9 ms·

Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

161 points by hprotagonist 9y ago

appleflaxen 9y ago
I come to HN to avoid pop culture, including celebrities and their obituaries. If a person is a notable technologist I think it's of interest, but I would ask the community (who is obviously upvoting these celebrity death posts: I'm in the minority here) whether they really think this is important content for HN.
- ethagknight 9y ago
  Warren Miller was an innovative content creator that has inspired a generation, albeit in a specific niche. I admit I was surprised (and delighted!) to see Warren mentioned on HN, and sad to hear of his passing. If you don't like it, don't click thru; No need to poo poo on it.
- TYPE_FASTER 9y ago
  I'd say Warren Miller has spent the last 50 years using technology to create a new media audience. He was the precursor to companies like Matchstick Productions, Teton Gravity Research, and Red Bull Media House. Watching his movies as a kid was the reason I started putting a video camera on my helmet and video camera in my backpack before GoPro was created. WME wasn't really pop culture, and I wouldn't categorize Warren Miller as a celebrity. He did use technology to create a life-style business in a category that didn't exist before, which is why I think the post belongs here.
cavanasm 9y ago
I grew up watching Warren Miller movies, but wasn't aware of some of the recent drama the article brings up. It's nice to hear that in that copyright issue he stepped in. I sort of imagined him as the kind of person who would take responsibility like that, and I'm glad that's apparently not too far from reality.
hprotagonist 9y ago
Combined with the loss of Bruce Brown recently (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15911673 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15911673), it feels like a generation's going. To be frank, though, I thought both had died years ago.
- aphextron 9y ago
  I’ve been thinking about this alot too lately. It seems as if the entire 20th century has faded away before our eyes over the last couple years. That whole world will soon be nothing but history books.
  - TaylorAlexander 9y ago
    More than just books about us, we leave the world with all we left behind. Warren Miller is with us in his films, and others stay with us too even after their bodies have decayed. I’ve realized in recent years that while I don’t think there is a physical soul of any kind, the soul of an individual is the collective influence they had. Much of that lives on long after the person’s light leaves this world. That lasting influence is now, to me, the soul of the individual.
lawnchair_larry 9y ago
Does not seem like this is relevant to hackernews
peterlk 9y ago
Warren Miller inspired a lot of skiers. Every time I went to one of the movies while I was growing up, I learned to have a better time on the slopes. In my mind, the thing that made the movies so compelling wasn't pushing the edges of skiing in a badass way, it was pushing the edges of skiing in a fun/silly way. For example: https://youtu.be/zD5RhNBmc_U https://youtu.be/zD5RhNBmc_U My brother and I used to have spinning competitions down hills. We also used to do slope breakdancing, which is way less cool than it sounds. Anyways, I'm grateful to Warren Miller for inspiring me to be silly on the slopes. I had a better time because of the films that he made.
- ethagknight 9y ago
  His films always had silly stuff, but my favorite pieces of his films were the 'slice of life' looks into various people's lives surrounding the ski industry, for example following ski patrol's day-to-day, or even going to foreign countries to document ski culture in, say, Almaty, Kazakstan. I particularly loved this scene from Snowriders II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7Meb_pmMM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7Meb_pmMM Important to recall that this was released in 1997, so probably filmed in 1996, and initiated in 1994-5, so its a look into a post-USSR culture a mere 5 yrs after the dissolution of the USSR.
  - rconti 9y ago
    I saw a film at the Banff Mountain Film Festival last year that was about skiing in Iran. It was fascinating to see how people get out of town and let their hair down, so to speak.
- dmix 9y ago
  Was skiing more fun or laid back in the 70-80s? It seems that way from most of the videos I watch. Lots of comments on the Warren films I watched are saying it's gotten far too serious these days and people aren't letting go and having fun on the slopes (besides maybe the 'extreme' guys doing jumps but even they are working hard on a skill)... I'm not much of a skier, but I got that impression myself the few times I went. Or is this just the usual nostalgic everything-was-better-in-the-past stuff?
abalos 9y ago
I had the opportunity to sit down with Warren Miller and a few others 7 or 8 years ago for dinner. He was an all-around nice guy. Sad to see him go, but at 93 he definitely lived a full life.
chrisbennet 9y ago
As a friend of mine said when I told him the news: "He had a good run." RIP Warren, you made a positive difference in the universe.
fancyfacebook 9y ago
Why is this on the front page of HN? I mean aside from "white people stuff".
ghaff 9y ago
I still remember one of his older films, I think it was Snowonder that is pretty funny to look back at: 1. There's an aerial shot of pre-eruption Mount St. Helens with commentary of the effect of "Here's a dormant volcano of the Cascades, at least we hope it's dormant." 2. In many of his films, there's a sequence with some kind of oddball snow contraption: monoskis, bikes with fat studded tires, etc. In this film, it was this weird thing called a snowboard.
SamPutnam 9y ago
In a 2008 speech, Mr. Miller summed up with uncharacteristic seriousness what had led him - as well as ski bums and heads of state and corporations - to head for the mountains. "It's our search for freedom," he said. "It's what it's all about - man's instinctive search for freedom."
mdb333 9y ago
bummer... I grew up watching ski movies and listening to my grandfathers stories about hanging out and filming with Warren and other pioneers of skiing way back in the day up at Cannon mtn and elsewhere. Definitely a legend who adapted right alongside with the sport!

