner of his or her imagination — not to mention computer hard-drive space — for months on end has at last faded to black. It was late March, or early April — he can’t remember the exact day — and Coster, now a senior, had been scrambling to complete the movie, locking himself in his room/editing bay and splicing together the last few scenes. “Every day I was working and thinking, ‘I’ve got to get this done, I’ve got to get this done,’ just grinding on it every single day,” he said. “And I think it was a Friday, I was sitting there and I just finished the credits. I sat there and I was like, ‘I’m done.’ Then my mom said it was time for dinner. I wanted someone to throw me a party or something.” The idea to film a football-themed documentary came to Coster after he watched “Team of Firsts,” the feature-length documentary about the 2012 Southern Oregon University football team. Parker Layton, a Grizzly tight end, posted the movie on his Facebook page and told Coster, an aspiring filmmaker who had friends on the team, that he could do something similar about the Grizzlies. “We were like, ‘Oh my God, that would be so cool if we did that,'” Whitcomb said. Coster remained skeptical, however. Sure, it might be fun, but he also knew it would be a lot of work and would require equipment that he didn’t have. Still, he couldn’t free himself of the idea, and in the end the ping of inspiration combined with simple chance — it happened to be Ashland High’s turn to travel to Japan for the PRB, which is played every other year — to blaze in Coster’s mind a slightly different path: why not document the Pacific Rim Bowl itself, from the training camp in June all the way through the trip home? Coster pitched the idea to Whitcomb, who loved it, and together they began the planning process. It was March of 2013, four months before the team was set to leave. “We were stoked about it,” Coster said. Plenty of obstacles remained but the duo hurdled each, albeit with the help of family and friends. Coster used Christmas and birthday money, along with a considerable donation from his grandma, to put toward a $2,000 camera – the Cannon DSLR 60D. Then he had to purchase extra battery packs, memory cards and hard drives to store the massive amounts of high definition video he would bring home. He also needed a monopod, a dozen other small items for the trip itself, and bags to store everything in as he hustled to keep up with the Grizzlies through airports and train stations, across busy intersections and in and out of pin-drop quiet tourist destinations, such as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. “First of all,” Coster said, “the preparation was more stressful than actually getting there because once you’re there, there’s so much that can go wrong.” Filming began on June 19, 2013, which marked the first day of the team’s preparation for PRB XIII. Since Whitcomb was on the team, the vast majority of the camera work was handled by Coster, who captured head coach Charlie Hall’s speech prior to the first practice and included a small snippet in the final version of the film. Coster and Whitcomb also recorded sit-down interviews with Hall and former Ashland coach Jim Nagel, who joined the team on the trip, and gathered archived footage of previous PRBs. By the time he boarded a plane in San Francisco on July 21, Coster was confident that he had thought of everything and was as prepared as he could be, considering the circumstances — a lone-gun cameraman in a foreign country facing a severe language barrier. The plan was to shoot anything and everything, to capture as much footage as possible, from the time they woke up at 5 a.m. until late at night, when Coster would plug his camera batteries back into the wall in preparation for another 16-hour day of lugging bags around in one arm while holding a camera — and possibly shooting — with the other. Early on, Coster and Whitcomb realized their vision for the movie would have to expand. “We realized we couldn’t just make this about football because it’s so much more than that,” Whitcomb said. But capturing that on film was a serious challenge. Turns out, they discovered, shooting a movie is a lot more than lights, camera, action and accolades. It’s work. Hard, exhausting, often lonely work. As Whitcomb practiced and helped with the production as much as he could, Coster followed the team around each day weighed down by three burdensome straps, one attached to a bag holding food and extra clothes, one attached to a bag holding the camera equipment and one attached to the camera. Every time the team stopped, Coster sprung into action, quickly dropping all his gear and riffling through bags for batteries, for memory cards, sometimes for the monopod, removing lens caps (the camera had three), shooting, then doing it all again in reverse but quicker, lest he be stranded penniless next to the bullet train. Whitcomb did what he could. Besides being the primary interview subject, he also was able to handle some camera duties. “I was completely exhausted and we were trying to get some scenery shots so (Whitcomb) did some of that, which was really nice,” Coster said. “I got to relax for a second.” But for most of the trip Coster did not relax. He didn’t have time to. Instead, he shot footage: of players walking, interviews, coaches sleeping on planes, city streets, football practices. Mountains of footage. So by the time he was back in Ashland, Coster estimates that he had roughly 24 hours of video to sift through. At first, editing the film seemed like a vacation next to shooting it, says Coster, who did most of the editing on his home computer. But it took longer than he expected, and after his mom accidentally erased the film after it was about one-third completed, Coster started to feel discouraged. But he kept at it and last spring he was finally able to show a finished version for the first time. Coster’s parents were the first ones to see it. Both were impressed. But Coster could only see the faults. “The whole time I was like, ‘Uh, it’s terrible,’” he said. “I understand that it’s not as bad as I think it is, and producers and directors say, ‘If you don’t feel like that then something’s wrong with you.’” It shows everything Whitcomb and Coster wanted it to, and is at its best when the players and coaches are candidly experiencing Japan, unaware of Coster and Whitcomb’s silent, hidden eye. There are shots of coaches dozing, mouths agape, in the airplane. There are shots of players bravely eating cow tongue (“It’s like I’m making out with a cow”). There are shots of players dressed as ninjas, sword-fighting. Whitcomb, who sent Coster music suggestions throughout the editing process (AC/DC, Beastie Boys and Led Zeppelin all make appearances), loved it. “The first time I watched it there were some parts that gave me chills,” he said. “Of course it was very catered toward the team and toward the players and people interested in the trip. The (team) loved the trip and it really brought back the nostalgia of the trip.” Coster and Whitcomb showed “Pacific Rim Bowl” to a standing-room-only crowd of players, parents and friends at Ashland Street Cinema in May. Afterward, almost everybody on hand purchased a copy of the movie. Coster watched from the back of the theater. He says he wasn’t nervous, just kind of stunned. “It’s a pretty special thing,” he said. “It made me realize that I wanted to do this when I grow up.” “It was a great feeling,” Whitcomb added. “People were coming up to me afterward and saying, ‘That was amazing, I’m so glad you guys did this so we can relive it for a little bit.’ It was pretty cool.” The film, which currently is unavailable for public viewing, may soon have another audience. Coster only a few days ago submitted “Pacific Rim Bowl” to the Ashland Independent Film Festival (set for April 9-13). He’s hoping he’ll be able to show it there, but if the film’s rejected he won’t lose any sleep over it. He’s already received all the applause he needs. “This is something I’ll be able to tell my kids or grandkids,” he said. “We filled up an entire cinema and played a movie — some people couldn’t even sit in the seats. That to me was what made it all worth it.” Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-776-4469. By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Nov. 18, 2014 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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