Let me break this down for you. Listen close.
1) Sponsors pay film companies to give exposure to the skiers they pay (and simultaneously their brand) by putting them in their movie.
-Some sponsors pay more than others, and as a result certain athletes will get first or last segment, or a longer segment, equalling more brand exposure for the sponsor.
-Some sponsors pay less and have all their ahtletes shoved into a combo segment, hence less exposure.
2) Film companies shoot who they're payed to because without money from sponsors they would have no way to make a movie.
-This is the reason film companies will go out of their way to please sponsors, or in other cases, fight viciously for a sponsor's dollars, because companies have an allotted budget for this kind of thing and there is only so much money to go around.
3) Sponsors pay skiers (varying amounts of money depending on the details of the specific skier's contract) for film segments because that skier has worked hard to get exposure for their brand.
- Essentially, what a pro skier is payed to do is gain increased exposure and credibilty in their sponsors target market. Exposure and credibility hopefully will allow consumers to identify with their brand, and eventually this leads to sales, of course.
If you wanted to be overly cynical you could claim that ski movies are merely vehicles for various brands to further their market share and sell more skis to you and there is no heart or soul in ski movies anymore.
This is ultimately debatable, or bullshit, because there is a lot of love, blood, sweat, and tears that goes into every single movie you see. At the end of the day though, everybody wants to get pay-ay-ayeddd.
Welcome to skiing.