The Art Of Flight London Premier with Travis Rice

Last night saw the London “Premier” of the long awaited Art of Flight snowboard movie. The fact that the London premier happened two months after the official release date of the movie is laughable, but it served its purpose in the continued hype-machine.

The Art of Flight is a record breaker in many ways. I haven’t done my research, but I’m pretty sure this has got to be the most expensive snowboard movie ever made, it visited areas that have never been riden and it probably broke more trees than any other production. But, the biggest record breaker has got to be: The most hype ever created for a snowboard movie. The Art of Flight can truly take that crown. Early in the summer we were subjected to several mouth watering trailers, which gave us samples of the epic production, incredible locations and next-level riding that was waiting in store for us.

The trailers were only the beginning. It appears that the PR machine has helped the Art of Flight’s poster-boy, Travis Rice, to be taken to America’s bosom. How must Shaun White be feeling? He hasn’t been putting in the hours smashing his face on an icey pipe and winning gold medals, just to see some travelling hippie take him out of the lime light! But, at least until the Sochi Winter Olympics, Travis Rice is the snowboarding man of the moment. He’s even appeared on the Conan O’Brien’s show!

What better place to watch this visual spectacular than an IMAX theatre? The lucky few were invited along to this classic industry schmooze-fest. Looking around the room, it’s understandable that the showing sold out so quickly, the theatre was mostly a who’s-who of UK snowboarding. There can’t have been many seats left to sell after all the freebies – but heck, this is a premiere after all. Before the screening, we were graced with the presence of the man himself, Travis Rice.

Quite amusingly, hot on the heels of an interview on US national TV with Conan O’Brien, he was interviewed by Tim Warwood in front of a bunch of scumbags. To be honest I felt like Tim stole the show. Travis had the enthusiasm of somebody who’s been interviewed 100 times about the same thing. As charismatic as he was, you could tell on the inside he was a little hollow. I kind of reminded me of Tom Cruise jumping around on Oprah’s couch shouting “I love her”, “yes!”

Tim, on the other hand, was far more genuinely enthusiastic about the event. He took the predictability out of the interview with dry British wise-cracks. You could see Travis awkwardly being put on the back foot, as Tim jumped in to finish his sentences a couple of times. Most amusingly:

Travis: “Curt Morgan can’t make it tonight. He’s working on...”

Tim: “Snowboarding with Dinosaurs”

Travis: [Pause] “...I was going to say his tan”

You’ve got to forgive Travis for being a little glazed-over. This was something like the 40th premiere he’s attended so far! At the end of the interview there was a show of hands for who had already seen the film. Around half the theatre put their hands up. Even though this was a “premiere” Tim and Travis were shocked with how few people had seen it. Again, testament to the PR machine, a lot of people have got their mits on this film to see what the hype is all about. But, the multi-million dollar budget question – does it live up to the hype?...

As stunning scenery, incredible snowboarding and many many Red Bull heli shots filled the enormous IMAX screen, you couldn’t help but get sucked in. This movie truly is an audio-visual spectacular. Travis’ riding is off the hook, as you’d expect, and he shares the lime light with stand out sections from Nico Muller and Mark Landvik. You can rotate and cork as much as you want, and I know this has been said many many times before, but you can’t beat Nico’s method. It’s captured stunningly in The Art of Flight.

The film definitely focuses more on the “journey”, rather than the end product snowboarding. There are two sizeable segments in Chili and Patagonia that produced lower than average snowboarding footage, but were a visual treat that is rare in snowboard films. Patagonia particularly looked like an enormous week long mission to ride an incredibly remote and dangerous location. The result was one run down a cruddy strip of patchy slush followed by a dip in an icy river. But, the film’s uniqueness in these areas contributes to making it so great.

The film wrapped up with a segment staring Jeremy Jones. As you’d expect, Jez made the hardest terrain look like a bunny hill. He then stood at the bottom and gratuitously kissed Travis’ butt as he watched him do a triple whoop-de-do off a crazy natural feature (sorry Travis I was too taken aback to actually register the trick).

So, hype, heli shots and Travis brown-nosing aside, this is one of the best snowboard movies ever made, next to Terminal Ferocity, of course...

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