Premiere season is upon us and Phoenix Fenton with filmer Ben Giles have collaborated on an epic short film. They have captured the essence of what it feels like to shred the Queenstown lakes region. From hand-shaped kickers to the Shotover river this film has everything. The crew aren’t scared of taking slams and with the budding talent of these young groms this isn’t one your gonna want to miss.
Through working at the Snowboard Workshop Pheonix and Ben first shared ideas on a film project for this past winter. Once the boys found out that the Yardsale event would be going ahead for the second time it was the match that started the fire. A few short months later with a tight deadline the duo provided.
I was able to catch up with the two of them separately to talk about their favourite moments and what it takes to make a film with passion being the driving force behind it
Dylan: First off I gotta ask you about your viral moment this season? It had me cracking up. I even sent it to my mother
Weenie: Hahahah chur. Years ago during my last remarks season I snapped my wrist and my homie paid me a visit, he videoed him self going down and spraying all snowmachiners. So when snowmachine came around this year I was plotting pretty hard. I just waited up the top untill enough snowmachiners had eaten shit and then ripped into em. I was able to get in 2 laps. Pretty much the highlight of my life.
Dylan: Heavy stuff, what also was heavy is all the slams you guys took. Its a reality everyone slams. What makes a good slam clip standout?
Weenie: Going 60ft to your heels like Kharn did, you've just got to go massive and send it. I had the perfect view from the bottom and as he came down I thought yup he's getting cte. The bloke walked it off and got the recognition from Yardsale so it was worth it. Another way is to build your lip really whippy. We built a cheese wedge in Wye Creek and we had finished but I just wanted it bigger so once I was done with it the compression was to gnarly and I ended up going way too deep and just let the slam’s happen.
Dylan: Wise words I’ll take some pointers for next season. I also gotta ask hows the whip holding up? why did you end up at the river?
Weenie: Its still going hard, I’ve had the whip for years the only real problem is the exhaust, I was over at Kharns place in Ohakune and I was backing up and went straight into a rock pushing my exhaust up into the plastic on the body, its been like that for ages and its still holding on just a little bit of melt. It was Ben’s idea he asked me if wanted to get towed behind it and I was so stoked, that was until the next day i was vomiting like crazy it could’ve been the poo ponds next to the river or it could’ve been the big night we had that night, just dunno
Dylan: What's next for Weenie?
Weenie: Number one is hanging with the homies, big shout out to the homies. I'm hustling hard to get a visa for Japan at the moment so hopefully they let me in. I just want to keep progressing but not take it seriously, keep making it fun.
next i sat down with ben to hear his side of the storys
Dylan: I want to go a bit further back and ask why you picked up a camera in the first place?
Ben: I grew up near Christchurch and I had a bunch of mates who were throwing down and it got to a point where I didnt want to throw as hard as they were, so I thought I can still keep up with them while having a camera in my hand and document what they were doing.I also had an accident early on in the season where I smacked my head and completely knocked myself out. I still can't remember the day it happened. So after that I was feeling very motivated to film and I just love being a part of the creative process.
Dylan: What was it like filming with Weenie?
Ben: It was awesome, we got along so well it never felt like we were working. It was easy to collaborate to get the right shot as he would always be on the lookout for ridge lines or free ride spots, then bounce ideas off each other to make it work. He motivated me to progress my filming as I saw how far he was trying to push his riding.
Dylan: Do you have a favourite story from the film?
Ben: Its gotta be when we built this kicker in Wye creek. The two of us spent three hours building it. Weenie hit it four times and went to his head four times. We built it just way to lippy. By then it was late in the day, had no service on our phones and had told our partners that we would be back in the resort at one o’clock to meet up for some laps. We didn’t get back till five. We underestimated the walk out, it was made more difficult with my camera bag on me. Weenie didnt even bring any water with him, all he had was a small bottle of coconut water. Along the way we had to have a couple doom scroll breaks and it was a relief once we got back inbounds.
Dylan: Getting up to much for the summer?
Ben: Im heading to Whistler and will be based there for the northern winter, Im close with Lachlan Powell and we’ve stacked some clips already so a project may be forming with him. Im also just going out there to meet new people and make connections and try to capture some memories.
