Fade to Black: Nate Apffel

Most stories with a good ending don't start with someone falling off a cliff. Yet it was just such an accident that set Nate Apffel on the path toward filmmaking. At age 17, Apffel tumbled off a cliff while on vacation in Mexico and suffered brain swelling and bleeding as well as a tonic-clonic seizure. Unable to drive—and even more painful for the Southern California native, unable to surf—Apffel picked up a Sony Handycam to pass the time. He loved it.

In addition to shooting his friends surfing, he began to earn money as a wedding videographer. Eventually, Apffel started working alongside action-sports director Matt Goodman on documentaries for manufacturers such as Oakley and Burton. He honed his storytelling skills directing the surf show Fins for Fuel TV, and he turned out his breakout surf film, This Is Home, in 2008.

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This year, the Carlsbad, Calif.-based director is working on his dream project, Lost Prophets, a film he says he hopes will bring true soul and narrative to the surf doc category. The film profiles seven surfers from around the world who aren't just experts at their craft but who have beaten unique paths in the surf industry, embodying, in Apffel's opinion, the soulful essence of the sport. "My goal is to say, 'Look, we've gone a little too far with commercialism. Let's get back to our roots and where we came from,'" he says.

But Apffel is not just an idealist. He was careful to sign a distribution deal (with Koastal Media) before he began production to ensure Lost Prophets would find a home in the core shops come September. He maintains mass-market distribution rights, and he is optimistic that the nearly 1-hour doc will be picked up by a television network. He is also teaming up with the Surfrider Foundation to tour the film nationally and abroad.

Apffel is shooting Lost Prophets with Sony PMW-EX3 and PMW-EX1 cameras with Letus adapters, mixing in time-lapse footage shot with Canon EOS 20D and EOS 40D still cameras. He treats footage in Adobe Photoshop and After Effects and edits using Apple Final Cut Pro.

"My filmmaking goal is to show the beauty of our world," says Apffel, who also does considerable work for nonprofits he's passionate about, such as rural farming initiative Growers First. "Surfing is a medium through which I can do that and tell stories about how humans interact with the planet in a positive way."

More on Apffel and his production company, Corban Productions

View Apffel's reel