Ski Filmmaking Legend Warren Miller is Skiing Clouds Now

When I first moved to Southern California, I soon learned an annual tradition there.  Even though hardly anyone I knew skied, everyone seemed to look forward to the new Warren Miller ski movie that came out every fall.  I never managed to see one actually projected on a screen, but I was shown the video by somebody every year for my first several years there. Ski and snowboard film making legend Warren Miller died yesterday, at the age of 93.

Decades before "action sports" were called action sports, before S-VHS and Hi-8 video cameras were affordable to average people, even before surf movies were really a thing, Warren Miller was making one, totally kick ass, ski film each year.  He started way back in 1949.  He shot real film on real movie cameras.  He produced and edited the movies.  But there were few, if any, theaters who wanted to show a skiing movie back then.  So he started "four walling" his films.  He'd rent a room, set up the projector and a screen and a bunch of chairs, and charge admission to watch them.  Long, LONG before the Do It Yourself idea became  popular, he was doing it himself, with the help of some friends. 

As a video producer, and one of the first BMXers to make our own videos, I often forget that Warren Miller was one of my big influences when I started producing videos in 1987.  In tribute to his legacy, I'll be binge watching some of his films this weekend.  Maybe you want to as well.  Hats off to you Warren Miller.