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Doing the X-Dance
By Kathleen Gasperini
Hidden beneath the so-called independent behemoth of the Sundance film festival in Park City, Utah, every January, other 'dances for independent artists have sprouted, including Slamdance, Slamdunk, NoDance, Traumadance, VanDance, and for the past two years, the action sports film festival, X-dance. Launched in 2001 by actor Brian Wimmer, director Kevin Kerslake, soundtrack producer Mark Wheadon, and journalist Ann Wycoff, X-dance premiered in 2001 with 22 of the world's best action sports films in skiing, snowboarding, surfing, motocross, snowmobiling, and skateboarding. X-dance also included action sports panel discussions (including last year "Dogtown" director and Sundance winner Stacy Peralta), discussions with filmmakers, pro athletes, an awards ceremony and a memorable closing party with wide-screen film productions and performances by DJ's and the band P.O.D.
This year, X-dance fever reached another level. The film roster included 24 films, including premiere shorts, a video gaming category, panel discussion, and another unforgettable awards ceremony and closing party-this time with neon female stilt-walking dancers, a wide-screen extreme action sports footage production, and performances by Dj's and the band Goldfinger.
X-dance, however, doesn't showcase "sports" films like "Hotdog" or "Vertical Limit." X-dance showcases core action sports genre films. These films often have short lifespans, like the films themselves. They don't have a 3- to-10-month box office success before "going to video." They go straight to DVD from the editing room. The films are often supported by limited sponsorship dollars from the sporting industry, or angel investors, friends, parents, or personal credit cards. Action sports films are usually created from start-up directors who make them out of passion, not profit. Over the past decade, most action sports films ranged anywhere from 25-50 minutes and were usually composed of high-speed, extreme sports footage from various locations around the world edited together into a series and set against a punk rock soundtrack. However, simple as that sort of story plot may seem, action sports films rarely failed to stoke the viewer with their extreme feats of athleticism, power and creativity. More importantly, such flicks created new heroes and a surrounding action sports culture.
Enter 2002 X-dance: The action sports films showcased were the cream of the crop, created with soul, creative use of B&W and color digi film techniques, underwater cinematography, heli-propped camera angles, POV shots from helmets, bikes, boards, sleds, and featured a new-school group of heroes. "Shelter," by Poor Specimen Productions, illustrated this best and became the X-dance Best Film winner for its core surf originality, exceptional footage, and storyline. As panelists Gerry Cueller from Go Big Entertainment described it, "[Shelter] has gone beyond the montage of crash footage and punk rock music. It looks and sounds different than action sports films and I hope it heads this way."
The big-wave surf movie "Laird" also raised the bar of action sports filmmaking. Shot on location at the 50-100-foot surf breaks' Jaws off of Maui, and Teahupoo, Tahiti, Laird Hamilton, the 6-foot 5-inch big-wave surfer, was captured barreling down walls of water twice as thick as his height. Hamilton is known as the father of tow-in surfing-a method that allows surfers to surf massive waves by using surfboards called "Guns" with straps for feet, and the centrifical force of a towline behind a jet ski to literally whip surfers into waves. Against a backdrop Hamilton riding huge swells and a Ben Harper soundtrack, respected Hawaiian big-wave Kahunas such as Titus, Dave Kalana, and Bobby Williams, remarked on what they were witnessing in Hamilton's big-wave surfing. "A line has been drawn in the sand," said Kalana, "and there is only one set of footprints on that other side: Hamilton's." In the Teahupoo wave segment, a mean, frothy, massive wall of water curls tightly forming a deep, black, sucking vortex. You see Hamilton dwarfed by the size of the wave as he drops in, then disappear into this hole, only to come spitting out with the whitewater at high speed. The drama and power of this moment in surfing changed everyone who witnessed it forever. Especially Hamilton. He cried, was emotionally wrecked for weeks, and even started drinking again after 8 months of abstinence for training. "If you see these waves and don't think there's something bigger and more powerful than you," says Hamilton, "then you need to seriously analyze yourself and go sit under a very big tree for a long period of time." "Laird," the film, won the X-dance award for Best Feat.
Two more notables, included the snowmobile film, "Slednecks 4" by Peak Productions and the Transworld Surf video game, published by Atari and executive produced by Lisa Hudson and Jack Rebbetoy from Black Sun Productions. In "Slednecks 4" pro snowboarder Jim Rippey took to his snowmobile and pulled back flips, plus a 45-degree 1st descent. The Transworld Surf game was a must-play game for X-dance viewers because of the game's incredibly designed surf breaks and styley pro surfer maneuvers. Transworld Surf beat out the Tony Hawk Pro Skater III at X-dance for Best Video category.
The panel discussion on the final day brought to light what most independent films and action sports films suffer most from: lack of proper distribution. Film distributor Eric St. Anthony offered up an example of the industry's measure of success: Tony Hawk skateboard flicks moved 400,000 units last year, which he considered an anomaly. Moving 70-80,000 units is considered excellent, but in action sports films, it remains the core markets-sports shops, stores-that still move the most action sports films. Moving 10,000 units through these core markets is considered good for an action sports film. Unfortunately, how does one achieve mainstream distribution at say, a Best Buy? As St. Anthony pointed out, the problem with mainstream distribution is product placement in the store: They just don't know where to put action sports films and often end up putting them in "special interest" or next to National Geographic documentaries on giraffes. Panel moderator Bill Kerig noted that the next step to propel action sports film distribution lies in video games. Cueller re-iterated this fact: "Video game numbers are surpassing feature films; more action sports games are played than football, basketball, or baseball, and half of the players are female."
Cueller also noted that to get mainstream distribution it's imperative that action sports filmmakers' license the rights to the music. Unfortunately, many of the films showcased, including the excellent movies such as the snowboard film "Transcendence" by Absinthe Films, won't reach this level because of segments laid down by unattainable artists. In Absinthe's case, it's a segment tracked with a Beatles tune.
While distribution remains a problem for action sports films, thanks to events like X-dance and the surf/skate documentary "Dogtown," Hollywood is catching on to the passion of the action sports filmmaking genre. Hollywood types were present at the premieres asking what seemed to most of us as obvious questions, such as where does one get these films, who are these filmmakers, and what are their budgets. Other evidence of a larger presence is the current making of a women's surf movie by Universal Pictures, and X-dance founder Kerslake from Gigantic and his IMAX directing debut of the second IMAX action sports film (the first being "Extreme" by Fat World Productions) to be released next year. Even though root fans may balk at the prospect of future Hollywood-influenced action sports films, all the panelists agreed, that it'd be a good thing if it means bringing in basic necessities like insurance for action sports athletes, mainstream film distribution, and maybe even a paycheck for the action sports filmmaker.
Kathleen Gasperini is a writer and trend analyst for youth culture with her company the Label Lab. She was the technical writer for the first action sports IMAX movie, "Extreme."
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