Ski Films Aren't Cheap. This Creative Studio Is Using a Kickstarter To Fund Theirs.

Have you ever watched a ski film and wondered who pays for all those cool trips, all that fancy camera gear, and the seemingly endless helicopter rides?

The answer isn’t exactly a short one, and to complicate things further, there are a lot of costs involved that the public eye never sees or considers. 

Traditionally, when you see a feature-length ski film made by a production company (as opposed to by a singular brand), these companies secure funding from ski brands, usually those that sponsor the athletes in the films. The ski industry isn’t exactly known for having tons of budget, so, non-endemic sponsors will also often get brought on. These are companies like liquor and beer companies, car brands, tourism boards, and more, that have a clear integration into ski media but aren’t exclusive to the space.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but high-quality filmmaking is expensive. There are obvious costs like travel and equipment, some of which can be subsidized by these brand deals. But there are other costs like music licensing fees, which can be multiple thousands of dollars per song. Filmer and photographer day-rates also add cost quickly, and although this seems to be a place where folks like to cut corners, these folks need to get paid, too. 

Additionally, many production companies operate under an LLC of some kind and have to pay business fees, insurance, and regular business overhead costs for things as small as wifi or pens and as large as RED cameras.

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While this traditional model has no doubt funded many of your favorite ski films, it can also be flawed. 

For one, a production company often, but not always, relinquishes some amount of creative control to the brand funding the films, even if it’s just in the necessity to include a specific shot or two with a logo or otherwise.

Secondly, athletes in films don’t traditionally get paid to be in the film. Athletes get paid by their sponsors, who may also benefit from or partially fund the film, but rarely is there a monetary incentive for them from the production company. 

Lastly, as the outdoor space continues to change and sees the impacts of a changing economy, there’s just not that much money to go around. It’s just not as feasible for most brands to drop the cash on a ski film that they might have 10 or 15 years ago.

That’s where Moonrise comes in.

It might not be a name you’ve heard, but if you’ve been hanging out in ski media for the last couple of years, no doubt you’ve heard of films like Advice for Girls or the Girl Winter film tour. Moonrise is the creative studio behind all of these endeavors and is officially composed of do-it-all production team Sara Beam Robbins, Katie Cooney, Sierra Schlag, and Iz La Motte. 

The team’s inaugural film, Advice for Girls, which was released in the fall of 2023, was a ski film that featured an all-female cast and an all-female production team. In its inception, Robbins, Cooney, La Motte, and Schlag went about securing funding for the film via the traditional method of pitching brands for film sponsorship to fund things like crew travel, music licensing, and notably, full compensation for each athlete who appeared in the film and full creative day-rate pay.

While they secured enough funding to start the project from brands closely aligned with their mission, like Skida, Picture Organic, Atomic, and more, they found they needed more funds to cross the finish line, so they launched a Kickstarter campaign.

The campaign raised $47,000 in thirty days.

Following the success of Advice for Girls, the crew launched their own female-focused ski film tour, Girl Winter, and subsequently, Moonrise. 

Now, Moonrise has another feature-length ski film going full steam ahead in the production process. The film, which is titled Winter Elements, highlights not just professional skiers, but women across the ski industry, like ski patrollers, snowcat drivers, photographers, and more.  

The broad subject matter of Winter Elements has allowed the Moonrise Create team to approach funding it in similarly unique ways. Instead of just reaching out to ski brands or traditionally easily integrated non-endemics, they’ve been able to broaden their net to include support from companies that manufacture the equipment needed for behind-the-scenes ski industry jobs, such as Prinoth, the snowcat brand. 

In a phone interview, La Motte explained that the audience that was built initially by Advice for Girls has continued to show up through two years of the Girl Winter tour. They are driving the funding for Winter Elements.

Winter Elements was always slated to be a two-year project. The film’s production began in 2024. “When we first started this, the economy was in a very, very different place. Our country was in a very different place. We went into it pretty confident that with the success of Advice for Girls and the work we're continuing to do, people would see that this is worth something and worth putting their money behind,” said La Motte. 

While the team has gotten overwhelming support for the idea conceptually from many of the brands they’ve pitched, the majority of them just don’t have the marketing budget to support it in this current economic climate.

“We don't want to get stuck in this cycle of the only way that women's ski media is gonna happen is if the women in skiing are paying for it,” said La Motte. “We held off for as long as we could, and we do have three really wonderful sponsors on board, but we knew if we wanted to make this thing, we needed to get our community involved. It’s not necessarily the most ideal situation, but there is also something to be said for [creative] ownership and intentional engagement. We hope that through doing the Kickstarter, when it's on screen in Fall 2026, people feel like they played a part in it.”

Moonrise launched another Kickstarter in late October, this time hoping to raise $50,000 over a 45-day period. As of November 19, the Kickstarter had raised more than $25K and secured a $14K match in donations, which will double every single donation made following the 19th. 

Kickstarter Campaigns are based not just on goodwill, but also on reward incentives for different donation levels. The Winter Elements campaign promises things like donor names in the credits, handmade goods like mugs and sterling jewelry for higher donations, and VIP tickets to the film’s world premiere for the highest levels of contribution.

However, it’s abundantly clear that these material incentives are not the real driver behind the film’s financial backers.

“I think what makes these films get support from the community is that people can see themselves in it. A lot of work we do has imagery or segments or storytelling that feels more attainable and more relatable to the everyday skier,” said La Motte. “When we're out on the hill filming in the winter, we're thinking about all the people that are gonna watch it and hopefully resonate with it and be excited about it.” 

The Winter Elements Kickstarter Campaign is currently running through November 23, 2025, and can be found on kickstarter.com.