I abandon video completely and shoot on film. 16mm film is the plan with some Super 8. But when a camera breaks Super 8mm has to take over for a bit.

I buy a gorgeous french made Beaulieu R16 16mm film camera.
I wind up at Lake Tahoe, at Heavenly for a contest, and no less than the man, Terje Haakonsen, walks by me on the halfpipe and says ‘Nice camera’. Makes my day or year. Speaking of which I make on of my favorite still shots of Terje boosting a method out of this pipe.

The Beaulieu is a true reflex camera, and spring wound. Sadly, it completely malfunctions, and won’t wind anymore and I over crank it to get nothing at all. Major problem.
I believe I eek by with Super 8mm until I get back East and buy a 1948 Bolex H16 non reflex camera with many lenses for $400 cash from a frenemey.
This ugly box looking Swiss camera is at least reliable. Well, sort of. The registration seems off, and I get around this problem by always shooting at 36 fps instead of the typical 24 frames per second. I want this anyway, as it gives all the footage a slight dreamy slow mo effect in camera when played back at standard 24 fps.
I borrow an amazing Kern / Switar 10mm super wide lens from a connection from Shawn Dunn. This lens is fantastic.

I also make a mistake in using a guy in San Francisco who says he can develop film at home and turnaround it extremely fast and cheaply. Much better at both metrics than shipping it off to L.A. and no risk of shipping disaster.
Well, disaster does in fact strike. The guy makes a mistake and uses the wrong developer for reversal film and it winds up severely damaging my film. It turns it into a grainy almost black and white mess. In fact, I have to convert it to black and white in post and gain the shit out of it to see any image at all. Looks like hell. I try to not use any of the two rolls I experimented with and farmed out to this local, but I simply have too much footage I really need to use here. So many awful looking shots make the final cut by necessity. This becomes a major contributor to me liking this film the least of all the snowboard films I make. The title is a throw away as well. It doesn’t sell in Japan due to another Distribution problem / drama which contributes to low sales for me. So a film I’d almost forget.

Jim Kelly makes the cover on a Lake Tahoe air – I think at Mount Rose backcountry.