How each shot was composed was a massive priority of mine. I like the static tight frames capturing the various alpine elements and allowing them to almost become characters themselves, whilst planting Andy and Fin in the scene.

I enjoy symmetry in frames, so I planned shots where there are very central objects for variety when creating scenes. I consciously planned to give the film a variety of shots, mixing traditional long lens, slow motion snowboard shots, and contrasting to those very close shots, captured using a wide, 10mm lens with good raw audio.

Before the trip, we all agreed that the sound design would be a massive part of the film. We felt that sound is often a big contributory sense to the experience of being in the mountains, and we wanted to make that a priority of ours. Doing it justice was quite a big task but through using external audio and perfecting the audio through sound design, I think we’ve been able to do just that.

“I like the static tight frames capturing the various alpine elements and allowing them to almost become characters themselves, whilst planting Andy and Fin in the scene”

The biggest challenge was the conditions. Using a big cinematography camera, that doesn’t like the snow or moisture. It was a fun challenge to think outside the box and prepare the camera with the limited resources available in an alpine ski town.

The name of the film, Refraction, focuses on the idea that light refracts, as I like to think that my cinematography style is constantly utilising lighting. The film has many flares, sparks of light and shadows that give a lot of texture to the image. The idea that sound can refract, as well, so the layers of sound and the in-depth sound engineering that went into the film, is also a link to the name.”

Who do you have to thank?
The most important person for Fin and I to thank is James. He decided to help us and wanted to make the film. He came with fantastic ideas, energy and led the process whilst listening to our input, what we liked about other films and what we wanted this film to evoke for us and others. It was also so much fun working with James, he has a great sense of humor and can deal with mine. I had a great set of boards as did Fin, and it would have been difficult without the fantastic supporters of the film who helped us immensely. Additional thanks to Val d’Isere for being so accommodating and finally to Kieran Hicks at Tignes Spirit. He gave us access to any additional safety equipment we needed to have fun. Access to the workshop and Charlie Marshall who serviced and repaired on occasion our boards. Kieran was always just one call away if we got into any difficulty or needed help with logistics. He is evidently a very kind man, and one we are extremely grateful to be friends with.

Fin chat

What was Val d’Isere like?
I’ve actually not been to Val D’Isere since I was there for a Whitelines shoot in 2018/19 and I had actually forgotten how brilliant it was. With help from the travel experts at NUCO travel, we were able to head back. For me, it was the best place to be for the beginning of the winter, given I’ve not been riding properly since the Rome Team trip last spring.

“It was also so much fun working with James, he has a great sense of humor and can deal with mine”

Personally, it was nice the varying terrain that’s around enabled me to ease into things, in conjunction with some pretty comical bail shots that I’ve already compensated James adequately to get rid of.

It‘s pretty amazing that the terrain has an almost seemingly engineered natural progression up to some of the best stuff I’ve had the pleasure of riding, as well as some pretty iconic areas that I’ve seen some of the greats pass through, in particular, Forniet and that’s all I’m prepared to give away on that matter. I’m a bit of a sucker for ripping heelside turns on the piste too and the Grand Prix chairlift there is the best for it. Not to mention that is has the opportunity for the best tourist photos. Below sitting on the D.

How were the conditions?
The turn of the New Tear brought with it some unwelcome temperatures across the continent as I’m sure most of us are aware, however, we lucked out and had already previously committed to heading to Tignes / Val d’Isere. The first 5 or 6 days were consumed by getting back on the board and making the most of what little fresh there was around still. We had a get pretty creative to find the right areas with snow worth shooting, but remarkably, we managed to find some pockets here and there, despite the area being notorious for getting tracked out quickly.

“The plan for me when we arrived on the trip was just to let James take the reins and let the accomplished creative inside of him drive the video’s direction, which is more or less what happened”

With the low tide, a couple of sharks could smell the blood and caught me on a couple of occasions, however, the legends at Tignes Spirit sorted me right out which was incredibly kind of them. We then had a couple of days of heavy snowfall which set the tone for the remainder of the trip, the sharks fucked off and productivity flew off the handle, despite some dickhead deciding he would fully white room James and the camera.

There was a fair bit of wind around during the snowfalls but we were pretty much constantly surveying the conditions and with some local knowledge we were pointed in the direction of some pretty all-time snow on one day in particular. This was the day we shot the last section and felt like a good scene to end on.

What did you aim to shoot?
The plan for me when we arrived on the trip was just to let James take the reins and let the accomplished creative inside of him drive the video’s direction, which is more or less what happened. Andy had gotten in contact with James about potentially getting involved in the video initially and he was instantly full of ideas, a lot of which I’ve not massively seen done in snowboarding before which is cool to find a wee niche. It’s been really cool to see that come to life over the last few weeks and become what it is now.

Supported by: Rome Snowboards, Ride Snowboards, Atlas Snowshoes, NUCO travel, Trinity VIXX, Val D’Isere Tignes Spirit.