The world of action sports filmmaking follows a different set of rules.
This week we dive into the world of action sports filmmaking with Justin Fann, Teton Gravity Research Lead Editor & Director, about action sports filmmaking. In this episode Justin shares how you can get started, how their projects are funded, and the gear he likes to use in the back country.
Listen to hear how sports action filmmaking is different from the traditional Hollywood model.
Key Points:
2:15 – How he got started
Skip to: 04:50 Where you can get started6:40 – Roles in Outdoor filmmaking
8:55 – How to stay safe
11:48 – Setting up shots
14:14 – Budget for project
17:43 – What expenses the company covers
18:45 – Shooting Length
20:50 – Types of insurance to get
25:01 – Most dangerous situations
26:49 – What went wrong
31:34 – Most challenging part of the job
34:11 – Path to Teton Gravity Research
37:50 – Latest project
Links:
Links:
Teton Gravity Research
Stoke the Fire Trailer
Justin Fann Instagram
Website
Full Transcript:
Justin Fann (00:00):
I kind of looked up and I saw just a wall of snow coming right towards me. I’m on my snowmobile. Snowmobile’s not running so I immediately try to start my snowmobile. I give it one pull and all of a sudden this wall just hits me.
Tanya Musgrave (00:14):
Welcome to The Practical Filmmaker, an educational podcast brought to you by the Filmmaker Institute and Sunscreen Film Festival, where industry professionals talk nuts and bolts and the steps they took to find their success today. On today’s show, Justin Fann pitches us into the world of action sports and the filmmakers behind the extreme athletes, boarding, skiing, biking, all the things for films brought to you by Teton Gravity Research.
Tanya Musgrave (00:37):
Find the full transcripts and more at thepracticalfilmmaker.com. I’m your host, Tanya Musgrave, and today we have Justin Fann, editor, director, and cinematographer for the action sports media company, Teton Gravity Research. You can see his work in collaboration with Outside Magazine, last year’s Teton Gravity film, Blank Canvas, and their currently touring film, Stoke the Fire. Welcome to the show.
Justin Fann (00:59):
Thanks for having me. Appreciate the invite. Yeah. Excited to be here and excited to chat.
Tanya Musgrave (01:05):
To fill people in, for those who are unfamiliar with outdoor films, there are action sports media companies, such as Teton Gravity Research that will usually compile a feature every year amongst other outdoor film shorts, think of Warren Miller ski film, Banff Mountain Film Fest, Reel Rock Tour. They create these films and instead of releasing these to all theaters at once necessarily, they’ll have teams that will tour around the country with it.
Tanya Musgrave (01:30):
If you’re into the outdoors at all, and you’ve never been to one of these, just go. You’re in for a treat. It’s such a cool atmosphere. Always sponsored gear giveaways, and just a fun time that inspires you to get outside. This world rotates on an axis that is completely different than the typical mainstream film industry. I went to see Stoke the Fire. Loved it.
Tanya Musgrave (01:53):
Wanted to get a filmmaker on here, went to IMDb and it wasn’t even registered as a film, which is crazy because I know that these films have such a massive subculture around them. It was almost baffling once I realized how little I knew about this world. That’s one reason I’m so stoked to have you here, help shed some light on this gnarly little outcropping. Let’s start with how you got to where you are now.
Justin Fann (02:19):
First off, thanks for having me on the show. Stoked to be a part of it. I think like a lot of people in the action sports world, I started with just doing the sports and really enjoying skateboarding, snowboarding, all that stuff as a kid, running around with a little video camera. It was the era of Jackass and jumping into bushes and filming your friends doing stupid shit.
Justin Fann (02:40):
I did a bunch of that in junior high in my younger teen years. Then I went to school in Moscow, Idaho. I went for environmental science, and about my junior year, I wasn’t quite sure I was there for the right reasons. I wasn’t quite sure I was studying what I wanted to do and I’d never really thought about film as a career path really.
Justin Fann (03:04):
Then that … I believe it was my second or third semester my junior year, the film Deeper came to the student union building and it showed there. After watching that film, I had this little bit of an aha moment of like, “Wow, I think I want to do that. I think I want to go back to this filmmaking thing that was just this hobby as a kid and see if I can take a crack at it.”
Justin Fann (03:29):
The next week I went in to my advisor and I added a minor in digital media production and crammed as much as I could into the last year or so I had of school. Flash-forward to a year from there and I was interning at Teton Gravity Research in 2011 and-
Tanya Musgrave (03:46):
Oh, wow.
Justin Fann (03:46):
… that following winter, I was actually cutting a TV show out of the film Deeper. It was such a whirlwind of-
Tanya Musgrave (03:54):
Oh, whoa. Okay.