161 points by hprotagonist 9y ago

I come to HN to avoid pop culture, including celebrities and their obituaries. If a person is a notable technologist I think it's of interest, but I would ask the community (who is obviously upvoting these celebrity death posts: I'm in the minority here) whether they really think this is important content for HN.

ethagknight 9y ago
Warren Miller was an innovative content creator that has inspired a generation, albeit in a specific niche. I admit I was surprised (and delighted!) to see Warren mentioned on HN, and sad to hear of his passing. If you don't like it, don't click thru; No need to poo poo on it.
TYPE_FASTER 9y ago
I'd say Warren Miller has spent the last 50 years using technology to create a new media audience. He was the precursor to companies like Matchstick Productions, Teton Gravity Research, and Red Bull Media House. Watching his movies as a kid was the reason I started putting a video camera on my helmet and video camera in my backpack before GoPro was created. WME wasn't really pop culture, and I wouldn't categorize Warren Miller as a celebrity. He did use technology to create a life-style business in a category that didn't exist before, which is why I think the post belongs here.

cavanasm 9y ago

I grew up watching Warren Miller movies, but wasn't aware of some of the recent drama the article brings up. It's nice to hear that in that copyright issue he stepped in. I sort of imagined him as the kind of person who would take responsibility like that, and I'm glad that's apparently not too far from reality.

hprotagonist 9y ago

Combined with the loss of Bruce Brown recently (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15911673 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15911673), it feels like a generation's going. To be frank, though, I thought both had died years ago.

aphextron 9y ago
I’ve been thinking about this alot too lately. It seems as if the entire 20th century has faded away before our eyes over the last couple years. That whole world will soon be nothing but history books.
- TaylorAlexander 9y ago
  More than just books about us, we leave the world with all we left behind. Warren Miller is with us in his films, and others stay with us too even after their bodies have decayed. I’ve realized in recent years that while I don’t think there is a physical soul of any kind, the soul of an individual is the collective influence they had. Much of that lives on long after the person’s light leaves this world. That lasting influence is now, to me, the soul of the individual.

lawnchair_larry 9y ago

Does not seem like this is relevant to hackernews

peterlk 9y ago

Warren Miller inspired a lot of skiers. Every time I went to one of the movies while I was growing up, I learned to have a better time on the slopes. In my mind, the thing that made the movies so compelling wasn't pushing the edges of skiing in a badass way, it was pushing the edges of skiing in a fun/silly way. For example: https://youtu.be/zD5RhNBmc_U https://youtu.be/zD5RhNBmc_U My brother and I used to have spinning competitions down hills. We also used to do slope breakdancing, which is way less cool than it sounds. Anyways, I'm grateful to Warren Miller for inspiring me to be silly on the slopes. I had a better time because of the films that he made.

ethagknight 9y ago
His films always had silly stuff, but my favorite pieces of his films were the 'slice of life' looks into various people's lives surrounding the ski industry, for example following ski patrol's day-to-day, or even going to foreign countries to document ski culture in, say, Almaty, Kazakstan. I particularly loved this scene from Snowriders II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7Meb_pmMM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7Meb_pmMM Important to recall that this was released in 1997, so probably filmed in 1996, and initiated in 1994-5, so its a look into a post-USSR culture a mere 5 yrs after the dissolution of the USSR.
- rconti 9y ago
  I saw a film at the Banff Mountain Film Festival last year that was about skiing in Iran. It was fascinating to see how people get out of town and let their hair down, so to speak.
dmix 9y ago
Was skiing more fun or laid back in the 70-80s? It seems that way from most of the videos I watch. Lots of comments on the Warren films I watched are saying it's gotten far too serious these days and people aren't letting go and having fun on the slopes (besides maybe the 'extreme' guys doing jumps but even they are working hard on a skill)... I'm not much of a skier, but I got that impression myself the few times I went. Or is this just the usual nostalgic everything-was-better-in-the-past stuff?

abalos 9y ago

I had the opportunity to sit down with Warren Miller and a few others 7 or 8 years ago for dinner. He was an all-around nice guy. Sad to see him go, but at 93 he definitely lived a full life.

chrisbennet 9y ago

As a friend of mine said when I told him the news: "He had a good run." RIP Warren, you made a positive difference in the universe.

fancyfacebook 9y ago

Why is this on the front page of HN? I mean aside from "white people stuff".

ghaff 9y ago

I still remember one of his older films, I think it was Snowonder that is pretty funny to look back at: 1. There's an aerial shot of pre-eruption Mount St. Helens with commentary of the effect of "Here's a dormant volcano of the Cascades, at least we hope it's dormant." 2. In many of his films, there's a sequence with some kind of oddball snow contraption: monoskis, bikes with fat studded tires, etc. In this film, it was this weird thing called a snowboard.

SamPutnam 9y ago

In a 2008 speech, Mr. Miller summed up with uncharacteristic seriousness what had led him - as well as ski bums and heads of state and corporations - to head for the mountains. "It's our search for freedom," he said. "It's what it's all about - man's instinctive search for freedom."

mdb333 9y ago

bummer... I grew up watching ski movies and listening to my grandfathers stories about hanging out and filming with Warren and other pioneers of skiing way back in the day up at Cannon mtn and elsewhere. Definitely a legend who adapted right alongside with the sport!