An opinion about "Carved"

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azaz44
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An opinion about "Carved"

Post by azaz44 » Saturday 28 March 2009, 13:29

Hi there

I'd like to share my thougts about the Carved movie. For some background, I started snowboarding two years ago and did some five weeks so far. I'm using a freecarv board from F2 with soft boots, but I'm almost sure I'll try hard setup one day. I have all opuses right on the desktop of my PC since beginning of snowboarding and I guess I've watched the 'Lifted' like hundreds of times. You guys are incredible! This is what I would be happy to learn. I think I would stick to skiing, which I was doing for several years, if I wouldn't see these movies. Now I'm far beyond the basics with snowboarding, so I'm here for good (but not hardbooting yet).

Obviously I couldn't wait for a new movie. Carved teaser seemed great, altough very, very short. But these 12 euros.. just let me tell you I was buying this movie for some months. First I thought: no, 12 euros for a short snowboarding movie, come on. Eventually I though OK (after a month or more), I spend it, but then I saw it's just 7 minuts long? No, forget it. Eventually I lost the battle and bought it yesterday.

And well. I was watching the movie and thinking all the time: come one, faster, forget this damn introduction, let's start the action. I know it's only 7 minutes long, hopefully we'll see lots of extreme carving there. Lifted is about 5 mins, so even with 3 minutes of waste there should be plenty of action there. First some freeriding. Well OK, it's easy to watch it everywhere on TV and that's not what I came for, but it looks great. Then some carving finally. Very slow, just few turns. One ride down with a very high slow-down. And then Patrice puts hands up at the bottom of the hill, a little bit like he just woked up and is just stretching his bones. Than I thought: aaa! this was just a warm up. Waking up. Now it's gonna start. A big "CARVED" title appeared. Great idea! Maybe introduction was a little bit too slow and boring, but now we'll see it all, in this great quality. Then all names are printed. Huh, so they decided to put the names at the beginning of the movie. Strange, but OK - fine for me. Let's see the action. And then... it's suddenly over. It's over before it starts. Huh? Was it seven minutes already??

I just cannot say strong enough how much disappointed and frustrated I was. The most expensive 7 minutes of nothing. And it's not only about these 12 euros (equals to hot waxing two times here), I was just waiting for a new movie so long.

It was yesterday, today I can look at it a little bit different way. I watched again (yawning) few times, and I appreciate the quality and these few turns at slow speed, which I think come very handy if you learn the technique. Maybe useful for me one day. OK, one good thing. But what really kills this movie, is watching 'Lifted' right after. 5 minutes with tons of action, fast speed carving, great fantasy about the camera, filming from hand, from the sky, from the ground, the sound of snow brushing at your face when the carver just passed you. Turns, jumps, ultra fast down ride with a jump by Jacques. Everything serves the purpose, which is to show good snowboarding, and you just cannot stop watching!

All these things are missed in 'Carved'. Professional production, great quality, superb camera, dozens of people involved and printed there in a professional way. But the content is missing. Everything serves the wrong purpose from the beginning.

Now, of course it's in a way I spent my 12 euros in a wrong way, so I come to the forum to get my frustration out. Well, that's the way it is. But I'd also like to put my vote here, that maybe you guys make a different movie next time. I don't have anything against great camera and quality - this is great and welcome. I don't even mind this Hollywood movie style, effects, and "art" - I would prefer something different here, but if people like it... I can take it as long as there's still snowboarding inside. So I vote for making it in a different way. Or, if you want to follow this path, maybe you can make additionally some small, unprofessional movie, even with terrible camera and quality, just so we - little snowboarding and extreme carving fans over the worls (and fans of you as well) - can see how you were going this season and have something to watch over these 8 months of non-winter season.

Heck, maybe I can even spend som money for such unprofessional movie. Altough I think this is also not so good idea. This is because your movies were promoting snowboard, extreme carving, and Swoard boards. Movies for 12 euros don't promote anything, because only people involved in all of this would buy them. And these already know what is EC and what is Swoard.

Best regards from Poland.
Besides the movie, it's incredible snowboarding what you do, and the site is great! (Didn't test the boards).

