English man in Font

The DVD is done. I’ve pulled another all nighter and the morning sun has truly brought with it a new dawn. The DVD iso simply needs to be uploaded to the replication company and it’s all good to go. I’m a little unsure how I’m managed to stay awake for so long, but I think it breaks down to a simple desperate longing for all of this to be over. A big part of it is now over. No more all nighters, no more testing, no more tweaking. It’s done, for better or for worse. Lastnight’s all nighter was made more difficult by the absence of Fibonacci FM, but I dug deep into my virtual crates and created a world ending playlist for myself.

I’m psyched. So psyched. Good night. I mean, Good Morning. I don’t know what I mean. I’m going to sleep.

The past 72 hours have been notably absent of sleep, overly plentiful in cups of tea, and intensely monotone in activity. I really hope my mum doesn’t read this because I’ll be getting a phone call saying “you shouldn’t be doing this to yourself” to which I’ll inevitably reply “yeah, I know, but I have to push through”. The point is that when the end is so near you just don’t want to stop, because any stop is only a break. That’s why I didn’t sleep lastnight, and the night before I went to sleep at 9am for 3 hours. I’ve been plagued by small tiny errors in the render, which I had 2 minds to leave, but in the end I decided to go back and fix them. It’s intensely frustrating when you wait for 3 or 4 hours for something to render and then realise there is a black frame for 1/24th of a second which most definitely shouldn’t be there. But that’s the finalisation process, and the more I do it the better I become which is good I suppose.Also frustrating is realising that something odd has happened with the audio and everything seems to be between 5 and 10ms out of sync! No problem can’t be overcome however… and having 24 hours in a day sure has helped.

The up side of this hiatus from sleep have been the fact that I have completely finished the edit, made lots of small changes, created the DVD menu, completed the DVD extras, sorted out plans with the DVD replicator, given time to Sander to come through with the final artwork (the man’s a legend!), and also sorted out my own webshop. The webshop was an interesting undertaking because I went from knowing nothing, to have a nice little setup. It’s nothing fancy, but it has fully automated the (encrypted!) download process of the film which is great news. All the pieces of the puzzle are moving together in slow motion, like an implosion of jigsaw pieces, and I can see the overall picture very clearly. I’ve got the desktop and the laptop both rendering as I type, begging them to just please keep going to the finish line.

The pre order page will go live this week, so if you want the DVD I suggest you make use of that facility. Due to limitations in the music licensing I can only make a certain number of DVD’s and when they’re gone they will be gone forever. You’ll still be able to get the download version, but that won’t have the extras of the DVD. The other thing that came as a small surprise was the cost of postage. I had estimated it to be about 25% too low, which is annoying as it’s a cost I’m trying to absorb. Postage within the UK seems expensive compared to sending it to Tuvalu, so our dear island dweller readers will sleep easy knowing they are getting great value for money!

I also want to say a big thankyou to Fibonacci FM. This is a recently started internet radio station, broadcasting from a parents home, its got it’s roots in John Peel and it’s tentacles stretched all over the globe. The beautiful (and pounding) music has kept me going all night and without it I fear I might have crumbled. You know who you are Fibonacci. I’m in your debt.

I think I’ll post up some details from the editing process in the next few days, just to share the process with those who care… I’ll also update you with more details after I’ve spoken to the DVD manufacturers. If there’s one thing that I can’t help but think right now, it’s that nothing is most definitely something worth doing, and in a few days I’ll be doing it for a day or two, before getting back to what I love most… rock climbing!

//apologies for what seems like an eternal wait. It’s more painful for me, trust me.

Somehow in a fit of tiredness, I forgot to write the most obvious things. I have this stuff on my mind all day and I think when you spend so much time alone (as I’ve done sat in front of this monitor) you forget that people aren’t also inside your head. I’d assumed that everyone who read this would know a few things, like the fact that there will also be a downloadable version available. I forgot the crucial part of actually needing to tell people things for them to be aware of them.

I’m currently in the midst of setting it all up so it will hopefully be a smooth automated transaction, and also guarantee a bunch of bandwidth so people don’t have slow downloads or failed downloads. If you happen to know a lot about this kind of thing then get in touch because I’m learning as I go, which is great, but not hugely time efficient in the current time scarce world I’m existing in.

