Exclusive Interview with Phil Belanger

Interview by Matt Harvey.

What inspired you to start PleHouse films, and in what way will it be different from other film companies?

As I introduce the project to you, it will be different in the sense that we want to let the camera roll further than just the trick itself. We want to show how fun it is to do what we do, how difficult it can be at times, and how gratifying it can be at the same time. We want to show the real meaning of what it is to be pro-Freeskier. We don?t beleive someone has showed this yet and who better to show this than from the athlete themselves.


What is the concept of the movie?

There will be some personal parts in the movie to portray the individual, but also some group parts where we kinda document a trip that a couple of us were in. For example, Mike Nick, Dash [Long], IannickB and [Phil] Belanger were in Alpine Meadows in Oregon when a big storm came in. Everyone was killing it out there and we made a segment of this particular trip.


Who will do the filming, editing, and producing of the film?

It is going to be hard for us to shoot ourselves skiing because no one want to shoot when the other one is doing sick stuff, you know, so we are going to hire a cinematographer for the different shoots that we do. We are going to shoot more of the lifestyle parts ourselves. I personaly love shooting lifestyle stuff and everyone of us has had a camera around to shoot stuff with since we are young, so everyone can handle that part easily. PleHouse Films will produce the movie, and we are going to work with a lot of people for the editing. Every rider is welcome to edit his personal part and help the other ones by giving ideas to eachother. It is a team effort. The editing will be supervised by us if parts of it are done by a third party.


What are you concentrating on this upcoming season with regards to the film?

We will put a lot of our time on producing the movie and make sure everybody gets their stuff done. It is going pretty hectic for sure. We still shoot for the other companies also and compete at the X-Games, USOpen and World Skiing Invitational. Basically, we are doing the same whole program but we are adding PleHouse into the game.