Every frame made with intention
A distillation of a decade of work — documentary film, commercial production, action sports, travel, and portrait. Seven films, one throughline: the pursuit of a shot that earns its place.
Directed by Skylar Nielsen.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Music: Anthony Gonzalez & Joseph Trapanese / Santigold
Speed Week on the Bonneville Salt Flats draws people from around the world for a single reason: to go as fast as anything on earth will allow. This film follows them.
Shot on location at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The flat light and white expanse demanded a controlled, patient approach.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Editor: Catura Jenson · Color: Jake Penrose
"In retrospect, mistakes are what teach you — that's your education."
Metal-fabricator Neil Youngberg never planned on taking over his grandfather's business. Now he's faced with passing on the legacy himself. The first film in VBF's PROFESSIONal series — a portrait of forgotten trades and the people who carry them.
Shot on location in Neil's fabrication shop. Grand Jury Prize, Slamdance Film Festival.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: Ian Rigby · Music: Caspian, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Bon Iver
"Who wouldn't seize this opportunity?"
Over 200,000 people applied to leave Earth permanently and colonize Mars. Five of them lived nearby. This film follows those five as they articulate — slowly, honestly, and sometimes uncomfortably — why they want to go.
Produced with VideoWest and KUER RadioWest. Interviews by Doug Fabrizio. Vimeo Staff Pick.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Interview: Doug Fabrizio · Producer: Elaine Clark, Doug Fabrizio, Vita Brevis Films · Cinematography: Josh Fletcher, Ian Rigby · Editor: Catura Jenson
A self-initiated send-off for VBF's own 370Z Nismo — taken to the streets for one last session with a Phantom Flex attached and a reckless disregard for tire wear. Raw automotive footage without a brief.
Shot over two days within a mile of the studio. One near head-on collision. Therapy in the shape of sheet metal.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · High Speed: Mark Weiler · Stunt Driver: Juice aka Jeff Welch
"Our grandfather taught us that making good wine is a skill, fine wine an art."
Two brothers from a century of winemaking lineage walk away from the family estate to make something entirely their own. This film followed them through their first harvest on the Sonoma Coast.
What began as a conversation at sunset became a film neither party had planned to make. Vimeo Staff Pick.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: Josh Fletcher, Ian Rigby · Music: Midas Whale, Apparat · Producer: Vita Brevis Films
"138 represents being free and passionate about what you want to do. You don't need to have a reason."
Designer Mark Ong — known as SBTG — traces his creative roots from a childhood in Singapore to a shoe collaboration with a boutique in Salt Lake City. The film begins as an exploration of subcultural identity and becomes something more personal.
Shot in Singapore and Salt Lake City. Featured on Hypebeast. Vimeo Staff Pick.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Producer: Corey Bullough · Camera: Ian Rigby · Title Design: Mike Hall
"I get up every morning and I just can't wait to get to work."
Eric Arakawa didn't set out to become one of the most respected surfboard shapers in the world. He just kept showing up. Shot on the North Shore of Oahu — from a first board to shaping for Andy Irons.
Shot on location on the North Shore of Oahu. Vimeo Staff Pick.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: Michael Hall, Ian Rigby · Music: Junip, XX, This Will Destroy You, M83, Feist
A multi-state motorcycle ride documented as a road film — not an advertisement. Produced for the Harley-Davidson Ridebook campaign. Vimeo Staff Pick.
Followed the tour across multiple states, shooting from the road rather than staging moments. Edit driven by Butch Walker and the Black Widows.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · 2nd Unit Camera: Mike Hall · Production: Carlo Mondavi & Vita Brevis Films · Music: Butch Walker and the Black Widows
"Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive."
A motorcycle journey along the coast of Southern India — from Chennai to Pondicherry through traffic, tuk-tuks, and sensory overload. The film doesn't try to recreate the experience of being there. It tries to transmit it.
Shot entirely on location in Southern India. Voice over drawn from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: Ian Rigby · Music: Apparat · Voice Over: Derek Partridge
"It was one of my childhood dreams to ride in Bonneville."
Honda engineer Shunji Yokokawa flew from Japan with a showroom stock CBR600RR. His goal: break the SCTA 650cc production class record at Bonneville. He did it at 170.828 mph.
104-degree heat. f/10 ND filters. Phone translator. DP ratchet-strapped to a tailgate. Vimeo Staff Pick.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: Josh Fletcher, Ian Rigby · Music: Danger Mouse / Ennio Morricone
From childhood homelessness to a life-changing accident to X-Games gold and a Sochi Paralympic bronze — a story you couldn't write. Built around conversations between Keith and his father.
