If the producers had invested a little more time in this video, it could have turned out well. The right sections are there, but the details are vague and glossed over. One of the first lines in the movie is that the best thing you can do is to get a real lesson. This is perhaps the best advice in the whole movie, and I agree 100% – I would recommend skipping this movie and investing the $17 in on-mountain lessons.

While a “learn to snowboard” video series is a good idea, 1st Step’s “Getting Started” falls short. The video seems like it could almost be good. It has a great crew of pros, and the concept is dead on, but the content, filming, and editing are all pretty abysmal.

First of all, the running time is close to 15 minutes, short for a $17 ‘feature’ film. Fifteen minutes isn’t enough time to go through everything (how to dress, turn, choose equipment, get on and off the lift, ollie, and fall), and as a result, each section is too brief and lacking detail. Joe Curtes does a pretty good job explaining how to turn, and Jeff Brushie’s ollie section is definitely decent, but I don’t feel that either can really be expected to teach new riders how to ride. I like Kurt Wastell, and his “choosing equipment” feature was semi interesting, but what the heck did he keep looking at on the ceiling?

The camera work is all pretty poor. Watching the video I get the feeling that I could have done just as well with a standard camcorder. Plus, half of the footage was shot with a wide-angle lens on; why would you shoot interviews with a wide angle attachment? (Unless you like making people’s heads look funny). Also, the camera moves around enough during the interviews that I suspect they didn’t even use a tripod.

The one thing that somewhat redeems this video is seeing how a snowboard is made at Unity’s factory. If someone had never seen a board being built, then this feature would be pretty interesting.