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Justin Hostynek documents snowboarders. He captures on film some of the world’s best riders and makes some of the world’s most notable snowboarding films. His movies are seen worldwide, his photos are featured regularly in Snowboarder magazine, and in 2000, with rider Jay Nelson, he won three categories in the prestigious 2nd Annual Crystal Awards–an action-sports photographic competition. Justin began taking photos of his high school friends snowboarding on the slopes near Lake Tahoe, California. The hobby evolved into making snowboard calendars and eventually submitting to snowboarding magazines. A few years later he moved into filmmaking by producing promotional videos for Twist Clothing. Now he makes his own features with a variety of sponsors, including Burton, Airwalk, Switch, Snowboarder and Billabong. For years he co-produced with Bill Gallen (The Gift 1996, Absinthe 1997, Blackbox 1998) and with Jamie Mosberg on 1999, 1999. His 2000 movie, Tribal, features footage from around the world of all-European riders.
We managed an interview the night before he left for the Crystal Awards 2000. I picked him up at his hotel. "We can do the interview in the car on the way out to Griggs’," he said at the door. So off we drove into the dark and rain-soaked Juneau evening, windshield wipers barely able to keep up with the downpour. Let’s start with a little background. What films have you made? "I guess the first one, the one I would consider the first, is Anthem. And that was an all High 8 movie. That was a pretty general release for sale back in, like ’93, and I’ve made a movie ever since, every year, except for ’94. So, it starts off with Anthem (1993), then the next one was called Color (1995), and that was an all black and white film shot on 16 and Super 8. Then The Gift (1996), also all black and white 16 and Super 8, and then it was Absinthe (1997), which was black and white. I made three all black and white ones in a row. Absinthe is probably my favorite one. And then the next one was Blackbox (1998)…the first half of the film, the opening credits, basically the first song, which was a Jane’s Addition song, lasted about 11 minutes and was all black and white, then switched and went into color. That was all Super 8 and 16 also. And, then, last year I made, I actually collaborated with Jamie Mosberg, or "Mouse" is his nickname, on 1999 (1999)…I put together sections for Kurt Wastell, Marc Frank, Axel Pauporte, Romain de Marchi, and a few other guys. That was my strongest footage, I think, in there. And that one’s been really well received. It’s just got a little more kitch stuff in there that is not really my style."
How would you describe your filmmaking style? "I think it’s a combination of a few different things. The things that I look for are, first of all, a rider having fun, doing something that looks a hell of a lot of fun. And I don’t mean just powder turns. Powder turns I think are generally more fun to do than to watch, but some people can do them interestingly or well enough to make them worthy of being in a film, and make you really want to go out and ride. For technical advancements--Kurt Wastell, Marc, Romain--there’s a few guys in particular that really are on the cutting edge of progression. And I think that’s an interesting element to put in (a film), it’s what a lot of kids look for…but I like to make that just a part of the film instead of the focus. And then, different types of film, I love to just experiment, shooting different types of film, different situations that enhance the feeling of what you’re watching…I try to bring the lifestyle into filming, say, for lack of a better word, filming skits or little scenes, where the riders actually get to act a little bit. An example of that would be Marc Frank (Absinthe, 1997) walking into the 7/11 and ripping off those candy bars as he’s talking about how great he is. I’ve got a few more situations like that I’d like to get done this year on the project that I’m working on right now." What about the project you’re working on this year? "It’s going to be called Tribal. And it’s an all-European film, all-European riders. This magazine Onboard, one of the very, very best snowboard magazines, wanted to make a film of just European snowboarders, to show how strong the riding is over there. And I’m the editor, director, etc. But I’m working with three other cinematographers. And, yes, I want to bring out more of the lifestyle side of things…I’m just learning their personalities and stuff and trying to set up skits for that...I have a few things in my head that I want to film, like to make it very clear that it’s all Europeans. And kinda show what countries they’re from by using some flag set-ups that we’ll film over in Europe when I’m there…I want it to feel very European and I want it to be a film that can be sold in the United States as well, because I think it can be really interesting for a lot of the Americans to see what new Europeans are coming out of there and which people have really reached the higher levels, like Axel, etc. So I guess one of my goals is to make sure that it’s sold world-wide and not just in Europe." Who are the riders in Tribal? "There’s Michi Albin from Switzerland, Dani Sappa from Switzerland, then Stephan Gruber and Stefan Gimpl and Wolle Nyvelt and Beckna, those guys are all Austrians, then there’s a bunch of Swedes and Norwegians, that whole side of things, and there’s French. There’s a lot of riders. We’re going to pair it down to the strongest sections, but I have a feeling it’ll end up being about 12-15 riders. That’s a pretty good number. So, some of the other ones that are in there are Frederick Sarvell, Romain de Marchi and Roger Hjelmstadtstuen. The list goes on, but those are probably the bigger players that are involved."
