For the week of February 20 - 26, 2002

Commercials for Olympics feature local sights

Sun Valley company calls on region’s talent

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By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer

You’ve seen the commercials during the coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Rick Barker, left, straps Matt Luhn in for a "chase-cam" run behind Deeder Petersen for a United Heritage of Boise commercial shot in March 2001. In the background, David Butterfield of Diamond Sun Productions, left, and Cameron Ventura confer about the upcoming shot. Courtesy photo

Olympic silver medalist Linda Fratianne is skating with her daughter Ali Maricich on the Sun Valley outdoor ice rink. Watching from the sidelines, an actor, David Blampied, portrays the proud father.

In another ad, "Olympic" skier Deeder Petersen speeds downhill at 70 mph.

And there’s the one with lift-riding Garret "Bubba" Smith, skiing Larson Petersen, and snowboarding A.J. Grabos.

These are three United Heritage of Boise commercials featuring Wood River Valley residents and Baldy, thanks to David Butterfield and his Sun Valley company, Diamond Sun Productions.

In the first commercial, "Daddy" Blampied is watching his "daughter" skate under the tutelage of Ali’s real mother, Fratianne.

He’s thinking to himself that had he known how wonderful it was to be a father, he wouldn’t have waited so long.

"What would I do without her?" he thinks. "What would she do without me?"

He’s brought up short when she skates up to him and tells him to go away because he is making her nervous.

In the second commercial, the narrator asks viewers if Petersen, decked out in a U.S. Olympic Spyder racing suit, is thinking about variable annuities.

Probably not.

He has other things on his mind, the narrator says. Like not catching an edge.

In the third commercial, Smith wonders why he can’t retire now and ski everyday instead of just every now and then.

The scene then switches to Larson Petersen, thinking about buying a condominium while she is skiing Baldy.

Again the scene switches, this time to Grabos coming toward the camera on his snowboard.

"Hey, guy with the camera, look out!" Crash.

Butterfield, who once worked as a director and photographer for Warren Miller Productions, started Diamond Sun in 1985.

Since then he has put together a long list of awards for outdoor videos, commercials, scripts and more.

Butterfield said his production company consists of him and "a family of assistants," which expands with the size of the production.

For example, with the United Heritage commercials that were shot in March 2001, Butterfield not only had the help of the already mentioned talent, but also the help of crew members Matt Luhn, Robbie Hilliard, Rick Barker, Erik Leidecker and Roger Dubree.

Luhn skied behind Petersen in the downhill racer commercial wearing a 35 mm camera rigged to a motorcyclist’s chest protector.

Butterfield said his production company runs along three different channels.

The first has to do with the production of video and 16 mm film.

The United Heritage commercials fall into this channel.

The company hired an advertising agency, which in turn hired a producer, who in turn hired a director, who in turn handed Butterfield a story board and said "Make this happen."

The second has to do with helping out-of-state production companies to find mountain locations, to scout for talent, to get permits, and to do local casting.

The third, he said, "is speculating on my own ideas."

He has produced several local documentaries, like one on Ernest Hemingway, which aired in 18 different television markets.

He did another on Sun Valley skiers, which was aired on Boise’s Channel 7, KTVB, an NBC affiliate.

Also in this third channel of Butterfield’s creativity are scripts, like one for a television series set in Hailey.

He also has a script for Stanley, which he says is "getting a good reading in Hollywood."

For what, you ask?

A horror/thriller set in Stanley.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.