Monday, November 2, 2009

PowderWhores: Flakes

The last few years, PW has been one of my favorite film collections. They're always a little more innovative each year. This year was no exception, with the inclusion of cameras on remote controlled helicopters (rumored) and the night shots, it was a lot of fun. The women of PowderWhores section was great as well as the family interviews.

And their filming has gotten a lot better this year, with better camera placements, better quality footage, and some great local stops. This year they did introduce some travel to other countries, and while I like that they've grown large enough to do that it's left something to be desired. One of the features of PW that I've always enjoyed before was the fact that these were simply guys going out their front door, or a friends front door, and finding some absolutely amazing places to ski. It was bound to expand beyond that. These are guys who are in extremely good shape, looking for bigger challenges, and well Patagonia and Alaska will provide those. But I hope they continue to focus on their local back country fun.

MSP In Deep review

Had the opportunity to catch the In Deep presentation as it rolled through town. First off, musical selection... an interesting mix of sounds from all over the place. Some was expected, talking about Sean Pettit and showing his riding to the "Teenage Wasteland"... regardless of the musical selection cheese factor, Sean's got some great riding. Hopefully he'll take care of those knees and keep showing up for years to come. I also have not been in a theater where Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight" drum ramp up has been air drummed by so many in the crowd. It was rather comical.

Footage wise, I liked that they focused less on the park and pipes this year and more on the big mountains. Actually they even focused more on people finding some naturally fun areas to play on in the snow. That was pretty great to see honestly.

The tribute to Shane was hard to watch. I laughed seeing all the moments from MSP films in the past and what I felt were just a collection of candid cutting room floor bits as well. I was really impressed at the amount of video they decided to use from final filming trip. I was also glad to see it was tastefully cut at the right moment. It was a little hard to hear TJ talk about the event, and it was clear that he when recording he was still having some difficulty with the events.

The closing Piano Man looked like it was a lot of fun to film.

All in all, I wouldn't say this is their best film, but it clearly does come together very well.