Podcast presented by Citizen Watch Canada.
Darren Rayner grew up making fun little movies and shred edits with his buddies and, when he was still in college, co-founded Voleurz, a badass, grassroots Canadian clothing company that also made films and generally helped push mountain culture down a more creative path. As time went by, Darren pivoted a bit and founded Magnafire Media, a Vancouver-based creative studio and production facility that creates videos for brands that want to stand out and get noticed.
NOTE: there are a couple of cuss words in this pod, be warned. As well, a video of the conversation is available on the Mountain Life YouTube.
A few highlights from Feet Banks’ conversation with Darren:
I was born in Singapore and I grew up in Bangkok. So not known for their mountain culture. But we were skateboarding and wakeboarding a lot. And so when I came to Vancouver, when I was 16, the transition to snow was kind of seamless and I was really excited at the softness of the snow—water felt hard compared to it.
I broke my back on Grouse Mountain snowboarding in 2001 and after that I wanted to be in the mountains but I was OK with taking a step back on trying to flip off of stuff and send it, so I picked up a camera and started to fall in love with that…
ML: So you arrived in Whistler fresh out of school.
Yeah, working nights dishwashing, then on the hill all day, classic story. I had a Canon GL-1 I think it’s called. I came out of UVic, got a student loan, bought an XL-1 and started making movies…
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ML: I feel like there’s a few generations of people that are like, “Oh, we bridged the gap between skiers and snowboarders…”
Yeah, it’s just what organically happened. It’s just who we were. And as I got to know some of the freeskiers in Vernon, we started shooting with them and then we started getting to know a lot of snowboard athletes in Whistler. And so it was just in our DNA from the beginning.
ML: And that culminated in the Braveheart-esque skier versus snowboarder scene in Kill Your Boredom…
It was interesting because I thought this negativity between snowboarders and skiers had ended but then I could see trolls online and it was very odd to me because I thought we were all homies at this point … so I thought I’d just kind of play on that a bit more with a crazy battle scene and then of course at the end the two girls rip their balaclavas off and make out, so it just shows that we’re all friends anyway…
ML: Were you a movie fan growing up?
I was just really into ski and snowboard, skateboard, mountain bike films. And I was into anything that was a bit different. I felt like there were so many serious doco-style movies that were just the same through-line and the same vibe every year and so I was inspired to try something different and go a bit more … Robot Food.
…But with a strong story, documentaries are still one of my favorite genres. What I love to see is the people and the personalities behind skiing and snowboard films shown as they are, not polished. That’s what the Voleurz movies became: Everyone was such a character, the whole Voleurz family, and I was just trying to capture them in the raw version of themselves. And that ended up being, to a lot of people, entertaining.
ML: What would be your dream scenario right now? If the magic fairy came and waved a wand and you get one wish?
We are super keen to work on more long-form branded entertainment pieces, because that is kind of our background. It’s just the clients and what’s working right now is short-form social content and we’re pumping out tons and tons of stuff on the daily. But we do love to put our best foot forward on a few of those more wholesome, emotionally-driven narrative pieces each year. So we’re kind of thirsty for one of those.
ML: How did being a father change your outlook on what you do and your plans for the future?
As a parent and business owner, I’ve got to really stay on top of everything and take care of myself. I’ve got to make sure I’m taking care of myself physically, mentally, emotionally, because then I can be the best I can be at work and as a parent. So I can’t let that slide. So that’s the big thing. And just like fine-tuning schedules. Every five minutes feels important right now. Every five minutes with my family feels important and every five minutes of work is important.
ML: How’s your stress level? Do you feel like it’s managed?
I’m improving for sure. Taking care of myself helps, breathing techniques help. But I’d say burnout is real. I’d never experienced burnout until this year, and there’s a lot of factors at play here, but I’ve come to realize that I just have to peel myself away from work and take breaks. I’ve been doing that for the last three weeks… And it’s totally working.
Listen to the full conversation here or watch it on ML’s YouTube channel.
