truegritproductions

[truegritproductions]

Page 2, more to follow soon

[truegritproductions]

Page 1 of original article I produced for Skiing Heritage back in 2011 which was then edited down quite a bit for their publication.

[truegritproductions]

The first feature length documentary on the start up of the sport of freestyle skiing. Project information, media clips, exhibition dates and more.

[truegritproductions]

Movie

Where can we purchase this movie ?

[email protected]

The DVD is available through the website and Facebook Page. Also should be available after our December 9th Santa Fe Film Festival screening as a stream or download. Thanks!!

[truegritproductions]

"THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD. THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE SPORT WE ALL LOVE. THANK YOU TRUE GRIT PRODUCTIONS FOR MAKING THIS." X-Games Gold medalist and freeskier Tanner Hall

Dog Days Of Winter is a retrospective on the start up of organized freestyle skiing during the early 1970's in America. Told from the point of view of some of the most influential pioneers of the sport, "Dog Days" tells the story of key people and events that set the stage for the birth of the sport, the spirit that freestyle is rooted in, factors that took the 'free' out of freestyle and reflections on what has become of the sport today.

"DOG DAYS OF WINTER IS BY FAR THE MOST COMPLETE HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL FREESTYLE SKIING TO DATE. INSIGHTFUL INTERVIEWS MELDED SEAMLESSLY WITH CLASSIC VINTAGE FOOTAGE OF THE HEREOS OF THE BIRTH OF FREESTYLE SKIING. I WAS THERE AS A TEN YEAR OLD KID WATCHING IT IN AWE. I LOVED IT!

-Greg Stump, Ski Filmmaker, 1978 Junior National Amateur Freestyle Champion, 1979 North American Amateur Freestyle Champion

[truegritproductions]

Some pics from our awesome experience at the 2015 Sun Valley Film Festival. What a treat to have my daughter Emma join me and spend her 13th birthday celebrating film and filmmaking in beautiful Sun Valley, Idaho. 

[truegritproductions]

Emma was my P.A. and held our reflector throughout the interview with Penelope four years ago. These pictures are a true testimony to how long we have been keeping at this project while working full time jobs and stretching pennies to make it happen. Couldn’t have done it without so many kind and gifted person’s support.

So happy to have my families partnership and now Emma wants to be a filmmaker too.

[truegritproductions]

Sun Valley Film Festival

We were so honored to have been accepted into the 2015 Sun Valley Film Festival. “Dog Days” played opening night at the nexStage Theatre in Ketchum. How thrilled to arrive with my daughter from our Boise drive an hour before showtime and be greeted with a sold out sign on the front door. 

A huge credit for bringing in the crowd and participating in a fantastic Q&A to all the Freestyle pioneers from near and far who attended. Ten of the films featured skiers, Dick Barrymore’s family and photographer Jennifer Josephs were in attendance and could frequently be heard giving shot outs as their former competitors/friends thrilled and spilled on the big screen. 

Thanks to nexStage for getting all our VIPs into the theatre early along with festival passholders. Lots of skiing history makers in this photo

[truegritproductions]

Screenshot of the Adventure Sport program for Durango Film Festival 2015.

http://durangofilm.org/wp/2015-films/

[truegritproductions]

We are very excited to be a part of this year's Durango Film Festival! "Dog Days" will be a part of the Adventure Sports program and a shorter 26-minute version will screen with an excellent line up of adventure shorts. We are honored to be a part of what should be an amazing 5-days of films and fun. Thanks Durango Film!!

[truegritproductions]

A few photos from the 2015 Albuquerque Film Festival

[truegritproductions]

2015 Albuquerque Film Festival

It certainly was a treat and honor to have Dog Days Of Winter screened as an official selection for the 2015 Albuquerque Film Festival. It was our first festival experience and I'm extremely grateful to all the friendly staff and volunteers who made the event so fun and memorable.

What a validation to have been selected out of approximately 400 film submissions and to screen with a fantastic line up of independent cinema. Hats off to festival founder Rich Henrich for selecting such an incredible line up of films to share with Albuquerque. Also, by pairing us with the charming and deservedly award winning, regional short documentary, The Pie Lady Of Pie Town, our screening had a full theater and the perfect demographic to celebrate the 70's and revolutionizing of skiing with the dawn of organized freestyle skiing.

Thanks again to all involved!!

[truegritproductions]

The Ski Journal Media Review-V.8#2

[truegritproductions]

We are so honored and thrilled to have received this honor. It's hard to believe it's been 5-years of adventure, learning and perseverance with some incredible support from a wonderful group of people to finally be ready to exhibit the film. 