Justin Fann (03:56):
… happenchance that got me to this place.
Tanya Musgrave (03:58):
Okay. I’m guessing … Were you already familiar with Teton Gravity Research or were they just one of those-
Justin Fann (04:03):
Yeah. Yeah. I was definitely familiar with it. I’d followed the annual film. As you mentioned, companies like Teton Gravity Research and Warren Miller do an annual ski film every year that is something that the ski community always looks forward to. It gets the excitement going, builds the stoke for winter to come.
Justin Fann (04:22):
I was familiar with their work in that sense but the Deeper, Further, Higher trilogy that they released, and they started in 2010 I believe is when it first came out. That was a little bit more of their entry into a bigger storytelling space, I feel like.
Tanya Musgrave (04:40):
For outdoor filmmakers who are wanting to make a break into this, are there other … You wouldn’t necessarily call them studios, I guess, but kind of. These kind of similar companies. Where would they start? Like, because I know that Teton Gravity has a place where you can upload videos and you can be part of that community. I mean, is that where people find other filmmakers?
Justin Fann (05:04):
Over the last five years or so, I mean, it’s continued to grow and it’s become obviously like a much more saturated space. There’s a lot more filmmakers out there, a lot more people enjoying these sports in these places. There’s all sorts of ways you can get into it from just doing it on your own and figuring out along the way. I know there’s school programs now that are focused on more outdoor adventure filmmaking kind of things.
Justin Fann (05:31):
But really, I would say it’s just practicing what you do. One thing that TGR actually does these days, it’s called the Grom Contest. Every year they have a little entry for kids, I think it’s 17 and under, to make their own little ski edit or snowboard edit. We’re also doing a bike one these days.
Justin Fann (05:50):
I think that’s another little way that kids can get fired up on the idea of filming themselves skiing, put together a little edit and then the winner takes home some prize package. Yeah. I think there’s all sorts of ways to get into it. I think more or less it’s finding the sport you want to be in, the type of films you’d like to make and exploring all the options.
Tanya Musgrave (06:13):
I remember seeing one of these films and for the first time they showed a shot of the whole crew together. Yet again, I was shocked at how many there were. I mean, it was the size of a typical film crew, like 30 to 40. I mean, this wasn’t just some kid skiing in front of someone else with a GoPro.
Tanya Musgrave (06:29):
I mean, where our typical sets might have specific roles like a first AD and a second AC all the way down to PAs, what roles exist on your ‘sets’? Like, are there any crossovers? I couldn’t look up any credits because-
Justin Fann (06:46):
Well, there’s no craft services. I will tell you that. There’s no craft services out there, which is a bummer. I wish there was hot chocolate and coffee flying, but unfortunately it’s not the case deep in the backcountry. It all kind of depends on the shoot. I think maybe some of the ones that you’ve seen are the bigger crews, though they’re typically in more of the controlled areas, the inbounds, the park shoots, those kind of things.
Justin Fann (07:08):
I would say typically 90% of the time when we’re out there with the crew, it’s usually about three to four cinematographers, two primary angles, typically a drone operator and then like an on-slope, it would be a good crew. The position that I’m usually in is called the Barbie position is what we call it.
Justin Fann (07:29):
Barbie is essentially just the opposing ridge of the mountain that the athlete is riding down, you know? You’re able to get that kind straight on look. It gives you the most scale for what they’re riding, the steepness, the pitch of what they’re riding.
Tanya Musgrave (07:44):
Wow.
Justin Fann (07:45):
That’s where I’m typically at, is in that Barbie position. Yeah. Aside from those four camera crew members, we typically try to have at least one dedicated safety person. Obviously the environment that we’re working in is extremely unpredictable. You can do all your studying of avalanche conditions and terrain and all those things, but at the end of the day, there’s factors that are out of your control.
Justin Fann (08:09):
We always try to have somebody that’s on safety that’s just there and that’s their sole focus, is to … if something goes wrong, if an avalanche happens, if an injury or a crash, their focus is try to get to the person as quick as possible. I think that’s the general layout of the crew that we have. Again, our craft service guy unfortunately doesn’t make it out there that often.
Tanya Musgrave (08:34):
The outdoor community is just really good about taking care of each other, but also you could get one bad apple who’s just like, “No, we’re just going to get the shot.” No regard to safety, not taking care of the crew. What is there besides your own moxie that speaks up for yourself being like, “Bro, I haven’t eaten.”
Justin Fann (08:54):
Sure. Sure. Sure. Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave (08:57):
Is it a typical thing where, like do they cover a meal? Like, is it … Union rules I think is you eat every six hours and I’m just guessing like, hey, if you guys have a … I don’t know, a two-day trek in to wherever you’re going or a helicopter ride, I mean, these are long days on the slopes, I mean, what is there to protect your crew?
