Prime and Fire have just launched a competition through Talenthouse for action sports filmmakers to produce a mini-documentary film with an incredible prize…
The brief is:
“Prime & Fire Selects are looking for talented filmmakers to pitch and produce their ideas for a short specialist sports documentary. The most outstanding pitch receiving £10,000 production budget towards the production of their final short film, whilst 9 additional filmmakers with exceptional pitches will receive a £2,000 production budget each.
Fimmakers must submit a 1-2 minute video and include a maximum 300 word description in English that tells the human-interest story behind the documentary. Judges will weight both the written pitch and video trailer equally. The video can be a trailer or snippet to tease their documentary idea, and should demonstrate not only the story behind the documentary but also production skills and creativity.”
And the judges are looking for…
“undiscovered human-interest stories and mini-documentaries based around action, endurance or specialist sports. The scope is huge and can be absolutely anything from skateboarding to free diving to stories of human sporting endeavor.
The 10 most innovative and original pitches will receive funding and support to make their ideas a reality.”
The competition brief pretty much describes the films I have been making with Jamie Barrow for the past four years and the prize would be a dream come true for our next film project, involving Jamie setting a snowboard speed record being towed by a plane.
For the competition I’ve submitted this video trailer, summarising our previous films:
My proposal for this competition is to film ex-Team GB snowboarder Jamie Barrow as he attempts to set the snowboard speed record for being towed by an aeroplane. I’ve worked closely over the past four years with Jamie, filming him as he has set or broken a number of snowboard speed records: the outdoor, indoor, towed by a car and propelled by electric jet engines.
For each of these records, I have filmed, edited and produced 3-10 minute documentaries, all without funding. The films have all received great publicity, making news stories on both Sky and the BBC, published on a variety of websites and magazines and featured on TV shows such as the Daily Planet (Discovery Channel). The video I have submitted here is a short trailer, showing clips from each of these films.
Our next project, and proposal for this competition as mentioned above, is to film Jamie as he attempts to set the snowboard speed record for being towed by an aeroplane. As with the speed records for being propelled by electric jet engines and being towed by a car, this record will take place on a frozen lake. Jamie will be towed by a pilot with years of experience flying in these conditions and his speed will be recorded with accurate laser timing equipment.
If we are successful, the prize money from this competition would go towards our travel, accommodation, equipment and the cost of hiring a plane and pilot. It could also cover an additional person to help film the event.
As well as the attempt itself, the story will also cover everything from Jamie’s background as a Team GB snowboard cross racer, his injury that prevented him from going to the Sochi Olympics and his reasons for doing these speed records. It will touch briefly on Jamie’s work as a Sky Sports Living For Sport mentor as he goes around the UK giving talks in schools on how you can overcome your barriers and follow your dreams.
The film will not only stand alone as an original, creative mini-documentary that ties in with Jamie’s previous records, but it also has a very personal story, giving the film a much deeper meaning.
