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RK Films wins Intersection with Jerry's Day at WSSF

Two Guys, One Shirt wins Olympus 72hr Filmmaker Showdown; Jake Darwen wins Olympus Pro Photographer Showdown
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Double win RK Films took home two prizes at Intersection, part of the World Ski and Snowboard Festival. Photo submitted

RK Films won both Best of Show and the People's Choice Award at Intersection, part of the World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF), for the tale of a lonely Jerry trying to impress a Sherry in Jerry's Day.

Filmmaker Ryan Kenny says this was his fourth time competing at Intersection, which took place at the Whistler Conference Centre on Friday, April 14.

The night shows the best in sports film, and Kenny's team — which included pro-skier Stan Rey as Jerry — tried to tell a good story.

"In the past, I had always tried to do snowboard and ski films with more action — shot, shot, shot, shot. You want to give the audience the action, but what I learned in years past is that the action isn't as important as the story or concept that sells it," Kenny says.

"I took some time to really find my idea, because term 'Jerry' gets used because the people will say, 'Look at that Jerry,' and I wondered who Jerry is."

From there Kenny created a character meeting the woman of his dreams.

"And who doesn't love a love story?" Kenny laughs.

The six competing teams of Intersection had seven days to make their seven-minute films.

Kenny had also made it to the final 10 of the 72hr Filmmaker Showdown this year and he said that despite having more time to make Jerry's Day it was the harder film to do.

"It is more of a soul-sucking event. Don't get me wrong, it is fun and exciting, but when you're not in controlled environments it is so much harder," he says.

"You're filming with athletes and weather (it snowed heavily) and in order to get to where we wanted to shoot, we had to hike for hours on end and snowmobile. During that week the conditions were dangerous and we couldn't get to all the places where we built jumps.

"Avalanche Alley in Brandywine slid and we couldn't get up to our jumps. But at the same time we knew the other crews couldn't get there either."

The film's key shot, a jump by Jerry/Stan off a cliff in Brandywine Meadow the crew named "Mankiller Drop," was staged using a mannequin. For some reason, the dummy landed the jump perfectly the second time.

"We had a lot of people asking us how Stan did it. We had to tell them it wasn't him," Kenny says.

"When we got the shot, everyone yelled."

The Best Clip Contest at Intersection was won by Francis Jobin, who took home $500.

Other WSSF competition winners included Two Guys, One Shirt by Blue Pandas winning the Olympus 72hr Filmmaker Showdown on Wednesday, April 12, taking home $10,000. Kyle Kileen's Dawn of the Dead Season took home the People's Choice Award.

New Zealand-born Jake Darwen won the Olympus Pro Photographer Showdown on Thursday, April 13, taking home $10,000. Tahiti-based French photographer Ben Thouard won the People's Choice Award.