MDPeople - Down With People Movie Review
Starring Austin Smith, Simon Chamberlain, Louie Fountain, Bryan Fox, Curtis Ciszek, Fillipo Kratter, Joe Sexton, Jon Kooley, Jordan Mendenhall, Josh Mills, Pat McCarthy, Ryan Thompson, Shaun McKay, Stephen Duke, Zac Marben
We were so bummed when we missed the premier of Mack Dawg Peoples new snowboard movie Down With People when it premiered in early September at the Oakley Facility. We had bought tickets to Motorhead before we knew the date of the premier and well, it’s Motorhead. Just sometimes though you do get a chance to have your cake and eat it too, as Pierre Minhondo himself invited us to watch the movie at their facility in Oceanside, CA. To say it was honor to get such an invite is an understatement you know especially since I aint no insider. The People crew pretty much started with up and coming riders and makes sick movies with them. Often times new riders = crappy riders but not in the case of the crew that shoots with People anyone that has seen their past movies knows this is true. These are some of the hungriest, best and most creative “B riders” on the face of the planet. In all honesty, they are becoming household names and no longer B riders. The result is, in my humble opinion an A-list Snowboard video; the cinematography, the music, the level of riding, the editing and creativity are all top of the line. This is not being said because they were nice to us either, shit for a lot of movies we would never even go to the lengths that we did to watch this movie.
You might expect all rails and bomb drops from this crew of riders but not so. There is a variety of terrain including freeridng, park and the urban style riding previously mentioned. One part that makes the MDPeople movies so sick is that a lot of it features terrain that most snowboarders can access and utilize. We are talking about resorts, cities and backcountry kickers; pretty much anyone the motivation and creativity can ride similar terrain. Of course very few riders will ride with the same ability but Down With People made me want to go build something in the snow and try to shred. So many videos show terrain accessed via helicopters and in terrain that most normal people will never have access too, and they are sick too watch but sometimes hard to relate too. Of course Richard Branson can go heli riding for weeks but not me and probably not you. Down With People is for the people. The music had a rock and roll/folk/punk flare and was original, surely some of the younger riders will look at the credits and get turned on to some new tunes. Dio, Judas Priest, River City Tanlines, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Run DMC are some of the bands you will hear. It is all appropriate and there are good transitions between the scenes and songs.
Austin Smith, who won Transworld’s “Rookie of the year” and Video part of the year” for his debut in We’re People Too, starts of Down with People with a banging part followed up immediately by Curtis Ciszek. Austin’s part has a lot banging rails and urban but also some pow and jumps too. The movie proceeds to follow the crew to spots in Tahoe, Whistler, interior B.C., Quebec City, Toronto, Austria, Sweden, Alaska, Mt. Baker, Northstar, Sierra at Tahoe, Minnesota, Aspen, Snoqualmie, Park City, Mt Bachelor and Salt Lake. Zac Marben gets the ender and the credits are funny so don’t turn it off when the riding is done. The whole video rocks and provides enough variety to keep you till the end.
See some photos from the Oakley premier here
http://www.snowboard-revolution.com/news/MDP-Down-With-People-and-Double-Decade-Premiere-Report.html
See the teaser, blog updates and so on here
www.mackdawgproductions.com
new Austin Smith Interview here
http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2008/09/10/austin-smith-has-money-for-candy/
Entries (RSS)