Photos: July 2008 Archives

“We’re entering unprecedented territory for a ski movie,” CP says as we roll up to the Log Cabin in Big Bear, California. It’s early in the morning and Tanner is still asleep back at Marc Frank Montoya’s The Block Hotel. He doesn’t need to be here yet, the crew of 12 still has a couple hours of setting up probably half a million dollars worth of rented lighting, dolly, sound, and camera equipment. Grips, gaffers, and boom operators—all dudes who regularly work in Hollywood—are slinging jargon faster then us bro-brahs can comprehend. When’s the last time you saw an effort like this to film a few seconds of opening scene for a ski movie. Never is the right answer.

Spending more money in one day—not even on shooting skiing—than most film companies spend in an entire season maybe gives you some kind of idea the scale that Tanner’s movie, “The Massive”, is on. The day wasn’t easy. The closed down diner had no A/C and the doors had to be shut to keep out traffic noise. Tanner goes through countless take and camera angles, and handles it like the handles the heat of the X Games Superpipe—like a champ.

Check out the rest of the shots from the day!

Speaking of hot, heard about Red Bull’s The Experiment? Going down Friday on the Santa Monica Pier. Check it!

All the preparation and all the practice came down to one day, really. CP flew an A-Star fitted with a Tyler mount down from Seattle. Based on thoughts from credible sources, this was the first time Mt. Hood had ever seen a helicopter used for ski or snowboard shoot.

It's difficult to fathom what needs to go on for a heli shoot to be a success. The chaos is nearly indescribable. We sat on the in-run up by the skiers while the Red Bull Skiing team manager Pete did his best to relay commands from CP over the roar of the rotors sitting in the shotgun seat. Those little Motorola radios provided little more fidelity than indecipherable bursts of muddled shouting. Nevertheless as the heli dropped low over the top of the in run, and our gloves skipped away across the glacier like bunnies across a field, order somehow manifested itself from madness and the shoot was a resounding success.

See all 25 shots from the massive gallery of the final action shoot for Tanner Hall's film, "The Massive!"