How To Film Skiing - Colorado Ski Cinematographer
How To Film Skiing
As a Boulder cinematographer, filming on ski resorts is often just part of the job. In this article, I’ll walk through my process for creating some beautiful visuals on the mountain…
Here are 5 tips to start working as a ski cinematographer!
Work on your ski / snowboard abilities first!
In order to be a great ski cinematographer or snowboard cinematographer, it’s incredibly important to be competent in all terrain. There’s a lot of reasons for this. As an adventure filmmaker, you’re often responsible for capturing elite outdoor athletes in their respective disciplines. For skiing, that means being able to get around the mountain efficiently with all of your gear and managing a myriad of cameras, lenses, drones, etc. If you’re first starting out as a skier or snowboarder and are struggling to get down a black diamond run you may find it difficult to progress past a certain level.
As a Boulder cinematographer, I do feel pretty fortunate to be only 35 minutes away from Eldora Ski Resort where I can go do some skills practices in the morning then head back to Boulder and edit videos, conduct interviews, pre-plan other films and do the rest of my desk work in the afternoon. Practice, practice, practice. It’ll make all the difference when you’re out on the mountain with your camera.
Bonus Tip: I’m a firm believer that just getting out and filming your friends on the mountain will allow you to create a body of work that will eventually lead to work in the ski industry. If you feel intimated by immediately taking on clients - it’s okay to just do it for fun!
2. Know where the light is going to be on the mountain
For a ski cinematographer and adventure filmmaker, we’re almost always dealing with natural light. A cinematographer based in studio gets the luxury of controlling their light while we have to shape and adjust for what we’re given. Because of that, it’s super important to have local knowledge of where the sun may be hitting the mountain at certain times of day to capture the highest quality visuals as possible.
One of the most helpful tools I’ve found for measuring light is an app called Sun Seeker which will allow you to view where the sun will be in the sky at a specific time of day. This will allow you to plan your shots out to a point where you know the light is going to be just perfect for capturing that perfect pow day.
3. Set up your shot!
Like all video production jobs, it’s super important to plan out what you’re filming. When I first started out filming skiers and snowboarders I would sort of just follow them around with the gimbal and hope for the best. This can work at the beginning, and knowing how to do this is important, but your video production skills will elevate when you’re able to set up a cohesive visual story with your camera.
Things to consider
If you’re filming a snowboarder (and you are a snowboarder) make sure you don’t just film the back of your rider. If you’re both goofy or both regular, one of you will have to go switch to capture their face.
Backlight your subject in the powder! When the sun is behind the rider for those blowing powder shots, it’ll illuminate the snow and create a really nice texture to the image. When you’re photographing it from the front, you may not be able to see the snow as clearly since it’ll get lost in the brightness of the background.
Tripods tend to sink through the snow so be aware that you may need a bigger or higher tripod than you may be used to.
Walkie talkies are a total game changer for ski cinematography! Communication can be difficult since you’ll often find yourself separated from your subject when they set up to ski by you. Having a walkie talkie to simply state that you’re ready for them to ski past you will make the day go a lot smoother.
Work with talented skiers and riders. Even if they don’t have lots of experience in front of a camera, they will make the footage look a lot more professional.
Remember that ski cinematography is often focused on what’s in front of the camera, not necessarily what you do behind it.
4. Provide variety in what you’re filming!
This tip may sound similar to the last one but here I’ll try to breakdown a few of my favorite shots to capture when creating a ski film. I cannot overstate the important of thorough pre-production when it comes to video production, especially in a discipline that introduces the added challenge of cold weather, snow and inaccessibility.
For me and my work as a Boulder cinematographer, there’s two main types of ski shoots I get hired for and both require different types of shots. These can often get broken down into short form and long form video projects. If I’m working with a professional athlete getting content for their sponsors in a short form series, we may prioritize the athleticism and level of riding the snowboarder/skier is able to achieve. Essentially, it’s about getting the bangers.
For longer form video production jobs, which is the majority of where my work comes from, it’s about capturing the story of what it’s like being on the mountain.
Ski Lifestyle Filmmaking
If you’ve seen any of my videos here are on my website you may notice this is mostly what I do. For these longer form ski films where you have the opportunity to tell a story, variety is even more important. For these types of films, it’s crucial you’re capturing all elements of the process. Some of my favorite shots include: your subject arriving to the mountain, getting their boots on, details of the ski lodge, establishing shots of the ski resort, getting off the lift, filming in front of your subject with the mountain behind them, filming behind your subject with the mountain town beneath them, details of the ski moving through the snow, slow motion tracking shot on a gimbal, static slow motion clip of a powder day in the trees, lifestyle moments of laughing on the mountain, sunset in the lodge, etc.
5. Prepare For The Cold Weather
This may seem obvious but camera equipment is not totally designed for operating in below freezing temperatures all day. If you’re at a ski resort you may have the luxury of periodically stopping to recharge batteries or warm up camera bodies in the lodge during a lunch break but it often doesn’t end up being so easy. A few hacks that I’ve found is keeping extra batteries for your camera body in a pocket in your ski jacket that’s close to your body with hand warmers on them. This means both your body heat and the hand warmers ensure your batteries don’t die from the cold. You can also chuck in some extra batteries for microphones, drones, etc. into this pocket. You’ll feel like a cyborg but it’s all part of the process!
Have two sets of gloves for operating gimbals on the mountain! If you’re working with a mirrorless camera on a relatively small gimbal like a Ronin S or Zhiyun Crane having some tactile control is useful. For that reason I wear two pairs of gloves when I know I’m going to be on and off the gimbal during the day. When I’m not using the gimbal I keep both pairs of gloves on - I use a light pair of running gloves under my bigger ski gloves when layering up - then when I’m on the gimbal I’m just using the running gloves to keep my hands warm enough to operate it for a short time while still allowing for the control.
If you’re on a bigger gimbal like a Movi or Arri Trinity then you have some more flexibility because you may be able to just hold the gimbal while an AC is in charge of the specific camera movements.
My final piece of advice for a run and gun adventure ski filmmaker operating in the cold weather is having a fanny pack with your camera essentials like nd filters, lens cleaner cloth and an extra lens so you don’t have to constantly be taking your backpack off and placing things in the snow.
That’s All For Now Folks!
Obviously there’s a lot more to filming skiing and filming snowboarding then these 5 tips but they may help get you started! If you’re thinking to yourself, “dang this Roo guy sure knows his stuff” then I hope you consider checking out some of my work and reaching out. I always love talking with people about how to help get their video production journey started as a ski cinematographer. If you’re a company looking to include a skiing or snowboarding component to your commercial, hit me up and let’s chat about how to make this happen for ya.
Let’s Talk About Your Ski Film!
Roo is a commercial/documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Boulder, Colorado but travels all around the world for his filmmaking career. He has produced films for Outside Magazine in Ireland, camera operated for Netflix in the Rocky Mountain West, photographed among indigenous communities in Peru and Ecuador, directed videos with professional climbers in Mexico and has received notable recognition in his hometown of Orcas Island in Washington State for his work telling uplifting stories in the outdoor space.
If you have questions or want to talk more about my life as a Boulder cinematographer, ski filmmaking, adventure photography, and/or adventure filmmaking please reach out! I always love connecting with new people and talking through how I can help them achieve their dreams in telling stories of impact.
A photo of me, Roo, after a long day of skiing! Picture by Nate Dodge for PTEC Lights
Disclaimer:
If you’re filming in the backcountry, make sure you’re aware of the drone laws and avalanche safety. Avalanches, especially in Colorado, are no joke so take it super seriously if you’re planning a video production in Colorado!