Words: Jordan Ingmire
Another summer season has passed and the snow is stacking fast in the NW! It's November 22 and there is already a solid four feet of snow in my front yard with much more on the way over the next few days. Scott Studach of WildCard Movies isn't wasting anytime this year and has already organized and executed our first shoot of the 2012 season.
<– Check out the photo gallery from the event by Jordan Ingram here.
After a morning of preseason shredding around the resort, the crew headed East of Stevens Pass to a friend's house to set the jib before night fall. By the time I showed up the boys were just hoisting the rainbow and inserting it into a hefty wedge they had stacked. After a few rebuilds, the jump held the weight of the tree and we quickly to iced everything over to make sure it set before it was ridden.
With the in-run and landing dialed Scott (filmer) and myself got to work on lighting the feature and prepping all sorts of camera gizmos. After about an hour of placing lights, shielding lights from the dumping snow, tinkering with cords, leveling dollies and adjusted settings, I concluded that I didn't properly understand how to use any of my new camera gear! I then proceeded to spend another half hour tearing down and packing my kit and resorting to use my trusty setup from last year. Sweating and frustrated, I looked over to Scott to see him in a similar state as myself, struggling to dial in new equipment.
Finally everything was in position and the jib was looking good. It was dumping snow which added to the dramatic lighting created for the shoot. The boys fired up the sled and did a few passes to check the speed and began sending it. The right speed was crucial due to the pliability of the rainbow, too much speed and you would shoot past the transition to flat, not enough and the rainbow would bow leaving you face deep in the backside of the landing. After a few tries all of the riders had put down a solid line across the feature. Now it was time to start the show. Set that baby on fire!
We doused the jib in gasoline and took a blow torch to it. To our dismay the flames were small and diminished as quickly as they had come. We proceeded to try other flammable household items we had on hand and decided to 'call it' after a jug of potent lacquer gave little results. How hard is it to set a tree on fire in dumping wet snow?
Though no one caught fire on this shoot, our seasoned riders' Joe Bosler of Arbor Snowboards slayed a solid board slide across the knotghty rainbow. And Andy Bergin-Sperry of Lib-Technoliogies closed out the shoot with a flawless nose press from end to end.