Justin Fann (09:19):
It’s all dependent on the location, the type of trip. Like you said, there’s all sorts of different versions of these types of shoots. There’s obviously things that are supported by helicopter, there’s things that are completely foot-powered. I do a lot of snowmobile access type of stuff. TGR especially tries to put a lot of effort on whoever’s there is there for the right reasons and there because they’re going to be a valuable member of the team.
Justin Fann (09:43):
At the beginning of every winter, we do a course, which is called the IPRW, the International Pro Rider’s Workshop is what we call it. Essentially, it’s just us rallying all of our production, cinematographers, all of our athletes that we work with, the safety guides and we spend a three-day intensive course, just running through the basics.
Justin Fann (10:05):
Anything from the basics to some elaborate sort of rescue scenario. We’ll do beacon training and avalanche transceiver training packaging, and assessing a wilderness first aid type of thing. Then everything from a whole scenario where you’re on this slope, an avalanche happened, two people are buried, one person has this injury and you have to build out and run the scenario as if it’s a real true thing.
Justin Fann (10:33):
That’s something we do every single year. It’s just a way to dust off those cobwebs, make sure everybody’s going into the season with that safety on the front of mind and really being cautious that what we’re going into and where we go and operate is serious terrain and definitely something that requires presence and attention to your surroundings.
Tanya Musgrave (10:56):
Is that something to that you sign up for? Is that something that you guys do with your filmmakers specifically and exclusively?
Justin Fann (11:04):
That’s just for us. This is just kind of internal cinematographers that we work with on an annual basis, athletes that we work with on an annual basis. There’s a lot of other companies out there and people out there that do similar type of courses. I think Jones Snowboards does a similar course. Pat Moore does a similar course up at Baldface Lodge.
Justin Fann (11:23):
Again, I think everybody has the same idea that we love operating in these places. We love being in these places, but recognizing that they’re serious and that avalanche concerns and all sorts of different things can go wrong. Having that wherewithal of how to react when something does go wrong is a mindset you need to be in at the beginning of the year.
Tanya Musgrave (11:42):
You have that on-slope camera angle, and then you have the Barbie shot where there’s nobody around them. I’m just like, “How many times did they run that?”
Justin Fann (11:54):
If we’re doing our job right, it’s only one time. The tough part with filming skiing and snowboarding, as soon as they’ve ridden in it once, there’s a track in the mountain. It’s hard to do multiple laps on it, with the exception of a jump or something like that, where you’re hitting it multiple times. Yeah. Typically, we’ll try to position each other in spaces where we’re not in each other’s shots.
Justin Fann (12:16):
For example, that on-slope person, if I’m at the Barbie angle, this on-slope person, I’ll try to hide them behind a little tree or put them in a little spot. I’m like, “Hey, you’re great there but if you bump over five feet to the left, you’ll be behind a branch and I won’t see you.” You know? We’re kind of like comms that are always going, because we’re always spread out throughout the valley or-
Tanya Musgrave (12:36):
Absolutely.
Justin Fann (12:36):
… slope where we’re at. Those radio comms, explaining to each other where you’re at, what your angle looks like, just keeping that communication. Like I said, there’s a lot of hiding people behind bushes and trees and keeping that on-slope person a little stashed in there so you don’t see them in the wider Barbie shot.
Tanya Musgrave (12:55):
Yeah. What comms do you use? I mean, you’re on the other peak. What reaches?
Justin Fann (13:02):
Yeah. Yeah. Just larger VHF radios, similar to any other larger production. There’s certainly times where you’re not quite getting everybody and they’re coming in a little broken. You have to bump up to a little higher spot on the snowmobile or hike up a little higher to get the signal. Yeah. It’s just kind of the VHF radios, or a loud shout in the valley.
Tanya Musgrave (13:31):
That’ll do it. I mean, there’s nobody else out there, right?
Justin Fann (13:33):
Exactly. There’s certainly sometimes where the athlete’s radio cuts out or the battery dies and you’re just listening for this little scream of, “Three, two, one, drop.”
Tanya Musgrave (13:45):
Well, I guess whatever works. I mean, yeah, because I mean, they would just be sitting on the top of the ridge there not knowing when they’re supposed to go.
Justin Fann (13:54):
Exactly. Exactly. Comms are key.
Tanya Musgrave (13:54):
I mean, it’s got to work somehow.
Justin Fann (13:55):
Comms are key for sure.
