Warren Miller - Playground

Had the opportunity to catch the grand-daddy of all snow films, Warren Miller's Playground. Every season, Warren Miller Entertainment puts together a snow film and brings with it an experience like none other that I've attended.

As far as the film itself goes, there's nothing too exciting about this film versus any other. Same locales, a few different riders highlighted, a custom soundtrack, and a lot of shots of people doing some great lines on the snow. Where it differentiates itself is in the presentation manner, with a more narrated format versus the "here it is in your face" style seen elsewhere. Oh, and the overly blatent product placement moments. Gotta show the sponsors some love somewhere. Typical formula was applied, intro segment, allow segment to run, end on some little joke. Send staff member to crazy locale, film it. Find people doing stupid fun things on snow, film it. This year included a very short segment on a guy jumping out of a helicopter in a bat-wing suit. It was so brief and confusing, I'm not entirely sure why it was included. MSP did a much better job of this stunt this year, and WM has done a much better job with the same stunt in Higher Ground. Whoever called for that segment to be kept in should probably be kicked out in the snow in their undies only for a few hours.

Where the Warren Miller exceeds is in the crowd participation, the pre-show excitement, the intermission, and the post-show parties. I had the opportunity to attend this year with a couple of first-time show attendees. They've all seen a WM film on DVD somewhere before, but never on the big screen presentation. The pre-show events this year weren't as exciting as years in the past. REI was there this year giving out... REI branded lip balm? The rush to fill out the page of questions from the program for a chance to win stuff was still in effect (I remembered to bring my own pen this year). The theater itself wasn't very full, a surprise for me. The opening act/speaker did an alright job of getting people excited. She was actually able to throw shirts and what not further back than the first 4 rows, but that was about it.

The intermission held more of the same. Fairly short, a brief round of things being tossed out by the MC. The highlight was watching the MC read off the name for the entry to the new Jeep contest, realizing that the kid was only 12, throw it back, and pull another. Nice job! None of us stuck around for the post-show party this year, but other friends tell me it was just as crazy as years before.

After the show the energy persisted, and the first-timers were completely ready to go get on a mountain and started skiing. It's great to see the excitement reflected in other riders.

Oh yeah, one thing that completely caught my attention this year. MatchStick Production's Seven Sunny Days contained a large collection of shots from a fairly late season shoot at a resort (lot of rocks and what not sticking out). If I'm not mistaken, during the second half of Playground it looks like WM was at the same location as MSP shooting the same footage. Case in point, we watch a skier in a white and green outfit hiking up the edge of a half pipe with the same background out of focus. Not sure if I'm seeing things or if that really happened. If it did, is this a sign that MSP is coming to replace WM, or that WM has sunk that far in production?