Meathead Films "Snow Gods"

[Birdman829]

Just saw the world premier tonight at UVM and it was pretty good. Some nice backcountry bowls and chutes, a lot of gnarly tree skiing, and some pretty sweet park stuff too. I would highly recommend it, especially if you've liked any of the Meatheads other stuff. Just goes to show that not all the gnar skiing is done in the West.

 

[riverc0il]

i caught the later showing tonight in burlington. eh, i was expecting a lot more after seeing their last three movies. way too much park, jib, and stunt scenes. i don't mind a little, but it felt like at least half the movie if not more. thankfully, the movie was saved by the meatheads best assortment of powder tree skiing action they have caught yet between jay peak and stowe. the chic choc scenes were great and the kmart scene was cool, but they did the same thing with the same guy last year. parking at sunday river was also done last year too, blah. i wasn't too into the music and felt some transitions were a bit "off." the movie certainly was good, just not what i had expected which was a substantial improvement compared to born from ice. it certainly wasn't off for lack of opportunity or big snow fall. and no october action either, weird. not sure if they got out for the early december dump, didn't look like they included any early season in the video.

fans of sundown, hunter, mountain creek, and some other smaller ski areas from the south western areas of the region will be stoked to see their home areas getting some footage.

 

[kbroderick]

Overall, I agree with 'c0il. It was a cool movie, but I didn't leave quite as stoked as I expected to--the park stuff was cool to watch but doesn't do it for me the same way that the powder shots do. On the other hand, I was pretty psyched to walk away with a copy of Schooled from the raffle, so it was worth going for me. (The mascot's antics at the late showing were quite amusing, too.)

(plus, I got some pretty cool night photos on the way home courtesy of the full moon; the only downside was that I didn't get into bed until after 0200 this morning).

 

[JD]

I think the park stuff is great. And is so much of what's happening to skiing right now. The are a very well rounded group and I totally repect that. All that being said, I like it when they shred powder the best.

 

[riverc0il]

word, JD. don't get me wrong, i respect the ability of these guys and they do some pretty rad stuff at risk of high personal injury. that's cool. but i also like it when they shred powder the most. the park stuff is cool in small doses but puts me to sleep after a while.

 

[riverc0il]

i just wanted the bonus features on the DVD. the bonus features are actually better than the actual movie! even had a lost skiing in massachusetts segment which was cool. i do the lost skia area thing, so i found that segment quite entertaining.

 

[thetrailboss]

I'm going on Tuesday night.

Looking forward to it.

 

[kbroderick]

i just wanted the bonus features on the DVD. the bonus features are actually better than the actual movie! even had a lost skiing in massachusetts segment which was cool. i do the lost skia area thing, so i found that segment quite entertaining.

I noticed that NELSAP was one of the organizations that got a thank you in the credits and I was wondering why...I didn't recall anything in the movie at a lost area.

And yes, some of the park stuff is incredibly sick (and most, if not all of it, falls into the category of stuff I don't want to do). But it just doesn't stoke me as much, perhaps because rather than saying "damn I want to do that" I just say, "wow, that was impressive." It's conceivable that I could handle a lot of the powder skiing the Meatheads show, but throwing ridiculous spins off a huge air at high speed just ain't gonna happen.(*)

(It might also be that the park stuff isn't as East-Coast-specific as the powder stuff--you can build a big park anywhere as long as you have terrain, space, snow, and a good crew of cat operators; none of those make for inherent differences east vs. west.)


*: at least not intentionally

 

[riverc0il]

(It might also be that the park stuff isn't as East-Coast-specific as the powder stuff--you can build a big park anywhere as long as you have terrain, space, snow, and a good crew of cat operators; none of those make for inherent differences east vs. west.)

good call here. there is a universal aspect to parks, though from what i have seen, a lot of western resorts build much larger scale mega parks, folks are still doing the same tricks to a certain degree. park video definitely doesn't show off all that is great and unique about eastern skiing... you really gotta get into the trees to do that.

another thought i had while watching the bonus features is that it is MUCH easier to shoot park. you just have to get good at filming while skiing. or you setup a tripod on a wide open slope and the jibber just keeps hiking till he gets it right. a powder shot in the woods is hard to setup. the video taker needs to spot a line and leave the powder virgin while getting to a good spot to shoot and then communicate the line to the skier. the skier then gets one take to trash perfect powder... then it is time to spend another 10 minutes setting up another shot. etc. so not only is the powder hard to time, but each shot is a huge science project whereas in a park, you just keep cycling and keep the tape rolling. so from the perspective of someone shooting video, it would be much easier to head over to the park and let it roll than do a series of woods shots.

