Steve Rozendaal is the creator of the new Vice Sports' show “Lifted.”
Him and Mike Rogge were around the forums last week to answer questions regarding the new series.
MR: I don’t know how to whistle.
SR: I now have two kids.
My son was named after JP Auclair and My daughter was born at home.
mski: When’s the next Volume video mag coming out?
SR: Not anytime soon.
But Volume laid the foundation for Lifted.
GGitzen: When will this be released?
Do you have any plans to highlight any other athletes?
MR: The plan is to release episodes every Wednesday on Vice Sports.
It’s not some white rich kid sport.
Let’s be proud of where we came from and the men and women who got us here.
The fact that Pep kicks it off is money, but what criteria are you using to pick skiers?
- What happens during those discussions?
What kind of arguments?
Who has the final word?
What’s the trickiest part of a production like this?
To source the material?
Or to snag the stuff in an ocean of material?
MR:JP Auclair was the first skier Steve and I wanted to highlight.
The week before the trip to Patagonia, JP and I had conversations about this show at iF3.
That fact continually breaks my heart.
Thank you, JP.
I’ll let Steve go into how we’re selecting skiers and production in more detail.
This is his baby.
I’m happy to help raise.
The trickiest part for me is waiting to see the reaction skiers have to the show.
I want you guys to like it!
2 - What did you do to protect the legitimacy of this project?
I can’t help but bring up Free, which obviously succummed to some corporate influence.
There’s a place for both.
I want to watch well-crafted episodes.
We’ve been given a great deal of control on the editorial direction of Lifted.
I learned a great deal from my first time working with the people over there.
They’re good people, looking to tell a good story.
I knew Free would come up.
Free had a branding and marketing problem from the get go.
We incorrectly targeted a Newschoolers-like audience then delivered a more mainstream-focused film.
I wouldn’t expect NS to have liked that film.
Those guys are the first family of skiing.
I love long format movies!
I think the key is to double-check the talent in those movies work well together.
Eric Iberg was the king of this.
He had the ability to put the right people together and the results were amazing.
I hope we can find a balance between the two.
I wanted to stay true to that and Mike backed me 100% on this.
Vice has been great!
They let us handle the skiing side and they helped with the story telling.
They helped shape the story so it would appeal to a larger audience (which I wanted).
I don’t blame them.
There are a ton of kick ass skiers today.
It’s hard to follow all of this unless you’re a complete ski nerd.
Steve’s idea with Lifted is unique to skiing.
Wait for episode two.
A couple other skiers landed tricks at Pyramid Gap that day Andy and Pep went off.
Also…well, just keep watching.
SR: I love your passion!
My suggestion to you is to focus on the skiing and not worry about the money.
I didn’t make a cent off Volume.
But I did make a lot of friends and had one hell of a time.
If you work your ass off good things will happen.
This series is important!
Knowing where your sport came from is important!
NinetyFour: How in the hell did you edit videos and put them together for Volume Video Magazine?
But putting out 2 or 3 videos a year was tough.
We simply lived skiing.
Get up go to the hill and shoot all day and then edit all night.
I also had a few PBR’s along the way.
In the same vein, did you find that a thread/story emerged that you weren’t expecting?
Was there any major speedbump you encountered in this project, e.g.
tracking down footage, wrangling people for interviews etc.?
Do you think there’s a calling for this beyond the “freeskiing” world?
Do you think skiing can achieve the same kind of reach/transcendence?
Do you even want it to?
Steve was there, so he has a lot of deeper questions he can ask.
Not from my end, but this project did take over a year and half to put together.
It takes a good deal of phone calls, emails, and interviews to make this come together.
Thankfully, Poor Boyz had their archives super organized because they were working on TWENTY last year.
I hope these stories matter.
I’d love to see a ski media landscape that tells real stories about skiers to non-skiers.
I think skiing can do this, but we should also be careful for that bang out of transcendence.
Just ask a Surfer how he or she feels about Hollister.
aob: How does the finished video differ from your original vision for this project?
What kinds of things did Vice ask you to change?
MR: It’s different, but it’s also better.
We’re good at it, but we’re not exactly winning Emmys for that shit.
That’s probably the most difficult part of this project.
SR: My original vision for this project was very informal.
Vice sports has a signature look(which I like by the way).
Mr. Bishop: 1.
When is the next one coming out?
Was there any specific secret that you had to capturing an authentic vibe with Pep?
The next two episodes will be released in the coming Wednesdays on Vice Sports.
These are my friends and we simply have conversations.
There are defiantly topics I want to hit on but besides that I keep it very loose.
We may even have a few beers!
ChubbyBoy: What was the inspiration behind doing this video series?
Did you just wake up one day and was like pep is a boss.
I should show everyone how cool he is.
SR: Definitely Epicly later’d.
But it quickly became apparent that this show would have to be a little different.
Skiing is not skateboarding.
Pep is a close friend and he lives close by.
It was a no brainer that he would make a great pilot show.
Also keep in mind I didn’t know if Vice would even want the show when I started.
I just did it because I wanted to.
It took the hard work of Mike, Dylan and Johnny to make my dream come true.
tcurle:What route would you personally take in skiing if you were a kid in 2015?
Contests, trying to film anything, or whatever.
Would you follow Pep’s rout or something completely different?
MR: Just ski.
I have no incite how to become a pro skier because I’ve never been one.
The best example of how to do it has been set by Phil Casabon and Henrik Harlaut.
So, again, just ski.
prophet:
Mike Rogge: Is Pep the Soul of Skiing?
Pep: What’s firing in Japan right now?
Steve: Do you remember the free Helly Hansen movie Lifted?
Does this series officially make that irrelevant?
On a serious note the trailer was intriguing and I’m definitely excited for the episodes proper.
Pep’s been leading the game for as long as I’ve known it existed… almost.
How bout that edit with him and Andy on the all new Hellbents?
Skiing park on those is like riding snowblades.
SR: Nice call out!
Nothing Kris Ostness has done is irrelevant!!
It’s because of him I started filming.
I had simply spaced on the HH Lifted video.
I would not recommend recycling songs.
Guys like Phil Casaban know every song to every video part and will call you out!
