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Kendal films

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 ablackett 18 Nov 2012
Thoughts from Kendal?

My thoughts were "wide boyz" was good, but we wanted to see more footage of the rest of the trip. Really enjoyed "crossing the ice", "autana", "driven to despair" and the one about the couple walking from seattle to alaska. All the white water session was rubbish except the Congo trip, which was watchable.
Etak 18 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett: With you on wide boyz - but driven to despite was the worst thing I have seen in ages - seemed to consist of a man moaning while on holiday in Namibia with added angry moaning if he happened to try and go climbing - not sure what the story was supposed to be - think it would of worked as a short film but it was very very long for the content

Also liked honold 3.0 and push it

Hoping crossing the ice wins tonight and can see it as best of
OP ablackett 18 Nov 2012
In reply to Etak: Agree, Honold 3.0 was funny, gripping, interesting and I felt like we learned a lot about Alex and why he climbs.

Driven to Despair made us laugh because we could relate to it, it felt like we could do that. It was a farce, and he did moan a lot, but generally with a smile on his face which makes it ok in my book. I think if the film had finished with him making the dyno I would have stood up and cheered. I just wanted him to get something out of the trip, even if it was some crappy boulder dyno.

The story was about his obsession with the dyno and his failure at everything in my view.
OP ablackett 18 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett: Results from Kendal.

Climbing Film - Wide Boyz
Mountaineering - The Old Breed
Mountain Adventure - Autana
Culture - Capetown
Environment - Chasing Water
Adrenaline - Where the Trail Ends
Short - The Warrior
People's Choice - Wide Boyz
Grand Prize - Crossing the Ice
Judges Special prize - Verticalmonte Demode

I thought Honnold 3.0 was a better film all round than Wide Boyz, so shame it didn't get anything.
The Old Breed was good and thought provoking, so no argument there.
Autana was great and captured a great trip with a beautiful film.
Where the Trail ends ticked the box for adrenaline.
Crossing the ice was my favourite, a fantastic film if you get chance to see it.

Well done to all except Tierra Del Fuego, which stole an hour of my life and was rubbish.
 Kelcat 18 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett:
I thought Honnold was exceptional.
The Bonnatti film was great.
The bike films were beyond boring.
But Shattered, was by far & away the best.
OP ablackett 18 Nov 2012
In reply to Kelcat:
> (In reply to ablackett)

> But Shattered, was by far & away the best.

What did you like about Shattered. I didn't know the climber featured, he had some interesting thoughts on his own personal motivations for climbing which I enjoyed thinking about, but I didn't think it was a great film.

 Kelcat 18 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett:
I thought it was exceptionally honest, and the climbers thoughts together with the rhythm of the cinematography were very poetic. Compare that to say the film about Bullock and I felt we learnt a lot more about the motivations, fear & soul of the first climber.
I was also taken with the Hidden Gully ski film, no budget but very real.
 jonny taylor 18 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett:

As you know, I'm curious about the "making of" the Autana film, and specifically how they got the cameras where they did - the obvious assumption being that the leads were in fact being re-climbed for the second time after getting a rope up there for the cameraman. Not to take anything away from the film.


I'd also love to know the reasons the organisers had for how they presented "What Happened on Pam Island". When I saw it there were no subtitles (this was acknowledged by the compere before the showing...). I wouldn't want to watch everything like that, but it was interesting to see it that way and I enjoyed the film. Would have liked to see it again and know everything that they were saying though. Anyway the intriguing thing was that it seems an earlier showing DID have subtitles. I wonder if this was a deliberate decision by the organisers or just a technical glitch...
 jonny taylor 18 Nov 2012
In reply to Kelcat:
> Compare that to say the film about Bullock

I don't know what this says about me, but that film did absolutely nothing for me, the navel gazing bored me and I left before the end.
 Kelcat 18 Nov 2012
In reply to jonny taylor: I think that is one of the best things of the festival. I thought the bike films were dreadfully (solely my own opinion) and yet they had to put extra showings of them on! The festival strives to cover all bases and caters for some wide tastes.
 sarahjk 18 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett: Loved WideBoyz, had seen them at ReelRock in Lancaster and this was a different film.

Sadly left it a bit late to get tickets and could only get Saturday morning [duh] Does anyone know of any links to Utube or similar or if there are any Best of KMFF type showings anywhere ? several I really wanted to see.

