I just watched the TGR almost live series featuring Clayton Vila and Cam Riley, very sick but then I discovered I do have some issues with it.
A handful of smaller filming crews, Nipwitz, Stept,4bi9 and a handful on Quebec crews, can't think of anymore at the moment, have very dope emerging pro riders that are often recruited by big name production companies such as TGR, poorboyz and level 1. I understand this often gets recognition for that skier and allows them to travel to new places to ski but something about it bothers me.
The ski film industry is such an oligopoly. There is no depth to it.
These talented and influential riders have the potential to bring their new production companies to the forefront of the market. I can't help to think that;
1) larger budget companies steal these riders away from their small scale production companies, the riders are losing time that could be put into their segment with their current production company to the big guns who ultimately wont produce as good of a segment of them.
2) Smaller production companies lose exclusiveness to their riders that have a chance to propel their company to the top of the game. Why buy the small scale movie when you can see the same riders in a large budget production made with better technology and featuring a larger roster of "pro" skiers. I think this would cause the smaller production company to ultimately lose sales of their films.
With this in mind there may now be a huge loss of incentive for sponsors to hook them up with large travel budgets which would give them access to new terrain and ultimately make their movies more original and entertaining. This access to new terrain provided by sponsors essential for increased sales and development of the production company.
I'm not hating on any skiers decisions to work with other production companies, they may not have even taken this into consideration or have interest in developing their production company into a big name. I just don't see their decision to do this as wise to their own production companies. It does make sense for them to do this from a business standpoint especially in the short run. What I am taking about is the development of the ski film industry in the long run and why we havent seen a large number of new North American film companies emerge in the industry. ( I can't speak for the rest of the world as I am not as familiar.)
These are just a couple thoughts that recently hit me. What do you have to say NS?
