Warren Miller Entertainment is expected to be cited next week by the U.S. Forest Service for filming on Forest Service land in the Utah backcountry without a permit on Jan. 22.
During the film shoot for the movie “Children of Winter,” former Aspen area resident and big mountain skier Billy Poole was fatally injured after jumping off a cliff and landing on a rock.
The accident drew attention to the film shoot and led to a Forest Service investigation, which is now expected to result in a citation to the company, a division of Bonnier Corporation. Warren Miller Entertainment is no longer associated with Warren Miller, the skier and filmmaker.
“It will be after the first of the year that a citation will be issued,” said Erin O’Conner, director of strategic communications for the Forest Service’s Intermountain Region, which includes Utah.
The citation for unauthorized commercial activity on Forest Service land requires payment of a $500 fine or an appearance in federal court.
Executives at Warren Miller Entertainment and Bonnier could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Max Bervy, managing director of Warren Miller Entertainment, told the Aspen Daily News earlier this year that the company did not obtain a film permit from the Forest Service for the Jan. 22 film shoot. He also said they had discussed the film shoot with Forest Service officials in advance, but did not obtain a permit.
“They [the Forest Service] knew we were there,” he said.
When asked why it took nearly a year for the federal agency to issue a citation to the company for filming without a permit, O’Conner said that Forest Service law enforcement officials “wanted to see the production to verify the filming on National Forest land without a permit.”
“Children of Winter” was released in late October.
Earlier this year, the Forest Service issued citations to Steve Metcalf, the director of brand development at Aspen Skiing Co., and to Brenden Kiernan, a principal at Futuristic Films, for filming without a permit on federal land during the making of “The Ripple Effect.” (See related story, this page.)
In 2006, the Forest Service issued a citation to an executive at Teton Gravity Research, a ski and snowboard film company in Jackson, Wyo., for filming without a permit within the Jedediah Smith Wilderness on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. The film shoot captured skier Jamie Pierre jumping off a 225-foot cliff and landing nearly upside down in deep snow. Pierre skied away unhurt, but press coverage of the stunt caught the attention of Forest Service officials and an investigation led to the citation being issued to TGR.
Bervy of Warren Miller said earlier this year that obtaining film permits from the Forest Service for backcountry film shoots was impractical, as the agency often required two weeks to process an application and demanded to know exactly when and were filming was going to occur, which backcountry filmmakers rarely know in advance.
But the Forest Service permit system may be changing, at least in the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District.
Jim Stark, the district’s winter sports administrator, said he feels the Forest Service can be more flexible with filmmakers who want to shoot with small crews in the backcountry. Stark said if filmmakers apply for a permit, he will work with them to give them a wider timeframe to shoot in and more latitude in choosing locations, although commercial filming in wilderness areas is still strictly prohibited.
What Stark wants to see is a good communications plan and a good safety plan, along with insurance, from a filmmaker looking to shoot in the backcountry. If their plans are well formulated, Stark may then be willing to give them a permit that covers a range of dates and locations, especially if they also give an advance head’s up to local search and rescue teams — just in case something goes wrong.
“It could be pretty darn simple,” Stark said.
Loren Kroenke, national winter sports manager for the U.S. Forest Service, supports the direction Stark is taking.
“Local ranger districts have the authority to try and make this work,” said Kroenke in regard to issuing permits. “What Jim Stark is talking about seems to fit and maybe it can become a national template.”
bgs@aspendailynews.com
