Two Plank Featured along with Colorado’s Finest Ski-Filmmakers

Ski-film makers thrive in Colorado

By Jason Blevins
The Denver Post

“It’s the season of ski porn.

Before the snow falls, ski moviemakers from around the country roll out their latest offerings, always aiming to better the previous year’s movie with stunning cinematography capturing the best skiers shredding the world’s gnarliest terrain. For the next several weeks, premieres and showings will dominate area theaters, sparking the ski season with heart-pounding images that energize every type of skier.

The game was once dominated by Warren Miller, who inspired the legendary Greg Stump, who in turn spawned influential moviemakers Matchstick Productions from Crested Butte and Wyoming’s Teton Gravity Research. And now those two nearly 20-year-old outfits have seeded a swarming generation of ski moviemakers, many based in Colorado.

“Once there were two, and now there are 50,” said Steve Winter, who joins Red Bull and Matchstick Productions co-founders Murray Wais and Scott Gaffney in showing the anticipated documentary “McConkey” on Oct. 21 at Denver’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House. “The Colorado scene has come on strong. Skiing in our state is a staple, and it is only natural that kids will turn their love for the sport into a career.”

Colorado has at least five prominent ski moviemakers. Sweetgrass Productions, which premiered its genre-bending “Valhalla” on Friday at the Paramount Theatre, was born of three Colorado College film grads. Denver’s Level 1 Productions last year won Powder Magazine’s coveted “Movie of the Year” award for “Sunny.” Boulder’s Stept Productions moved from Boston six years ago and has branched into diverse video production involving real estate, commercials, documentaries and off-snow action sports. And Crested Butte’s Two Plank Productions’ fifth movie, “Because,” garnered several awards.

Colorado’s upstart moviemakers are no longer the underdogs. And each outfit has developed its own niche inside the world of ski films, carving its identity with unique styles of filming, story themes and narrative arcs.

Stept has developed one-of-a-kind cinematic approaches to capturing the vibrant yet somewhat underground urban skiing scene, which features brazen athletes sparking their skis down kinked handrails and brick buildings.

“We thrive on diversity, so we all film and edit differently, and collaborate to make sure our work doesn’t get stale. We think it is very important that every project we release is our best to date and, more important, that it is completely different than any previous work,” said Stept co-founder Alex Martini, who counts snowy metro areas as an asset for his Colorado filmmaking.

Level 1’s Josh Berman said Colorado’s central location and its treasure trove of top-talent skiers make it a no-brainer as a home base. The company’s River North headquarters is a common stopover for skiers on the move.

“Colorado is the hub of skiing in North America. So many of our athletes live within a couple hours of Denver,” said Berman, who last winter traveled to 11 states, Sweden, Canada and France to capture skiing for Level 1’s 14th annual film “Partly Cloudy.”

That jet-setting pace can be brutal and often sees producers holed up for six-week editing benders that can stretch up to the day before a premiere. Lately, several outfits have been taking two years to film and edit a movie, defying the industry’s traditional movie-a-year formula, which traces back to the earliest day of Warren Miller.

“Each year of the 14 Powder Awards, we’ve seen a steady growth in film and category entries. The last few years, several ski-film production houses have released two-year projects,” said John Stifter, editor of Powder Magazine, which every year hosts the snowy equivalent of the Academy Awards of ski flicks.

Sweetgrass Productions has always premiered its films in Colorado, starting in Aspen and moving to Denver last year. Friday, it unveiled its latest film, “Valhalla,” at Denver’s Paramount Theatre. The movie defies skiing’s music-video stereotype with an actual story line revolving around a backcountry tribe of gluttonous powderhounds.

“The perspective we are showing is different than the ski culture in Denver,” said Sweetgrass co-founder Nick Waggoner. “It’s exciting to bring something new to our home base.”

“Valhalla,” like Sweetgrass’ 2011 release “Solitaire,” took two years to film. The two-year model is gaining ground among ski moviemakers, especially those with deep-pocketed sponsors such as Red Bull. For independent outfits such as Sweetgrass, two years without a movie — or any revenue — can be taxing.

“It’s a massive commitment. The last two years of our life was pretty much poured into this. Every day, you wake up and you are thinking about how to make this film better. We make a lot of sacrifices,” said Waggoner on the final day of a two-month editing blitz with his three college pals. “When people see the film, they will realize how much thought and care went into the project. That’s when we get our reward. Community, and really amazing friendships and amazing experiences spent on focusing on freedom and wilderness and fun and getting to create something we believe in.”

Two Plank owner Corey Tib-ljas said the thriving freeski industry in Colorado — from movie producers to ski makers to gear designers — breeds success across the board.

“Everyone is more supportive than cutthroat. There is a self-motivated hunger that I have seen grow in Colorado exponentially over the past 10 years, and it’s not limited to the freeskiing niche,” Tibljas said. “The same phenomenon is seen in other uprising independent industries and startups in tech, design, event work and so on. Colorado promotes entrepreneurialism very well. There is vast support across the state for unique thinkers, and moreover, it seems encouraged. This linear relationship of business and social environment is really the perfect habitat for a growing business to thrive in.”

Winter’s Matchstick Productions spent two years on “McConkey,” a sweeping documentary detailing the audacious antics of legendary athlete Shane McConkey. The deeply personal portrayal of the revered athlete who died in a 2009 BASE-jumping accident while Winter’s camera was rolling marks a high point for the pioneers in Colorado-based ski films.

“I feel very much like a pioneer,” Winter said. “I am very proud of what Murray, Gaffney and the rest of the MSP team has brought to the history of the ski film. From DayGlo lameness — where the snowboard movie was the only thing cool on snow — to a bunch of awesomely talented new ski filmmakers, bringing the sport to new heights.”

Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jasontblevins”

-http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_24092394/ski-film-makers-thrive-colorado

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