Documentary atmosphere

Speaking to friends and peers regarding the subject matter of their documentaries, it is clear to me that most people intend to document a particular place or event. this has led me to give extra thought as to the mood or atmosphere of the piece, especially if this was the main focus of the piece, to convey or document a particular mood or feeling. I recently saw the snowboarding documentary 'The Art of Flight' , which I felt was as much about documenting the mood of snowboarding and extreme sports as it was about actually doing them.

The film spends much more time talking about snowboarding and the ideas and philosphies behind it rather than other docs I have seen on the subject; which is admittedly few. However this idea struck me as an interesting subversion upon the conventional Doc format and is something I will specifically be trying to replicate.