Tanya Musgrave (13:56):
Yeah. With these risks and a lot of these types of … I mean, helicopters to the summits, I mean, they’re not cheap. I also know that, I mean, you guys still do some pretty extensive sound designs sometimes as well and then also you have the most bomb music. I love it. I mean, music licensing is not cheap either. What’s a typical budget for a feature that would involve all of this?
Justin Fann (14:21):
I think again, it comes back to the varying projects, right? It all depends on how many sponsors are involved, how many presenting sponsors involved. Typically, we try to bring in presenting sponsors we would partner with. A lot of times those sponsors are obviously sponsors of athletes that are in the film and their budgets are helping us to actually get footage of their athletes with which they then use in different marketing campaigns and things like that.
Justin Fann (14:49):
Yeah. I mean, it ranges from a wide variety. We do certain projects that are very low budgets and then we do certain projects that are much, much higher budgets. Obviously the more you start getting out there with helicopters and flying around, obviously those become bigger production shoots. Your foot-powered stuff is the lowest budget and then your helicopter is your higher budget shoots.
Tanya Musgrave (15:13):
I’m just going to throw out a buoy just to see where on the scales. Because the micro budget for narrative film is like a hundred K, whereas in Hollywood, low budget is like less than five million or even three million or even one. But even one is pretty … But for a documentary, I’ve also seen that take up to a hundred K. Are you somewhere? Can you-
Justin Fann (15:45):
I’d say we’re somewhere in the middle there. I think again, it depends on the project and what sponsors come in. Yeah. I mean, we’re definitely more in the documentary space and we’re certainly not towards those Hollywood budgets. But as the industry grows, as the footprint grows, as the audience grows, I think those budgets are going to continue to grow. Hopefully it grows in a way that we can continue to push the boundaries of what we do and continue to grow.
Tanya Musgrave (16:12):
Yeah. To get a better idea of how this world works, those sponsors are always put up on the screen before, when we’re waiting for our show. Is that how TGR and similar companies get all their funding? The other ones they’re all in hedge funds, the major studios, that kind of thing. Are there other ‘major’ studios within the outdoor space? Is this the typical way that they get their funding?
Justin Fann (16:40):
Yeah. I would say this is probably the typical way. I think majority of these outdoor industry filmmaking companies rely on sponsors and investors that come in to help fund these projects. We work a lot with Sierra Nevada Brewing. They’ve been a super awesome partnership that have helped us tell a lot of really amazing stories. They’ve come in to support deeper storytelling films.
Justin Fann (17:06):
We love to partner with those types of companies that believe in sharing these kind of stories and help us find the means to do it.
Tanya Musgrave (17:15):
For filmmakers who are wanting to be part of this whole hub, if there is anything that you could tell them about what they could expect if they were to be one of these filmmakers, just to set the bar for expectation. Expect to not have any of this paid for, you can expect they’ll give you a place to stay or they’ll feed you for X amount of meals or days, or something like that. Even like a ballpark of starting pay for what they could expect.
Justin Fann (17:48):
Yeah. For sure. Again, I think it’s all circumstantial on the type of shoot, the budget behind the shoot. Typically, all the productions that I’ve been on are typically your meals are covered, your lodging, travel to get there. Typically, if you’re on … Let’s say it’s a three-week shoot, all your expenses are typically covered on those types of shoots.
Justin Fann (18:09):
That being said, getting into it, there’s all sorts of varieties and levels of what you might make. I will say I did live in my car for a month and a half when I first started doing this. I think that’s not a unique story to people that are getting into the action sports film world.
Justin Fann (18:26):
But again, as it continues to grow and it builds more, I’m hopeful that we continue to see those budgets build and those returns on the people that are really putting themselves in those tough positions and those roles that financially they’re compensated for it.
Tanya Musgrave (18:42):
You mentioned three weeks. What is the typical shooting length for one of your featured TGR films?
Justin Fann (18:48):
I would say three weeks is a good ballpark, the Cook City trip or the Montana trip that I did for Stoke the Fire, that was actually a much quicker trip. I think we were only there for about 12 days, 13 days. That one happened to line up. A lot of times you’ll get to those locations and conditions don’t line up. Snow is not good. Avalanche conditions are unstable, so you can’t get into bigger terrain.
Justin Fann (19:12):
We happened to luck out on that one. We showed up, avalanche conditions were really unstable, very scary. We were tiptoeing around trying to just find a really small, low consequence terrain to start getting into it. Then as the days went on, things started to get more stable and we were able to build up in our terrain. Obviously we call it terrain progression.
Justin Fann (19:35):
Anytime we go on a trip or we go to a location, you always start small and build your way up, just because you don’t want to jump into a place that you don’t quite know the snow pack. You don’t quite know the terrain and jump onto the biggest, gnarliest, scariest line because that’s how people get hurt and that’s how people get killed.
