It may only be June, but it's already time for trailers to next fall's new ski movies. The teaser for 4FRNT's new team movie, "Dang!" dropped this week. Featuring 4FRNT athletes Eric Hjorleifson, David Wise, Cody Barnhill, Wiley Miller and more, the film was shot in Utah, Austria, Whistler, Jackson Hole and beyond. The film will premiere in September in Salt Lake City, Utah, and will be available for download. You can pre-order a DVD now. We spoke to 4FRNT founder Matt Sterbenz about the film.
This is 4FRNT's second team film, right?
That's right. Last year, we made our first team movie, which was called "Loyalty." This year we felt like we needed to step it up. We hired a full-time team and video manager, Austin Ramaley, and he's been creating a lot of original film content.
Why make a team movie?
Our sport is growing and the talent that's progressing the sport is getting deeper and deeper every year. But there hasn't been a drastic increase in film time for athletes. So if you're not a competition skier, the only way to get your name out there is to drop web edits or get a part in a big ski film. But there isn't enough screen time for all the athletes who deserve to be in those movies. So a team movie gives us as a company a way to embrace a wider network of our athletes and provide the most well rounded brand message we can. We can let our athletes get some screen time and still let them market themselves.
How'd you come up with the name?
Wiley Miller, one of our global team athletes, came up with the name. He was like, 'We should name the movie a common word said after watching banger footage on the screen. The word 'dang' really sums that up.' So we decided to go with it: Dang. Exclamation point. That's it. It's a fun title. We tried to set the mood from the beginning of the film.
Were you able to find any decent snow this winter for filming?
As we all experienced, it wasn't the winter we anticipated. We were hunting for snow all season. We didn't kick off filming until we flew over to Europe in February. We spent three weeks in Austria. The snow quality was a night and day difference to the U.S. Things started to turn the corner for us at home after that. We had a good week in Jackson in early March. We're not done filming yet, either. In July, we're heading up to Whistler for a team week during Camp of Champions. We'll bring up a bunch of athletes to support our team presence and give kids a chance to get in the movie.
Any new faces we'll see in the movie?
There are some up-and-coming riders, like Nick Miles, who will catch some people by surprise, and Andy Partridge, a young kid who won the Gatorade Free Flow Tour. And then there's David Wise, who joined our team in January. So that's a unique personality and name to add to the brand. His presence in the film is significant, especially in the segment where we took over the Dew Tour Snowbasin halfpipe after the event concluded. We brought some special camera equipment and captured some unique footage.
