Will Ski 4 Food Premiere

Shane Osguthorpe 0:00
Welcome out to the Ogden Wire. We are joined today by River Hyde. I will just say this: we just came from watching the first eight minutes of this ski film that we're going to be talking about, whose premiere is coming up at Snowbasin this fall. Tickets now on sale, we're going to get to all this stuff. But just…we wanted to start rolling the podcast as quickly, I think, as we could after we finished watching our little teaser first eight minutes, I am stoked, River. Thanks for being here and showing that to us. Let's jump right in. This this film is called "Will Ski 4 Food."

River Hyde 0:33
Yes

Shane 0:34
And it chronicles the beginnings of the freestyle movement of skiing, right back in the in the 70s.

River 0:39
It does.

Shane 0:40
Through the eyes and the stories of the local athletes here in the Ogden area that basically gave birth to that that scene here, right?

River 0:47
Exactly right.

Shane 0:48
Jump in, tell us kind of how all this came to be. We're going to talk about some of the players, where the archival footage comes from, the legacy with Warren Miller, a lot of things that we want to talk about. Jump us in and tell us when did this project …kind of when was it hatched, and where are we with it now?

River 1:06
Yes, yeah. So Gary Nate, Ogden local and longtime cinematographer for Warren Miller, roughly 40-year career with Warren Miller, in fact, he's my cousin, and he always his local friends, local people, would always ask and tell them that he's going to write a book. It was always started there. It was I'm going to write a book. I need help writing my book. I want my legacy out there. We actually, Jeff Hyde in the film, my father and I actually skied with Gary on his his final day, so he passed away two years ago. And as I went to his house a few days later that Sunday, I'd asked him, "Hey, go grab some you know stuff. I'll start help you know helping you put things together and help you write your book. Well, turns out we get down to his house Wednesday and there's a box full of archives ready to go, so he managed to get home, grabs all the stuff, brings it up, and ultimately passed away on his couch and still in his ski clothes.

Shane 2:09
Yeah, skied that day. I remember when he passed away. Yeah. Yeah.

River 2:11
So as we kind of dug through that, Colby Nate, Gary's son, was with us, and we just were looking at all this, and in fact, there's a photo of him and Tom Leavitt down at the Snowbasin parking lot, cardboard sign "Will ski for food.” And we looked at that, and we looked at these archives we have, and we went, "Oh my God, we have to write a script. We have to build a movie. Like, there's no way we're going to do a book. This has to be seen,” And so with that in mind, we started this project probably sometime last October is where this has started, and up to our eyeballs in, you know, you couldn't imagine the amount of archives we have.

Shane 2:56
So when you say archives, had he digitized all this footage already, are you looking at 16 millimeter film? What are you looking at?

River 3:03
We had both, so we were lucky that some of it was digitized. We definitely have digitized some eight and 16 millimeter that he just happened to have. Most of this footage was pre-Warren Miller. We do have outtakes from his Warren Miller days as well, but a lot of this was those early days of '70s hot dogging or freestyle as we know it today, and it was all these meccas that came out of that. We're talking Wayne Wong, we're talking Bob Salerno, Robert Young, which many of these are local Ogdenites, and they came and would dominate the sport. When you go back and look at the leaderboards nationally, the top five ranking were always from Ogden.

Shane 3:49
Yeah, so it it truly gave birth to the freestyle scene. Very cool because earlier in the year we did a podcast with Wynter McBride who just was invited up on the World Free Ride Tour as freestyle skiing now is being looked at as a possible Olympic sport as it's coming back 2034 for the Olympic Games. A lot going on this way, but now back to the film because that first eight minutes gave me chills I mean we're we're recording this in the middle of July on a nearly 100 degree day and it was heaven to look at it, but just the archival 16 millimeter footage, and the fact that you guys are capturing the stories of these skiers while they're still here to tell them to us. It's it's a beautifully done film. Are you the director? I guess Colby's the director?

River 4:36
Yes. Yeah. So there's a team of three, you know, working on this. We have Colby Nate. That's our director. That's Gary Nate's son. Myself, I'm producing and co-directing, and we have Rob Tovar. He's our editor and director of photography.

And so between the three of us, we've worked heavily to you know not only digitize and get these archives to where they're you know able to be seen by the masses. But then again, also put the film together, so it's been a large feat. But we're unbelievably stoked to be hosting the premiere at Snowbasin and get everybody to see this film.

Shane 5:11
Well, let's get to that and let's talk about this party because that's the other coolest part of this. Beyond the film itself, is the party you have planned for this for the premiere of it is really cool. Outdoors mid October. We're talking October 16, right? On the plaza or on the on the grass. I guess I assume the stage will still be up from Blues and Brews. Should be probably. You're going to have prize giveaways, raffles, ski gear, all kinds of stuff. Tell us a little about what's going to happen on the premiere night.

River 5:37
Yeah, so premiere night, we're super excited. We're going all out on this. So if anybody remembers the the times of old with Warren Miller and the premieres down here at Weber State or up in Logan and that, this really isn't just a movie. It's a celebration. It's getting everybody pumped to get back to the winter season.

Shane 5:57
Oh yeah, brings the community out for the first time after the summer break.

