Miller Time

Winter is coming.

And so, El Niño willing, is that white stuff.

Which means that Warren Miller’s annual snow film can’t be far behind. And for Spokane audiences, that means Sunday at 5 and 8 p.m. at the Opera House.

This year’s film is titled “Impact,” and that’s what the crew of filmmakers hopes it will have on those who pay the $18.50 ticket price.

If you’ve seen any of the films that Miller has made over the past 55 years, you know what to expect. “Impact” invites you, as Miller says, “to get your swerve on.”

Under the direction of Max Bervy (who was a photographer on Miller’s 1998 film “Freeriders”), and with Miller narrating from a script that he wrote, “Impact” is presented in segments.

What you may not know is what goes on behind the scenes. As in the editing, which Kim Schneider has done since 1978.

“I have the best job in the world,” Schneider says. “I love to ski. I live in Sun Valley, Idaho. I ski nonstop. So what do I do in the summer? I look at the most amazing ski footage there is to look at.”

Schneider, whose job is to take the 100 or so hours of raw footage and shape it into a 90-minute finished feature, gives credit for what comes out to those who do the actual shooting.

“I don’t want to make it blown out of proportion, but there are cameramen down in Hollywood, Los Angeles, New York, director/cameramen making $10,000 a day shooting a spot for, uh, some frozen food,” he says.

“And our guys choose to make I-don’t-want-to-go-into-how-much less, you know, to carry 70 pounds of equipment around, on the side of a mountain, their hands freezing off as they try to load a roll of film. And yet they bring back the most amazing stuff.”

The most difficult part of his job, Schneider says, is to pick and choose from all the shots.

“You will find me at the end of every year still trying to jimmy another shot in there somewhere,” he says, “and I’m supposed to be the one trying to make it shorter.”

“Impact” is filled with such shots. After we learn the rules of how to ski in a Miller film (“skiing and thinking don’t mix” pretty much says it all), the crews take us to exotic locales that include the Chucagh Mountains in northern Alaska and the aptly named Colorado town of Snowmass.

In Park City, Utah, the film follows competing skiers old and young (40-year-old Bridger Gile, for example), while skiers including Hilaree Nelson O’Neil, Stefan Dan and Jeremy Nobis take on the sheer slopes (55 degrees at one point) in Chamonix, France.

In an all-woman chapter, Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark and friends do some helicopter skiing in British Columbia, California and Colorado.

And so on, through the Cascades in Alberta, Montana’s Big Sky Resort, back to Colorado (Steamboat Springs) for a winter carnival, to Bulgaria, Switzerland and even Acapulco, Mexico. Though it’s a bit warm for snow skiing, extreme skier Glen Plake tries water skiing – barefoot.

As with all Miller films, the shots are extreme and the music – by the likes of Coldplay, Iggy Pop, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction – rocks with an energy that matches the feats of such athletes as Hannah Hardaway, Jenn Berg, Chris Davenport and Para-Olympian Nina Oqvist.

“If you treat the mountains here with respect, it’ll make a lasting impact on your life,” says Miller.

He’d know better than most. Same for Schneider, who feels the obligation to treat Miller’s camera operators with the same kind of respect.

“So much of my time is not me trying to decide what the best shot is,” he says, “but remembering what those guys went through out there to get what they got.”