 

[Birdman829]

Yeah I can definitely see what you mean. I actually saw it at the early showing and the late showing so maybe we saw each other there and didn't know it . I do think that there was too much park action and that isn't necessarily what we look for in a Meatheads flick. The tree skiing at Jay and Stowe was rad though with some pretty tight lines. Not as good as 'Born from Ice' or 'Schooled' but definitely worth seeing.

 

[JD]

Consider the season last year too...not too much POW.

 

[riverc0il]

Consider the season last year too...not too much POW.

i considered that and rejected it. there was plenty of pow. i still can't believe these guys did not have footage from october! that was some of the best and deepest pow of the year. december had a big hit and stowe and jay got nailed several times when no one else did. there might have only been deep powder three times last year, but there was more than enough one foot dump to put something together. there were certainly more than two good pow days and they only had two pow segments during the entire movie not counting the chic chocs.

 

[riverc0il]

speaking of "POW", here is a funny story. someone at work was reading my old trip reports because i mentioned i ran a web site. while reading one of the trip reports, they asked: "what the hell is POW?" heh.

 

[kbroderick]

another thought i had while watching the bonus features is that it is MUCH easier to shoot park. you just have to get good at filming while skiing. or you setup a tripod on a wide open slope and the jibber just keeps hiking till he gets it right. a powder shot in the woods is hard to setup. the video taker needs to spot a line and leave the powder virgin while getting to a good spot to shoot and then communicate the line to the skier. the skier then gets one take to trash perfect powder... then it is time to spend another 10 minutes setting up another shot. etc. so not only is the powder hard to time, but each shot is a huge science project whereas in a park, you just keep cycling and keep the tape rolling. so from the perspective of someone shooting video, it would be much easier to head over to the park and let it roll than do a series of woods shots.

Yes and no. Yes, shooting pow is a PITA (and requires more commitment, because you get a lot less vert in if you're going down, setting up each shot, filming it, and then moving to the next spot vs. just ripping it and maybe sending the guy with the camera down first so he can pull off to the side, shoot while everyone goes by, and then catch up); however, it's not quite as simple as keep cycling until you get it in the park. Light changes rapidly, and snow conditions do sometimes (the Heat Harvest park probably saw rapid meltage, for example); plus, if the victims...er, subjects...are really pushing the envelope, they're not going to nail it every time (and they may or may not want to do it again after they nail it, what with the whole "injury" thing). I agree that it's easier, but getting truly high-quality stuff isn't as easy as "session this until I get the shot I want." That will work some of the time, but you're much better off if you can set it up right the first time (and maybe keep trying if the skier/rider doesn't nail the trick).

With that said, I'd be pretty psyched to be shooting either next week...so where's my 2 feet of October fresh?

 

[bvibert]

fans of sundown, hunter, mountain creek, and some other smaller ski areas from the south western areas of the region will be stoked to see their home areas getting some footage.

I was gonna watch it anyway, the fact that my little home area made the cut is icing on the cake. :beer:

 

[Skibum_dan]

I saw Snow Gods at UVM for the 9:00 showing. There seemed to be about as many people as last year....pretty sweet considering there were two showings this year. It's been fun to see these guys progress over the last few years.
The opening rocked! Snow Gods is swell and like always there are quite a few bonus features. There were powder days last year but in the grand scheme of things, last year wasn't the most stellar on the east coast. They still managed to get some great pow footage in the woods considering. The DVD will help ward off (or perhaps intensify) ski fever until the snow blows.

 

[ALLSKIING]

Just got mine tonight!!

 

[ccskier]

I got mine last night. I am on my second viewing and have to say, the prior films take the cake compared to this one. This one is too "new school", way too much park skiing. Yes, last year was not the best, but there were still those out of the blue storms in March.