This summer, FREESKIER will be bringing you content to keep you cool as the temperature rises. We get it, your mind hungers for a day of frozen faces, beaming smiles, soaked socks and bottomless turns. Whether you’re practicing a pretz 2 at Mt Hood or just daydreaming, we’ll be hooking you up with movies, edits, news and more to keep you stoked and satisfy that ski itch until you can get back to doing the real thing.
Like any art form, ski films are subjective. While some prefer a classic TGR blockbuster, others gravitate to the works of Perron and Casabon. Both have their place, and one isn’t better than the other; they’re just different. Creative flair finds itself in many forms, and everyone is entitled to their own taste. And yet there are certain paintings, photos, or in this case, documentation that the vast majority agree are downright phenomenal. Robert Pirsig described this as Quality in the popular book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. As Pirsig says, nobody is explicitly taught what Quality is, and pinning down a definition of the word can be damn near impossible. Nevertheless, people just get it. We agree that this sh*t is good!
The works of Sean Logan, cameraman and editor of The Big Picture, seem to often fall into this category. No matter how unique the style is, the overall feel of a great ski film remains the same. It reaches deep into your mind, combing through memories of inspirational moments and lighting up aspirations of Candide at Chad’s Gap-sized proportions. None of this is by accident, and each artist that achieves these responses has spent an eternity honing in their craft so they can accurately project their mental creation. Sean Logan is a master of these achievements, and the three short films that comprise “The Big Picture” are visual proof.
Here, the culmination of filming, editing and skiing brilliance mashed together pays off to give a beautifully portrayed vision of what skiing has to offer. You can’t help but get drawn into the world as director Sean Logan sees it. And once you’re there, who would ever want to leave? The ski-absolutely-anything plank wizards known as Parker White, alias jetskiwhite, and Chris Logan AKA dahrkgram absorb the majority of camera time throughout the three short flicks, with talented friends in tow. This collection is one of the cleanest pieces of skiing cinema ever produced. Unsurprisingly, it could be semi-compared in feel to Parker’s recent trilogy of films that go by the name of “Nothing”. The collaboration with renowned Level 1 veteran Freedle Coty has produced some of skiing’s greatest short movies and gives hints of the same nostalgic, surreal feelings generated in “The Big Picture”.
Move 1
If you haven’t seen these heaters, buckle the f*ck up because there are three baddies in this collection, each more mind-boggling than the last. Move 1 brings you through the snow-filled, high-rollin’ lands of Montana and British Columbia.
Move 2
Move 2 allows the boys to show why they really are regarded as such all-around masters of the craft, graciously gliding through the Mammoth Unbound Park and then returning to the great white north for some more sweet, sweet pillow talk.
Lite Years
The project culmination arrives in the form of The Big Picture Movie, Lite Years. One of the film’s biggest out-spoken fans, Morgan Freeman, even offered to narrate the opening! Not actually, but that’s a pretty damn good impression.
All three are Vimeo Staff Picks, and for good reason. Each stands heartily on its own, laying down incredible riding and segments that will blow your unwashed ski socks clean off. But when put together, they are the Megazord triumvirate of ski films. What really blows these ahead of the competition, however, is not only the skiing but the insane detail in how it’s all captured. Sean Logan’s editing and filming lay out why he is truly one of the most creative, inspirational and clean-cut stylistic filmers in the league. Please check out the whole Big Picture Vimeo because there are plenty more where these three came from. But for now, dim those lights, turn up the speakers and smash the play button. Enjoy some of the highest quality visual art that skiing has to offer. Even if we can’t measure quality, we can be sure that there’s plenty of it here.
And to the Big Picture crew, if you’re reading this, perhaps it’s time for a reunion this winter… and (please) another movie?
