Kvitfjell weekend 2.0

For the second time this year we visited Kvitfjell!

The crew consisted of Magnus Solheim, Lars Bjørum, Niklas Engebretsen, Mikkel Jøraandstad, Bjørnar Karmøy and myself (Anders, filmer).

This time we we were mainly focusing on their biggest jump, an 18m with a poppy kicker (photo below), and got some goodies there. We also shot a mellow, wooden down rail that some of you may remember from last years December Webisode on saturday afternoon. Things certainly have changed since then. Last year we barely got a 270 on, this time the boys we're throwing them on the second hit, and once they reached the bottom, they added a pretzel 2 off (at least Mikkel did this on his first successful try, pretty crazy). The filming has improved a lot as well. I rigged my portable jib and got some shots from above, pretty neat.

Sunday, after a long day of shooting, we took the last lift up at 4pm, and skied down to an abandoned camping wagon I had stumbled upon earlier the same day. We built a kicker as fast as possible, because the sun was setting fast, and barely made it on time to get some dooope handdrag shots.





Thanks to Studio H and Nicholas and family for hosting us, and Kvitfjell of course.

7D + Glidetrack First test

Canon 7D with a Canon EF-S 15-80 f3.5 at 60p over cranked to 24p in Cinematools.
Converted to ProRes (LT) for editing in FCP and CG in MB Looks. Exported as a .h264 .mp4 file. Glidetrack SD (1m).

Some shots from Lars Fredrik Nilssen

Here are some shots Lars Fredrik Nilssen got with us at Bekkestua last week.

An epic bail!

Here it is:

http://newschoolers.com/web/content/viewvideo/id/323276/cat/latest/search_string/bail+history+books/

New weekend, new possibilities

This weekend has been a rail weekend.

Saturday was spent in Varingskollen, mainly hitting the huge flat down flat box they have there. Weather was crap, but since we used the jibcrane (version 2.0) for the first time this year, the shots might just be worth something.

Sunday was far more interesting. Niklas and the one and only Myself (Anders) showed up at the infamous "Steiner" 4 kink rail what we considered to be extremely early (0845), but turns out old people are early birds. Just as last year we got kicked out, this time after only one try.

We moved all our gear somewhat 100 meters west, to Hovseter, to return to a 8m long, very flat battleship with a slight C shape we hit earlier this year. We faced some difficulties back then (for example with the shortage of people to pull the bungee), and were ready for a new go with a bigger crew and better tricks. At this point Thomas Just, Lars Bjørum and Magnus Solheim had showed up. Things went down and we got some bangers, much thank to the awesome jib, which my dad rebuilt for me for my birthday. Thanks dad!

After plus/minus two hours of sessioning, Kristian Leraand showed up after I woke him up early and convinced him to do so.
Being a photographer he was not pleased with our choice of feature, he wanted to see something potentially bone breaking!

The guys were getting sick, tired, hungry, and a bit fed up, so after a much needed kebab break we moved literarily 10m to a rail to drop, with a lamp post with tapping potential at the end. From here I´ll let the pictures speak for them selfs, but I must add that Magnus Solheim got one of the most epic bails ever on film. Will post later!


PHOTO: KRISTIAN LERAAND
RIDER: MAGNUS SOLHEIM


PHOTO: KRISTIAN LERAAND
RIDER: LARS BJØRUM

7D + Glidetrack

I´ve just ordered the Glidetrack SD 1m, and will soon be getting the Canon 7D.
Needless to say I´m getting preeeeetty stoked when I see videos like this showing off the potential off the gear.

Glidetrack + Canon 7D Test from Luka on Vimeo.

The urban adventures continue!

Datarada, new update!

We´ve been going hard on the urban features this year, and just got two more under our belt!