Can you describe some cool filmmaking situations you’ve had? "Most of my really good days have been in Alaska, mostly right near Juneau, like in the icefields out here, or I had some amazing days at the top of Eaglecrest (ski area), hiking that windlip, but for the most part, out in the icefields. I think one day that really stands out in my mind was going over to the Chilkats. I tried doing some follow-cam, powder runs, powder lines with Jay Nelson, just following him with a Super 8 camera and riding along side of him. It was the opening section of Jay’s section, which was the opener of the film for Blackbox. The first time I tried to do that I got a bunch of really good stuff and I was really psyched. My lens kept fogging up and that sucked, but there was some footage that I have really not seen before, it looked really unique to me, and for me that’s a great experience, to try to do something new and actually pull it off. Now I have a better lens so I can do a lot of follow-cam stuff, which I did last year with Axel. It’s just tough to keep your camera working at those temperatures. When you’re doing follow-cam you’re dealing with condensation on the lens, you’re dealing with so many different variables that when it works out it’s a real treat." laughs "It’s a much less structured way of filming. You just say, ‘alright, point it, and do whatever you want to do and I’ll try to keep up and stay near.’ The trick is to not make your own powder sprays cover the lens. As soon as the lens gets covered with snow, the shot’s over, you gotta pull over and clean it off, get rid of the condensation if you can. If you just keep that in mind, to keep your heelside turns, or whichever turns for the filmer that will douse you in your own spray, those are the ones you want to try to avoid. I learned by getting slammed by my own spray a bunch of times and you know, obviously, not getting slammed by the rider’s spray too. But for me that’s the funnest type of filming (laughs) for obvious reasons…" "I did a going-away shot, part of it got used in 1999…shows Axel flying in the helicopter, he’s in the shotgun seat, he’s getting dropped on this ridiculous peak, it shows him getting out of the helicopter, grabbing his board, and it shows us taking off and leaving him on this ridiculous knife-edge peak with just hundreds of feet of cliff on the side that we are on, and fluted spines going down the other side, and it’s a going-away shot of him just up there, and then it cuts to his actual run on the other fluted side. For me, that was a really, really fucking cool shot that I wish I had edited that part of his section for the movie, but I didn’t, so whatever." And that was shot in the Juneau icefield? "Yeah. That shot was really interesting in that my tripod, the head snapped off the legs right after we’d dropped him on that peak. And Tom Burt was our guide that day. This was a couple days after the fatality and Bruce Griggs was also our guide, but he was out there more to get some runs in ‘cause he was pretty shaken up from the whole situation that happened. So, he was out there pretty much just riding and Tom Burt was basically our guide and he had to hold the tripod head onto the tripod legs for me as I’m trying to film him doing this crazy ass steep line that most people would not do and it worked! Somehow it worked. Oh, and my battery froze. At the end of the day your battery will go dead because it gets really cold, plus you’ve been using it all day, and I could hear the engine like winding down, so I got my hand on the crank to turn up the motor speed to try to compensate for a loss of battery power as I’m panning this shot down and it finally just dies on me right where he hits this icy spot and the shot’s over anyway. So it was like fucking meant to be." laughs So there are good times. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. I wouldn’t be doing it if there wasn’t." Every time I see you you’re having bad times. "Shit. I guess so. When it’s good times we just eat and go to bed and we’re at the heliport in the morning. When it’s shitty we’re out moping around, drinking. That’s why we stopped staying at the Alaskan (Hotel) ‘cause you have to walk past the bar to get to your room everyday and you usually don’t get past the bar. I mean I’m stoked on seeing Scott Fry and I love that place, but it’s not healthy for us to be staying there. I like everything about it. Open Mic night. I like how strange and old it is and you can feel there’s a lot of history in that place and I just like staying there. I like being right downtown. Staying at the Driftwood isn’t as cool, but it works out better for us mentally cause we don’t find ourselves waking up hung-over everyday. It’s more of a conscious effort to get over to the bar to start doing some drinking, instead of just seeing someone in the bar that you know as you’re walking up to your room and so you have a drink with them and it happens from there." "I didn’t have a crazy good season last year. I got pretty shut down in Alaska when I was with Kurt, Marc, Axel, Tina and Jay. Oh yeah, Jay’s section, I filmed that too (for 1999), that turned out to be really good, so we were up here for 31 days last year and got six days of flying in. Plus there was a death, two deaths, right during one of those clear days, so that really affected all of us a lot. It was a really crazy year last year." "This year was miserable. In the seven weeks we were here we had about nine sunny days and about seven of those were good days, like good riding. It was pretty miserable, like one day a week pretty much." (from a phone interview much later) So, what about next year? "I’ve got crazy ideas of shit that I want to do in Alaska next year. In fact I’m going to get really tech, really technical. I can’t really get into it but hopefully you’ll be seeing it." It’s good these companies support you and give you money to be creative. It’s great to get paid to be yourself and do what you want to do. "I agree. And I definitely appreciate it. Teri Tibbett is a freelance writer, photographer, musician and snowboard rider living in Juneau, Alaska.
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