Justin Fann (19:53):
An average would be around that three-week range, but again, some of the bigger trips to Alaska or international, sometimes those can be a month-long trip or better.
Tanya Musgrave (20:05):
Justin clarified after recording that he spoke to this question about a particular trip and not necessarily the full length of the film production. Typically, the annual ski film for example is a four-to-six month process with multiple three-to-four week trips happening within that window. About those avalanches, I mean, and we’re all just very acutely aware of the risks that are out there.
Tanya Musgrave (20:32):
For people who are part of the union and people who have a salary position like you, insurance isn’t necessarily a thing. But for the contractors that are out on the mountain, do you recommend any particular insurance? Is there some sort of clause in there like, “Must cover dismemberment by avalanche?”
Justin Fann (20:54):
I’m blanking on some of the names right now, but I know there’s some sort of adventure-based insurance companies out there. They insure people that go on trips like this that are kayakers or bikers or climbers or skiers. You can add those policies when you go on trips. A lot of times when TGR does a bigger trip, they’ll have a policy like that in place. There’s all sorts of other ones.
Justin Fann (21:17):
I think people kind of, especially in the contract world, get creative on those combinations of coverage that sort of help them make sure that if the worst happens that they’re covered.
Tanya Musgrave (21:29):
Yeah. When you said that TGR has something set up, is that something where if you’re on a TGR production, are you covered under their insurance or is everybody man for themselves?
Justin Fann (21:38):
I believe so. I believe if it’s … And I don’t know this a hundred percent, but I believe if it’s … Let’s say we’re going to Austria when you have a crew of six production team, typically I believe that those production crew would be on a TGR insurance policy.
Tanya Musgrave (21:56):
We’re going to ask some tools of your trade which I’m guessing are fantastically different than what some people are used to. Well, maybe. Maybe. We don’t know. I’ll ask what gear and gadget is your old reliable and then which one is the newest one that you like that revolutionizes how you work.
Justin Fann (22:17):
For our lighter foot-powered trips, where we’re walking and we’re carrying all the equipment, we try to run as light as possible. Most recently we’ve been running the FX3 cameras, which is a Sony camera, awesome image quality, very compact and lightweight. Typically, for myself, my kit is usually a Red, Red Epic.
Justin Fann (22:37):
Then I typically have a 7200 lens in there, a 24 to 105 lens and then a wide lens, as well as many batteries as I feel I can physically carry without collapsing. I’d say those are the two different kits. You have your lightweight kit and your heavier bigger glass kit. The other huge one that we obviously use a bunch are drones.
Justin Fann (22:58):
We use everything from the newest Mavic, a lot of DGI stuff, a lot of Inspires. I’d say our biggest weapon in our arsenal is the Gyro-Stabilized System, the GSS camera. That is a stabilized system similar to a Shotover, or those type of cameras that you can mount to the bottom of a helicopter or to a general side by side kind of thing.
Justin Fann (23:22):
You’re in the vehicle operating that camera. That’s our biggest weapon I would say that we use, and we use it quite a lot. It’s definitely something that Alaska, it gets used a lot and just amazing image quality and really that, call it Planet Earth type of coverage that we like to have.
Tanya Musgrave (23:43):
You mentioned batteries. I remember, okay, we were doing this trek and we were going high elevation. I think it’s a lot of the cold, those batteries did not last long.
Justin Fann (23:53):
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave (23:54):
What do you do for those batteries?
Justin Fann (23:57):
Yeah. If it’s a camping trip, for example, depending on where you’re at, permits and that kind of stuff, a lot of times you can have a generator so we’ll recharge batteries in those senses. But there’s a lot of times where you can’t have a generator and a lot of those types of camping trips, if they are winter camping, our cinematographers are sleeping with their batteries.
Justin Fann (24:19):
They have batteries shoved in their sleeping bag, trying to keep them warm, because as soon as they get cold, they start are zapping and go on really quick. Managing your battery is a huge, huge thing that we deal with on the daily out there. There are certainly days where it’s at the end of the day, we have a beautiful shot lined up and I turn my camera on. I’m like, “All right. I got 12 seconds, better go.” Hopefully you get it. Sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t.
Tanya Musgrave (24:43):
What happens when you don’t?
Justin Fann (24:47):
Well, hopefully you can come back the next day or somebody else has an angle on it. Like I said, we typically have a couple of angles on the thing. Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of … You just sort of play the hand you’re dealt and if your battery’s done and somebody else has one then you have confidence that hopefully they have the angle and they have the shot and somebody else gets it, if your battery’s down.