OP ablackett 18 Nov 2012
In reply to Kelcat: yes, they moved the bike films to the big theatre, because it was popular on sat. But I reckon there were less than 30 people in the bike films on Sunday. My theory that a lot of bikers went to see it on say then told everyone they weren't much good.
 climber34neil 18 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett: not really a film but just got back from watching ed Byrne and Andy k , best night out I have had in ages and well worth the cost of the ticket
In reply to ablackett:
Having just returned from climbing in the west coast of the USA the film that I wanted to see at KMFF was Wide Boyz. I bought a Thursday night film pass as the film was on the programme only to be told on the night that it wasn't being shown. After working for the weekend so unable to go to KMFF I bought a Sunday night pass to see the winning films confident that Wide Boyz would be the people's choice. It was! But I still didn't get to see it because too many tickets were sold for the event and many of us were turned away from the one venue showing Wide Boyz and told to go and watch the other films in the other venues. I for one am not at all impressed by the organisation at KMFF on the Thursday or Sunday nights.
 Offwidth 19 Nov 2012
In reply to rwg: Wide Boyz would be the least of my worries if I were in your shoes as you could buy the DVD at Kendal Tom and Pete were around to chat to and its obviously going to be in all the shops. Some of the other films are really hard to get hold of. It was never on the programme on Thursday as the world premiere was clearly advertised as Friday pm. As for sunday why is it the organisers fault that the festival was so popular?
 Mark Collins 19 Nov 2012
In reply to jonny taylor:
> (In reply to ablackett)
>
> As you know, I'm curious about the "making of" the Autana film, and specifically how they got the cameras where they did - the obvious assumption being that the leads were in fact being re-climbed for the second time after getting a rope up there for the cameraman. Not to take anything away from the film.

In the Q&A on Saturday evening, Alastair Lee confirmed your assumption.
 jonny taylor 19 Nov 2012
In reply to Offwidth:
In fairness the programme does imply otherwise if you don't think things through
http://www.mountainfest.co.uk/programme-detail.cfm?programme=320
 Milesy 19 Nov 2012
In reply to Mark Collins:
> In the Q&A on Saturday evening, Alastair Lee confirmed your assumption.


Already assumed that on previous videos. It would definately be the only way to make a climbing video interesting on multi pitch. I remember in Moonflower a few of the "from above" clips were from his stock footage (one from Ben Nevis) due to conditions and safety preventing them from getting the footage. Was a great video still though.
 Milesy 19 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett:
> (In reply to Etak) Agree, Honold 3.0 was funny

Is that the one which is going to be on the new Reel Rock tour?
 Puppythedog 19 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett: I wasn't able to see Wideboyz at the festival so I bought the DVD and watched their lecture. I would have liked to have seen much more footage from the other climbing. The 'story' about century crack was interesting and the comments from Stevie important to give some context to going back to re-lead it but I wold love to have seen more of the other climbing.
 JM 19 Nov 2012
Did anyone see the film about climbing in Kyrgystan? I really wanted to see this one as I am thinking of going. What was it like and does anyone know if you can get it online? Like a previous poster mentioned it was a shame that it was hard to see some of the films as the rooms were often full and on saturday the schedule was swapped around which was confusing but all in all some great offerings. I particularly enjoyed Blue Obsession which was a very nice short.
 jonny taylor 19 Nov 2012
In reply to JM:
> Did anyone see the film about climbing in Kyrgystan?

I did. I'm afraid it did not hugely stick in my mind, so can't say too much about it, though that in itself probably says something about how compelling I (didn't) find it.

My memory is that quite a lot of it was interviews about their emotional state. It did show some impressive rock, but I wouldn't really have said that was the primary focus of the film.

p.s. Last session of a long weekend for me, though, so maybe take that with a pinch of salt.
 Yanchik 19 Nov 2012
In reply to jonny taylor:

What he said. I've been to Kyrgystan, though further north, and around the region a bit. It's great that the three guys got done what they wanted/felt they needed to do, but they didn't share a lot of what was going through their minds, despite a reasonable amount of straight-to-camera talking head stuff.

Didn't see pretty landscapes (missed opportunity in Kyrg), didn't see much of the climbing, didn't learn much about the mental landscapes. Not dreadful (like Namibia) but a bit flabby at best.

