As I fire up the PS3, my mind is filled with the images of Travis Rice and friends in incredible backcountry locations, the smooth edits of high quality HD footage, and the awesome soundtrack that made up the 2009 release That’s It, That’s All. Can the Brain Farm crew do it again? Would that be impossible?
I’m here to tell you it’s not. With some serious equipment upgrades (more on this later) the Brain Farm team has done it again. In their words That’s It, That’s All was “a two year practice” that taught them what they needed to know to bring you The Art of Flight.
Many of the same characters are back, including Travis himself and Mark Landvik. Joining them are well rounded shredders like the legendary Nicolas Muller, John Jackson, Jake Blauvelt, DCP, and others. With this cast and locations ranging from T.Rice’s home mountain of Jackson Holy Wyoming to Chile to BC backcountry, the best riders are paired with the best terrain, resulting in some pretty impressive footage. The level of advanced riding is only matched by the level of fun and love for the sport the riders clearly have.
The behind the scenes bonus feature shows off some of the new high end gadgetry used to make this film. One of the main pieces of new gear is the Cineflex V14 HD gyro-stabilized camera system. Originally developed for aerial photography, the Brain Farm team attaches it to everything from helicopters, snowmobiles, a specially built Polaris Ranger XP on Mattracks, and a 12’ IntelliJib in the back of a Ford F350 truck rolling on Mattracks. Some other cameras used include a RED EPIC, Panasonic VariCam3700, Phantom Flex, Canon 7D, Sony F3, and the always helpful GoPro for POV shots. Translated, this is all very serious high end film equipment that is more often used on movie sets than out in the snowy backcountry.
This film totally speaks for itself, and is a must see. I will end this review with some numbers that will hopefully put into perspective the time, effort, and commitment of the entire Brain Farm crew in making this game-changing film.
- Hours of footage shot between that date and August 2011: 2,683
- Amount of hard-drive space needed to store said footage, in terabytes: 210
- Number of photos taken by Scott Serfas: 10,127
- Total miles snowmobiled: 22,660
- Miles driven between Jackson, BC, and AK: 30,000
- Number of different type of cameras used for filming: 10
- Pieces of camera gear lost or broken by Gabe Langlois: 9
- Pieces of Nicorette gum chewed by the crew: 3,000
- Cans of Red Bull consumed by Red Bull cinematographer Jared Slater: 763
- Number of moving objects a Cineflex camera was mounted to: 7
- Number of these objects that were not helicopters: 6
- Number of “mega jumps” built: 8
- Number of times one or more of these jumps had to be rebuilt due to snowfall: 5
- Time spent building Scotty Lago’s namesake jump, “Jawbreaker,” in days: 9
- Number of people working full time just on jump building during those days: 10
- Value of reward offered by Curt for first person to stomp a quad cork, in dollars: $30,000
- Number of people to decrease the size of Curt’s bank account by $30,000: 0
- Number of injuries sustained over the course of Mark Landvik’s career prior to blowing his knee out in the Jackson backcountry: 0
- Number of gear cases transported from Jackson to Santiago for Chile segment: 65
- Hours spent in customs in Los Angeles, CA and Santiago, Chile: 38
- Percentage chance that the answer to the question “Describe your experience in one word” within interviews for The Art of FLIGHT book included “expensive,” “chaos,” “grueling,” or “intense”: 41
- Chance that the answer included “next level,” “inspirational,” “dedication,” “magical,” or “fun”: 38
- Number of sandwiches made by Aspen PR Manager, Melissa Rhines during “The Art of FLIGHT” Aspen park shoot: 376