Tanya Musgrave (25:10):
One of my favorite questions and actually one of our listener questions from Instagram, what’s the most dangerous situation that you’ve been in? My personal question that I always ask that it’s become a favorite, a story where something went wrong.
Justin Fann (25:26):
Sure. I think as far as most dangerous, that one’s hard to pinpoint because I think the reality of the places that we’re in, you’re kind of always in danger, or not necessarily always in danger, but there’s always something that could go wrong. Been in a lot of positions where it’s like, “This feels wrong.”
Justin Fann (25:43):
Something feels off here and it’s like, “Let’s move locations. Let’s get to a better spot where we’re not in this kind of a avalanche path or this above head danger.” Whatever that may be. I’d say one of the scarier ones that I’ve been in, was getting out of a helicopter with a … We had this Google rig that was a VR thing. I mean, we had this Google camera rig that was just like 27 GoPros on this tripod.
Justin Fann (26:11):
We’re getting off on this ridge and the helicopter is just hovering. It’s called a toe-in is what they call it, is when toe of the helicopter is on the tip of the mountain and the back of the skis-
Tanya Musgrave (26:22):
Oh my gosh.
Justin Fann (26:22):
… are hanging. I was tasked with getting out and setting up this little rig so I could get the shot of the helicopter leaving in VR so somebody could put goggles on and be like, “Wow.” You know?
Tanya Musgrave (26:32):
Yeah.
Justin Fann (26:33):
I’d say that one was one of the scarier ones. Hindsight, everything was totally fine, but it was one of my earlier helicopter experiences. It was just a little exciting. As far as something going wrong, I’ve been very lucky in the mountains. Spent a lot of days out there and never had anything extremely tragic or wrong go on. But last winter I had probably one of my scarier moments. We were filming around Jackson. Filming with Kai Jones and Tim Durtschi-
Tanya Musgrave (27:06):
That kid is insane.
Justin Fann (27:07):
Is he not? Right?
Tanya Musgrave (27:08):
Oh my gosh.
Justin Fann (27:08):
He is a charger. The guy’s got little legs of steel and is so just fired up. He loves getting out there. He loves being after it and he doesn’t stop, for sure. The kid is … He’s a hard charger little Grom that’s for sure. It had just been a big storm. We had gotten about two feet of snow the night before and so we were all on high alert, right?
Justin Fann (27:32):
We were going out. We were going to just tiptoe around in some location here in our backyard in Jackson Hole. We got to our zone that we were thinking we were going to operate in. We dug a snow pit, which is a thing we do a lot in the mountains, is you dig a snow pit. It gives you a profile of how that storm snow is settling.
Justin Fann (27:55):
There’s all sorts of different tests you can do that help just give you a loose understanding of stability. If you do this test, it’s like … It reveals whether or not it’s likely triggering avalanches and how big and all these different sort of factors.
Tanya Musgrave (28:10):
Wow.
Justin Fann (28:10):
We had dug a pit in the morning. We felt pretty good about the conditions, but we still tried to take a conservative approach at the day and went to a mellow slope that wasn’t a very steep pitch. It wasn’t a very long pitch. We figured we’d start there. The athletes, so Tim and Kai were at the top of the mountain they were going to ride, which is, again, this small pitch.
Justin Fann (28:34):
It was really just going to be a couple of powder turns. It wasn’t any big cliffs or anything like that. It was just riding deep, fresh powder. We were at the bottom figuring out our locations, where we wanted to be. Meanwhile, Tim is on the top and he takes a couple of steps and happens to remote-trigger a really large wind slab. It wasn’t necessarily an unstable snow layer or anything like that.
Justin Fann (28:59):
It was from wind depositing snow over this little peak into a deep pocket. He kicked off this little wind slab layer and I kind of looked up and I saw just a wall of snow coming right towards me. I’m on my snowmobile-
Tanya Musgrave (29:17):
Oh my gosh.
Justin Fann (29:18):
… figuring out my angle. I just see this wall coming towards me. Luckily there was a bunch of trees in front of us. I was trying to put myself in a position where I wasn’t directly in the line of the avalanche, if something did go. Anyways, I look up and I see this wall coming at me. Snowmobile’s not running so I immediately try to start my snowmobile. I give it one pull and all of a sudden this wall just hits me-
Tanya Musgrave (29:47):
Oh my gosh.
Justin Fann (29:47):
I’ve got my heavy backpack on. It throws me. I probably flew about 10/15 feet. My snowmobile rolled a couple of times-
Tanya Musgrave (29:57):
My word.
Justin Fann (29:57):
I end up face down and I just sort of feel snow coming over the back of me. Luckily-
Tanya Musgrave (30:03):
Oh my gosh.
