It may feel too soon to think about skiing due to the recent Indian summer weather. But winter will come, and it will be time to think about snow fun. To help prep for ski season, Matchstick Productions will present its latest ski movie, "The Way I See It."
"The Way I See It" will screen at the Sun Valley Opera House tonight at 7 and 9 p.m. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $15, available at the door and Formula Sports in Ketchum. The film screening will have a raffle and giveaways.
Since 1992, Matchstick Productions has been producing ski films. "The Way I See It" will showcase deep powder, steep lines and massive park features from British Columbia, Japan, Alaska, Colorado, Switzerland, Idaho, Washington and other locations worldwide.
The production team visited Smiley Creek in the Sawtooth Valley last winter to film backcountry skiing featuring Bobby Brown of Breckenridge, Colo. Brown suffered a significant injury while filming at Smiley Creek, which adds to his segment in the film.
"Smith Optics in Ketchum is one of our partners, and we worked with a few of athletes on their team," said Matchstick Productions Operations Manager Mike Hans. "We filmed at Smiley Creek with a private landowner who set up a back country terrain park."
Hans said filming was a struggle in the early part of the season last year but when the crew went to British Columbia to film they got lucky.
"We were forced to think outside of the box and really branch out," Hans said. "We sent crews to Switzerland and Japan. The Japan segment speaks for itself. It is possibly the deepest snow we have ever shot."
In Switzerland, the production team took advantage of downtime from the mountains to film lifestyle sequences, which Hans said have a unique feeling.
"In this film, we worked really closely with Colby West, who has been our resident funny man for the last few years," he said. "We gave him free reign to tell his story the funniest way he could."
Other stand-out sequences in "The Way I See It" include an interesting look at the history of a ski town in Whistler, Canada, skiers Mark Abma and Cody Townsend and skiing in excellent conditions in Alaska.
"The aerial shots in the film are second to none," Hans said.
"The Way I See It" also features Sean Pettit, Eric Hjorleifson, Henrik Windstedt, James Heim, Richard Permin, Rory Bushfield, Ingrid Backstrom, Gus Kenworthy, Jacob Wester, Russ Henshaw and others.
Sabina Dana Plasse: splasse@mtexpress.com
Photo by Grant Gunderson
Henrik Windstedt skis in powder at sunset with Mustang Powder snowcats in British Columbia, Canada.
