Video is easy to do okay, but hard to do great.

We’ve seen some incredible video come out over the last few years but I just wanted to give a shout out to one that has really stood out for me based on three criteria that I’m sorta making up on the spot but are fairly accurate as I reread this draft:

1. Beautiful (strong visuals)
2. Balanced (not too long, not too short, not too rushed, not too slow)
3. Believable (easy to picture yourself in the moment)

A perfect example of that is their opening day video.

As you watch, notice how sharp and well-framed the shots are (beautiful), how it covers all the bases but you never hit a “will this ever end” moment (balanced), and the skiers are normal people doing normal things on normal trails (believable).

Aside from that, notice a few more things.

Audio
Good music and surprisingly easy-to-hear narration from Kelsey despite filming with snowmaking likely just off camera. Audio can make a huge difference, and they’ve done a great job considering the circumstances. And those circumstances, by the way, I love. I’m a big fan of filming in the same setting as the action shots.

Movement
Sometimes camera movement feels overdone but I like the way the shots are balanced between purposeful movement, action shots, and a little bit of both.

People
It’s tough to find good on-camera talent that doesn’t sound too forced or robotic, and Kelsey does a great job.

Even more, as I mentioned earlier, there are lots of normal people in the clip, not just pros as we often see. Kids, amateurs, you name it all have a place in the edit.

One More Thing
What gets me excited about these early videos is how sharp they’re already looking this early in the season. Take a look at their first snowmaking video. Aside from the aforementioned audio challenges due to snowmaking, this is solid stuff.

It takes some time to find your groove with content and the fact that they’ve seemed to find a good combination of people and editing and shots makes me excited for when they really start to find their stride mid-season.

Great work to all involved.

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.