Valhalla Transmissions: TGR Shot a Ski Film on iPhone 17 Pro with Beastgrip Gear

How TGR Shot a Pro Ski Film on iPhone 17 Pro Using Beastgrip Gear

When Teton Gravity Research drops a new film, the ski world pays attention. TGR has been setting the standard for action sports cinematography for decades, pushing into the most remote mountain ranges on the planet with the best athletes in the game. So when they announced that their latest edit, Valhalla Transmissions, was shot entirely on iPhone 17 Pro with no traditional cinema cameras and no massive production rigs, it raised some eyebrows. Then people watched it, and the conversation shifted entirely.

Valhalla Transmissions: Athletes, Director, and the Vision Behind the Film

Valhalla Transmissions stars two of freeskiing's most recognizable names: Sammy Carlson and Kai Jones. Carlson has been a pillar of the freeski world for years, known for his effortless style and creativity in big mountain terrain. Kai Jones, one of the most exciting young talents in the sport, brings a level of power and precision that makes every frame worth watching. Together, under the direction of TGR co-founder Todd Jones, who has been pointing cameras at skiers for over three decades, the result is exactly the kind of cinematic ski content TGR has always delivered. The fact that it was captured on a smartphone makes it all the more remarkable.

Behind the Scenes: How TGR Built a Multi-Camera iPhone Production in the Mountains

What makes Valhalla Transmissions technically impressive is not just the iPhone 17 Pro itself. It is how the team deployed it across multiple shooting setups to capture footage of completely different types while maintaining a consistent visual identity throughout the edit. The production combined FPV drone aerials, tripod-mounted long lens work, pole-mounted and handheld rigs, and athlete-operated selfie-style shots. Each technique served a specific purpose, and each one fed into a coherent final cut.

That visual consistency across such different shooting approaches is only possible because every setup was built around the same camera. No mismatched color science, just the iPhone 17 Pro doing the work across the board, with the right tools built around it for each situation.

The gear at the center of that system was the iPhone 17 Pro paired with Beastgrip's professional cage and rigging ecosystem, the upcoming DOF Фoton adapter with Angénieux EZ Zoom lenses for select shots, and FPV drones for the aerial work. Here is how each piece came together.

Image credit: TGR, Apple

The Camera: Apple iPhone 17 Pro and Its Triple Lens System

The iPhone 17 Pro features a triple camera system, including ultra-wide, wide, and telephoto lenses, that were used throughout this production to highlight just how capable each one has become. What matters most in a multi-setup production like this is consistency. The ability to cut between ultra-wide shots, standard wide coverage, and tight telephoto frames without the audience noticing a difference in quality or character. TGR achieved exactly that.

The ultra-wide opened up dramatic perspectives on terrain, making mountains feel vast and contextualizing athletes within the landscape. The wide lens served as the workhorse for most standard skiing coverage. The telephoto brought athletes in close from a distance, compressing backgrounds and producing the kind of image depth that typically requires dedicated long-lens glass. All three sensors blend together naturally with consistent color, detail, and rendering, which is what allowed the team to mix and match focal lengths freely without disrupting the flow of the edit.

FPV Drone Footage: Capturing Ski Action From the Air on iPhone 17 Pro

The sweeping aerial shots throughout Valhalla Transmissions were captured using FPV drones rigged with iPhone 17 Pros. This approach is significant because it means the aerial and ground footage share the same camera system with the same color science, sensor characteristics, and image quality. There is no visual mismatch between a shot from the sky and a shot from the slope.

FPV drone work in skiing has become a defining visual element of modern ski films, and TGR used it to full effect here, threading through trees, tracking athletes through steep and complex terrain, and delivering the kind of immersive perspective that puts the viewer directly inside the action. With the iPhone mounted to the drone, those shots cut directly into ground-level footage, requiring no adjustment.

Image credit: TGR, Apple

Tripod Shooting With Beastcage, Beastmod, and the DOF  Adapter Фoton

For longer, tighter shots of athletes charging through open terrain from a distance, big-mountain context shots, and slower, more composed sequences, the team used the iPhone 17 Pro mounted on a tripod. The stability of a proper tripod, combined with the telephoto lens, allowed them to capture controlled, deliberate frames with real cinematic weight.