Personal faves:

- Crossing the ice
- The couple who trudged up the Alaskan coast
- The paraglider on the Danish beach
- The paragliders in the Karakoram
- Hidden gulley
- Unicorn Sashimi, although a brief internet search reveals that the inspiration for that might not have been entirely self-generated
- Steve House navel gazing (nice use of colour, more than the blether)
- The two French lads who did the Bonatti enchainment

Y
 Offwidth 19 Nov 2012
In reply to jonny taylor:

More read and think than just think. It also happens every year (ie a world premiere causing removal from early showings)
 Offwidth 19 Nov 2012
In reply to ablackett:

Andy K won the Boardman Tasker from a strong field.

As we said in our report from last year the festival is really suffering from a lack of fringe events, especailly as it is rammed on the weekend. There werwe some amazing films but there also need to be more independant shorts.

The campsite inclusion was a big plus but it needed better advertising. It was great to see many more younger folk in the bar.

The disco party is becoming a joke as the music seems to be too niche (the room way too empty most of the time) but I guess theu don't care when it sold out again.
 jonny taylor 19 Nov 2012
In reply to Offwidth:
> The campsite inclusion was a big plus but it needed better advertising. I

I can understand there are challenges in providing camping, but we went to considerable lengths to avoid paying £18 to camp in a probably-floodlit field with no showers. I mean for that price a bunch of you could even book a taxi to take you out of town somewhere more pleasant...
[as it turned out, I was the 'taxi'...]

> The disco party is becoming a joke

We had heard good things and so thought we'd give the party a go. If I had known it was just going to be a disco [admittedly didn't do any research there] I would have gone to the pub instead.
 Offwidth 19 Nov 2012
In reply to jonny taylor:

Complain to the organisers I agree £18 is too much but a lot better than b n b at £40 plus a night for an individual.

The bar upstairs is a no brainer to me: talk to mates and various top climbers for free or pay for a nearly empty dance floor.
 Mark Collins 19 Nov 2012
In reply to puppythedog: Maybe the other climbing is on this:
http://www.reelrocktour.com/films/
Etak 19 Nov 2012
In reply to Offwidth:
> (In reply to ablackett)
>
> Andy K won the Boardman Tasker from a strong field.
>
> As we said in our report from last year the festival is really suffering from a lack of fringe events, especailly as it is rammed on the weekend. There werwe some amazing films but there also need to be more independant shorts
>

This is a good idea - I think a category for low budget and SHORT films - encourage more diverse story telling and film making - mostly the bad things I saw were at fault for being way too long - bike films seem especially guilty of this!

 diff 19 Nov 2012
In reply to rwg:
Hey rwg, Sorry you didn't get to see WB. Thanks for trying. If you would like a free DVD please contact me. Details on our website. Cheers, Diff
 Offwidth 19 Nov 2012
In reply to Etak:

They do it with the film school shorts but there is too little in the middle to get the next set of filmakers established. You can afford a few risks with shorts without annoying folk much. I'd say anything over 30 minutes needs to be brilliant or highly worthy to be included as it can be terrible to sit through these otherwise.
 Offwidth 19 Nov 2012
In reply to diff:

Karma points due for that. Another alternative is to win one in the BMC Peak area quiz (more karma points for the donation).
 Tyler 19 Nov 2012
In reply to JM:

In the Kyrgystan film they climbed Perestroika Crack and that was it. Looks an amazing place.

I thought la Dura Dura was brilliant and the two guys doing the Bonatti routes, the Manolo film was disappointing the guy's a legend and I was hoping to hear more about him. As for What Happened on Pam Island....
 Offwidth 20 Nov 2012
In reply to Tyler:

I thought Pam island was a good and refreshing low-budget shot at something different, had some great scenery and was funny and wasn't so overlong it could torture those who disliked it (like the Bonnatti thing); it also probably lost something in translation...any Polish speakers out there that can add anything?

Sometimes things get a bit too comfortable at Kendal and need a bit of a shake. I remember John Redhead tasked to do a section on Welsh climbing history about a decade back and suddenly a giant model phallus costume was dancing on screen to the shock and eventual boos of the aged beards...good on 'im.
 Tyler 20 Nov 2012
In reply to Offwidth:

Which bits were funny? I'm not being faceteous but it all looked pretty grim! There was very little smiling and on several occasions I assumed the woman was mourning the loss of her husband until he reappeared, had he turned up dressed as a giant phallus it might have
Intended the mood a bit. There was some inspiring scenery but there weren't as many shots of this as there were of camping and kayaking. Without subtitles to put it into context it was dull.