River 5:59
Yeah. Oh yeah, and man, we're just pumped. So we have live music from Proper Way.

Shane 6:05
Oh my gosh! How lucky could you possibly have been to get The Proper Way? That is awesome, man!

River 6:12
Can't believe we made that happen. But we're so excited. We've got Snowbasin raffling off a season's pass. We've got a plethora of other ski companies we're working with give away ski outfits, skis, boots, bindings, poles-you name it. There's going to be an auction up there. Any of the auction items or any sponsors that are looking to sponsor the film or the premiere portion of those proceeds go back to the Snowbasin Ski Team and Freeride team, so we are trying to give back to that next generation to make sure that these pioneers that started this, that legacy continues through the next generation.

We're super excited about that. We've got food, we've got drinks, we've got the music. There's going to be two other 10-minute ski movie premieres before…short films before ours premieres. So it truly is a film festival, and it's just gonna be a party. We're so so excited and so happy to have it up at Snowbasin, and what an incredible vista to have ski film in the mountains that you know the sport actually originated.

Shane 7:23
Well, it was amazing when you first rolled that first little eight-minute teaser that I just looked at. Immediately recognized all the different parts of the mountain, even from the archival footage. It's like, man, some some of it has not changed a bit. Clearly, some of it you're like, oh, there's the old lodge, or there's the. I mean, you'll see things in there that's beautiful. Just in the eight minutes. So, if you want to see the film, you want to come to the premiere. They can get tickets. Tickets are available where?

River 7:45
Yeah, willski4foodfilm.com That's a numerical “4”, but willski4foodfilm.com.

Shane 7:52
And we'll put that in the link for sure. We'll make sure to make that easy for you guys to find, and that's that's if you want to come enjoy the premiere. Clearly, we've got the rest of summary, and you have this eight-minute teaser now. You are looking for more sponsors, or the door is open for sponsorships. Who would they reach out to if maybe if someone wanted that same eight-minute sneak peek at the possibility of a sponsorship? Would they contact you?

River 8:13
Yeah, they can contact me. They can contact Colby or Rob. All of our contact information's on the website.

Shane 8:19
Okay,

River 8:20
And we can get in contact anytime. We do have a sponsorship deck in that that we can also send out to any businesses looking to, you know, come and sponsor either the film itself, the premiere, or both. You know, the nice thing with the premiere, you know, sponsoring the film over the premiere is your name, your brand will be connected to that film for all time.

Shane 8:45
Right on. Well, and it's going to be on a big screen. Huge, great sound system.

River 8:51
Yeah, great sound system. 45-inch…excuse me, not inch, 45-foot screen.

Shane 8:57
So couldn't get the IMAX?

River 9:01
It's gonna be incredible.

Shane 9:03
Well, and I think it's it's like it's Ogden Snow Dance to bring on the winter, right? It's gonna it's gonna bring on some snow this year for hopefully for a good season. I mean, I that's what I'm hoping for. So anyway, October 16, you can find tickets at Will Ski Four. That's the number four. willski4foodfilm.com. I’ll fix that. Anything else we're missing on this?

River 9:27
Man, just excited to share these legacies, these stories. We have some incredible people we've interviewed for this film. Wayne Wong, certainly a mecca within the freestyle movement that happened in the 70s. We also have Scott Schmidt. He's been in over 40 of the Warren Miller ski movies and is basically the Michael Jordan of skiing. He's there to talk on Gary's portion of leading into his Warren Miller days. We've got Tom Youngst to follow Scott up. Deno Dudunake, another one of the meccas and ambassadors of Rossignol. Just some incredible athletes that have some certain mainstay power within the industry.

Shane 10:06
Well, and seeing you know Jeff Hyde, I saw and Tom Leavitt. Well, I assume they'll be at the premiere, right? So some of these athletes that you'll see in the film will be there. Any kind of Q and A with the with you or the director or any of this? Or the athletes?

River 10:19
Yeah, we're planning to do a Q and A. We do have VIP tickets available as an add-on to your base ticket. That way, you'll be able to rub shoulders and hang out with some of these incredible athletes. That VIP ticket also includes a dinner voucher, so you're able to get some food.

Shane 10:38
Yeah, if it's if it's a VIP situation at Snowbasin, you know you're going to be taken care of.

River 10:41
Hundred percent, and we're pumped. We're also looking at some other ticket options. A date night package come with a custom Will Ski 4 fFod blanket. We just had meetings on the merch yesterday. The merch for this film is gonna be off the hook. It's super, super cool. We can't wait to show everybody. And like I say, it's just a celebration, far more than the film. It's it's simply there to get people pumped up for the season. You know, we live in a day and age that we…it was important for our film to bring back the dreamers. You know, it's not only for the skiers out there. The underlying message of this is every single one of these people found a way to continue on in the ski industry even after their professional athlete career ended, and they've all done it, and it's incredible. It's so cool to see those legacies, and that story really resonates through the film as as you watch it.

Shane 11:41
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for for being a part of the film, for showing us the eight minute teaser, for putting the amazing premiere party together it sounds like we're looking forward to, and yeah, thanks for coming in and just telling us all about it. We appreciate it, man.

River 11:54
100% Can't wait to see you there.

Shane 11:56
All right, we'll see you.