After a few weeks of more structured posts, it’s fun to highlight a few things I’ve really liked in the interim.

Last year, I said that the video series I was most looking forward to was “On the Lift With” from Alta.

This year, it’s “Our Story” from Aspen/Snowmass.

The Deal
First, let’s start with the trailer to get a gist of what is coming.

Six episodes, released weekly leading up to Aspen’s opening day, were co-produced with Vital Films and cover a handful of topics including:

• Snowcats (and it seems their drivers)
• The local coal mine where their methane generator project went down
• A portable champagne bar (that I believe was featured in their Harlem Shake video)

Others
Now, when you think about a series of resort videos released leading up to or through the season, a few others may come to mind. Most notably are those produced by Whistler/Blackcomb (apparently having slashes in your resort name is the first step to a successful video series).

Embedded was amazing and, in my book, will be tough to beat. To me, the best stories have a voice and Mike Douglas couldn’t have filled that role any better than he did.

That, to me, was one of the things that kept Whistler’s second series, the Wonder Reels, from really sweeping me off my feet.

The cinematography was amazing, but without that voice, it felt more like stock-looking ski porn that anything unique and truly compelling. Voice doesn’t necessarily have to be spoken, but without a character whose shoes you can wear for a few minutes, I’ve always found myself hitting the back button.

What I Like
What I really like about Aspen’s “Our Story” series is that it is focused, for the most part, around people. The cat drivers, the guy who started the champagne bar, the skier riding rails at the coal mine, etc.

We won’t know for sure how awesome each episode is until it drops, but when you combine the quality of Vital Films AND stories about people, the recipe sounds like a winner to me.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.