The North Face: Imagination: Tom Wallisch [long version]

Credits & Description:

Brand THE NORTH FACE
SHERPAS CINEMA Whistler, Canada Entrant Company
SHERPAS CINEMA Whistler, Canada Idea Creation
SHERPAS CINEMA Whistler, Canada Production
JP Auclair, Dave Mossop, Tim Symes Sherpas Cinema Writer, Director, Editor

Solution
This film has a simple vision. Yet to execute this vision required a complex range of challenging directorial skills. To capture the feeling of our childhood, the excitement of engaging our imagination, and the fun of athletic accomplishment this director had to skillfully engage and balance numerous cinematic storytelling devices. Working with talent inside the car this director was able to build the world-of-the-child and the world-of-the-parents as two separate realities, all while simultaneously capturing precision timed stunt choreography, on-location, using a range of innovative shooting techniques. No VFX were used. Every production department was enabled and operating at maximum boldness and creativity. Choices of music, edit tempo, wardrobe, drama, suspense and comic relief indicate pre and post production were harmonized. The result is a skillful management and arch of audience emotion as we move between different storylines, all building a crescendo as we approach the climax and reflexive resolution.

Entry Summary
This film is simultaneously local and global. We've all been that bored kid imagining something exciting happening outside our car window. The imagined activity can range based on climate, geography and culture. In cold climates kids imagine skiing, snowboarding, snowmobilling or toboganning. In warm climates kids imagine dirt biking, skateboarding, parkour running, truck driving etc. The point is that people worldwide can relate, and yet it took until now for that common practise to be brought to the screen. This film aims to trigger that charming nostalgic sensation of returning to our childhood, no matter what culture you come from. It is important to note that the chosen sport of urban skiing is portrayed with maximum authenticity. All of the tricks, grabs, terrain, wardrobe and styling resonate with the core practitioners of urban skiing, and because of that authenticity the piece is able to resonate with a global audience.

Brief Explanation
A young boy sits in the back seat of his parents car as they drive through a small snowy mountain town. As the parents banter on about bathroom-renovations, dish-wear and other lame adult things, our bored boy imagines a skier hitting jumps and grinding rails alongside the moving car, and he uses his fingers to act out the motions of his imaginary skier. Suddenly his imagination becomes reality, and we join in the child's amazement as a real skier executes stunt after stunt all the way to the kid's school. When they arrive they find a host of other kids with equally impressive imaginations, each gazing at a different athlete jumping and grinding their way through the schoolyard. Though the parents remain blissfully unaware of whats going on, the nostalgia of the schoolyard seems to trigger something in the father's memory.