I spend last week from friday to thursday at Rogla Ski Resort where we were filming Red Bull Double Air project. Marko Grilc, the best snowboarder in Slovenia, will jump over Ross Mercer, world record holder for longest jump with snowmobile, on the biggest jump ever build at Rogla. The project was a secret, so there was quite a few photos I wasn’t allowed to publish during the week.
Day 1(Friday, April 2nd) – I was the only one from the recording crew that went up on friday as we only needed to shoot some time lapses of the big pile of snow that was growing for the jump construction. For that I also used one of the snowcats that had a 14 m crane on it. The weather was very unpredictable and as the fog fell I couldn’t record any more.
Everything started with a big pile of snow
The crane on the snowcat was 14 m high
Snowcat tracks on the snow detail
Day 2 (Saturday, April 3rd) – We all went to Rogla on saturday. We did a lot of time lapses on the first day as the pile of snow became kicker and the landing. The jump was roughly complete by the end of the day and skier Bine Žalohar went and jumped for the first time to test the speed and the angle of the jump. Everything was as planned so the guys began with the shaping.
Filming of Marko Grilc during the construction of the big kicker
Sony EX1 w/ Letus35 Extreme on Glidetrac is to heavy for that configuration (Martin Smerdel, Domen Smerdel, Marko Grilc)
First jump was made by test skier Bine Žalohar right after sunset
Night shaping
Day 3 (Sunday, April 4th) – Shaping continued on sunday. Snowmobile arrived so we could test the position of the small GoPro cameras. We also tried different location for the position of the crane snowcat. We needed to see as much of the jump as possible.
Position checking for the main shoot
We needed to deepen the hole under the kicker
Snowmobile arrived and we checked the position of GoPro cameras
Checking the GoPro cameras material
Ross Mercer, first commentaries
Day 4 (Monday, April 5th) – There was a snow storm on monday. The hotel windows were covered to the top with snow. We decided to do an interview between riders Marko Grilc and Ross Mercer, the head designer of the kicker Matevž Pristavec and the test jumper Bine Žalohar. Later that day the weather settled down so I could go and shoot some panoramas of the jump. Then I added the curves of the jump so that we could send then to Austria HQ, to convince them so they would lend us the helicopter for the main shoot.
Windows in the hotel covered with snow
Snowed in cars under the roof
Snow storm at Rogla
Interview in the hotel - 500W spot, 1000W red head, 2x1m LitePanel, Glidetrack SD, Sony EX1 + Letus35 Extreme, Canon 5D Mark II
Samo Premrn (Canon 5D Mark II), Ross Mercer, Marko Grilc, Matevž Pristavec, Bine Žalohar and in the back Martin Smerdel (Sony EX1 + Letus35 Extreme)
Double Air jump mockup from snowmobile start position
Ross should be 3 m under Marko if the calculations were correct
Day 5 (Tuesday, April 6th) – Riders weren’t able to jump on tuesday because there was too much chest wind and they didn’t get enough speed riding down (needed speed was around 85 km/h) to jump over the kicker. We shot some snowmobile workshop details and had to wake up early to do that. I did a 360º panorama in the afternoon from the landing platform.
Early morning
Planet Kicker
Day 6 (Wednesday, April 7th) – Everything was ready for the double jump on wednesday. Unfortunately Ross broke its handlebar during driving up and down the hill transporting people. He was kind of lucky because this didn’t happen during the jump and he might seriously hurt himself. We needed a few hours to fix it and in the late afternoon they finally managed to jump at the same time.
Final beauty corrections where everybody helped even photographer Samo Vidic
Everything is ready to go, Ross is doing the first jumps
Broken handlebar
The success of the project was not certain, because we didn't know if we could fix the handlebar in time
First jumps with the fixed handlebar
First double jump
They could work on the timing until perfected
They even tried some tricks
Day 7 (Thursday, April 8th) -We got a Red Bull Eurocopter BO-105 helicopter from Salzburg on Thursday. We also did the rest of the interviews for the final film and waited for the helicopter to arrive.
Waiting for the helicopter
Ground equipment - Glidetrack HD, Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, walkie-talkie, Red Bull and waterproof poncho for lying in wet snow
In the woods I put the Glidetrack on Manfrotto 055XPROB w/ 329RC4 head
Red Bull Eurocopter BO-105 helicopter from Salzburga (you can see Domens legs on the lower skid)
You can watch short web clip here. Longer 12 min version will be available at some later time.
Marko Grilc & Ross Mercer – Snowboard over Snowmobile
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