The Gap Session, is the first snowboarding film I am going to look at in terms of how it uses power, spectacle and memory to grasp my escapism.
The Gap Session is a film about a new snowboarding event started in 2006. It involved some of the world’s greatest riders in setting it up. What’s new about this weekend is the use of one big jump, designed from a natural jump 2 of the riders, and the two main organisers, found out on a trip in the mountains for another snowboarding film. It gave them a great deal of air time, making it easier for them to pull crazy tricks with a safe landing even though they were at a great height. The film follows the journey of the creation of the event to the end of the competition, and its a film I constantly find myself going back to.
The opening for the film immediately shows us a use of spectacle in a clever way. We begin the film in a traditional German musical parade, something which most Europeans are some what used to seeing ( Military parades, scout parades and so on). However these parades are designed to be a spectacle to those watching it. The film uses this spectacle to emphasise the spectacle the film is going to be, mixed in with shots of the riders walking through the snowy mountains and making back flips and huge jumps. The introduction prepares the audience for the spectacle of what this films is going to be, big and epic, from the traditional German music, with pro- athletes making big jumps and pulling crazy tricks. We are sat waiting.
The audience is then taken into where the idea came from. Through interviews and archive footage we are taken back into David Benedek’s (rider and organiser) memory, taken back to the mountain side where he and the second organiser discover this natural jump which is then copied for this event.
Not only have we been taken into David Benedek’s memory, but we also the first case of where the film has power. The pro – athletes are teaching us the technical advantages of this jump, through the knowledge they have of their sport. The audience will listen as these are the professionals, they are the masters, we are the slaves, they have the knowledge, they have the power, even though its possible that these pro – riders aren’t the most knowledgeable at their career but they have control over the knowledge in this film.
An important aspect of the film comes after this where we are taken on a snowboarding ride with the pro riders. They have a day off from the construction and organising of the event, ad the man made jump. Here the audience is made to feel part of the group of pro – riders as they are almost stripped of their pro status. They ride around away from this huge event, on a public ski slope, with other non – pro normal people, you or me maybe. The riders make mistakes, crash into members of the public, have to make apologies, the pro – athletes have been bought to our level, the audience can relate to them.
The filming techniques have been cleverly done to do this. In most snowboarding films we tend to only see clean runs, jumps and tricks, everything working and connecting perfectly. Many various shots and wide long distant shots increase the spectacle of the sport and riders, scenes of un-carved white off-piste snow being messed with for the first time. It’s the world we are not meant to be part of, it’s “our” fantasy, where we escape to. This route of escapism is taken away. There is only one camera, with no long distant shops. The audience is part of the action, part of the group, we here their conversations and jokes, and the camera man is snowboarding with the group so you almost feel you are riding with them. There is also a lot of very natural talk to camera. This completes the process of making the audience part of the “mob”, “group” mentality. We now care about the riders and organisers. We want this event to take place, through the difficulties they have had, the time involved, we don’t want to see it fail. We think we are participating in the film.
Now we get to the final stage of the film. All the problems have been rectified, the jump is ready and fixed, but as well as this the snowboarders are now fixed. They no longer make mistakes, they are pro again. They are happy and the audience is happy. They are a spectacle again, but this time we are not just watching, we are participating. The audience is further lead to believe it is part of the “mob” we join the pros in watching their colleagues do huge jumps, they are in awe in an equal manner as we are of the spectacle. The audience is on their level. The pro – riders are again teaching us, using their power of knowledge, screeching out trick names and moves as they watch their colleagues make huge tricks on the jump. However this time it is more subtle, as we now think we are a participating part of the spectacle, and the “mob”.
This is emphasised by the feeling you get, as an audience of the film, when the public join the venue of the event, you are above them. These are the people you should be part of, this should be your group, your “mob” but due to the production at the first parts of the film we are no longer a member of the viewing public. We are an organiser or even a snowboarder.
Many snowboard films make it difficult to take the “watching” part of the spectacle and turn it into “participation” spectacle. Most coverage of events of this manner keeps you in the public audience; you see what the ticket payer for the show sees and feel what the ticket payer feels.
Memory is played upon again at the end of the film, where we are taken back to short clips from the first parts of the film, and mainly the days on the slopes mucking about with the pro – snowboarders.
The way which this film plays with an audiences want for escapism is clear. Using many different techniques the audience is turned into part of the event. The most important element of the film is the power relationship with knowledge and how it is used within the topic of spectacle. Without changing the perspective of the spectacle on the audience, it would be difficult to escape into the film and its story.
