Oh for the days of a scratched VHS cassette and glorious 16mm footage you watched from start to finish. Life was simple. Plus, making a movie was so damned expensive there were only a few titles to choose from.
The birth of digital camcorders, coupled with snowboarding’s explosive growth, meant that by the early 00’s every man and his dog was shooting a shred flick and editing it on their G4 Powerbook.
Of course, this has also been an incredibly cool thing. It’s brought fresh riding and filmer talent to the fore, it’s made the big dogs work harder to stay on top, and it’s put the UK shred scene on the map. The latest high definition cameras (like the Canon 7D or, at the Red Bull ‘money-is-no object’ end, the RED) are opening up a whole new creative realm, while Vimeo and You`tube give snowboarders across the world an open platform for broadcast. And heck, if you can’t find what you’re looking for on Google, you can always download it illegally.
Is anyone actually going to make any money out of snowboard films anymore? Are full-length movies dead? Is it all about the Helgasons.com? Only God and perhaps Steve Jobs knows… Or are they the same person?
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