HD Facility Profile: Teton Gravity Research
Todd Jones, Co-Founder
The editors at Teton Gravity Research, based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, love to catch big air — on film and video. The adventure sports production company shoots extreme skiing and snowboarding, B.A.S.E. jumping, big-wave surfing, mountain biking, motocross and mountain climbing with flim, digital video and high-definition video. They splice all their footage together with Final Cut Pro on Power Mac G5s, adding graphics, text and effects with Adobe After Effects.
Teton Gravity Research was founded by extreme skiiers Steve and Todd Jones, Dirk Collins and Corey Gavitt in 1995. The four spent lots of time skiing in front of a camera, but were miffed by shoddy extreme sports videos. “We saw a hole from a creative standpoint”, says Todd Jones. “We saved up some money and bought a camera and started the company”.
The company has since produced shows for ESPN, FOX Sports, Eurosport, NBC and most recently the cable action sports network Fuel.
When did you start shooting HD?
We just started this year. We started working with DV cams when they first came out and recently we’ve been getting into the smaller and more cost-effective HD cameras. We just got a few Sony HDR-FX1s and we’ve been shooting with those. We’ve been mixing footage forever — Super 8, DV, 16mm — there’s always been a drastic difference between the footage and now we started using the HD cameras. It’s amazing how well all the different formats work together.
What’s the best way for broadcasters and filmmakers to break into HD?
I really think that the new equipment — the prosumer stuff that Sony’s been releasing — is really the easiest way. For under $6,000 you’re getting a package that gives you incredible picture quality and allows you to start experimenting with the HD format. For a small company that’s the true lead-in. You can create your HD world with cameras like the Sony HDR-FX1.
How long have you been using Final Cut Pro?
We’ve been using Final Cut Pro for four or five years now. The software has been so progressive and on top of everything. We’ve always loved it and all the updates and changes come in line with what we’ve always wanted to do.
Has Final Cut Pro facilitated the transition to HD?
One thing that we truly love about Final Cut Pro is the ability to use multiple systems. For instance, we’ll go out and shoot 40 hours of footage for a show. We come home and we’re able to log that on PowerBooks and the eMac. We have these smaller systems that are really inexpensive and we’ll have three loggers working around the clock. In two days we have all that footage logged and we can transfer it over to another system to work on. We’re able to just move around incredibly easy. That’s allowed us to triple our workflow and do so much more. Now we are able to use the same program and use smaller computers to do smaller tasks that are less expensive and use the bigger systems strictly for the heavy editing.
How are you using HD in your current projects?
Right now we’re working on our feature ski/snowboard film called “Tangerine Dream”. While we shoot that we also do 13 shows for Fuel TV. For example, we’ll do a Europe trip and that’ll become a segment of “Tangerine Dream” and also a half-hour TV show for Fuel. There’s 13 of those. We’re still using 16mm and Super 16 and we’re using the HD to cover interviews, lifestyles and scenics.
What do you see in HD’s future?
With the introduction of Final Cut HD and the less-expensive cameras that are delivering high-quality, you’re really starting to see HD become a reality for small independent producers. HD is now obtainable. A year ago it was really unobtainable for small independents like us. That’s why we started to make the transition and make sure our library is stored in HD. That’s going to translate right down to the consumer and the television sets. It’s all becoming a reality that people can afford. A year ago, I probably didn’t think that HD was going to hit the full flow from the independent producer to the bigger projects to television and get into the home of the consumers on an HD television set in true HD format. That reality is here now and within another year it’s going to be the only way to do things.
What’s next for Teton Gravity Research?
We’ve recently been pushing into television. Fuel TV’s been great for people in our genre, in action sports. It’s starting to consolidate the media and give it real eyeballs that are quantifiable. We want to see Fuel grow and become a strong outlet for action sports. In the 10 years we’ve been in businiess we’ve seen action sports grow to a level that we couldn’t imagine. We’re trying to grow with our sport and keep the representation of it real and bring it to a more mainstream level.