The Beastgrip cage gave operators a solid, standardized mounting platform that interfaced cleanly with the tripod and behaved exactly like any professional camera build would. Reliable, familiar, and ready to work with whatever accessories the production needed.

Image credit: TGR, Apple

For select shots in this setup, the team went a step further and added the Beastmod alongside the Beastcage, together with the upcoming Beastgrip DOF Фoton adapter and Angénieux EZ Zoom lenses. The Beastmod provided an additional layer of rigidity and a fully standardized rig base specifically suited to supporting the Фoton adapter and cinema glass. The Фoton opened up shallow depth of field and smooth adjustable optical zoom that the iPhone's native lenses cannot produce on their own, and the Angénieux EZ Zoom glass delivered precise, cinema-grade rendering that makes a tight shot genuinely stand out.

Image credit: TGR, Apple

What makes the Фoton adapter different from other depth-of-field solutions on the market is its optical design. The adapter is patent pending and built without ground glass. Most DOF adapters use ground glass to relay the image from the lens to the sensor, introducing a subtle texture and softness that can be more challenging to match with other footage in the same edit. The Фoton's groundless design eliminates that texture completely, producing images with finer detail and a cleaner, more natural rendering.

The result is that footage shot through the Фoton adapter blends seamlessly with everything captured on the iPhone's native lenses across the rest of the production. No visible shift in texture, no mismatch in image character. Just a natural change in depth of field and focal control that sits perfectly alongside the drone aerials, the handheld pole work, and the selfie shots without ever drawing attention to itself as something technically different.

Image credit: TGR, Apple

Handheld and Pole-Mounted Shooting: Getting Close to the Action on the Mountain

For the close-up action shots covering athletes throwing tricks, dropping into features, and skiing tight terrain at speed, the team relied primarily on the Beastgrip cage mounted to a pole, with regular handheld operation mixed in for certain shots. This combination put the camera physically closest to the action and delivered the kind of raw, immediate energy that neither a tripod nor a drone can replicate.

The pole mount was the workhorse of this setup. With the caged iPhone extended on a pole, operators could push the lens right into the heart of the action, swinging it through the frame as tricks unfolded, reaching out toward athletes at the peak of a jump, and positioning it in places no handheld operator could reach on their own. For jump and trick coverage, especially, this technique makes the difference between a good shot and a genuinely great one. The camera gets close, stays controlled, and captures perspectives that feel visceral and alive.

The Beastgrip cage made all of this possible as a practical field tool. Additional grips and handles gave operators confident control, whether on the pole or in hand. USB hubs and external drives connected directly to the rig kept the recording workflow solid in the field. Standard RT/LT mounts allowed the team to quickly adapt the configuration between shots, switching from pole operation to pure handheld when the moment called for it, without downtime.

Sprinkled throughout the edit are also a handful of selfie-style shots with the iPhone operated directly by the athletes themselves, capturing their own perspective mid-run. These shots bring a loose, immediate quality to the edit that no operator-controlled setup can quite replicate. They feel personal and unguarded, and they give the audience a genuine sense of what it is like to be out there on the mountain with Sammy and Kai.

Image credit: TGR, Apple

iPhone 17 Pro for Professional Filmmaking: What Valhalla Transmissions Proves

Valhalla Transmissions is not just a great ski edit. It is a proof-of-concept of what modern smartphone filmmaking can achieve in one of the most demanding production environments imaginable. Cold temperatures, high-speed action, unpredictable mountain light, remote locations. These are conditions that challenge even the most experienced crews with the most expensive equipment.

TGR met all of it with an iPhone 17 Pro, a thoughtfully assembled Beastgrip rigging system, cinema-grade optics, and the expertise to bring it all together across multiple shooting setups. The technology enabled the vision. The vision was always TGR's.

For filmmakers, for athletes, and for anyone who follows ski culture, the message from Valhalla Transmissions is clear. The barrier to entry for serious filmmaking has never been lower. The tools are accessible. The ceiling is still determined by creativity, skill, and the willingness to push into the mountains and make something worth watching.