PS. Actually I found some way to make 'Carved' an interesting movie. This is by playing it faster, with 2x speed. Of course the sound is missing, but I didn't like the music choice anyway. Actually it still seems to be too slow, but my PC can't handle more speed. I tried it at 4x speed with iPhone version - great, but a little bit two fast, and now it's 12 euros for less than 2 minutes movie. You can count yourself how much time is there for carving... What is also disappointing, is the teaser shows it at normal speed. Features some action, a jump before the turn, but is soo short.

PS2. I found somewhere in forums there's some better quality version of Lifted, but the link was broken. Any chance to find it anywhere?

PS3. I'm not sure if this subforum about boards is correct for this post, but the movie was announced here...

Cheers

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pokkis
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Post by pokkis » Saturday 28 March 2009, 17:33

Content of film should not be surprise due full film with low resolution has been available long time.
Plus this was not Swoard film like previous ones, this was more film about Swoard guys and EC riding.

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Post by starikashka » Saturday 28 March 2009, 20:56

I thought it was made to advertise RED camera features. Jonas have chosen excitig action to shoot. The expectation was very high about this movie.
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Transistor Rhythm
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Post by Transistor Rhythm » Saturday 28 March 2009, 21:17

Just by coincidence I saw it on youtube and I must say I was a bit underwhelmed. Not that it was bad but it didn't live up to the rave reviews it got everywhere.

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Post by gdboytyler » Sunday 29 March 2009, 1:26

I did pay for the full version. However, I was aware that it was made to show off the camera and the content would high quality, low volume.

At first, I was disappointed. But then, I converted the file to Quicktime so I could play it back, frame by frame in HD.

This is where I got my money's worth. Analyzing the riding frame by frame, I was able to make a big step in my EC technique.

Before studying Carved, I could only EC frontside, (backside was close) in perfect conditions. On icier days, I would chatter out of the carve.

After studying Carved, I was to able to EC on some of the iciest days I've encountered this season.

I think Carved is the best self-help tool available for learning how to EC.

Also, the powder section is great for showing how to use the push-pull/rotation technique, without the difficulty of doing a laid-out carve.

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Post by starikashka » Sunday 29 March 2009, 8:31

The previous movies can be used also for frame by frame watching. Carved is just high quality EC-video that is nice to look.
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Post by schmidtoo » Sunday 29 March 2009, 10:19

Carved is the best movie about carving ever. Watching the extremecarving style in HD is overwhelming and it is worth every penny.
It brings across what EC is all about by utilizing the best riders and the best filming technology combined with a great sense of timing and focus.

Markus

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Post by azaz44 » Sunday 29 March 2009, 16:53

I wasn't aware the movie is all about the cameras instead of snowboarding, I don't think it's clearly stated anywhere. I didn't see any low quality version either. I decided to buy it having a teaser and older movies in my mind.

But I almost forgot these 12 euros already, I would be disapponted even if the movie would be for free and still would put my vote here. I go for another week of snowboarding on Friday (Livigno, cannot wait!) and then the season is over for me. For next 8 months all my snowboarding will be watching this damn 'Lifted' again :)

I agree the movie can be helpful for learning the technique. I think slowing down older movies wouldn't give you that much. But I just realized now it even misses captures of a simple push-pull technique, which we had so many in Lifted.

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Post by starikashka » Monday 30 March 2009, 7:46

azaz44 wrote: I think slowing down older movies wouldn't give you that much. But I just realized now it even misses captures of a simple push-pull technique, which we had so many in Lifted.
All movies you need to get EC right is - virage_de_base,virage_push_pull and extremedreamer/lifted. And some hard work and thinking and a person who can help with right advice and another person who can help with filming. Carved does not give any value for technical improvements. This is just high quality stuff made by professional.
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Re: An opinion about "Carved"

Post by fivat » Tuesday 31 March 2009, 22:57

In this movie I saw what cinematography means: big and heavy cameras, a lot of stuff (more than 150'000 Euros of devices), a professional crew, etc. for one week of work on the snow, and more in postproduction. 8O

This has been one of my best experiences in my life. :bravo: For example the final camera-chase is a "once in a life time" moment. It still gives me a lot of emotion when I watch it in high definition (or in 2k quality on a big screen). One sees all details as never before, the particles of snow, the board working, ... and one could almost touch me. ;-) The director of photography is awesome: many professionals don't understand how he could follow us so close and be so stable on a black slope. The secret is that we used a cable and a winch to control his speed from the top of the slopes. Congratulations to the guy (Philippe) who controlled the speed of the winch.

