Burton Riders Allowed To Film Outside Projects

mike lewis

• April 09 2009
• 1,423 views
• 8 comments

Nicolas Müller. Photo: Blotto

After releasing a statement in November that its riders would only be filming for the Burton movie and other internal projects, Absinthe Co-founder Patrick “Brusti” Armbruster brought it to our attention that several of Burton’s heavy hitters are currently filming with Absinthe for its upcoming picture Neverland.

“We’re filming with Nicolas Müller, Keegan Valaika, and Kevin Pearce,” says Armbruster. “Of course, not full time. That is definitely true that they have obligations to Burton and are filming for their movie…[but] there are other sponsors for these riders…that are also doing movies and there are obligations to those sponsors as well.”

After hearing the news, we sat down with Burton Creative Director for Marketing Evan Rose to find out what lead to these changes and get his take on the state of the film industry.

What is your stance on your team working with outside film projects now?

The riders main focus will be for the Burton project, but if time and travel budget allows…they can take on other stuff. There’s been a trend where a lot of riders want to film as many video parts as they can. We can embrace that, but we just want to make sure with the money and investment that we’re putting into the film project, that the majority of their time and effort is placed for the Burton film.

We don’t want to disrespect the other film crews but we’re putting a lot of money and energy and time into making the Burton film really good. There’s relationships outside of that that exist too, [but] we won’t be really sponsoring any films outside of that.

Financially you mean?

Yeah, financially. We’re paying for the riders’ travels to be in it, but we’re not going to be focusing on putting our logo attached to other films.

I heard that you were sponsoring Pirates’ film?

Europe is a different little nugget. I’m talking more about North American standbys like the Absinthes and those. If there’s potentially a smaller regional video, and it’s not too much of a financial commitment, or  a regional rep wants it because it’s important to their region, we’ll look into that. Pirates may get juggled in between that, being bigger than a regional thing but not a full blown deal.

Originally it sounded like it was cut and dried that your riders wouldn’t be in other projects. Was this change rider driven or how did it come about?

I think it was probably a combination of a lot of things. Maybe a lack of attention on some employees, or a rider feeling like they weren’t being used to their full capabilities. All in all it’s probably a positive.

There was a time period where…some of the riders could have gone out and done what they wanted to do, but they quickly got rolled back in. In all theory, that’s what we want, but it’s not as black and white as that. I think we’d be idiots…if we can’t send a video guy out in perfect conditions somewhere and we have a rider or two chomping at the bit to go film and there’s an opportunity for another crew to grab them, as long as the rider knows when the season’s over that we gave them the best tools to film the best part for the Burton movie, but if the opportunity exists where they can go out and get some shots in another movie, it’s probably not the worst thing.

You guys have such a deep team that it would be hard to give everybody their due in one film?

Yeah, we have a totally amazing crew of filmers but the team is so vast , unless we had one filmer for every rider, it’s probably never going to work out in everyone’s favor every time. But I think the commitment  that we’re doing speaks volumes for the riders.

It seems like the industry is shifting somewhat towards team driven films like in skate. Do you think that’s the case?

It seems like not so much a skate model, but more a brand model. You’re investing a lot of time and money for a full package with your rider. They’re supporting all the products Burton makes, like goggles, outerwear. [It's] a very smart model for Burton to invest in people that think ‘how can we make this video not just good for a rider but good for the riders and the brand in total?’

Do I think it’s moving that way? If people are smart, yeah. It’s a successful model that works. It shows in the end results of not only the team that you have, but the graphic designers that you have to translate the look and feel, the editors and the filmers. It’s a complete  package.

Stay tuned to TransWorld Business’s May Issue for an in-depth look at the future of snowboarding’s film industry.