Warren Miller Entertainment looks forward while celebrating ‘75’ – Park Record

Warren Miller Entertainment celebrates its 75th anniversary of winter-sports films with its latest, simply titled “75.”

The film, which will screen Nov. 2 in Park City, pays homage to the past but also focuses on the future, said director Josh Haskins.

“One of our primary focuses was to look at what the future of skiing and snowboarding may look like for the next 75 years to come,” he said. “We’ve taken a lot of looks back over the decades of what the sport looks like. So this year we were able to take a look forward and work with some athletes that we haven’t worked with before.”

One of those athletes is Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White, who happens to appear in the segment called “Open Up” that was filmed with his trainer JJ Thomas and up-and-comer, Toby White at Park City Mountain.

“Shaun is a true rockstar in the snow-sports space, and it was an honor to work with him, especially in Park City, where he spends so much of his time training and perfecting his skills,” said Haskins, who is also an executive producer for Outside Studios.

“One Up” showcases White, Thomas and Miller trying to outdo each other during their last run of the day, according to Haskins.

“We filmed, I believe, during the first week in March,” he said. “We had a huge snowstorm, which diverted our plan to shoot a mostly terrain-park-focused segment, because we had all of this fresh snow and blizzard conditions.”

Since Haskins and his crew couldn’t control the weather, they shifted gears.

“We made it more focused on an all-mountain piece, which, in my opinion, worked out better,” he said. “We had more variety in the snowboard action, and we were able to showcase Park City Mountain more fully. This worked out really well in that our athletes were very flexible and adapted to the situation quickly. So, that combination of athletes, location and story really paid off.”

While Haskins enjoys filming in locations he’s been to before, such as Park City, he also loves discovering new places such as Montafon, which is in the Arlberg Region of Austria, the setting of the film’s “Going Mastiff” segment.

“It’s the hometown of Max Hitzig, one of the skiers in the film, and it really took me by surprise,” Haskins said. “It’s a tiny little village and valley, yet the ski infrastructure is so vast. There is an amazing network of trams and lifts and accessibility to the entire mountain range. Sometimes when you come across these tiny little ski towns, you don’t expect too much. But they end up being incredibly vast and amazing terrain.”

Although Hitzig is a fairly new and unknown competitor, he has already built a reputation of how masterfully he can maneuver on his home resort, and he is just the type of newcomer Haskins wanted for the film.

“This is what these movies are about,” he said. “We cannot make a movie without the cooperation and amazing talents of the athletes themselves.”

Although Warren Miller Entertainment has also constructed a towering reputation in the winter-sports scene, it still relies on other filmmakers and studios to connect them with talent, Haskins said.

“This year we were able to reach out to some creative filmmakers who we haven’t necessarily worked with in the past, and when collaborating with filmmakers like Sherpas Cinema, Framework (Films), Selema Masekela and Real Skifi, they’ll bring in rosters of some tremendous athletes with them, who we may not necessarily have access to,” he said. “That was helpful this year.”

While Haskins wasn’t surprised at the caliber of talent for “75,” he found himself blown away when he saw them on the big screen.

“I still get emotional, and I still am in awe with these athletes,” he said. “And working with athletes we haven’t worked with in the past is, in my opinion, is how we look at doing things differently going forward.”

Moving forward is another theme in “75,” and that is personified in the segment “Alpine Rhapsody,” featuring skiers Mark Abma and Noah Maisonet at Mica Heli, British Columbia.

It was inspired by Disney’s “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and produced by Sherpas Cinema, Haskins said.

“That was an incredible segment, and it was incredible working with this talented film crew who had amazing imagination and execution of stellar filmmaking,” he said. “We loved its addition to the story, and, for people in the audience, it may be a bit of a curveball. But from what I’ve seen with audiences, people have been enjoying it.”

The segment does pull at the heartstrings because it’s about passing down the love of skiing and snowboarding to posterity, he said.

“Other than looking at the future, our film is very much about generations, which is a tradition with Warren Miller films,” Haskins said. “I remember growing up and seeing these films with my family every year in Upstate New York. It’s incredible we can tie that into the themes of this film, as well as with our film tour where you see generations of families coming out.”

Haskins started his filmmaking career with Warren Miller Entertainment 25 years ago.

“Kurt Miller, Warren’s son, hired me in the winter of 2000,” he said. “Back then we were shooting on film and technology was a lot different. But the values and the core principles and the pillars of the film were more or less similar to how we make movies today. We still focus on amazing athleticism, ski and snowboard action, incredible locations around the world and heartfelt stories.”

Maintaining the quality and meeting audience expectations are just a couple of challenges Haskins faces when he makes a new Warren Miller film.

“In general, it’s a tremendous responsibility to uphold the legacy of a 75-year-old brand that is Warren Miller Entertainment, and I take that very seriously,” he said. “I feel that it’s my obligation as a producer to uphold the amazing production value that the films bring every year, and deliver that quality experience that the audience expects.”

Part of that responsibility is knowing when to pull things back before the film becomes a caricature of the films that have come before, Haskins said.

“There is always a balance we have to look at and recognize,” he said. “We have done so much over the years, and almost everywhere across the world. So, finding new perspectives and fresh ideas doesn’t always come easy. A large part of our production team’s job is to find those stories, fresh faces and potentially new locations we haven’t been to. At the same time, we try to not fall back onto old habits, old tricks or deliver a product that may feel too familiar.”

Haskins is trying to adjust his schedule so he can come to Utah for the “75” screening run, but even if he can’t make it, he hopes people will enjoy the film.

“We love showing in Utah, and we love our fans out there,” he said. “We’re all excited to kick off winter.” 

Warren Miller ‘75’

Additional screenings:

• Monday, Oct. 28, Peery’s Egyptian Theatre, Ogden
• Tuesday, Oct. 29, SCERA Clark Grand Theatre, Orem
• Wednesday, Oct. 30, Ellen Eccles Theatre, Logan
• Thursday, Nov. 1, The Depot, Salt Lake City
• Web: warrenmiller.com/film-tour