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Noah Howell, film producer of Powderwhore Productions, in Denali. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your film production company. - I started carrying the family camcorder into the backcountry about 6 years ago. There was no filming experience or background, which is pretty obvious in our earlier works. The goal was just to shoot the fun stuff we were doing in the Wasatch powder. I met Andy Rosenberg and Andy Jacobsen at the telemark freeskiing events and they were interested in filming as well. With the addition of my brother Jonah the four of us formed the original production team that started Powderwhore. We all took turns filming, skiing, breaking trail, and doing whatever it took to get it done.
Why did you decide to dedicate your company to solely filming telemarking?
- The original plan wasn't to make an all tele flick, it just happened that way. Everybody we knew and skied with was on tele gear, so it became a tele flick. We were really excited to show people what we were doing on tele gear in the backcounty. Now we have been established as a tele flick and we've made a connection with that audience. We've had alpine skiers in past movies and this year’s film has a short segment with a splitboarder. We'll continue to tele and film tele as long as our knees hold out. Our future flicks will include the friends and characters we ski or ride with.
What do you hope to achieve with your telemarking films?
- We started out with a bit of a chip on our shoulder and a desire to show people that telemarking was not "a license to suck", but a fun and fast way to descend mountains. There is still a hunger to push ourselves and push the limits of our sport. Combined with this we want to make an entertaining show that has a lot of variety in it.
Telemarking has become increasingly popular in the past decade; where do you see, or hope to see, the sport in ten years?
- I don't really see the future as my concern. People will do as they do, skiing will be what it will be. In 10 years, I hope to be heading somewhere into the mountains with a camera to shoot and to ski powder.
What makes telemarking more appealing than ordinary skiing?
- I don't know that it is more appealing. Tele is fun, alpine is fun, snowboarding looks like fun. Tele is what I do, it's what i like. Find what you like and try to do it well.
How difficult would you say it is to transition from ordinary skiing to telemarking?
- With the gear today it seems folks are switching over pretty quickly and easily.
Who is/was your inspiration? - Andy Rosenberg and Andy Jacobsen opened my eyes to a new way of skiing fast and bold lines on tele gear. Before them I always hoped to ski like Andy Hunter or BJ Brewer. I'm amazed at the current skills of the talent of Dylan Crossman and Nick Devore. Andrew McLean has been a hero of mine ever since I first opened "The Chuting Gallery" and I found a whole treasure of new lines to ski in my backyard.
Do you watch any ski films or only stick to the telemark ones?
- I love ski/snowboard and tele films. I've never really drawn a hard line between the sports.
What is your favourite ski/telemark film?- I'm still waiting for it. There have been some good movies, but I think it's still waiting to be made.
What is your favourite resort to ski and/or to film at?- We shoot almost entirely in the backcountry and a great deal of that is in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons. Having travelled and skied all over the world, I haven't found access, snow and terrain that compare to the Wasatch.
What makes your films unique from all the other ones out there?- I think we're a bit goofy and not afraid to laugh at ourselves. Most ski films seem so serious and try to be tough or uber cool. We try to keep it fun and light hearted.
Is there a particular skier who you wish you could film?- That would be Dylan Crossman. He's so solid and not afraid to throw down big tricks.
What can viewers expect from your latest film “The Pact”?- Tons of face shots, big fast tele turns, and the amazing comeback story of our friend EJ Poplawski who lost his leg skiing.
Why did you decide not to name your film PW08?- We wanted to break away from the PW-- series and start getting a bit more creative. In the end I don't think we pulled it off that well with The Pact, but we are really excited to step in that direction for our future films.
Can you tell us anything about any upcoming projects Powderwhore Productions might have for the upcoming season?- We have some fun ideas for moving forward. This winter we are going to try and release high quality content for the web on a regular basis. We shoot a ton of stuff that doesn't make the final movie. So, we want to make Powderwhore.com the place to release all the bits and pieces that didn't make the final cut.
Have you ever regretted anything about any of your films post-production, and if so what?- We started with the bar so low that each film's production could only get better. Each film has had many things that I wouldn't wish to do again. And each year we eliminate many camera bobbles, typo's, ugly transitions, etc. I like to dream about a film that is free of those little moments that still make me cringe. No regrets yet, but we'll keep pushing it and I'm sure we'll come up with something.
Any last words?- I don't believe in luck, but I feel like one of the luckiest dudes in the world to be doing what I am. I love to work and play hard in the mountains and I hope to be doing so for a long time.
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