Todd Jones, filmmaker, co-founder of TGR, father, digital pioneer, Jackson Hole, WY

Todd enjoying a great Canadian pastime. p: O'Connell

I am in Jackson Hole right now. Summer finally arrived this week. It has been a wild and long winter. People are still riding and skiing the tram here. Sounds like California, Colorado and all over the West is still going off. I had a long winter of travel, so being at home is nice for a change.

[Growing up in MA] we would roll up to Vermont every weekend with my brothers and parents. I think my fondest memories were the ski road trips. All the things and stops you do along the way. The feeling of leaving school and everything behind and heading into the mountains is so cool.

Now that I live at the base of Jackson, I have a different perspective. I miss the super-core road trips where it is just about riding and having fun away from everything.

I think [our parents] knew that it would be good to disconnect us from our comfort zone and take us on adventures. It definitely shaped me and caused me to fall in love with being outdoors and in the mountains. When I asked them about moving out west when I was 18, they gave me the two thumbs up. They definitely were influential. My Dad taught us all to ski. He bought us our first snowboards before they were allowed on the hill. He gave us the headlamps so we could ride our Vermont house at night. It was full on adventure and fun. I never wanted it to stop. It really hasn't.

I love the riding in Stowe. I feel lucky that that is where we learned to ski. There are tons of trees, backcountry and cool off-piste riding to be had. We were always in the trees and in the out-of-bounds terrain. I think we liked the vibe out there away from the crowds. The move west was just an attempt to further my experience and adventures. My brother Steve had moved out the year before to Jackson and I did a trip out to visit him that spring. By the time I left I knew I wanted to move out. I took the next year off from school to move to Jackson. That turned into a permanent move.

Working with [my brother] Steve is great. We compliment each other in our skill sets. Steve manages the partnerships, which he is really good at. I am better at the technical side of filmmaking and cameras. We both drive a lot of the vision and concepts behind our productions. We also have an incredible team here at TGR, so it has allowed us to really expand our production team.

In the early days, Steve and I were trying to become pro skiers. We were getting published in the mags, guiding in Alaska and skiing in movies. We spent some time working with Warren Miller as models (that's how they referred to us). They were in Jackson working on a segment that was the Jones brothers and the Zell brothers. They wanted to film us making pow slashes off the side of the trail. We wanted to hit big lines and capture Jackson. When we went to the ski show and met with potential sponsors, the director had told our ski sponsor that we were unruly, didn't know how to film, and would never make it. The sponsor dropped us and we said 'fuck it, let's just do it ourselves.' These guys don't know what is going on in the sport anyways. Let's give it some fresh eyes. Our films have always been from the athletes perspective.

I think just getting the business off the ground and convincing people we were real was the biggest challenge. We were part of a movement that was the rebirth of freeriding, so we had that right. We just needed to make it all work.

I made my first short when I was 13 years old with my parents Beta cam. I directed, shot and edited it. That movie disappeared and I stopped shooting for a while. In my second year in college me and my roommate made another movie in the basement of our house. It was a horror movie about an evil frog. We were just bored and did it. Again, it was an event that occurred and I never pursued it. I actually forgot about those films until we had been making movies for four or five years, and then I remembered. It must have been ingrained in me to make films, but I was not in sync with my flow.

The big thing I got from school, was how to start and finish projects. I always did fairly well, even though I was not fully entertained. I have always been a very busy and motivated person. Maybe it is the Puritan work ethic from Mass or something. Most of what we have learned has been from experience, from diving in and doing it. I believe firmly in throwing yourself into situations and figuring things out.

Todd's ride while at Ripley Creek, BC last season. p: O'Connell

[Must haves are] sick athletes, the right equipment for your situation, and a good attitude.

We have made 60 television shows, worked on numerous TV commercials, released 25 feature length films in skiing, surfing, snowboarding and kayaking, built one of the largest winter sports sites in the world, created a clothing line, launched TGR Studios, gotten married, had two kids, and still ride over eighty days a year. I do not feel like my aspirations are limited to just making "ski porn."

TGR has become a global media entity. Our reach via online, television, and films is very large. Our brand has grown significantly over the last 15 years. I intend to continue to help this growth. When you look at our family tree and network we have had a very broad reach and helped a lot of people do really cool things.

I love that the entire world is essentially making movies. The playing field has totally changed. When we started it was very cost prohibitive. There is some amazing talent out there.
The old media entities like the TV networks no longer have the control and power. We benefit tremendously from all the changes the digital space has brought.

We were hearing a lot about 3D, that it was the future. We didn't understand it. We thought skiing would look really cool in 3D, though. We decided to throw ourselves into the fire and become educated in 3D. It is still very early in the 3D world. There are limited delivery options to the end consumer. It is more expensive and time intensive to do.

Releasing a film is amazing. It is really fun to have a large crowd and all the people who worked in the film in the same room. We have usually seen the film a number of times before we release it. When we [release] we are handing it over to the world. It is no longer just ours. It becomes something that is for everyone at that point.

I think that our first film, The Continuum, and Deeper have been two of our most successful films. They both had a very unique freshness to them. They both found an audience that was looking for something new and different. They both became a launching pad for many things to come.

Forever. I love making movies. If you told me when I was a kid that I could cruise around the world with my friends making movies, I wouldn't have believed it. There is nothing more exciting than pulling out the cameras and filming a movie.

I like to surf and hang with my wife and kids. I have two boys that are 2 and 5. They are super fun to play with, teach things, and learn from. It is very enlightening.