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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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.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- Phil Casabon –dog tow-in and switch fifty on a concrete ledge– this Canadian has come a long way since the Plehouse days.
- Quebec’s concrete pyramids are introduced, slayed, and should probably be retired.
- 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.
- 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.
- Delorme on that double stage Keystone jump. We can only watch and dream that our home resort would build something so fun.
- I could listen to Henrik speak his version of “gangsta English” all day.
- 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.
- Not one comment about how friggen’ hard it rains in Alaska. Bravo!
Reasons to Hate Refresh:
- Ahmet Dadali holds poles less than a Mormon ex-stripper. Forcing him to hold them for this video just seems mean.
- Dear skiers with eyewear sponsors: A grown man should wear one of two styles of sunglasses: Aviators or Wayfarers. Notify your sponsors.
- Maybe one too many handheld-cam sing-alongs to “Just Like Living in Paradise”?
- Ahmet Dadali’s “NY” chain. Go PHILLIES!
- 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!
