On October 28th 2014 we were invited by the awesome guys and girls from O’Neill to Jeremy Jones Higher Film Première in London. To say that we were stoked was an understatement we really felt honoured that we got invited so cheers for that O’Neill.
First of let’s talk about the venue that the première was held, has anyone been to the Union Chapel? Well we hadn’t until now, we did Google it before we left but that really doesn’t tell you much about the “feel” for the venue and the fact it was in a chapel did throw us off a bit, what was the sound going to be like, was the screen going to be like cinema quality and most importantly are the pews going to be comfortable? But we needn’t have worried! We arrived at the Union Chapel about fifteen minutes before the doors opened and well yeah nice big long queue (it’s a good thing us Brits like to queue) of people waiting to get in, when we joined the back of the queue it was already down passed the venue and pretty much started going down residential streets it was crazy the amount of people who were there!
Lucky the O’Neill team were very organised, from the doors opening to us getting into the venue only took about 40 minutes which for the amount of people who had turned up was amazing! We thought it would have been hours before we stepped into Union Chapel.
As we entered it was like a snowboarder’s haven! (Yes the men either wearing beanies or trucker caps and everyone was wearing checked flannelette shirts!) It had an amazing atmosphere to it, just a bunch of dudes and dudettes enjoying themselves! O’Neill also dipped into the awesome atmosphere in which you were invited up on to the stage dress up in O’Neill gear and have your picture taken! Then using hash-tags they used social media to get Jeremy Jones to pick his favorite images and those he pick would win some awesome prizes! As I said this was added even more depth to the atmosphere of the place and we all saw people doing rather silly things which is always funny!
After all the images had been taken and people had got their popcorn (complimentary of O’Neill) the lights dimmed and on walked the one and only Jeremy Jones! What was really nice was that he kept his intro nice and short (I don’t know about you guys but we here at Simply Piste have seen our fair share of premiers and the intro talks can sometimes go on longer than the movie!) He talks about where he grew up (being very flat) and how that was a struggle to him at first which to be honest we can relate to him here at Simply Piste living in Kent which is the flattest part of the UK!
Anyway let’s talk about the movie! It is beautifully told, it really connects with Jeremy and gives you a clear view on what he is all about and why he does what he does! A lot of snowboard movies really base their shots on the music they use and sometimes can get lost in what the movie is about, is it a cool music video? Or a cool snowboard movie using what is ever in the top 40 at that time? Well thankfully Higher doesn’t do this! Don’t get us wrong there is some awesome tunes from Pearl Jam and Metallica but even when they are playing your eyes are just fixated on what Jeremy or another riders are doing!
The movie also has a nice touch to it, it doesn’t just show clips of Jeremy’s story and other riders like him and then jump straight to the big epic shots of him snowboarding down a mountain, it shows us the struggles that his team and himself get into! Like when they were in Alaska getting snowed in their tents for god knows how long and having to dig themselves out every day and then clear the space around the tent only to have to do it again the next day just shows the determination that these guys have! And adding really nice touches of them planning their trips showing what they must do before they even step foot on a plane!
It’s an amazing film and well worth seeing (on the big screen if you can!) From the word go you can sense that it’s not just another quick shot fast pace snowboarding movie, it’s rich with content and the shots in the film are just EPIC!