Woah. What a tumultuous train I’ve been on, with no stops and one destination in sight, the end. I’ve been working late into the night, and each night it would get a little later. It started to steady out to about 5am every night, but then it slipped to 6am and then realised I might as well take advantage of this and just work on through. So I’ve been working too long, sleeping too little, but the result is promising.

Between The Trees is nigh on finished. In fact, it’s rendering right now. I’ve been meaning to write something on here for ages, but my head has been firmly planted in the sand of the edit. It’s amazing how long it can take to do so little, but that’s part of tweaking and finalising something I guess. At least for me.

When I look back on the time Tyler and I spent in font I’m bombarded by good memories and dismaying feats. But that’s not the whole vision, as my critical eye is able to see much more and my forever ticking mind is always coming up with new ideas. I’ve written about my disease before, but it always rallies up when I’m looking back on something that I’ve worked on, seeing flaws, or areas which I could have improved.I was discussing it with Tyler and rambling on about some of the amazing stuff we could have done, to which he simple responded that we didn’t have the tools, the money, nor the time to do them. He’s right. I didn’t have 3 or 4 cameras and a crew of people. I had 1 camera, Tyler, and a bouldering pad. That’s it. I just struggle with aspirations of greatness…

Working on Between The Trees has been a rather lonely undertaking and I think it’s probably why I’m beginning to feel genuinely nervous about it’s release. Last year I just cobbled together a load of my own climbing footage, put some music over it, and gave it a name. I had no expectations; I just wanted to share my trip. It didn’t matter to me one bit if 1 person loved it or 5000 people hated it. Perhaps that was the difference, that was my trip, and Between the Trees is largely Tyler’s trip. Tyler went to Font and surpassed everyone’s expectations (even his own), clearly drawing a line in the sand of what constitutes a successful trip from a world class boulderer. He set the bar that others will try to surpass. I’m pretty sure he made the fastest ascents of nearly every problem in the film, and overall his trip left me and many other dismayed. I captured a lot of it on film and I wanted to be able to share that with the rest of the world, that’s the sole basis for deciding to make this film. In the last week I’ve begun to feel some sort of pressure that the film needs to live up to the bar that Tyler set through his climbing. His trip represented a world class effort, and I desperately long to try and make a world class representation of that. A bad film about a world class trip would be a huge disappointment, to me anyway. That’s why I’ve begun to get a few butterflies, because I really want this film to be good. I feel a genuine weight of responsibility and it’s quite funny in one way. I’m not simply representing myself with this film, I’m representing Tyler too, and so it’s important to me to get that right. I ask myself if it’s good when I watch it and the fact that I’m smiling and nodding my head to the beat gives me an indication that maybe it is. But that’s me. I like plenty of things that others don’t, like Japanese cinema or mathematical puzzles or number theory.

I’ve worked on this film all alone. No one has been sat next to me holding my hand or looking over my shoulder. For all the grand sounding aspirations of “Unclesomebody Productions”, it still boils down to a single man with a video camera, working away in his bedroom. This has limitations, physical ones that I can do nothing about. Everything I’ve learned has been on my own and most of it has come from failing early and failing often (although sometimes not often enough). Now that the film is pretty much finished I feel like I’m about give away a piece of me. I’d like to be able to know that every single person who watches Between the Trees will like it, but I know that such an outcome is unlikely. I even thought about a concept release with different genre’s of music, depending on what the viewer wanted, but this is firmly still in a concept stage! There will always be haters, but I’m hoping that the majority will be lovers.

I also feel like the teasers give no real indication of how good the film is, and this is solely my own fault! If a teaser/trailer should show the most inviting parts of the film then I’m basically rubbish at making them! It’s possible that this is because I’m looking at it from someone who’s eyes cast over the whole film every day, and not someone who’s only ever seen the teasers. I’m struggling to find the words to say this properly, but essentially I think it’s a pretty good film. I’m not saying that for any other reason than a desperate bid to honestly represent what I think.

