To the sound of heavy electronic music, young women ski and snowboard down a steep slope in a sumptuous mountain setting.
The video, broadcast on the Red Bull website, differs, however, from other productions that can be found on social networks. This is the first episode of the series touch of wooddevoted to Quebec territory.
“It’s on Red Bull’s platforms, it’s accessible anywhere in the world,” enthuses Quebec director Maxime Messier, who designed the four episodes. It helps promote French content. It’s also a great showcase for Quebec: it shows that we have an incredible territory to offer, a very beautiful playground.”
Red Bull, an energy drink producer based in Austria, has made a name for itself by sponsoring motorsport teams and extreme sports athletes, among other things. Red Bull’s platforms are used precisely to highlight the exploits of the latter.
Series touch of wood has another difference. “Red Bull wanted to get involved in local communities and get out on the performance side,” says Messier. The idea was to discover normal people, not Red Bull athletes, people passionate about their community and their territory. »
Red Bull TV has given carte blanche to Maxime Messier, director specializing in sports and extreme sports.
It’s been almost eight years that I gravitate in the world of Red Bull. I started at the bottom. At first they gave me cases of Red Bull for my work. It was my dream to grow up in this company.
Maxime Messier, director
“One thing leading to another, I made projects, then they came up with this project just after the pandemic,” he adds.
Four sports in four regions
Maxime Messier proposed four distinct sports in four different regions: surfing in the Magdalen Islands; rock climbing at Cap Trinité, in the Saguenay Fjord; mountain biking in the Quebec region; and, to begin with, ski mountaineering in the Chic-Chocs Mountains, in Gaspésie.
PHOTO MAXIME MESSIER, PROVIDED BY RED BULL
The adventure includes training in mountaineering techniques.
He contacted the Chèvres de montagne, who were planning advanced ski mountaineering training with the guide company Ski Chic-Chocs. Les Chèvres de montagne is an organization that seeks to promote more technical and adventurous outdoor sports among women.
“For us, joining forces with Red Bull was not necessarily a natural alliance, recalls the director of Les Chèvres de montagne, Pascale Vézina Rioux. Les Chèvres is not performance oriented while Red Bull is performance oriented. »
However, in this project, the energy drink producer wanted to give itself a more community aspect, which Maxime Messier argued.
PHOTO MAXIME MESSIER, PROVIDED BY RED BULL
The approach is by snowmobile.
big challenges
The five participants are experienced skiers and snowboarders, but they are still not professionals. We see them learning new skills, with all the challenges that entails. “I think this episode is unpretentious and can inspire people to push themselves into something, regardless of their background or level,” says Ms.me Vezina Rioux. There is perhaps a feeling of belonging a little greater than if we saw the greatest athlete in the world in a discipline. »
The shooting itself was not easy.
It was a big technical challenge trying to keep the batteries warm, to recharge them. We slept in winter camping, so it comes with its share of equipment to successfully survive.
Maxime Messier, director
PHOTO MAXIME MESSIER, PROVIDED BY RED BULL
The participants and their guide in the Chic-chocs
The film crew was limited to two people: Maxime Messier himself and Guillaume Beaudoin, “a great documentary maker and excellent drone pilot”.
They didn’t make their life easier by using big professional cameras instead of small, lightweight cameras. “The girls were quite impressed to see us dragging all of our stock and most importantly keeping a smile through it. »
The second episode of touch of woodabout surfing in the Magdalen Islands, should be released this week, while the last two episodes will follow in April and May.
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Girls in the mountains
Excerpt from the first episode of the series touch of wood tour by Maxime Messier at the Chics-Chocs mountains:
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