Inside the doorway of the house there are twice as many shoes piled in the corner as there are trucks packed in the driveway. Upstairs, there’s another snowless evening underway: film editing, Miller beer, conversation.
On its surface this would seem just another pack of friends toasting another day’s end. But this was serious business. It was – but wasn’t just – company business.
Still maintaining the casual-party atmosphere, this crew was ready to talk shop.
‘We are f@#$ing the epitome of the starving artists,’ says Rocky Romano. ‘We just aren’t in New York and we don’t have canvas.’
While there’s no canvas to be seen around the room, there’s a nook of computers off to the side of the kitchen. That’s where the art takes shape.
From There,
More than a decade ago, Romano was instinctively reaching each inevitable rung along his life’s ladder. He graduated with a business degree, got a job as a project manager rebuilding inner city housing. Then he did an about-face.
‘I was 26 going on 99,’ Romano recalls.
He quit his job, moved to the mountains. He lived the dream. Romano was a snowboard coach in the winter and raft guide in the summer, eventually becoming a World Cup-level snowboard coach and owner of a whitewater rafting company. In between, he bartended and fell in love with action-sport cinematography.
The change suited Romano. He liked his new life. But as the years drew on, he began to think about the long game.
‘I’m 39-years-old and I’ve got a 4-year-old little boy,’ Romano says. ‘I definitely wanted to find a way to perpetuate the dream and leave a legacy.’
Thus, in 2006 he founded The Go Big Project, a Tahoe-based production company specializing in action-sport films and events. Together with his friends/business associates/fellow athletes, Romano is chasing a dream.
‘It’s a beautiful, great story,’ he says of the pursuit. ‘The story about us making it would probably be better than us actually making it.’
All told there’s a community of about 20 people comprising The Go Big Project. This Tuesday-night crowd that left their shoes at the door are at its core.
‘It has definitely been a rollercoaster,’ explains Rob Armenti, vice-president/senior editor. ‘There have been some amazing times and some times that have scared the shit out of us, but at the end of the day we all want to get back on the ride.’
To Here,
To hear Romano tell it, The Go Big Project strives to go beyond the standard action-sport film fare. They attempt to ‘find the soul’ in their subjects.
‘It’s usually bright colors, goggles and hucking through the air,’ Romano says, explaining that his crew leans more toward ‘story telling’ than ski porn.
One of the concepts on the Go Big drawing board involves a multi-generational look at the culture of skateboarding via a road trip from Lake Tahoe to Los Angeles with four skaters, ages 14 to 45. Romano is hoping the film will appeal to both skaters and ‘housewives in the Midwest.’
‘Even if she doesn’t like skateboarding,’ he says, ‘maybe she’ll like the story.’
The Go Big crew recently experienced some crossover success in the skate film genre. In November, they debuted their film, ‘Final Cut,’ at FiftyFifty Brewing and drew quite a crowd.
‘It was everyone,’ Romano says. ‘There were people there who don’t even skate.’
That film was made during a skate competition at the Truckee skate park in October that Go Big also produced. In addition to films, the group focuses on events – usually melding the worlds of music and sport and film. This past summer, they sponsored an event with DJs, a roster of professional athletes and a base-jumping finale featuring Kristian Geissler leaping from atop the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno.
‘It’s pretty fun filming legal base jumps, especially at night,’ Romano says. Go Big mounted their 20-foot boom crane and Grand Sierra provided a huge spotlight and harnesses for the film crew.
The Go Big Project also attempts to give back to their community. They have partnered with the Northern Nevada Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, as well as environmental organizations. The Go Big Project has also set up a foundation, Athletes and Filmers With a Cause, and has plans to work with inner-city kids to help them learn to ski and snowboard.
‘We wanted to do more,’ Romano said.
… And Beyond
While The Go Big Project folks pursue their perpetual dream, sometimes day jobs are still a necessity. 
’We don’t have big sponsors, we don’t have a lot of money. We actually pay to work,’ Romano explains. ‘We’re waiting for our big break.’
The group is hoping that break comes this winter at the X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah. The festival coincides each year – this year from Jan. 16 to 20 – with the Sundance Film Festival, also held in Utah.
‘We have a pretty good feeling about it,’ Romano says. ‘We’re keeping our fingers crossed.’
The group submitted their short film ‘It’s All About What You Do.’ The feature offers a glimpse into the life of skateboarder DeMarcus James. It stays true to the group’s vision of soulful filmmaking.
In the short, James opens up about a troubled foster-care upbringing in a series of closely cropped shots and tells how skateboarding has helped him in life. By the time he’s ollied down his first flight of stairs, we know his life story.
That’s not to say the film is absent of shredding. James flies out of bowls, launches from ramps and leaps his board over a man sleeping in public.
‘It’s All About What You Do’ will be screened in South Lake Tahoe Jan. 14 at the Tahoe Bowl. The evening – which will also feature screenings of Go Big’s other projects and a ski/snowboard rail comp – is being billed as the Bro Bra Pro Bowling Championships. Competitors will be judged on costumes, bowling scores and rail comp results. Rob Giustina’s Mobile Rail Assault will present the rail comp.
Go Big will also host a Truckee showing on Dec. 17 at 8:30 p.m., at Moody’s Bistro, just before Reggae Night gets going.
In addition to planning their soirees and filming their movies, Go Big will also soon be focusing on a clothing line called Keep Tahoe Real and partnering with Boost USA to develop the 56 Solid clothing line. In the coming year, the group also plans to film a full-length feature ski/snowboard film.
Between now and Christmas, however, they’re just hoping to cobble enough funds together to afford to tell that multi-generational, on-the-road skateboarding tale. Then, if all goes well, winter and, finally, snow.
‘We’d like to have that done before the snow really kicks in and we have to start work,’ Romano says, knowing full well the group’s ‘work’ is as good as play.
~ Go Big Project, 530-448-8295, thegobigchannel.com.
It’s All About What You Do
The Go Big Project presents ‘It’s All About What You Do,’ a film giving a glimpse into the life of talented skateboarder DeMarcus James, who shares his troubled foster-care upbringing in a series of closely cropped shots and tells how skateboarding has helped him in life. See it at the two dates below. For info: 530-448-8295, thegobigchannel.com.
The Bro Bra Pro Bowling Championships
Jan. 14
This evening will also feature screenings of Go Big’s other projects and a ski/snowboard rail comp. Competitors will be judged on costumes, bowling scores and rail comp results. At the Tahoe Bowl in South Lake Tahoe.
Moody’s Reggae Night
Dec. 17
At 8:30 p.m., at Moody’s Bistro in Truckee, just before Reggae Night gets going.
