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‘Finding The Line’ will explore the notion of fear in its various guises. In the hopes of inspiring others to overcome their fears, the film will delve into how individuals deal with this potentially crippling emotion, intertwining Anna and Nat’s journey with a scientific and philosophical discussion of fear.
The film will be shot in the following locations: Australia, British Columbia (CAN), Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (FRA) and Alaska (USA).
The film will be delivered as a 30 minute short documentary, filmed between February 2016 and April 2017.The film will be ready for film festival submission at the end of 2017. The film will also be delivered as a 43 minute production for television. It will be shot on Sony FS7, drones and POV (point of view) cameras and produced at 4K resolution and quality.
The funds raised through this Kickstarter will be used to complete the production of the film and where possible will go towards funding post-production.
SYNOPSIS
We can all relate to the experience of being afraid; everyone has to deal with fear at some point.
Photo: Bjarne Salén
Athletes, particularly those engaged in extreme sports, have to confront and manage fear on a daily basis. However, in action sports films fear is overlooked, such that athletes can mistakenly be portrayed as ‘super-human’ and fearless.
As elite skiers, Anna and Nat have subjected themselves to a psychological and physical environment that constantly deals with fear and risk.
While Anna has spent over ten years competing on large slopestyle skiing courses that involves hitting jumps up to 100 feet, Nat has had to learn to deal with navigating her skis in and around ‘no fall zones’ and steep skiing terrain, both in and out of competition. This has given them both an enhanced ability to reflect on fear and how it has both positively and negatively impacted their lives.
Now, with experience on their side, Anna and Nat, together with adventurer film maker Bjarne Salén, will launch themselves into a twelve month adventure across the globe in search of new and challenging experiences on skis, during which they will find themselves face-to-face with their fears.
Photo: Bjarne Salén
Coupled with interviews from leading action sport icons (Kaya Turski and more), as well as scientific experts, including psychologist Professor Barbara Meyer from the University of Wisconsin, USA and hormone expert Professor Susan Davis from Monash University, AUS, they will intertwine the science of fear, with the real-life experience of personally dealing with this emotion.
AIMS + OBJECTIVES
CONFRONTING FEAR
At times fear, and lack of confidence in one’s capabilities can be paralysing and negate our self-worth. Confronting and accepting fear is liberating, uplifting, inspiring and critical for building confidence to act, achieve goals and pursue passions. We hope to encourage both a personal and public discourse surrounding fear and why it is important to embrace and understand the emotion rather than to shroud it in guilt and negativity.
KEY CHARACTERS
Anna and Nat were born in Melbourne, Australia. Despite growing up in the city, these sisters are mountain lovers at heart. The duo were introduced to skiing by their parents at a young age and began competing in downhill and moguls as soon as their mum would register them!
ANNA SEGAL
As a teenager Anna quickly progressed through the ranks of the Australian mogul team and at the age of 18 she was training with the Australian Development Mogul team when she injured her knee. While devastating at the time, this injury is what led her to pursue a decade-long slopestyle skiing career and saw her winning gold at the X-Games and the FIS World Championships.
In 2014 Anna represented Australia in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, where she place 4th, despite tearing her ACL just before the event.
Photo: Zoya Lynch
Since the Olympics Anna has branched out with the aim of developing her backcountry skiing skills and progressing the sport she loves in ways that competition wouldn’t allow.
NAT SEGAL
Nat’s break into competitive skiing came later on. After trading competitive mogul skiing for a university degree in Fine Arts, being a competitive big mountain skier was not where she envisioned her future self. However, after graduating (2010) Nat has been traveling the world as a top competitor in freeride skiing events, including the Freeride and Freeskiing World Tours.
Photo: Tero Repo
Three years down the track (2013) Nat was dropping into her first professional level event (the Freeride World Tour), in which she took third place. Unfortunately, her dream season came to an abrupt end when she injured her knee just prior to the next event.
Nat returned to skis in 2014 and found herself on film shoots with Shades of Winter and helping to spearhead the Shifting Ice and Changing Tides expedition to Greenland, for which she won a National Geographic Young Explorer’s award.
Photo: Bruno Long
While her focus has now shifted from competitions, to filming and ski projects, Nat is always focused on progressing her abilities in freeride and ski mountaineering.
FILMMAKER
BJARNE SALEN – CINEMATOGRAPHER + DIRECTOR
Bjarne Salén is an adventure filmmaker director and producer from Sweden. For the last six years Bjarne has been filming the best skiers and mountaineers in the world. Some of his projects include working with Oakley Eyewear, The North Face, Patagonia, and Salomon. As well as athletes such as Seth Morrison, Ian Macintosh, Andreas Fransson, JP Auclair, Xavier De La Rue, Cody Townsend, Chris Rubens and more. His documentary, Dream Line (2014), won worldwide acclaim and awards and is now being distributed by Red Bull Media internationally. Bjarne recently worked on the Salomon Freeski TV film Eclipse that won ‘Best in Snow’ this year at Banff Film Festival 2015. Bjarne will be directing and filming the film with help from an incredible post-production team.
KICKSTARTER REWARDS
All rewards listed on the right and pictured below. Contact us for any questions in regards to rewards.
XS UNIFIED SOCKS
OYUKI + FTL COLLAB FACEMASK (SHNIG)
XS UNIFIED + FTL COLLAB BEANIE
DAKINE PRACTICAL PACK
ICEBREAKER MERINO SKI+ COMPRESSION ULTRA LIGHT
ICEBREAKER MERINO UNDERPANTS
BOLLE GOGGLES
GOAL ZERO SOLAR PANELS AND FLIP CHARGERS
MESURF SNOW JEWELERY
XS UNIFIED CLASSIC SNOW HELMET
FINDING THE LINE COLLABORATION YOGA MAT
VOLKL SKI POLES + MARKER BINDINGS
DAKINE MISSION BACKPACK
OYUKI LEATHER MITTS
DAKINE POACHER RAS BACKPACK
DAKINE JACKETS
DAKINE PANTS
STRAFE OUTERWEAR JACKETS
FULL TILT SKI BOOTS
VOLKL SKIS
K2 SKIS
Risks and challenges
FUNDING THE FILM
Funding this short documentary film is a unique challenge in itself and has forced us to be creative and open-minded in our approach. We will be sourcing funding through several pathways including; film sponsors and partners, a Kickstarter campaign, film grants and philanthropic funding.
Setting out to produce the film before it is fully funded is a risk, but we have no doubt that the funding will sourced and this film will be completed.
PRODUCTION
The production of the film will involve many challenges and risks. We are a small, three-person crew and will be filming in extreme, alpine environments. In certain cases we will be working with trained mountain guides to mitigate risks. In other circumstances we will rely on our shared backcountry skiing experience to work in these environments together.
OUTREACH AND IMPACT STRATEGY
Creating the film is only half the battle. One of the major challenges of producing a film is making sure that it gets to a wide audience. We have been working on an outreach and distribution strategy since the beginning of production. While it is ever evolving, some of our plans include:
– Entering the film to international film festivals.
– An international premier tour in Australia, Europe and North America.
– Working with our sponsors and film partners to promote the release of the film and international screenings.
– Working with an international and domestic sales agent to ensure that the documentary has legs beyond film festivals and premiere screenings.
– Distributing the film online.
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