UKC

I just watched Distilled after having it from Santa today.
Enjoyed it, but i was shocked when the credits started rolling after just 40 odd minutes. My lady is fuming as she says it cost her 20 something quid.
Daylight robbery.
Quite dissapointed as i own the entire hot aches back catalogue and have always been pleased with my purchases. I think the film would have been suited to a section of a dvd (such as is done with Commited 2+ monkey see monkey do)
Anybody else been suprised by this?

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Says 50 mins plus 50 mins extras ( she was robbed at 20 quid according to the search I did

The clue in the title perhaps?
distilled:-
To concentrate, extract the essential elements.

In reply to Jim C:

Defo was not 50 mins. Was 40 somet mins when the credits started rolling. Never mind intros etc.

Really enjoyed the footage that was there. Some cracking scottish winter footage and thats quite rare. But less than 3/4 of an hour of it seems too little for a stand alone DVD

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Sounds like a mega rip off.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Check out hot aches website for tbe review on there, similar to what you thought. I thought there was an intermision and was waiting for the ice cream and popcorn to come round then on with the second half, but sadly not!!

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

I'd tend to agree. Thankfully I got my copy for a tenner. So I wasn't as bothered. It's a pity as The Pinnacle was excellent. So I had high hopes for Distilled.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

I do agree with you in some respects. But unfortunately there isn't a massive market for climbing DVD's so you do generally find that they are a little more expensive than the usual films.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Hi Double Knee Bar, I'm very sorry to hear that you did not enjoy Distilled. I would be happy to send you a free DVD or DL of one of our other films to make up for it.. I'm sorry that you felt it was too short... I had planned for it to be longer, but 42 mins If the length it ended up as. It does say that on our website , but I fear older marketing may have said 50 mins. We try and make the best films we can, and if we think it will be a better 42 min film than a 50 min that's what we go for, rather than stretching it out. Please email me at Paul at hotaches . Com and I'll sort you out with a freebie. many thanks. Diff.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:
At least you got to watch it!
Downloaded my copy but it won't even play on mine or my girlfriends laptop on any media player. Maybe cos it's hd?

In reply to diff:

I thought it was short too...

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, my humble opinion:-

I agree the footage was brilliant, you don't often see such good quality film of winter climbing in Scotland (if ever). There was also a decent selection of routes featured.

The narrator came across as a really sound lad, and his story coming from the pit was interesting, but I felt that at times great winter climbing action was going on but some of the tension and drama was lost a wee bit by his voice calmly telling the story at the same time. The links to whisky and the poem didn't do much for me personally, although I guess its hard to do something original in a climbing video, and it may well appeal to others. But the climbing footage is stunning, and for me it didn't need anything else.

It also has a really authentic feel to it: blowing a hoolie, spindrift, digging around for hooks or gear. One of the most refreshing things was the sound: you get to hear the axes striking the ice, the rack jingling, the wind blowing on the jacket. Its not drowned out with music at all and the sound quality is superb.

I would have liked a bit more chat/ information about the climbs he was on, but that's just a personal thing as it wasn't the way the film was done.

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, visually stunning and well worth a watch, but it is over too soon and did leave me wanting more...

In reply to diff:

Thanks for your response Paul, mailed you.

In reply to jezb1:

Hi Jezb1, I'm sorry the tech failed for you. It is a very standard file and should play fine on most players. I wonder if the file did not download correctly? Email me and I'll send you a fresh DL link. cheers, diff

In reply to diff:

Many thanks for replying on here.

Here is my comments on Distilled which I downloaded on the first day that it was available at full price.

I do agree with most that the film is way too short with no bonus features like in the excellent and much longer Pinnacle.

Please don't go down this reel rock film experience where they are basically just extended adverts for the longer full feature film.

The upside is that I thought the film content was excellent and professional and I really enjoyed it.

The only other slight issue I had / have is that just a couple of days after downloading Distilled you send an email with some special offers and one of them was download Distilled for a tenner.
Why not market it at a tenner?

Cheers and good luck with future films.

Gaz

ps I have most of your films so I am not writing this for a free dvd or download

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Same here, thought it was a little to short, but if there was only 42 mins worth of good footage what can you do,

Just a suggestion to the film makers , I personally would like to see the climbers / teams setting up there belays / anchors , it's a massive part of climbing but something you don't really see on films, it's just my opinion.

In reply to Mr Christian:


Ditto impromptu toilet breaks mid-route