**Please help** Start-up mountain filming business needs your views!!

I'm planning on starting a business in the Alps this Winter - making movies of all you intrepid riders as you carve fresh morning lines through pristine powder. Creating a film of those perfect moments and allowing you to relive that dream ride forever more...

But, first, I need your help as lovers of all things snowy. If you could spare a few minutes to fill in a real quick survey about what you think of the service I'd appreciate it massively. You'd be my heroes infact.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/V6YBVL6


Andy - www.freeridercrew.com
(website under development, watch this space!)

Here's a free video as a thank you :) https://vimeo.com/190544188

I've completed your survey, it sounded really promising and a great idea. The I got to the price part of it :shock:

If people going on a leisure ski holiday is your target market (I guess it is with you posting on here), the price is far too high in my opinion. The cost of the filming is almost as much as what some people spend on the whole holiday

Good luck, I hope it works for you. Consider getting advert support, personally don't think may people on a leisure ski holiday would pay that. If it's for pro - maybe

Hey Iceman, thanks very much for helping out with the survey - really appreciate you taking the time to share your views. I have been getting that feedback in quite an emphatic way so definitely the pricing will need to come down! :) I'm trying to balance out the quality of the finished product (mainly the editing costs) with what could be afforded by a small group / family.

Either way, I'll need to find a way to make it work at a lower price...it's good to get this feedback now rather than later! So, thanks again.

Andy

Is it proposed that the price would be per person or a group? One person paying that is expensive, but a group of 3-4 is more attractive.

Thought about this last year when touring at end of season. Problem is to find cameraman who is fitter / more organized than rest of group so you are not waiting about. Would be pretty reluctant to waste a day with a guide by adding an unknown quantity to the group and this will be your challenge. I have images of someone turning up late and faffing about.

Be careful when you state 'knows the mountains', can see the law suit now for illegal guiding, avalanche incident etc.

Perhaps if an Aspirant was tagging along and could fly a drone it would be cool but otherwise am not convinced. Why not try and team up with a guide or guides in one resort and focus on videoing something like VBs. They act as your sales and admin team etc.

Hey Iceman, price would be per group (envisaging average group size of 4)...but still think it needs to come down to make it more accessible.

Ranchero - some really helpful views and suggestions here, maybe we should go into partnership!! :) you're absolutely right about potential liability, need to be very careful not to have people think this would be a guiding or instructional service...regarding the quality of rider, absolutely this is paramount. Fortunately I know a lot of very good riders and I've been riding myself 15 years so this shouldn't be an issue.

Like your thought on partnering with a guiding service, think I'll look at this as a supplementary initiative beyond the pure direct-to-rider route.

Really appreciate your help guys once again.

Warm wishes,
Andy

Are you aware that drone filming services are already available in resorts like Verbier? This has been on offer for a couple of years now. The standard service is provided at the two snow parks and they stay in that location filming you as you do multiple runs through the park. That way they stay in a fixed location and can handle a continuous stream of customers, with a 20-30 minute gap before any one customer/group re-appears at the top of the park again. I believe you can hire them privately for the day, but frankly, I suspect that the most cost-effective solution is the one described.
The other factor is battery power. These guys have a pile of battery packs on the ground that would be almost impossible for one person to carry very far: I imagine they have n assistant to cart these to the snow park and take away and recharge dead ones. They're also professional octo-copters so my guess is they're spending £10K+ on drone equipment alone.
I've seen what looks like the same people filming the Verbier Freeride. So you might try a ski area where there's a demand for filming of competitions, just to maximise your revenue opportunities. Also, you might consider doing publicity shots for estate agents - increasingly, prospective buyers (especially of chalets, I imagine) want aerial drone shots.

Finally, I've no idea about licensing for public filming, especially using drones. I'm pretty sure that in most resorts, there may be limitations placed on commercial filming, with out without drones. Clearly what happened in Verbier is that someone came to an agreement with Téléverbier, the lift company, to be the default filming partner and get put on the ski map and website. It might be an idea to see if there are similar lift companies looking for filming partners. Cleraly you don't want to be in competition with someone already established as a partner if there's somewhere else where it could be you.

Hey there, thanks very much for your message. I wasn't actually aware that this kind of operation was set up, sounds really interesting, I'll take a look...for sure I've looked at the drone angle, a friend of mine is fully licenced to fly them so I'd like him to come out and do some aerial shots for stock footage and potentially work on some promotional content that the resort could use. Maybe this is a good way to help gain permissions for freeride droning! :)

Really like the idea of approaching chalet owners, I'll certainly be exploring this avenue once out in resort.

Thanks again for taking the time to offer your thoughts and ideas. Really amazing to see this level of considered response. If you're ever out in 3 Valleys and fancy being filmed then drop me a line! :)

All the best, happy riding always