The music and the slow motion are the director's choices. I respect them and love many things in the movie. :clap3: The director wanted to make something really atypical and different from all the snowboard movies one can see on TV. He also tried to be different from the preceding Opus and to reveal the linked laid turns progressively. The sequences in the powder are also about turns, as well as the paraglider (speed flyer) carving the air.

For the people who would like more dynamic extremecarving sequences (not slow motion), there is a NEW version:
:arrow: "La Carvesina" (duration: 1min15)
in the Login area (for the registered people who already have "Carved"): http://www.jonasrejman.com/carved/downloads
azaz44 wrote:PS2. I found somewhere in forums there's some better quality version of Lifted, but the link was broken. Any chance to find it anywhere?
Here it is: 8)
- Lifted.wmv (62.1 MB, wmv version)
- Lifted.mov (62.5 MB, mov version)

Patrice Fivat

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István
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Post by István » Wednesday 1 April 2009, 11:04

Bravo, absolutely rocks. :clap2:

Especially when Patrice jumps. Very nice move caught on camera with perfect timing. :clap3:


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azaz44
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Re: An opinion about "Carved"

Post by azaz44 » Wednesday 1 April 2009, 11:43

fivat wrote:In this movie I saw what cinematography means: big and heavy cameras, a lot of stuff (more than 150'000 Euros of devices), a professional crew, etc. for one week of work on the snow, and more in postproduction. 8O
So it seems to me that making somewhat longer movie (few minutes of real-time action) would take a month or two on snow. Well, fine for me ;) But fine for me with a smaller crew and amateur way as well.

I've seen La Carvesina too. Looks better, although this constant slowing-down and speeding-up makes it little bit hard to watch. But it's more fun, a jump is great.
fivat wrote:
azaz44 wrote:PS2. I found somewhere in forums there's some better quality version of Lifted, but the link was broken. Any chance to find it anywhere?images/smiles/eusa_think.gif
Here it is: 8)
- Lifted.wmv (62.1 MB, wmv version)
- Lifted.mov (62.5 MB, mov version)
Thanks a lot, these are great 8) I find the .mov version slightly better than WMV on my PC (using VLC player). I'm still wondering how you made these captures from the sky, showing rider from the top :think:

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Re: An opinion about "Carved"

Post by Whitey » Wednesday 1 April 2009, 12:30

azaz44 wrote:I'm still wondering how you made these captures from the sky, showing rider from the top :think:
This is just a wild quess but I think that particular sequence is from Grimentz. There is a cabin line almost above the steep, black slope. Correct? :think:

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Post by starikashka » Wednesday 1 April 2009, 12:49

People who want to learn can use low quality vids :-) For the promotion and advertisement HQ is needed for sure :-)
People who do not have any understanding of snowboarding at all are very excited to look on EC that is profesionally done :-) So HQs is mostly for them, i think :-) And for those of us who like to see small details :-)

So, anyway thanks Patrice for sharing the links :-) would be good to see links for extremedreamer as well :-)
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Post by pokkis » Wednesday 1 April 2009, 13:20

Yes, i would say that one can learn from low quality film, but it is even better from higher quality due issues mentioned .

I mean that if you look some stuff here with full quality, you can see stuff which can be easily not picked when using lower quality. I dont say it is must but much more helpfull. Atleast for me :wink:
http://pokkis.1g.fi/kuvat/Flegmatic_fil ... 008HDt.mp4

For example, look Tom's jump to carve, Evgeni's laid out turns and some other turns, they show how good these guys master the stuff :bravo:

EDIT: and that is not even close to quality of "Carved".

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