Interview with Young Snowboard Filmmaker Tom Vayianos,
of NJ and Stratton Mountain, VT
Creator of HuckFestProductions.com "Back to Zero"
Hi Tom,
We enjoyed your snowboard film "Back to Zero" and we have a few questions
for you.
Q. There are a lot of kids in the film I haven't
seen here in the Northeast.
Tell me a little about them and where they're from.
A. Actually most are from the
east but I'll go through the list and say
where everyone is from...
Chris Rotax - VT
Scott Stevens - MA
Keegan Valaika - CA
Austen Granger - MA
Charlie Benasich - VT
Christian Connors - VT
Niko Cioffi - VT
Erik Dahl and Kristoffer Christiansen - Norway
Jeremiah Paquette - VT
Tim Humphries - NJ
Charles Reid - Quebec
Russ Collins - NH
Molly Aguirre - MN
Mason Aguirre - MN
Danny Davis - MI
Nick Russell - CT
Sebastian Runeare - CA
Mike Caruso - CT
Tim Benasich - Southern VT
Greg Frayo - CA
Yale Cousino - Lincoln, VT
and I'm from Jersey, where 70 degrees is the new 30.
Q. There are a lot of locations too. Where
did you all shoot this?
A. Again mostly on the east coast.... NYC, all over
Vermont, a little
Jersey and Connecticut, but theres also some footage from the west
coast like Mt Hood and some others.
Q. What is the unifying theme that governs who is in
the film and what they're
doing? What was your vision?
A. Basically there are a lot of kids from the east
coast that kill it but
don't really get that much exposure and I wanted to change that. I
guess you could say its the underground kids that will be at the top
in a couple years.
Q. How much footage did you shoot?
A. haha way too much. My desk is covered with tapes,
and none of them are labeled.
Q. How did you get Burton to sponsor the video?
A. I got Burton to sponsor the video
through Chris and Yale... since
they're on the team they introduced me to some people at Burton and
really helped me get a contract and $$ from them. It was a pain at
first because it took forever to get them to give the final yes (dont
print that! haha) but once they were on they were so helpful. I got
good $$, a super photo to the us open, got to stay as long as i wanted
at their house at hood, got tickets there, they reimburse some video
expenses if we give them receipts, and a lot of other stuff. everyone
at burton is really cool so theyre a sick company for sure.
Q. Who were your other sponsors?
A. Sponsors of Back To Zero:
Burton, Neff, East Coast Snowboarding
Magazine, Launch Snowboards, Lifestyle Board Shop, Fuel Clothing,
Disciple Magazine, and Mission Six.
Q. I heard your next project is
called "Blurred." In high def, no less. Tell us
about that, and what will be different about Blurred.
A. Yeah I just dropped 6G's on a
new high def camera and the quality is
amazing. Anyway this year I am going to be traveling a lot and getting
a bigger budget for "Blurred". Its going to be a lot better in that it
will be more creative, have better riding, more locations, a dope
soundtrack, and just an all around fun vibe. Its probably going to be
a little different than your average snowboard video. So make sure you
keep checking our website:
www.huckfestproductions.com for news and
more information about the project.