Justin Fann (30:03):
… again, because I was in a position where I was sort of protected behind trees, the brunt of the wind slab and the snow that came down missed me and sort of just buried the back of my legs. I just kind of stood up and I was not buried, but immediately I start panicking of like, “Where’s everyone else at?” You know?
Tanya Musgrave (30:21):
Yes. Yes.
Justin Fann (30:22):
You start immediately jumping on the radio checking in, making sure everyone’s safe. Thankfully, everybody was safe in that scenario. Tim, Kai at top were all safe.
Justin Fann (30:30):
I was really the only one that got knocked off their snowmobile, but it buried a handful of our snowmobiles and was certainly a quick reminder that even if you’re being careful and being cautious that there’s things that can still go wrong. I’d say that was definitely one of my scarier personal moments that I’ve had out there.
Tanya Musgrave (30:49):
Wow. Do any of the crew wear … I don’t even know the right terminology, you know those airbags?
Justin Fann (30:56):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tanya Musgrave (30:57):
… that would kind of deploy during the-
Justin Fann (30:59):
Yeah. Absolutely. I would say none of the cameramen really do just because of the added weight of a battery or a canister of air, those kind of things. Typically, all of our athletes usually have one of those. I personally haven’t been in a scenario where they’ve been used, but I know there’s countless times where those things have made a huge difference and saved lives.
Justin Fann (31:18):
Yeah. A lot of our athletes, especially in the bigger mountains like Alaska, the bigger terrain stuff, will always have that airbag ready to deploy in case the worst happens.
Tanya Musgrave (31:29):
Okay. Onto our next listener question that might actually piggyback on that. What is the most challenging part of your job?
Justin Fann (31:36):
I guess I’ll give you a twofold. For the office side of things, so I spend a lot of time … I really got my start editing and I love editing and I love being in that creative space, but the challenging part of those is probably the last two weeks of basically any movie I’ve ever made, because you just live in that edit bay.
Justin Fann (31:56):
You’re there 12 to 14 to 16, however many hours a day, just trying to give everything you can to make it as pretty as you can and polished as you can and dialed as you can. I think that’s definitely the hardest part of the edit side, is that final two-week grind to a picture lock.
Justin Fann (32:19):
As far as being in the field, which I also love just as much, really gives me a creative break from that time in the edit bay and that time in the office and to be able to actually be outside and be in these places that virtually I am in a lot of time, finding that balance has been super key for me.
Justin Fann (32:37):
I think when I’m in the field, I think the hardest thing that I would say we deal with, is weather conditions and moving around in the mountains. Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of times our backpacks are 40/50-pound packs and we’re having to walk whatever it is, 500 feet, thousand feet of elevation to get to an angle in five deep snow.
Justin Fann (33:00):
It can be really exhausting just as far as moving around in the mountains. Then the other big part is obviously the cold. Dealing in these kind of environments with wind ripping in 20 degrees below, whatever it may be, and you have to have your hands out messing with metal, you know?
Justin Fann (33:18):
You’re swapping batteries, you’re swapping lenses. You’re trying to keep all the snow from getting inside of there. I think that’s definitely a challenge.
Tanya Musgrave (33:26):
And still make sure that you have a good shot. Yeah.
Justin Fann (33:27):
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Still make sure that you have a good shot. There’s a lot of juggling just moving the weight around the mountains and getting into position to get the angle that you want. Every angle move takes something, right? It can be like, “Oh, I wish I was right over there.” It’s like that could be 45 minutes just to walk all the way to that spot and find that spot and then you get there. You’re like, “Ah, I actually kind of like the other spot better.”
Tanya Musgrave (33:51):
Mercy.
Justin Fann (33:53):
I would say the being in the field part, I’d say the toughest thing is just dealing with the elements and the challenge of moving around in the mountains.
Tanya Musgrave (34:02):
We have another question that you kind of have already said, but I’ll expand on it. They wanted to know your path that got you to TGR, which you kind of mentioned, but I would like to know, even just the conversation that got you that job. I mean, was it something was a matter of just calling up a buddy or was it a cold call?
Justin Fann (34:24):
That’s funny because I know I mentioned that I went to the Deeper show and after that Deeper movie I was really fired up on like, “All right. I used to be into this. I used to really like filming and editing and I love that process.” Right after the show, I actually went and talked to one of the guys that was putting the show on, the tour guy at the time.
Justin Fann (34:43):
I think his name was Brett Nesty and talked to Brett and said, “Hey man, does TGR ever do internships?” He’s like, “Absolutely, man, here’s an email. Hit this guy up, let him know that you’re interested and take the convo from there.” I sent that email. That ended up being to this guy named Blake Campbell. Amazing editor. He was TGR’s lead editor for a number of years.
