Each of the past five seasons RomeSDS has asked riders all over the country to document their season in an edit and submit them for judging . Its called The Local Gnar contest and in the fifth year the bar has definitely been raised.  This year SLC has an entry chosen as a finalist in the contest. I took some time out to chat with SLC  filmer Andrew Schummer to talk about his background, his approach to filming for the contest,  the workings of the contest itself, and finally his ambitions as a filmer.

The edit…

 First things first… tell us about your film background

Well I am currently a senior at the University of Utah, where I am majoring in Film and minoring in Business. Growing up I was always into filming and editing, but I would have to say working with skating and snowboarding is what I really love.

For the tech people out there, what equipment did you use for both filming and editing?

The cameras used for the edit were a Panasonic HMC150 and a Canon 60D. The edit was primarily done in Final Cut with additional effects and animation in After Effects.

How many hours of filming did the crew log to get the footage you wanted for the final edit and how long did it take to sort it all into the final product?

It’s hard to say exactly how many hours were spent filming this past season, but after everything was organized there was 2300 potentially useable clips. If I had to guess there was roughly 50 days of filming, so maybe some where around 200 hours total. The final edit I would say took roughly a week, probably around 30 hours.

How did you get hooked up with the Salty Peaks crew for filming your Local Gnar edit?

Well I originally moved out here for school and for the riding. Since I had worked in a shop back in New York since I was 14 years old, I decided to apply at Salty Peaks and worked there for the past 3 years. I have since moved on to other opportunities but still function as the shop team manager. The owner of the shop Dennis Nazari approached me early this season with a request to make the first Salty’s snow team video. I accepted and have been working on the film Eighty Seven which pays tribute to the year Saltys was opened, which is set to release this September. For the past 9 months I have been accumulating footage for the video, and upon hearing about this contest I decided it would be dumb not to enter.

 Salt Lake  is obviously a hotbed of filming yet you were able to get familiar places in the edit but not show them in ways theyve been seen in many other edits. How much time and effort went in to trying to set yourselves apart from a typical SLC edit?

 I’m not sure I can really take credit for creating an edit that stands apart from a standard SLC edit. I would give credit to all the riders I worked with. They were always thinking of different creative ideas and attempting to avoid those that have been done before. The people who work in the snowboard film industry are generally very good at what they do, and the best angle is always the best angle. Therefore I think spots usually look pretty similar and that it comes down to the rider to be creative.

How did you approach trick selection? Did you let the riders do their thing and just document or was there are trick list that the crew wanted to cover?

 There was definitely not a set list of tricks that we wanted to film. With the exception of telling riders what will or won’t look good on film, I really played no part in the tricks that went down this season. Most of the riders were conscious of tricks that have been done at a spot or tricks that they have already filmed on another spot. Chris Frost went the whole season never really even attempting to get a trick that he had already gotten on something else. Filming with riders like that makes editing more interesting when it comes time.

So whats up with the contest? What are the criteria on your end and how is it judged on Romes end?

The criteria for the contest was to simply create an edit that was less than five minutes. Rome left it very open for individual interpretation, and I feel that shows in the variety of edits that have been posted. I believe that they have not made any actual decisions yet. They are posting every local gnar that they received all summer long and I am guessing the judging will be done in the Fall.

Youve gotten lots of positive feed back on the Youtube channel and Facebook pages …. stoked Im sure!?

 I’m definitely stoked on the response that the video received. It seems as though everyone really liked the edit. We definitely have an advantage though being located in SLC.

So you stated earlier that Rome is making the final contest decisions but is there anyway that readers or fans of the edit can get involved?

I believe the judging is done solely by Rome, but they did change something this year in that the video that receives the most likes on Rome’s Facebook page wins four sets of outerwear. So go Like it! ( post date on the RomeSDS Facebook page is August 3rd)

So what are your plans for filming? When you graduate are you wanting to move into professional snow filming or is it just a diversion while youre in school before you “get a real job”?

Since I will be graduating in the next few months my plans currently are to open a production company concentrated in media marketing. My goal if it is successful is to diversify from that into doing high production value skate and snow films as side projects. Hopefully in one way or another I can always be able to film skating and snowboarding.

Finally your thanks and shout outs…

I would first and foremost like to thank Josh Dubruille who helped with filming and graphic design this season. Also without all of the Saltys team always being down to go out and film none of this would be possible. So thanks to everyone who made the edit what it is.