Saturday mr. Magnus Solheim had a little privatesession with photographer Kristian Leraand (injured teamrider) and myself (Anders, Director/Fimer/Editor). The plan was to go to Hovseter and slay something with a natural inrun. Wich we of course didn't find. Luckily some snowboarders had been to Solheim & Leraands school (Persbråten) a few days earlier setting up some random picnic table kink-ish thingy. We decided it was our best shot at getting anything so we went to check it out. Switched things up a little, built a sketchy snowboard inrun, and voila. Setup. Got things done, had a fun little session, (might even have gotten a shot), went home. Good times.

Monday on the other hand was X-TREME.
After school at around 1730 a crew consisting of Leraand, Lars-Fredrik Nilssen (http://nilssenfoto.net) and Sol gathered at my house with the intention of first hitting a wallride, then getting picked up by Niklas and his infamous dad Knætt at 1830 to go to Bekkestua and hit a dub kink. We soon realized this was a stupid idea. No way we would have time to rig everything up and down. So we decided to instead pack all our lights and such and maybe just get some photos before departure. We tested the lightrig and found that two shoplights were dead for unknown reasons. Still, we gathered enough watts to get a session going. Then it was time to check the generator. 1/2 an hour of intense string-pulling later we still had no signs of life from it. My dad was certain there was something wrong with the ignition, but I suspected it was running low on fuel. Being a nice guy he (my dad) drove the generator plus crew to the nearest petrol station. There, luckily, we found that the shortage of gas was the only issue. Phew. We were ready to slay.

At 1840 Knætt, Niklas and his little sister who was going to a cross country race not far from Bekkestua showed up. Sol and I jumped in whilst Leraand and Larssa had to use public transportation. Halfway there, disaster strikes. On a speed bump, the front suspension brakes, and we are stranded only minutes (by car of course) from our destination. Luckily we pulled over into a bus stop, and a bus to Bekkestua was passing by in just two minutes. We rushed 85+ kilo of gear out of car and loaded it onto a bus thanks to a nice bus driver who didn´t mind that we blocked the entire entrance. After a couple of stops, we we´re finally there.

Got things set up and got the session going. Sol, Niklas and Felix Usterud (who lives not far from Bekkestua) we´re struggling a bit with the sketchy dub kink. Just nailing the thing to switch was hard enough, and then there was a 90% chance of crashing hard into the wall just 3-4m from the end of the rail. After an hour or so a random drug dealer showed up trying to sell us weed, but when we didn´t want any he decided to just hang out and shoot some photos to put on facebook instead.


PHOTO: KRISTIAN LERAAND
RIDER: NIKLAS ENGEBRETSEN

At 2215, after a two hour session, everyone had nailed it clean and gotten both photos and video clips, Sol even a switch-up, so we packed up, got picked up, went home and slept well that night.


PHOTO: KRISTIAN LERAAND
RIDER: FELIX USTERUD

PS: Thanks to Stevje (Heming Adrenalin and national team coach) who showed up out of nowhere, saved the guys from smashing into the wall and went to McD´s for us to get some snacks!

Vierli B-footage edit!

SORRY for not updating this for SO long!

We´ve all heard that a picture says more than a thousand words, so instead of writing plus 26.000 words, we uploaded 26 screenshots to our facebook profile page!

Check it: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oslo-Norway/Dedicated-Pictures/186648613503?ref=ts#/album.php?aid=188589&id=186648613503&ref=mf

And here is the edit (don´t forget to rate!): http://newschoolers.com/web/content/viewvideo/id/320773/cat/latest/

See ya!

Weekend Warriors Ep. 2!

This time from Geilo, and now with SKIING!

Weekend Warriors - Ep. 2 - Geilo from Anders Stai Fougner on Vimeo.

Dope.

Geilo Trip!

Just got home from school, about time to update you all on our latest adventures!

Friday afternoon we left for Geilo, because Geilo Freestyle Club was hosting a season Kick Off weekend. Heming Adrenalin was arranging a trip as usual, so everything was taken care of! Pretty sweet.