Justin Fann (35:07):
He does a bunch of freelance work these days, but awesome editor and just a great human in general. I had my first conversation with him. Now having had more conversations with the founder of the company, Todd Jones, at that time, the internship program took about four people.
Justin Fann (35:25):
Typically, they would always try to pull one person that didn’t come from the traditional film school type of background and I ended up being that one. You know?
Tanya Musgrave (35:35):
Hey.
Justin Fann (35:36):
The other three that were there had all studied film in some capacity, more than I had for sure. One was an NYU film school student.
Tanya Musgrave (35:45):
Dang.
Justin Fann (35:45):
The others had both come from similar sort of film programs. I was a little bit of the Hail Mary one that they added to the list that year.
Justin Fann (35:54):
I just worked hard and committed myself to learning as much as I could. I learned a ton during my internship and that rolled pretty quickly into some contract jobs, which then rolled into helping to cut the next of the Deeper, Further, Higher trilogy further. Then ultimately my first lead edit project that I led up was the film Higher with Jeremy Jones.
Tanya Musgrave (36:19):
You said that they only accept four. How many do they accept now?
Justin Fann (36:24):
I’d say it’s similar if not even a little bit less these days. Yeah. We actually … I think there’s about 30 full-time employees at TGR, and typically we’ll do a round of summer interns. Two to three summer interns that just help adjust footage, learn as much as they possibly can. They also have website, so the website will also bring in some interns, one or two a year. I’d say throughout the year we have anywhere between three to six interns at various points of the year.
Tanya Musgrave (36:54):
Do you ever have interns go out with you on trips?
Justin Fann (37:00):
Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think it’s … Again, if they are knowledgeable and a lot of, kind of what I was alluding to earlier of getting into this industry and getting into this space is getting into these sports, right? A lot of the people that are interns or that are coming in wanting to get into this world have already taken an avalanche course, or they have some sort of knowledge of backcountry travel.
Justin Fann (37:23):
We would never take somebody into the backcountry that doesn’t feel comfortable out there and that doesn’t meet the criteria of anybody who comes into the backcountry with us. That being said, my first year out there before I’d really gotten much avalanche knowledge and that kind of stuff, I did help on some shoots like around the resort.
Justin Fann (37:41):
We weren’t in scary backcountry conditions, but we were filming things around the resort. Those kind of things definitely happened a bunch.
Tanya Musgrave (37:50):
What current project are you excited about?
Justin Fann (37:53):
Ooh, very excited. We actually just released a film two weeks ago, a film called Mountain Revelations. I was lucky enough to be the director on the film.
Tanya Musgrave (38:02):
Nice.
Justin Fann (38:02):
And as well as one of the editors on the project. That is currently on tour right now. We’re still piecing together the digital distribution plan for that, but hoping to share that film with much wider audience here real soon.
Tanya Musgrave (38:17):
When you say digital distribution, you have the traditional tour that goes around, but with digital distribution, I mean, do you guys go for the typical streaming platforms? Is that something that you guys pursue?
Justin Fann (38:30):
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think again, we’re entertaining all the options on this one, trying to figure out, at the end of the day for this one, I think the goal is just to try to get as many eyes on it as possible to share the story with as many people as possible. This one, hopefully, will be on some of those more traditional streaming platforms, potentially some sort of just wide free release at some point.
Justin Fann (38:50):
Still working through all those options and trying to figure out what the best path forward is. Ultimately the goal is to just try to get it in front of as many people as possible.
Tanya Musgrave (39:00):
Okay. Well, how do people find you or follow your work? We definitely want to follow.
Justin Fann (39:03):
Yeah. Well, appreciate it. I mean, welcome to find me on my Instagram. It’s justafann. My website’s out there, justinfann.com. Yeah. I mean, the internet’s out there. Just type in my name. I’m sure you’ll find me somewhere.
Tanya Musgrave (39:16):
I really appreciate the massive curtain pull on a lot of these things. I mean, this is a completely different world and you shed a lot of light on it.
Justin Fann (39:28):
Well, thank you. I appreciate having me on the show. Yeah. It’s cool. Like I said, you guys operate in a very different space. Listening to some of the other episodes, it’s interesting to compare the worlds a little bit, because they’re certainly different worlds, but they all are-
Tanya Musgrave (39:43):
Very different.
Justin Fann (39:43):
… surrounded by the same thing of trying to tell impactful stories. Appreciate it.
Tanya Musgrave (39:49):
If you enjoyed this interview, follow us right here and on Instagram, ask us questions and check out more episodes at thepracticalfilmmaker.com. Be well and God bless. We’ll see you next time on The Practical Filmmaker.