Archive

Nov 15

Dear Level 1: The Crabbier Portion of this Blog Checks In

By Jon Hartley10 Comments

Dear Level 1,

You might be confused by this letter. I mean, wasn’t it just a month ago that we were all oh my god Level 1 finally resisted the urge to stroke ski bro egos, followed by a helping of thank god they limited the repetitive drone of giant jump build segments? That happened, right? Right! So what might we have to say now?

Well, the thing is, you’ve made one of your better movies in years, BUT that doesn’t mean we’re actually happy over here at this fictional place we call BroBomb. Will Wesson’s stuff in the extras was still better than anything in that whole (still very good, seriously, we all did like it) damn movie! So, let’s just say this isn’t your opus, this isn’t your crowning achievement, but it’s a start down a road. But you damn well better keep walking that road because, well…progression, I guess.

I guess what I’m saying is that there’s still shit tons of room to improve. And since we’re 100% confident of our influence on all that happens within this strange little world of skiing, we’re going to make a few demands:

1. No more giant versions of things one might find in a regular park. Either your skiers can make normal stuff look cool or they are boring human beings. It’s as simple as that. Taking some sort of rainbowy box and doing nothing with it other than making it all huge and shit might make sense in a room full of ski jocks, but to everyone else it’s just gimmicky and regressive.

2. Dunfee already touched on this, but it bears repeating: If someone gave you the impression that we all wouldn’t watch a full segment of JP Auclair doing WHATEVER THE HELL HE WANTS…well, punch that person and never listen to him again. If JP says to you, “I want to spend two minutes of my segment recommending fine wines to pair with the choicest Quebecois cheeses,” just nod your head and go with it. The man’s a treasure, we will all love it.

3. You brought us Eric Pollard without the heavy hand of Nimbusery weighing everything down, and for that we are grateful. To improve on that you will need to follow my directions carefully. First, call him up and say that you’re planning a trip to whatever hippie soul skiing mecca all you brohemians are jazzed up about this year and you’ll be meeting up and leaving from SLC. Second, do not book that trip and instead threaten him with bodily harm if he doesn’t tag along with Will Wesson on whatever wacky urban/park extravaganza he has planned.

To get to the point, we want to see less gimmicks, more JP, and Pollard having fun on park and urban shit again. Sorry for all that filler.

That’s it really. Thanks.

Nov 22

Too Late? After Dark Review

By Dunfee5 Comments

Level 1 continues their tradition of having one part stand way above the rest. The original was David Crichton’s two-part segment in Forward that I will mention in every other blog post until I quit writing about skiing and start doing environmental work to soothe my guilty conscience. Then there was Corey Vanular’s part to another DL Incognito song in Long Story Short which, at barely 1:20 long, is possibly the best exercise of restraint in ski film history.

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Mar 26

Level 1′s Freedle Coty Talks “Superunknown”

By Jon HartleyNo Comments

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Each year the ski internet buzzes with predictions for who will win Level 1′s Superunknown competition. As each wave of finalist edits are released, the speculation only increases. This year, Alaska native Logan Imlach took the honors by mixing backcountry with some creative and burly urban. Level 1′s Freedle Coty was kind enough to answer a few questions about judging, past winners, and Logan’s future with the crew.

This is the seventh year of Superunknown– has the contest changed now that most of the contestants are already minor celebs with edits all over the internet?

Not necessarily, first off there’s plenty of people we haven’t heard of as we don’t have time to sit and watch every edit, all day. Every year a few kids come out of the woodwork that are unknowns even in the internet edit culture. This year I personally had heard of, or knew, 5 of the top selections. Kids who watch edits religiously definitely have a better tab on this kind of stuff on a day to day basis.

How aware were you of Logan prior to the contest?

Not aware. I had never heard of him.

When the edits are submitted, what does the judging process look like?

We go through all the videos one by one when they come in, that’s the mind numbing part. This year Berman did all that himself because no one else was around; he has a good eye for that. Sometimes you can tell right away what will make it or not and from there we select a top tier, and watch those more closely. Now with the amount, and the level of talent, it comes down to two tiers, and that’s what we released on Vimeo. The top tier we show as many people who are close to or in our crew and try to come to a consensus. It’s not democratic necessarily, nor is it a “best edit” contest which I think a lot of people confuse for. We look for an overall impression of talent and personality primarily, with potential being the biggest factor. It’s not easy. The last two years we struggled on choosing the winner, but this year I think it was slightly easier.

Does it ever get like a draft, where you’re looking to fill a particular hole in your “team”?

Yeah, I guess that can be a factor, but it’s not really the deciding one. There isn’t a rulebook for it, we want diversity. It definitely helps to choose somebody who adds to our crew and movie in some way.

Freedle keeping his opinions to himself.

Freedle keeping his opinions to himself.

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Oct 26

Love/Hate Refresh

By Jon Hartley1 Comment

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The original tag line for BroBomb was “Some Love, More Hate.” I’m glad we changed it, because I think all this writing has had a cathartic effect. I just can’t muster the old venom like I used to. I watched Refresh several times back to back and just couldn’t come up with a sufficiently long “Reasons to Hate” list…I’m sorry and I’ll try harder next year.

 Reasons to Love Refresh:

  1. Warren Miller demonstrates that quality narration is like riding a bike; nearly a decade out of the game and he doesn’t miss a beat.
  2. For a sum total of 30 seconds, Will Wesson drops hammers like John Henry. If we didn’t get tons of him in Traveling Circus and Wild Stallions, this would be in the HATE column.
  3. Phil Casabon –dog tow-in and switch fifty on a concrete ledge– this Canadian has come a long way since the Plehouse days.
  4. Quebec’s concrete pyramids are introduced, slayed, and should probably be retired.
  5. Tom Wallisch straight handles the opening curtain. It makes me think of T Hall’s Session 1242 classic…I’m not saying he’s there, but damnit he sure has one in him.
  6. Did anybody notice that Talib Kweli is rapping about white kids who “want to be black kids, and talk like rappers” during Wallisch’s opener? I love subliminals.
  7. Delorme on that double stage Keystone jump. We can only watch and dream that our home resort would build something so fun.
  8. I could listen to Henrik speak his version of “gangsta English” all day.
  9. My younger brother has never seen a ski movie that didn’t have “too many powder shots,” but even he had to admit that Wiley Miller threw down. The butters, slashes, and 2 stagers keep it fresh. For the record, there was still too much pow for him.
  10. Not one comment about how friggen’ hard it rains in Alaska. Bravo!

 Reasons to Hate Refresh:

  1. Ahmet Dadali holds poles less than a Mormon ex-stripper. Forcing him to hold them for this video just seems mean.
  2. Dear skiers with eyewear sponsors: A grown man should wear one of two styles of sunglasses: Aviators or Wayfarers. Notify your sponsors.
  3. Maybe one too many handheld-cam sing-alongs to “Just Like Living in Paradise”?
  4. Ahmet Dadali’s “NY” chain. Go PHILLIES!
  5. I’m sure that last Mammoth park shoot jump did wonders for ski-egos, but on film that sucker is the same as every other big jump that every other video crew filmed on. Get your doublecork-whatever in the bag and MOVE ON!

 

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