Personally I got a ride with Rolf Bjørum (widely known as TD in the Norwegian Ski Association) together with Edvard Dalsegg, Tobias Bang and Mathias Sjolivangen, and we held max speed all the way up.

When we got up there we went straight to a meeting about judging, so that everyone could know what criteria they will be judged on the upcoming season. On the meeting there was also some talk about FIS, who will be laying down a set of rules for slopestyle and big air very soon, as it is to become a "real" sport. Personally I think we should totally ignore this. What has FIS ever done for us?

Saturday we SLAYED (not) the AWSOME (kinda) park they had and all the HUGE (not) features in it, and got tons of EPIC (not) shots from that in the BEAUTIFUL light (not). More on this later. Luckily I had brought the bungee and a bunch of shoplights, so we were able to get at least two or three legit shots that afternoon, on two different bomb drops. Sol, the man, got it done.

Then there was time for a "taco-dinner-get-together" with all the attending. Fun times, except it costed 195KR and didn´t really taste good. After having eaten as much as possible (if I'm paying, I'm gonna fucking get something for it), there was time for another meeting. This time it was about a series of contests here in Norway that will work as qualifications for the Norwegian Championship, the "Norwegian Open".
In my opinion, 10 open comps from January - March, not including the Championship, plus the commercial ones is putting a way to competitive focus on our sport, which in my opinion isn´t really a sport, but a passion, a hobby. It´s also disturbing for our project. If the guys want to get both filming and competitions done, it´s starting to look like there´s gonna be traveling every weekend.
I do not like this new trend we are seeing, but hopefully, it´s gonna create more money and better parks. At least then something positive will have come out of it.

Sunday we decided to ditch the crappy park and it´s grim shade, and get something done with the lil powder we had! Got some shots on an awesome stonejib thingy, and lots of bæææckflips. I also went up on the mountain to get some nature shots. Worked out well, and all in all, not such a result less weekend!

Weekend Warriors - Ep. 1 - Kvitfjell

Weekend Warriors - Ep. 1 - Kvitfjell from Anders Stai Fougner on Vimeo.

Here it is, the first episode of Weekend Warriors, covering our trip to Kvitfjell recently. I completely understand and agree with the criticism from some about it beeing a bit boring, but the intention with this series is not in any way to replace last years Webisodes, but to try to give you updates in a more entertaining way than just blogposts.

So, sadly, there will not be much skiing, but next time, there will be more behind the scenes footage and less interviews.

And of course, don´t forget the movie dropping late September '10, with all the best shots for your viewing pleasure, completly FREE for online streaming and HD downloading.

Kvitfjell shoot!

There´s gonna be a "Weekend Warriors" episode on this shoot later, but thought I´d do a little update anyhow.

So, last weekend we were up at Kvitfjell doing the first shoot for our new free movie "Been There. Done That." dropping this fall. Here´s how it went down:

Friday: Having taken a day off from school, I arrived at Kvitfjell pretty early, after having somehow managed to bring camera with gear and tripod, three shoplights, lots of extension cords, a dolly, clothes, boots and skis with me by tube and train. There I met up with Eskild, my contact at Kvitfjell (thanks a lot!), and he introduced me for Niklas, member of the ski patrole up there. Together we found some more shoplights and extension cords, checked out the slope and scoped out some urban possibilities. After that it was straight to work. I built a bomb drop and a tricky hand rail where you somehow had to switch up past a sign to make it to the end, and then it was time for setting up some rails with a snowcat. Luckily, at that time, the first riders showed up, and we put up a down rail and a box in their little pre-season rail/jump line. After that was done, the clock had reached 10, and suddenly everyone had arrived, just in time to not do any work. Suspicious.
We gave the tricky urban a shot, but although Fritzl (Fridtjof Fredricsson) got passed the sign with a beautiful little switchup, nobody was able to get it all the way. At 00:30 we gave up, and it was time for the 1 hour walk back to PMs cabin. With all the gear. Good times had. By all.


