Vail Resorts: Park City — Commercial

Who doesn’t want to visit Park City, Utah? We for sure did, and we were given the incredible opportunity to work for Vail Resorts on a project that combined the elegant lifestyle of the destination along with top tier skiing. The action of it all found us casting excellent skiers who could traverse the terrain with ease and grace. Our casting process included the typical review of headshots and reels, but also ski and snowboard demos.

My producing partner Annie Varberg and I, along with our production manager Katie Kranz and production coordinator Giulia Alexander, set to work, hiring crew members who were familiar with filming in snow, and many of whom were skilled skiers. Besides traditional footage, we also wanted to elevate the spot by using FPV drone. We turned to Override Films who are experts in that space and based nearby.

Along with wardrobe, hair and make up and our grip and electric crew, we turned to our Director Shannon, and Director of Photography Austin Hopkins — both experts in filming that maximizes terrain, the talent of highly skilled athletes, unknown mountain conditions, and unpredictable weather, to make this production a success.

We had assembled a stellar team, but the logistics of organizing an on-mountain shoot are nothing short of complicated. Which is why it took weeks of planning to create a run of show that felt feasible, full of cinematic possibility, and physically safe for talent, crew, and clients alike.

With the benefit of planned weather days to give us ultimate flexibility and the chance at blue bird skies, filming was an absolute success. Once we got into Post-Production, we knew we had something special. In the talented hands of our editorial team, post sound engineers, and with a little bit of help from a renowned VFX artist, most notably known for his extensive work on Star Trek, we created finished spots that make the idea of spending many hours in the snow actually sound like fun.