#throwback:
Sometimes a defining moment in a
sport isn’t anything unexpected, it’s
just a few of your favourite riders making
best use of the filming tech available to
I
n 2011, Red Bull and
Brain Farm’s The Art of
FLIGHT was far from the
first snowboarding film
to embrace high-definition
photography. But (for us at least),
this was the first that genuinely
rewarded you for getting your
mitts on a Blu-ray copy instead
of just hitting play on YouTube.
Shot using the latest GoPro
offerings as well as RED’s
camera system, Vision
Research’s Phantom camera
and a Panasonic setup, the
film offers a level of cinematic
clarity that our VHS-watching
younger-selves could only have
dreamed of.
Two years in the making, The
Art of FLIGHT gave Travis Rice
and friends the opportunity to
redefine what was possible in the
mountains. It tracked the highs,
as new tricks are landed and
new zones opened, alongside
114 | FreestyleXtreme.com
the lows, where avalanches,
accidents and wrong-turns
struck. Rice’s handpicked
accomplices were drawn from
the world’s top riders, including
John Jackson, Mark Landvik,
Scotty Lago, Nicolas Muller, DCP,
Mark McMorris, Jake Blauvelt,
Pat Moore and Jeremy Jones.
Billed as “a new breed of action
sports film”, director Curt Morgan
and a crew who cut their teeth
on “That’s It, That’s All” sought
to elevate the production side to
a level you’re more familiar with
seeing on the big screen.
Filling that vista meant a trek
up and down the American
continent, from Chile to Alaska.
A concerted effort was made
to open up new, unexplored
mountains and find lines that
others wouldn’t have even
considered. Chilean Patagonia’s
Darwin Range, Alaska’s Tordrillo
Range, Wyoming’s Snake
River Range, Aspen, Colorado,
the Andes, as well as British
Columbia’s Kootenay Mountains,
Revelstoke and Goat Range were
amongst the stops providing the
backdrops.
The result was the kind of action
sports movie you can happily
show to your non-action-sports
friends, knowing they’ll get just
as much out of it as you do. The
film follows enough of the human
story and lifestyle behind the
scenes, to tell a universal story of
a group of snowboarding friends
who just happen to have access
to helicopters.
It wasn't the first big-budget
snowboarding movie, but The
Art of FLIGHT continues to be
the standard by which other are
judged. t
them and hitting unbelievable runs.