Towards the end of last season there was a thread on here where a discussion about making short film on Scottish skiing took place. And we said we'd do it this season.

I dont know if anyone remembers...

But anyway, given that a number of people who are annoyed at negative news articles that are giving Scottish skiing a bad name, I thought it was a good time to bring this up again.

The idea is to make a feel good film and basically look at how good it can be, I suppose promoting it a bit to get rid of this bad reputation.

Im simply putting this out as a suggestion and all are welcome to get involved in any possible way. I have no ideas yet, but its something Id like to do.

I'm well up for that !!
I don't have much in the way of filming skills but what I do have is over 20 years of snowboarding experience in some of the best resorts in the world including a few seasons and months in some of these locations.

but I still have a crazy obsession with our own slopes and i would happily help out in anyway to show what scotland has to offer .

On a related note I was watching the Art of Flight on Friday night and in the Chile section they were riding in 'marginal' conditions which looked kinda like what we get up here.... basically they were riding chutes at speed while rock-hopping. Proves you dont need wall to wall pristine powder to ride a good line.

Excellent, And indeed we dont need top knotch snow all the time, we just want to show how much fun we have.

I have some editing experience but my resources are limited at the moment, however if need be I should be able to get access to a mac with all the bells and whistles. But if we get someone whos got more experience on board then by all means.

I have a good sony HD camcorder and Im going to take the plunge and get a GoPro soon hopefully, and Im hoping we can muster up another few good cameras. But at the moment Im ust wanting to get people on board, technicalities come later.

Its actually partially inspired by 'The Art Of Flight' as they seemed to go pretty much anywhere but Scotland. And im afraid a heli is pretty much out of the question.

awesome idea Cammy! good luck!

Maybe a twist to add in is the efforts of WH's to get 24 consecutive months on snow at less than 1000 metres above sea level with out snow making. Not sure if that has been done anywhere else in the world!!

I think its an great idea mate.

Are you thinking along the lines of a community (WH) project?

Set a video standard (resolution, quality etc) up front and let everyone take and upload their own clips/videos to a central location (maybe Alan could come up with some space on here?) for one team of pre-appointed people to select the best and edit/cut at the end of the season?

I reckon you'd get plenty of material that way and with so many potential filmers a pretty good spread of hills/touring/back country etc.

I always have my little HD camcorder in my pocket, so I'd defo contribute!

A good winter season and it could be Epic.

Good idea Gaz. I think you would have access to a lot of stuff if that was the case.

Cheers, happy to see lots of enthusiasm.

Community project, great idea.
Logistically that would be much easier than trying to arrange meet-ups.

As mentioned on the thread last year, It would be much better if we could get more than just action. Like commentry or Interview type things, which would be appropriate for big things like the 24 month skiing.

As high-res as we can really, to keep quality as good as possible. And make sure you can control your white balance. Modern cameras seem to cope well but some make the snow turn grey (as it thinks its over exposed) which looks terrible.

And to really make the 'fun' come accross, id suggest going in groups to film stuff as you get the impression of skiing with mates. And also idealy we want som non Point-Of-View material.

fab idea. My compact camera shoots HD so pretty good quality, but guess it doesnt have huge memory. Maybe combo of getting people to uplaod and editor could use the best stuff as well as group meet ups> Im no techie, so maybe thats a nightmare. Lets do it!

Great stuff bitoffluff, meet ups will always be an option for that reason. It can always be a case of "whos up where this weekend?", and we'll get bits and pieces from the whole season. Plenty of time to shoot, and plenty of material.


Perhaps in a week or two once more people see this I, or anyone else if they want to, will setup a mailing list so everybody knows whats going on.

Had another thought about this Cammy.

If You're going to go down the community project route, as well as defining video standard up front it's probably a good idea to define file naming standard as well.

I was trying to find a few bits and bobs of my own last night and searching through and viewing them all when they're called 000089.mov, 000090.mov was a bit of a nightmare.

Something like:

(date-location-resolution-framerate-filmer.format)
2011-01-13-Glenshee-720p-60fps-Cammy.MOV

would make it easier for whoever is going to select and edit them.

Is setting up a group on Facebook or Yahoo or equivelant a way forward - gaz5m hit the nail on the head with determining a naming convention.

Count me in, armed with Mac, Gopro and HD recording SLR.

All very good then, yes I know exactly what you mean, We will do that.

I will setup a facebook page soon, unless someone beats me to it, and if you dont have facebook you can always check here.