Shot across Utah and Colorado for ESPN. The crew arrived knowing nothing about Keith. By the end of day one they understood exactly what kind of film this needed to be.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Producer: Brian Arnold (ESPN) · Cinematography: Skylar Nielsen · Editor: Catura Jenson · Color: Jake Penrose
Biologist Nalini Nadkarni spent decades climbing and studying old-growth trees. Then she fell fifty feet from a maple in the Olympic National Rain Forest.
Produced with VideoWest and Doug Fabrizio of KUER RadioWest. The crew drove to Olympic National Forest working from Nalini's handwritten directions.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Interview: Doug Fabrizio · Producer: VideoWest / KUER
"Did I make the cut?"
Robert Smithson built the Spiral Jetty in 1970 and died three years later. The jetty was submerged for decades. This film was made in thirty minutes with Julian Sands and a helicopter.
Sands scaled a razor-wire airport fence at dawn. An electrical storm grounded the crew through sunrise. The flight over the Great Salt Lake was surreal.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Producer: VideoWest / Elaine Clark · Featuring: Julian Sands
Three friends who met in the advertising world decide to make booze. This film follows the launch of Jack Rabbit Gin — the first spirit from a craft distillery that started with a conversation.
Shot at the distillery over several days. The crew came close to setting their wigs on fire near a charring barrel.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: Josh Fletcher, Ian Rigby · Editor: Catura Jenson · Color: Jake Penrose
Sochi gold medalist Sage Kotsenburg and a crew of professionals at an 85-foot kicker at Park City — one of the last days of the season, after the lifts were officially closed.
Transworld called. The park crew had salvaged snow from melting kickers to build the jump. From sun-up to sun-down, all the good angles, and a quality sunburn.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Camera: Josh Fletcher, Ian Rigby · For: Transworld Snowboarding / Monster Energy
"Our father taught us that we are winegrowers, not winemakers."
The trailer for Making RAEN, released ahead of the full film and the first bottles of the 2013 RAEN vintage.
The Mondavi brothers' own words in voice over — no narration, no explanation of the brand.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: Ian Rigby
Produced for the launch of the 2014 Chevy Silverado at an undisclosed remote ranch — with the only two existing prototypes, a herd of seventy-five horses, and heightened security.
Produced under NDA. Ultimate Arm pursuit vehicle used for tracking shots. Shot on Red Epic.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: Ian Rigby · 1st AC: Josh Fletcher
Harley-Davidson's 110th anniversary tour stopped in 16 cities worldwide. VBF captured the kickoff at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee — one of the biggest bike nights in the city's history.
6,000 riders from around the world. Stunt riders burned HD110 into the pavement. The sun went down over the museum.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: Ian Rigby
The teaser for We Are 138 — introducing designer SBTG and the Royalefam shoe collaboration with FICE Boutique before the full documentary.
Shot in Singapore. Released ahead of the full film.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · For: FICE Boutique / Royalefam
A cinematic fashion brand film for Mörkna's Fall/Winter 2011 collection. Seasonal, character-driven, mood over product.
Shot as a brand film rather than a lookbook — the collection framed through movement and atmosphere.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Production: Vita Brevis Films
A self-initiated cinematic film of the BMW M6 — shot over three nights in fog across Salt Lake City on Red 4K. No brief. Just the car and the light.
Self-initiated. Three nights. Fog. Red 4K.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Production: Vita Brevis Films
Aerial commercial footage produced for Hallenstein Brothers — a New Zealand retail brand campaign shot on the Bonneville Salt Flats with FMX riders and a fashion campaign.
Bonneville Salt Flats. 105-degree heat, rain storms, constant wind. Production assistants suited up when the stunt team was delayed.
Production: Vita Brevis Films · For: Hallenstein Brothers / Thick as Thieves
A classic American muscle car on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Self-initiated.
Shot at Bonneville — a landscape that earns its place in every frame.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Production: Vita Brevis Films
A VBF road trip through Southern Utah — two Red cameras, motorcycles, a chinook camper, and a drone with a warning light that hadn't reset. Shot through the San Rafael Swell, desert sandstorms, and out to the Little Grand Canyon.
Self-initiated. The octocopter crashed, was cleaned up by firelight, and was back in the air the next morning.
Director: Skylar Nielsen · Cinematography: VBF crew