I figured I’d give painting a try for the first time, so I painted a series of ski works – going for the photo-realism paintings of mountains, skiers off jumps, rails, etc. Senior year in high school I was in ‘Advanced Art’ where you pretty much run wild creating pieces of art however you want. Shay: How did you get your start in the industry, who or what opened up more opportunities for you?Ībe: Kind of a funny story, and slightly two-folded – I’ve jumped into the industry from two sides – largely completely separate. I helped run the USC Ski & Snowboard Team all through school, stepped in after my brother was president – that pretty much shaped every part of my college experience and beyond. I can’t even begin to imagine where or what I might be had I not gotten into skiing. It dictated what friends I had through school, what girlfriends I ended up dating, what school I went to, what hobbies I got into, and eventually now what career path I’ve chosen. Eventually went to USC and studied mechanical engineering, but continued to dabble in the arts through my own endeavors.Ībe: Every major decision past 8th grade I feel like has been influenced by skiing in some way or another. Spent a lot of nights and weekends learning to write code, playing with editing software, learning Photoshop, Dreamweaver, 3D modeling, etc.
#ABE KISLEVITZ FILELOUPE SOFTWARE#
I had a lot of rad software to play with, with help from my older brother who was the computer whiz. Always had a passion for the arts growing up which took a turn into technology pretty early on. Shay: Tell us a little bit about yourselfĪbe: I’m 24 years old, grew up near Portland, Oregon skiing Hood through high school. We were always in the park doing big jumps, and then had a camera that could be hands-free and all of us could do the jumps together, but still get the shots,” explains Kislevitz.Currently Riding: …skis? 4FRNTs of all types!Ĭurrently I am: In the office, editing GoPro commercials
It was kind of like a light switch for us.
They ended up sending us two of their cameras. One of our members of the ski team went down to the Action Sports Retailer trade show around San Diego and came across GoPro. I tried to establish it online and get as many people fired up as I could. “I did all our photos, and I kind of took it on as my own little company. Motivated by the desire to share his team’s enthusiasm with others, he built the team website. When he left his home of Portland, Oregon, for college at the University of Southern California, Kislevitz maintained his love of skiing and quickly joined the University Ski Team. I was doing my homework in the car,” says Kislevitz. He started skiing, and I naturally went up with all of his friends on the weekends.
“I have an older brother and I kind of followed him around everywhere at the time. Kislevitz was introduced to the sport of skiing as a teenager. While he hasn’t lived out his dream of designing physical roller coasters (yet), Kislevitz is currently combining his technical acuity and creative instincts by creating dramatic thrill rides through his GoPro video work centered around skiing and other action sports. “I had every roller-coaster software available at the time-that was available on a floppy disk-and designed roller coasters and looked at G-forces,” laughs Kislevitz. Everything you want to know about Abe Kislevitz can be summed up by his childhood dream career: roller-coaster designer.