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Pushing the limit for Intersection

Extreme sport film competition will be completed over seven days
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The World Ski and Snowboard Festival is absolutely nothing without the sports. The arts and culture components are peripheral, a way to hype the sports up and celebrate the impact they have had on mountain culture. The sports are so ingrained now that festival organizers have added a second filmmaking competition to the festival, called Intersection.

Six film crews have seven days to produce a five to seven minute extreme sports short film that must include both ski and snowboard. The prize is $15,000, which is whole lot of dough for up-and-coming filmmakers.

Shooting began on Wednesday, so by the time you read this they'll all be trudging through snow, climbing hills, working long and grueling hours while the stress overcomes them, for one shot at glory and a fat stack of cash. Let's take a look at who these challengers are:

 

Toy Soldier Productions

The people at Toy Soldier don't know Whistler at all. They've never visited before and while people may think this will be to their detriment, producer and editor Shane Dowaliby is certain the film crew can play this to their advantage.

"We're not going to know the ins and the outs of the mountain but I think that we'll have a fresh perspective on stuff," he says.

The team of three shooters and five riders are the only American team included in the competition. Dowaliby doesn't know how festival organizers got their contact info, or why they reached out, but they did and Toy Soldier graciously accepted. The chance to win $15,000 is too alluring for a production company only in its second year as a business.

Dowaliby says they've never participated in a competition like this before. The rapid pace for shooting and editing means a whole lot of tension, very little sleep and rushed jobs on all aspects of the film, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for them.

"We're confident," Dowaliby says. "We have a three person team and we work well together so I'm sure we'll be able to get it cranked out."

 

Dendrite Studios

Athan Merrick knows the mountains well having lived in Whistler full-time in the winters for seven years. He has all the spots targeted. He and his business partner/fellow producer Nicolas Teichrob know exactly what they're shooting and where.

"Everything is planned," Merrick says.

The crew will include Merrick and Teichrob along with a roster of athletes for different days - some for the park, some for sled skiing and snowboarding.

Dendrite has never done a film competition like this before, but Teichrob has completed the Deep Winter Photo Challenge and Merrick recently competed in the Crazy 8s competition in Vancouver, where teams must complete a dramatic short film in eight days. So these guys understand pressure.

"I'm not going to be sleeping much but I'm stoked and confident," he says.

He also says this is a good opportunity to market themselves and get the word out that Dendrite Studios are worth checking out.

"And that $15,000 doesn't hurt either." He laughs.

 

 

NuuLife Cinema Company

John Swystun is keeping his mouth shut about all details of their plans. He's saying zip, nothing, nada.

"One of the cool things about the event is that each team is kind of guessing what the other is going to do," the NuuLife Cinema producer says.

But they do know exactly where they're going to shoot mapping out locations for a week-and-a-half before shooting began. They've been in full-blown pre-production for four days, leaving barely any time to speak to a reporter about their project.

NuuLife did the 72 Hour Showdown two years ago, which Swystun says was "fun but tough" because mid-April is when most snowboard film crews are focusing on full length films, which they could have put their focus on instead.

"We did (72 Hour) anyways and then last year we thought screw it, we have to work on the movie," Swystun says.

But Intersection was a much easier decision. They're still doing what they would be with a full-length and have the chance to win $15,000. He says they had all been waiting for TWSSF to introduce a Deep Winter-style challenge for years.

"This was pretty much what we've been looking for," he says.

 

Voleurz

This is exactly what the local clothing-and-video wunderkinds have been waiting for. This is exactly where their expertise lies. Based on the assuredness in founder Darren Rayner's voice alone, these guys are going to take the money home. It doesn't even sound like an option. They have this in the bag.

Now let's just wait for the video.

"When we heard about the contest we just looked at the format and it seemed almost perfect for our film crew," Rayner says. "We've always produced ski and snowboard films, and just the fact that we're from here and we always produce these films. If we weren't competing in this contest, we'd still be shooting skiing and snowboarding."

Their crew will include five filmers and 15 athletes who will split up and shoot at separate locations over the seven days. They've been planning for three weeks, writing down dozens of ideas. Once they chose the best ones it took three days to bang out a script.

"It's going to take one day to shoot the intro with four people but, you know, that's one of the seven days and I think intros are integral," he says. "We're going to get that out of the way and then try to produce the high production value segment with our athletes."

 

Familytree

Ryan Kelly is dedicated to this contest, man. He quit his job fighting forest fires so he could do this. Seriously.

"I'm so honoured to be involved in this," he says. "It's such a huge thing for me to be here because I would be in the audience watching this."

He spent all day Monday building undisclosed half-pipe structures at an undisclosed location with an undisclosed vehicle and all day Tuesday building jumps.

He's been mapping out his shoot every day for three weeks. This is a man under intense pressure now, as he's competing in both Intersection and 72 Hour Showdown. Some people would think he's crazy, others think he's going to blow it - two film competitions in one week? - but that's not even a remote option for Kenny.

For Intersection, he'll have three other shooters, but will have to take one day off to complete the 72 Hour shoot, which he has all mapped out in one location. The whole thing is scripted and storyboarded, he knows exactly what he's going to shoot.

"I edit all year and I'm very familiar with this trade," he says. "I'm going to bring the A-game."

 

June Bhongjan & Joe Carlino

The two filmmakers from Peep Show Films and Videograss were unavailable by press time for this issue but they are in the contest and this is what could me mustered from the Internet:

- Rider June Bhongjan started Peep Show with filmmaker Esthera Preda in 2009 to bring a "fresh perspective to female snowboarding" according to their website.

-Joe Carlino is a Transworld Snowboarding writer and co-owner of Videograss. He has directed In Colour, Get Real and These Days, so it's clear that he knows his stuff.