And what's with the 'low budget' comment. This is climbing, they're all low budget. I doubt that even with 'lavish' productions like Autana there were luxury catering facilities for Alistair Lee's extensive staff of camera men, costume designers, make up artists and runners
In reply to jonny taylor: I agree about the Bullock film, it came across as negative and moaning; it was as if he were trying too hard to justify his life choice (which I don't think he needed to do). I'm sure he enjoys his life, but to basically slag off everyone else's life because we go to work and have routines (both of which I enjoy) was tooo much. The idea beind the film might have been good, but the execution was terrible. Nick, on the other hand & in real life is a great guy who is always good to hang out with, but he really has been misrepresented in this film.
 Alastair Lee 20 Nov 2012
In reply to Tyler: Ha ha , I like it, the budgets for our films are so big these days I don't even have to go on 'set' anymore. I do the direction via Bluetooth from my yacht. Well I say yacht...
 Jimmy O 20 Nov 2012
In reply to Tyler: This seems a bit odd, when I watched Pam Island there definitely were subtitles, but now people seem to be saying there weren't any. Weird. Anyway, I am not sure that hearing them chat about cold hands for 5 mins really added anything.

For me the biggest let down of the whole weekend was the missing Bowmore tent. Lets bring that back for next year!
 Jimmy O 20 Nov 2012
In reply to Jimmy O:
I have just re-read my post and realised it sounded a bit negative. So, I want to add that I actually had a fantastic weekend, with some really really great films prompting some fairly heated debates at times. Which I actually think is a sign of a good film. For me I most enjoyed films where the characters of the people involved came through, for example, Alex Honald, those Aussies crossing Antarctica, the couple from Seattle, Autana, Wide Boyz and even driven to despair.
 gav 20 Nov 2012
In reply to Jimmy O:
When my other half saw it in the first session on Friday, they started playing it without subtitles, then re-started it with them.

In the second Friday session when I saw it, there were subtitles. Even with the subtitles it was a little hard to follow at times, with seemingly only about a third of the conversation being translated.

Was very disappointing that there was only a single Climbing1 and Climbing2 session on Friday and they were both in the same slot in the evening (when I had a lecture). Mountaineering was in 3 slots and had an extra session added - is it really that much more popular than climbing?

The Dura Dura film (managed to squeeze it in after my lecture) and Push It were particular highlights for me (also saddened by the lack of free Bowmore - although the stickle barn gin was good!).
 JM 20 Nov 2012
In reply to Tyler: I think that is one of the climbs I really want to do on the Russian Tower I think? I think it goes free at about 7b. I will try and find the film online somewhere and start my information gathering!
 jonny taylor 20 Nov 2012
In reply to gav:
Re subtitles:
I dropped the organisers an email out of curiosity, and apparently it should have played with subtitles and any showings without were a mistake. Their reply said "It'll be a tech issue - this year for the first time we were running everything off hard drives and media players, and I suspect one got the wrong version uploaded."
 Offwidth 20 Nov 2012
In reply to Tyler:

The black humour from the honest exposure of the reality of pain, fear, boredom and emotional accentuation shared by many such folk on expeditions, given the choice to be there trying.

As for the low budget comment I was talking in climbing film terms. I'm sure there are plenty of filmmakers out there would love to have the opportunity to make films like Autana but for the moment they have to make do on a lot less. I'm happy for Alistairs well deserved success, based on real talent and hard work but also want to see the next generation helped along as well. I wouldn't want to remove or cut his films (or any of the other big UK names) but some of the Euro epics in recent years could have been cut to an episode or rejected. It's not just dull epics that are the problem either...the Petzl china trip film was virtually a pop-video advert.

 simondgee 20 Nov 2012
In reply to Offwidth:
BFI's definition of Low budget is under £500K and micro budget is under £100K, (most of that budget will disappear on packaging and distribution).
Corey Rich's Why? -was 6 minute advert for the Nikon D4...I estimate the production cost to be over £120K which is cheap for a commercial...no story but pretty ...but i wouldn't watch it twice. Compare that with the charming 'Journey up the west coast' shot using £300 worth of kit and by the looks edited on Windows Movie Maker...the ultimate holiday movie but way more engaging and charming than 80% of what I saw...it made the audience requests for the finale...raw film making low production and nuts trip. Overall its a little sad that the sponsors of films feel they have to play safe and back predictable outcomes...that after 30 years of Kendal and Banff and the like its a little telling that still very few films are strong enough to transition to mainstream audience...and get watched on TV.

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