I can’t offer any guarantee’s that you will love this film. I’m too mathematical to make such a grand promise without the knowledge that I am 100% correct. However, I am willing to make another guarantee. Nobody who will watch this film will have seen every single problem in it climbed before. If you have, just email me and you will get a refund. Yes, this is a money back guarantee. If you have seen every single problem climbed, either in real life or in video, then email me. I can only think of one person who might qualify for this refund, and if he contacts me it would be my privilege. The other thing I can guarantee is that this film will feature more hard problems than any other film made about Fontainebleau. I could probably guarantee that it will also contain the most amazing problems of any film ever made about fontainebleau, but since there is room for subjectivity in that statement I won’t put it out there.

From here I just need to wait for the render to complete (many many hours even on a 4.5GHz quad core machine) and then it’s off to the printer. I’ve paid for the music license, so that side of things is all legit and I hope you’ll think it’s worth it. Last year I didn’t pay any sort of license fee because I didn’t even know if anyone would watch it. This year I’m going to do it right, not just to cover my own ass, but to give something back as well. I’m also trying to produce the DVD in a way that is the least damaging to the environment. Plastic is a major nuisance to the modern world, and there is so much of it that there is even a documentary about it’s harms. I don’t claim to be able to solve these problems but I feel like I am in a position whereby I can make an informed choice. My choice won’t impact the world or change anything per se, but I feel like it’s a responsible decision that lies within my power. I haven’t quite settled on the DVD case design yet, but paying a little bit more for something that I feel is environmentally sound is worth it in my opinion. You may disagree, but the price of the film won’t change because of this. It’s my decision and so I will absorb the cost.

Anyway, I need to get back on it and lay this beast to rest. I’ll no doubt have some more rambling to do in the next 24 hours…

The last week has been pretty intense. I’ve spent a ridic amount of time sat in this very chair, staring at this very screen, cutting, chopping, and splicing away. I’ve really found my groove though. It’s like someone has turned my focus ring and now I can see everything clearly.  I’m filled with drive, motivation, and an unrelenting pursuit of the finish line. Perhaps this is the 23 mile mark in a Marathon. I don’t know since I’ve never run one, but I imagine that when you’ve only got 3 miles ahead of you and 23 miles behind  you things must look pretty rosy.

I’ve not been climbing much, nay, at all but I don’t actually mind. My vision is so firmly fixed on the film that I’ve been swallowed up. I’m working about 16 hours a day on it at the moment and it feels great actually. I’m waking up fatigued and I’m looking forward to starting work. Is this what it’s like to love what you do? Or have I simply gone mad and just continue with the intention of knowing the sooner it’s finished the sooner I’m free? I don’t know to be honest, but I’m feeling good for it. Whatever works… A few times a day I move to keep the blood circulating, or sometimes to dine on fine cuisine;

This is most certainly a sign of madness, but I compared the labels on two tins of baked beans, one from Sainsbury’s, and one from Tesco. The difference was ridiculous. The Tesco product had double the amount of calories per gram, which I find astounding. It also had approx 40% more salt. The bottom line is that I’m saying one should purchase their baked beans from Sainsbury’s, given the choice. Unless you’re going to the north pole or some other cold environment, in which case pound for pound (or euro for gram if that’s your thing) your choice should be the Tesco variety!

The name was decided last week. Between The Trees. What’s in a name? Well, I don’t know what to say about this one. There were many contenders, some which has much deeper philosophical meanings and all sorts of tenuous links, but this one was chosen for it’s simplicity. It’s a perfect description of where we spent all our time. Fontainebleau is one big forest, and between the trees are where the boulders lay. These boulders are where we spent our lives. The trees saw the big ascents, the frustration, the small moments of perfection as we glanced towards the glowing sunset. We were truly Between The Trees.

In other news, I’ve been the victim of a hate crime. Now I can be part of such conversations and empathise with other hate crime victims. Come, brothers and sisters, we are united by our love for those who hate us. Innsbruck, I declared a few months ago, is the safest place of it’s size that I’ve ever seen. Crime seems ridiculously low. Mobile phones and sat nav’s are left without a care on dashboards. Cars are left unlocked. Children go from A to B without a chaperone in sight. It’s kind of how I think things should be. This ideal was shattered quite literally earlier on. James went out to my car to get his bag and when he arrived back he declared that one of my windows had been smashed. Knowing James as well as I do, I know he wouldn’t joke about something like this, but the thought of such a thing occuring in IBK was so ridiculous that I did think he was joking. He wasn’t. I went out to take a look and sure enough, someone had seemingly punched a whole in my window. The car was full of stuff, of which everything remained. The sat nav was there, the stereo was there, the cash was there, it was all there. The doors hadn’t even been opened. Someone had simply smashed my window. I’ve not been here long enough to have made enemies (or so I think) so I can only assume this is some poor lost soul who decided to take his (or her I suppose) wrath out on an unsuspecting British car. I don’t suppose this is related to the gang symbol which appeared on my window sill a few weeks ago…

