Draw the Line

 

Standard Films staked its claim as the “Soul of Snowboard Cinema” from the start, literally setting the standard with footage of Shawn Farmer’s legendary leap over the Mt. Baker road gap for the company’s first film, Totally Board.

 

After producing a total of ten titles in the Totally Board series, then topping them all with each new installment in an annual series that includes Notice to Appear, White Balance, Lost in Transition, and Paradox, Standard Films set out to separate the men from the boys with its latest feature, Draw the Line.

 

The film features big-mountain adventures all over the globe, the best freestylers and free riders in the business, and startling innovations in helicopter-borne cinematography that will – once again – revolutionize the way the world looks at snowboarding.

 

Lat34 caught up with Waide Hoyt of Standard Films to discuss the company’s history and Tahoe roots, and to ask about the latest film’s epic scope and unbelievable lines by the likes of Jeremy Jones, Mads Jonsson, and Eric Jackson.

 

 

We just try to capture the true essence of snowboarding and the whole spectrum of it, from rails to all-mountain madness, crazy powder top-to-bottom lines, to the best in freestyle riding… the whole gamut of snowboarding. Hopefully anybody watching one of our movies, no matter who they are, will want to go out and try the sport. If they’re already involved with the sport, we hope watching our films will make them want to get back out there so much more, and maybe try a new approach. That’s really what drives us: There’s always a new spot, a new line, a new way of thinking about something.

 

 

It’s about taking something that is really fantastic and showing it in a really epic way, but it’s also a reminder that this is not a fantasy: This is real. This is how far snowboarding has come, how big everything has gotten, and it means everything to us to be able to show it for what it is. And each year it gets bigger and better. It’s true that not too many people have access to the superior mountains and pristine powder snow conditions, wheras anybody can participate on a smaller scale, hitting jibs and doing things they see in the freestyle flicks. We think it’s important to show the full range of what’s out there and what’s being done. We think it’s important for everybody to dream a little bit, and for our films to really push it to the boundaries.

 

 

Standard Films was really fortunate to get started early on and really do it right all along, and then our films became legendary by pioneering Alaska in the early 90s, before many snowboarders and certainly before many film crews were really pushing things in the big mountains. Our work was basically showing that those mountains could be ridden, showing the ski companies and other filmmakers that, in fact, you can access peaks by helicopter that people thought were unskiable back in the day, that you can take them top to bottom and do it and film it safely and gracefully. It was a reaction to the other coverage out there: Everybody was stuck in-bounds at ski areas or just off-piste, hitting small jumps, hitting resort terrain or just real easy to get to backcountry spots. We said, “Hey we’re not gonna do that: We’re gonna go where no man’s gone before.” Of course, that gets much harder to do now that everybody is tromping all over the globe!

 

 

Tahoe is unreal. There are very few resorts in North America that really cater to big mountain riding, and we’re very fortunate to have access to it and be able to use the terrain with such ease. It stimulates you to really want to keep pushing the boundaries. At the same time, North Star, Sierra Tahoe, Alpine Meadows, and Oriole Mountain, have each spent a lot of money and time building the infrastructure for parks and snowboard accessibility, and it’s been great to see what’s been going in that arena as well. It’s also good for us older dogs to have all the kids entertained in the park: It leaves more powder for us! Then, when they finally do discover the rest of the mountain, they bring so much to it. Snowboarding evolves so fast it’s incredible. It’s great to able to travel for snowboarding, and it’s great to be able to come home to Tahoe. What can I say?

 

Well, you’d have to ask one of the guys who actually worked on that shot, but from the heli there really isn’t much you can do besides keep the camera on it and hope for the best. With a rider like Jeremy Jones, you’re going to find yourself right on the edge like that a lot of the time, and fortunately it’s usually going to work out for the best. If a snowboarder is going to put it all on the line for us, the least we can do is get the footage!

 

Steve Winter at Mathcstick Productions is the master, and we’re really fortunate to have a partnership with him. He has the highest top-end equipment and has been shooting from the heli for years, just totally mastered the art of shooting from the heli. I like to call it the Matrix version of freestyle snowboarding: In the air, tight, super super slo-mo, a ton of shots per second. Our hats go off at Standard Films for being able to work with Matchstick Productions to help produce those shots and be allowed to helping bring those images to snowboarders.

 

 

I don’t want to be too specific on locations because the locations are getting tougher and tougher to get as far as being able to get access, being able to find new spots, and being able to get there first. I do know that we are going to be shooting in Terrace, BC again. Some of the most epic powder footage we have in Draw the Line – Mark Landvik’s segment, a lot of shots of Mads Jonnson and Frederik Kalbermatten – comes from Terrace, and we’re going to be spending about a month up there again this year. We’re going to try to do a bunch of rail stuff in Helsinki with Juuso Laivisto and crew. Other than that, it all depends on the snow conditions: If the snow is right, we’re going to jet out there, wherever it may be.