Movie Of The Month: Out Of The Shadows

(Last Updated On: December 6, 2010)

Movie of the Month: Out Of The Shadows

Produced by: Dendrite Studios

Year: 2010

Where can I find it? Dendritestudios.com

A few nights ago, we watched Out Of The Shadows and were nothing but impressed. While I haven’t seen every ski movie this year, Out Of The Shadows is my favorite so far.

Out Of The Shadows features the skiing of lesser-known skiers Brett Crabtree, Chris Turpin, Max Arsenault, Ian Watson, Dave Gheriani, Adam Topshee, Alex Blais, Athan Merrick, Jake Cohn, Matt Elliott, Little C, Dave Treadway, Jon Larsson, Eliel Hinder, Matty GT, and PY Leblanc.

Perhaps it’s the cast of skiers that made me like this movie so much. After all, I know several of them and have competed against several more. Perhaps any film where most of the footage is from the Coast Range outside Whistler, B.C. will instantly vault near the top of my list, as it is one of my favorite places in the world to ski. Or maybe I simply like the low-budget, do-it-yourself attitude that these filmmakers showed. In any case, this movie rocked.

Out Of The Shadows features line after line of big-mountain skiing, basically without any break in the action. The only token jib segment is near the start of the film, and after that it’s a constant visual barrage of sweet lines being thrown down. Ultimately, that’s my main complaint about the movie- a little comedy/lifestyle hokeyness somewhere in the film would have broken it up a little better.

The filming is excellent, and you can tell the videographers spent a lot of time thinking about getting shots that weren’t just the same old stuff. This is all the more impressive considering the lack of a heli budget to get footage like TGR or MSP would have. There is perhaps a little too much use of helmet cams, and some of the shots look very “digital” in nature, but that might just be our version of the film.

Which brings me to the next point- you can watch this movie for cheap. It’s less than $2.00 to download this film at the website above, although it should be noted that it’s “pay what you can”, so throwing in a few extra bucks will probably help these guys make an even better movie next year. We hooked our computer up to our flatscreen TV via an HDMI cable, so we weren’t forced into watching the movie on our computer screens.

Finally, I’d like to thank PY Leblanc for his tribute run for Jack Hannan. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, but thanks PY!

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Frank Konsella

Frank loves snow more than anything... except his wife.  He ensures his food is digested properly by chewing it 32 times before swallowing.He is a full-time real estate agent serving Crested Butte and Gunnison and would be honored to send you his monthly newsletter.

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Frank Konsella

Frank loves snow more than anything... except his wife.    He ensures his food is digested properly by chewing it 32 times before swallowing. He is a full-time real estate agent serving Crested Butte and Gunnison and would be honored to send you his monthly newsletter.

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