Frozen Tundra is a short winter film by Oliver Würffell, shot during a family trip to Wisconsin in late December 2013. Subzero temperatures, snow and ice fill almost every frame, and the journey builds to the family's first live NFL game: the Green Bay Packers against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Lambeau Field.
Frozen Tundra: a fan's winter film
Würffell wrote, directed and shot the film himself. Vincent Urban edited it and created the sound design, Marcus Adam handled the colour grading, and Daryl Jackson recorded the voice-over at Orange Sound in Munich. Würffell describes it as a non-commercial project, made simply as a fan of the NFL and of the Packers.
The film moves between scales. Close shots of cracked blue ice, frosted surfaces and frozen water sit beside wide views of a snowbound landscape and the crowd at the stadium. The small details make the cold almost tangible before the narration ever mentions a temperature.
Lambeau Field, home of the "frozen tundra"
Lambeau Field in Green Bay opened on 29 September 1957 as City Stadium and took its current name in 1965. With a capacity of 81,441 it is the second-largest stadium in the NFL and the largest venue in Wisconsin. The Packers themselves are unique among major American sports teams: they are owned by their fans, with more than 112,000 shareholders after the 1997–98 stock sale.
The film's title comes from the stadium's famous nickname. It grew out of the 1967 NFL Championship Game, the "Ice Bowl", played on 31 December 1967 at −15°F (−26°C) in biting wind. Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule linked the field with tundra, and the phrase "the frozen tundra" is believed to come from the Packers' highlight film of that season, The Greatest Challenge.
The game: Steelers 38, Packers 31
The game Würffell's family saw was played on 22 December 2013 in falling snow at 21°F (−6°C), in front of 77,999 fans. With Aaron Rodgers injured, Matt Flynn started at quarterback. It was a wild finish: the Packers fought back to tie the game, Le'Veon Bell scored a one-yard touchdown for Pittsburgh with under three minutes left, and a 70-yard Micah Hyde kickoff return set Green Bay up near the goal line. A false start cost them time, and Flynn's last pass fell incomplete as the clock ran out.
How cold a Wisconsin winter gets
Zero degrees Fahrenheit is about −17.8°C, so a "subzero" day in Wisconsin is properly frigid by European standards. Two weeks after the Steelers game, the Packers hosted the San Francisco 49ers in a wild-card playoff on 5 January 2014 at 5°F (−15°C), with a wind chill of −10°F, one of the coldest games in NFL playoff history. Lambeau's 2007 NFC Championship Game was colder still at about −4°F (−20°C).
Planning a Lambeau trip in December? Dress in layers, with a warm base layer, insulated boots and hand warmers: the stands are open to the sky for the whole game. For more of the same winter, see the ice caves of Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands or another travel film shaped by its landscape.
Related reading
- The January 2014 US Cold Outbreak: Forecasts, Observations and Winter Impacts
- Frost Flowers on Lake Ice: A Delicate Surface Pattern
- Rostov’s January 2014 Snowdrifts: The Full Photo Gallery
Sources
- Frozen Tundra by Oliver Würffell (Vimeo)
- Wikipedia: Lambeau Field
- Wikipedia: 2013 Green Bay Packers season
- Video and still: Oliver Würffell; featured by Gizmodo in 2014.
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