Saturday: Being just a liiiitle bit tired from our little late night stroll, we weren´t up super early this day. But at around 11AM, we were ready for the second feature of the trip: a bomb drop that we actually hit last year, but this year we were aiming bigger. Sadly, this feature didn´t work out either, all though Magnus Solheim might have gotten a shot of a 180. Might. After that, we decided to go slay this wooden downrail that we were pretty certain would work out, and it did, to some degree. Fritzl, beeing the PRO he is, got to shots, a switchup and a 270 out, and things were looking brighter. After lunch we hit the park for the first time, and was able to get a few shots on the down rail. After all this we were all stoked for some serious chillin, so we did just that, waiting for the night to fall. Soon everything laid dark, and we revisited our little handrail. After Mikkel Jøraandstad almost broke his neck falling into the death gap/mini river at the bottom of the landing, we decided filling it was a good idea, and people started throwing down. Things were going swimmingly, until the rail started getting back at us. The thing was completely torn up, and rider after rider caught an edge, ending in Paal Satvedt saddly breaking his collarbone. Send some vibes his direction for a quick recovery!

Sunday: The last day, turned out to be the best day! We spent the whole day shooting a roof jib, and a lot of different and technical stuff was thrown by everyone. Happily we could wrap it all up and return home to Oslo for another week of school with some good shots in the bag.

Steady cam just finished

Here it is, a genius little construction of mine. Or not.
Thank you YouTube! <3

Anyyyhow, this is how it works:
1. Mount the camera on top.
2. Film some sick shit and get clean follow shots with no shaking.
3. Edit that shit yo.
4. TOP RATED!!

(Wanna know how to make one, and what it does? Google = Your M8)

FELIX USTERUDS BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!

EVERYBODY, ADD HIM AS A FRIEND ON FACEBOOK AND WISH HIM THE BEST!!


Isn´t he cute?

Bungee system, better than a drop in?

We are still schoolkids.
In Norway, the age limit for a drivers license is 18, and we are all minors except one member.

Needless to say, hitting urbans is difficult for us. We must rely on our parents to drive drop-in ramps and other heavy equipment around the capital, or do it ghetto style, by taking the whole thing by public transportation.

But yesterday, I came across something that will make it a LOT easier for us (at least when we don´t have to bring a generator): Bungee systems.
They are simply huge and powerfull bungees with handlebars on, that when stretched, can provide you with up to 50km/h (or 30mph) of speed.
I placed an order immediately with express air mail shipping.
Hopefully it´ll work, and we won´t have to worry about drop-in ramps ever again.

Urban setup ready to go!

Just checked out my dad´s huge amount of random stuff lying around, and was able to pull together a lightrigg of in all 5500 watt, witch is just INSANE. Thats what PBP and such would use. I´ll soon be purchasing a generator as well, and a drop in or something for speed.

And the best part is?
All the money came from the Norwegian State, through FriFond, the Norwegian Governments fund for culture projects by youth.

WEEKEND WARRIORS - The making of a no budget skimovie

Here are some futher details about our videoblog project this season, witch will cover the making of our upcoming free movie "Been There. Done That."



Well, not really details. Just a name. And a logo.
Guess you´ll have to waight another two weeks, because then we´re going to Kvitfjell for the first shoot of the seasons, witch also happens to be our first shoot set up only for us!

Stooooked

SNOW

I´m looking out the window, and it´s SNOWING! In OSLO, in OCTOBER. STOOKED.

On to sadder news, Little Red aka Felix Usterud is in the hospital for some reason.
Will report back when I find out why!

New wide angle lense!

A brand new wide angle lens dropped down into my mailbox today! A 72mm Opteka Titanium Series 0.43x Semi Fishey. Needless to say, I´m pretty stoked!
It only costed a little moore than 200 bucks, and for a 72mm lens, that is reeeal cheap. But it works fine, allthough it really sucks in low light. No worries though, wont be using it for that anyways!

Stay classy!