The Miller films are financed by sponsors like Nissan, Janus, Motorola, Ocean Spray, AT&T and Sony, all anxious to get cozy with the tour's upscale demographic.

Jeff Moore is the man in charge of new business for the company including stock footage. "This past year we shot in Iran, Kenya, Greenland and we just got back from a trip to South Georgia Island (between South America and Antarctica) considered the most remote place on the planet," he says. The footage is gathered for the feature films as well as a new series of one-hour docs for the Outdoor Network. Moore adds, "Then we have all that amazing stock footage that has legs for the next twenty years."

These scenes are filed into the world's most extensive collection of action sports footage. Moore says the company (based in Boulder, Colorado with offices in Vancouver and London) has felt the impact of extreme sports' popularity for 15 years. "The X games and skateboarding have put it much more into the mainstream and Warren Miller has been there first all the way. It's very hard to watch television, see a skier or snowboarder and have it not be ours because we've been shooting for so long and we have so much," says Moore.

When pressed about the cost savings of using stock over custom shooting winter sports, Moore explains that money is only part of the slippery equation. "Sometimes I'm amazed by what I see in spots - they've got some LA director on the side of a ski hill where he's never been before, they're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars hoping for an epic day.

"I'm not saying these guys aren't very talented or they couldn't capture it. It's just that weather is everything. We have the ability to wait until it's snowed for four days, there's amazing powder and the sun just broke through because we're there to make our film, not shoot a spot in two days where the camera guy has to be back in New York on Tuesday. So not only do I think the expense [of shooting custom footage] is much greater, but I think the success rate is much lower."

Moore sees two issues currently affecting the stock trade. The first is the soft ad market, which was tempered for Warren Miller by the demand for winter sports footage preceding the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He says the overall effect has been no growth but steady market share.

The second issue has been an increasing trend by agencies and their clients to insist on talent clearances for all athletes featured in their footage. He does not begrudge his talent the extra money but does caution that this could increase the cost of similar footage in the future.

Moore acknowledges that Warren Miller is moving beyond their niche as the big fish in a small and frozen pond, "We're definitely expanding. We're looking to get beyond, 'Hey you're the guys who make the extreme ski movies.' In stock footage, what we have is really lifestyle. There's a tremendous amount of rock climbing, kayaking and mountain biking. But we also have amazing time-lapse of aurora borealis, scenics, sunsets and waves, shot all over the world."

Warren Miller footage was featured extensively in recent campaigns for Coors by in-house agency Integer Group and for Chevy by Campbell Ewald.

Webfiles:

Warren Miller Films> http://www.warrenmiller.com