If I was a worrier, I still don’t think I would begin to worry. Seeing as I’m pretty much diametrically opposite to a worrier (ie. a warrior), it will take a lot more than a broken window and a pikey tag to make me think twice about leaving a bike unlocked whilst I go shopping.

Oh yeah, before I forget the entire reason I started writing this post, here is the third teaser. There is a method in the madness. I promise. One thing that’s slightly frustrating is that I can’t convey how good the overall film is (in my humble opinion) in these short teasers. I’ve reached the point whereby I am now permanently smiling when watching the footage, which must be a good sign mustn’t it? I’m equal parts excited, apprehensive, psyched, and smelly about getting the film finished and putting it out there. I know for certain there will be 3 people who will enjoy this film; Tyler, Me, and my mum. Enjoy.

Click through to Vimeo to watch it in HD, or forever hold your peace.

This week’s teaser is altogether lighter. In fact, it’s like an angel delight crossed with a balloon filled with helium. Keep your eyes unlike your potatoes.

Back in the day when the internet was basically useless and it took 3 days to download an mp3, I used to buy music from record labels directly via mail order. The quality was somewhat sinusoidal, but the joy of receiving a new record was always the same. The anticipation, the tactility, and sometimes the surprises. Back in those days of mail order it was entirely possible to slip in a little something extra, something which was expected but hugely appreciated. I remember receiving a CD which came with a recipe for a vegetarian lasagne bake and it struck me at the time as a great thing to do. In the digital era it’s much harder for the layman such as myself to surprise anyone, so back in the real world I’m hoping to provide a little zing in one way or another.

Enjoy the second teaser, and I’ll go back to editing. It’s so much fun sitting here for 14 hours a day, forgetting to eat, and getting so engrossed in the most ridiculous choices.

Today I left the house for the first time in 3 days. Yes that is unhealthy, sad, and probably a good indicator that I am antisocial. However, it made me appreciate just how good it feels to sit in the warmth of the sun… so I got my fill of vit D and returned home laden with milk.

I’ve been editing somewhat furiously. James told me something a while ago and I thought it true at the time, but now I’m realising it fully. Once upon a time either Rich Heap or Ben Pritchard (two real film makers!) told James that “a film is never finished, it’s only abandoned”. I don’t know if it’s an original quote or a stolen one, but the truth behind it is quite simple undisputable [a quick google has revealed that is was indeed George Lucas who uttered these words]. Anyway, I’m running into such circumstances as now I just want it all to be finished. I don’t want to sit here 14 hours a day. I want to go climbing. I want to have my plate empty again so I can fill it with something new. I can feel the end of this chapter coming and the prospect of a new one opening, which is actually a very good feeling.

The one thing I still don’t have is a name. This is quite a big worry. I’ve gone through many pages searching for THE ONE, but it’s never jumped out to me. There have been good suggestions, funny ones, and smart ones, but nothing which just fit. What’s in a name? Well, I probably attribute far more importance to it that is necessary, but that’s who I am. Last year the title had so many meanings and connotations, which I don’t expect or require the audience to appreciate. It’s more a way of satisfying myself! The search continues, and I hope that the one jumps to me or arrives in a parcel of inspiration within the next few days.

Last week I saw a copy of National Geographic and on it was a spectacular photo of a sequoiadendron giganteum. It was an amazing picture, but as usual with amazing photo’s I’d not looked hard enough to understand just how amazing it was. Behind all great pieces of art are roots. The facade pulls you in but it’s the roots that hold on. This is the photo;

These trees are truly amazing and I’ve been lucky enough to see them in real life. Big things are always inspiring to me for what I’m sure are standard human reasons. The story behind the picture is pretty interesting too, so head here to check it out and to see a video of the set up.

Now I’ve got to sleep. I’ve had to impose a self served curfew as I’ve been staying up to 4am most nights editing and I’m beginning to feel rather worse for wear.