After years of producing local Alaskan videos with Jason Borgstede as JB Duece,\u00c2\u00a0 Jesse Burtner had the desire to take the snowboard video to another level. A more cerebral celebration of snowboarding, one for which we might utter, thanks brain! after watching. And so, Think Thank was born. With his wife Pika, and friends like Sean Genovese in tow, Jesse claimed 10 movies and ten years later, delivered “Think Thank is Brain Dead and Having a Heart Attack,” right on schedule. So what better time to catch up with the people who make Think Thank tick, and answer the omnipresent question: what’s next?<\/p>\n
How did Think Thank start?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jesse:<\/strong> It started with a “Thunk”! \u00c2\u00a0It started out with a desire to attach ideas or philosophical concepts to snowboarding and the snowboard video. \u00c2\u00a0There is a lot to be said through snowboarding, you can run “big picture” ideas through any medium, so why not the snowboard video?<\/p>\n Where did the name come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jesse:<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0I wanted it to be a group of people all bringing their artistic or technical expertise together for one project. \u00c2\u00a0Kind of like a video resume for the talented snowboarders, designers, filmers and artists I knew. \u00c2\u00a0Pika, Andy Simutis and I were in the Sloop in Ballard drinking some Slooper-sized beers brain storming names. \u00c2\u00a0I said I wanted it to be a think tank, a group of people using their brains. \u00c2\u00a0We were saying it over and over and someone drew a tank on a napkin and I think Pika or Andy said “thank” instead of “tank” and that was it. \u00c2\u00a0It was perfect. \u00c2\u00a0The best, most easily messed up, tongue twister name ever! \u00c2\u00a0When we reverse engineered the philosophy behind the name that night we came up with the slogan “Thanks Brain!” \u00c2\u00a0because you think and then you thank yourself for thinking, thanks brain! And the name “Thunk” was also conceived right then, the sound a thought makes “Thunk”. \u00c2\u00a0Geno loved it, he immediately started drawing cartoons with Thunks and brains and we we’re rolling.<\/p>\n Who is involved in the day to day these days? \u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Jesse:<\/strong> Day to day it’s Pika, myself, Sean Lucey and Ross Phillips. \u00c2\u00a0With Geno always in our hearts and minds. \u00c2\u00a0He’s busy killing dinosaurs, it’s tough work, but someone has to do it.<\/p>\n