Antti Ollila's "SIDE QUEST" was filmed at a night baseball game in Finland. In addition to the main version with background music, a RAW version without music has also been released
The version I'm introducing today is the RAW version
The sound of the wind rushing past as you ski, the sound of hard snowflakes hitting your goggles, the sound of tapping against tree branches. And then, when you're airborne, there's a moment when all the sounds disappear.
Watching this video, I realized I loved that feeling of being in the air.
Each sound comes through directly as a physical sensation. You can hear the perfect understanding between the cameraman and the viewer. The absence of background music makes it feel closer to the actual experience of skating
Finland has no high mountains, and winter daylight hours are extremely short. In Ruka, Antti's home town where this video was filmed, winter daylight hours are only about four hours. It's common to ski under the floodlights after school or work.
Ruka has several snowdrifts created by artificial snowmaking. There are times when the irregular snow mounds created by the snowmaking machines remain untouched. How do you play on such terrain? How fast do you need to enter the jump to get a certain amount of airtime? At what angle should you take off, and what tricks should you do so that you can land smoothly and connect to the next jump without interrupting your flow?
This video captures the very riding environment in which he cultivated his skills while playing.
Videos featuring side hits were first popularized in snowboarding by Arthur Longo's "Side Hits Euphoria" series, among others.
Antti clears one gap after another at high speed. The camera captures Antti not only from the side and behind, but also from the front. The speed control possible only on skis makes this extremely close-up shot possible
The cameraman keeps Antti in the frame while simultaneously processing the bumpy lines he himself is skiing. What's captured in the footage is high skill and trust between teammates. You don't need to go to dreamlike locations like those you see in videos; you can create unique footage in your local environment
"SIDE QUEST" shows Antti Ollila skiing, the darkness of a Finnish winter, snow-covered mountains made with artificial snow, and his friends who continue to follow him even in the darkness
That's the daily life of this place and this crew