Our commercial release version of the film is also almost ready to be available to the public. The last week has kept me chained to the editing table swapping a bit of footage and tightening the edit. Our online editor, Troy Murison, has gone above and beyond dealing with last minute needs and the film looks better ever thanks to his outstanding work and highly valued partnership.

Thanks to all the support, encouragement and patience!

[truegritproductions]

Our new title logo design for the film courtesy of FLIR Design in Bellingham, WA. Not only does it look good in the film, it will make for some pretty cool stickers. Stay tuned on how you can get some soon. 

[truegritproductions]

Post Team Assembled & Ready To Complete "Dog Days"

The Dog Days of Summer are here. For the project, that means buckling down and putting in the extra hours to get things finished. After a great test screening in Park City with many of the Pioneers of Freestyle in attendance, it was back to work as a school counselor and dedicating extra hours to clearing all my archival footage and music to ready "Dog Days" for festival submissions. 

Trying to clear music with publishers and the record labels has been very time consuming and I currently have requests in for ten songs. I'm hoping to have at least two or three songs in from the era. Unfortunately, the best I can do with the major labels is a one year film festival license and with my out of pocket budget, it's very costly.

I've spent the last week putting in the hours testing stock music for the edit and feel good about replacing more than half of the classic rock songs. I'm very excited to have just hired composer, musician Barry Uhl to score the music for "Dog Days." Barry is extremely talented, has a love and connection to skiing and the time period of the film and I'm thankful to be placing music responsibilities unto his very capable shoulders.

http://barryuhl.com/

I'm also extremely fortunate to have the talents of Seattle filmmaker Troy Murison who has come on board as online editor and already has made a huge impact with his color, graphics and visual effect work. Troy and his team at Dubs Inc had the film looking great for the recent Park City test screening and have the edit nearly completed for film festival submissions.

http://dubsinc.com/index.html

Finally, once the music and final polish is complete for the edit, it's back to the capable hands of Bob Ridgely for the final post audio work. 

http://www.binaryrecordingstudio.com/Binary_Recording_Studio.html

Hopefully, July is the month to get things done and we will be ready to submit to festivals in August. I've been doing my best through blood, sweat and tears to make the most of what little budget we have for the project. I can't thank others enough like my producers Caleb Young and Stanley Larsen whose advocacy, expert guidance and time they've contributed to support my efforts has proved invaluable. 

Speaking of money, thanks to my dad and my family allowing me to continually dip into our account to fund this little film. I'm pretty much tapped out and most likely will be doing some small fundraising. Stay tuned for the chance to purchase some cool posters and merchandise to help with completion and festival submission costs.

Thanks to all for your support and encouragement! Here's a temporary link to earlier work on a trailer with some music we would love to get the rights to keep in the movie. I'll keep the link open for a few days, you will have to cut and paste into your browser. The password is: truegrit 

https://vimeo.com/57606280

[truegritproductions]

Project Update- Park City Screening

What an exciting honor for "Dog Days" to be invited to screen at the Ishpeming International Ski Film Festival. The event was part of this April's Ski Heritage Week in Park City, Utah.

We are ever so close to being ready for festival submissions and special event screenings. Huge thanks to filmmaker, Troy Murison for his outstanding color work and Bob Ridgley for his great post production sound work. These guys have certainly helped me take the film to the next level.

"Dog Days of Winter" was given an additional screening and it was so fulfilling though a little intimidating to have so many freestyle pioneers in attendance. Though I have had very few screenings, all as a work-in-progress, you get a different view of your film each time you watch it with others. I was thrilled to hear their laughs and shout outs during the screening and touched at so many compliments and positive remarks afterwards. It's an event I'll never forget and helps provide the energy needed to hang in there and get this movie completed. I was also very aware that this audience knows all the additional stories and perspectives and possesses a depth of knowledge and understanding of details that give them a different reference point for viewing. There is so much more to the story and I did my best though only skim the surface in my focus to tell the story of the first few years of organized freestyle.

The audience arriving at the Prospector Square Theatre

Intentionally, leaving out any voice over narration, my aim was to have the retrospective presented from the voices of those who started and shaped the sport. At the start, I was thrilled to just get a few key interviews and throughout the process, amazed at my good fortune with basically no budget to be able to record 32 wonderful interviews. I was lucky to put myself in the right place at the right time and have good folks at the location trying to round up others to be included. I very much wish I could have included more skiers but time and money made this very difficult. So, one of the toughest parts of this Park City Screening was seeing pioneers who I hadn't the opportunity to interview. Also tough is knowing how much great interview footage I have but the reality of how only a few sound bites can make it in if the film is to be completed and life is to move on. 

That said, wow, thanks for everyone's support and I can't wait to get my permissions for music and a few more archival clips in order, the final polish done, and get the opportunity for more screenings!

"Bad" Bob Salerno on the big screen telling us how it was