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Blowing the budget never looked so good

Sandbox premiers new snowboard flick Time Well Wasted in Whistler with two shows
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Editing Studio Time Sandbox crew work on the opening sequence for the Whistler team's newest flick, Time Well Wasted . Photo by Brian Hockenstein.

What: Time Well Wasted

When: Saturday, Sept. 1, 7 & 9 p.m.

Where: MY Millennium Place

Tickets: $10

It’s summer and that means Sandbox Productions is closing the door on their Whistler home editing suite once again after spending the last nine months shooting their most expensive snowboard film to date, Time Well Wasted, which premiers Saturday, Sept. 1 at 7 and 9 p.m. at MY Millennium Place.

Two hundred rolls of 16 mm film later, the budget is blown, but riders never looked better.

“It turned out really good,” said Kevin Sansalone, adding with a bit of relief, “and it’s done.”

The relief comes from the painstaking process of incorporating riders into the editing process. After spending two days to build a jump and another day to land the perfect 1080, riders aren’t too keen to see their magic moment end up on the editing room floor.

“Everyone has say and input; it’s really a collaborative piece,” Sansalone said. “It’s harder for the riders. They have so much emotion involved in the footage and it’s hard to cut it down and decide on what rider gets the first part. It definitely makes things harder, but the end result is better.”

Andrew Hardingham scored the coveted opening sequence and although a new face on the Whistler snowboard film scene, Sansalone promises the Winnipegger won’t disappoint.

“We heard he was kind of a trouble maker and hard to deal with, but we met him and got to know him and he turned out to be one of the greatest kids to work with,” Sansalone said.

Hardingham and Sansalone, as well as Mark Sollors, Andrew Geeves, Rube Skelhorn, Max Ritchie, Steve Cartwright, Dwayne Wiebe, Kael Hill, Kevin Griffin, Nash Lajeunesse, Geoff Brown, Andrew Burns, Mike Sudermann, Mikey Pederson and Logan Short, will be tearing up the silver screen at the world premier.

In addition to shoots on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, Whistler backcountry, the Rockies and Blue River, the Whistler crew also traveled to Norway, Japan, Argentina and Chile.

For Sansalone, Norway was the most memorable and exotic getaway for the film.

“It’s Nordic country. People have been skiing there forever,” he said. “I had no idea what the mountains would be like and they were awesome.”

Sansalone also shot at the Oakley Arctic Challenge in Norway, an invitational competition put on by Terje Haakonsen.

Haakonsen broke a world record while Time Well Wasted rider Dustin Craven broke the bar bill the night before the Challenge finals, where his snowboard stood up to a 30-foot quarterpipe.

“He partied the night before and didn’t get home until 7 a.m. so he blew it,” Sansalone said.

But filmmakers rose to the challenge of those blowing it moments — including the grey dismal skies that plagued Whistler heavens for most of the winter. Bluebird skies were few and far between, but the snow more than made up for it.

The Time Well Wasted screening will include the feature presentation along with behind-the-scenes out takes and short features.

Photographer Brian Hockenstein will also show images from the filming.

Garfinkel’s will host the screening’s afterparty. A film ticket stub will get you into the celebration for free.

Tickets are $10 and are available at MY Place and ticketmaster.ca.