English man in Font

On Friday I was supposed to be changing the price of the DVD and HD option from £17 to £19. I genuinely meant to do it, but the day unfurled a little differently than I expected, culminating in a trip to Bristol to party with some expected and some unexpected characters (and sometimes all in one). I didn’t get a chance to change the price and so I figured I would do it over the weekend. Sunday arrived sooner than expected and I was faced with the option of changing it. As you can see, I haven’t done so. I thought quite a lot about this, and spoke to one of the wisest people I know (my brother) about it to figure out why I should or shouldn’t do it.

Perhaps one thing you get here that you don’t always get everywhere else is transparency. I’ve got nothing to hide, and I’m honest in my representation of what I think, so what I write is a good indication of what I really believe. The bottom line for putting the price up was so that I could get more money. That much should surely be obvious. But I didn’t make this film in order to make money. Money is not the motivating factor behind this whole endeavour, nor behind unclesomebody in general. If money was my motivation I would put on a suit and get a job in the city. My motivation is to live a life I enjoy, and to share that joy with other people. It sound cheesy, sure, but that doesn’t make it less valid or less true. The HD download option is almost costless to me in terms of replication. I want people to see the HD download option because it’s definitely higher quality than the SD DVD version, and so putting the price up goes against this basic tenet of wanting to share it with more people. That is why the combo price will remain the same.

Those that have seen the film will know that I would have liked to have given this away for free. If there was a viable business model that allowed me to give it away and be able to live, then it’s the one I would have chosen. Unfortunately I’m either not experienced enough, famous enough, smart enough, or desirable enough to have found such a solution. Maybe one day I will be… or if you know of such a path, get in touch!

Once again, I just want to thank all the people who’ve been buying Between The Trees. When I’m writing out envelopes every day and I see someone whom I’ve never met but respect it feels good to know they will see the film. I also really appreciate the feedback that people have been sending it, and even though I haven’t responded to all of it, I have definitely digested it all! I’m the first to admit that I have a lot to learn (and I’ll admit this on my deathbed) so I do appreciate all critique and commentary that has been sent it!

Hopefully soon I’ll be back to climbing every day, because at the moment that still seems a little far away. My skin is like that of a man who’s never climbed before, only spent each day moisturising his skin and wearing gloves the rest of the time. Not an ideal state of being for rock climbing!

At least a small part of me expected to be starting this post with something like “The epic continues…” but instead I have great news to report. This morning I decided to take action and put things back under my own control, so at 8am I headed off down to London. Two hours later I was picking up 3 boxes of DVD’s from a clearly overworked office! As I looked upon the DVD for the first time I was filled with a host of emotions, but all positive. I was most definitely impressed with how it’s turned out in both visual and tactile terms. It’s really good and so I can’t do anything but thank the DVD manufacturers for that. I stopped only for long enough to load them all in the boot, then jumped back in the car and headed back up to Derby.Once home I headed to a separate wing of unclesomebody’s offices, otherwise known as my gran’s house.

I was somewhat worried about the postal cost, as I’d been working on the lower of my estimates when I priced the DVD, but then found out that the DVD+envelope may well weigh over 100g. The difference between 100g and 101g is 50% of the cost, and that was something I hadn’t accounted for. This is why I had hand written every single envelope, because I didn’t want to risk a label adding even 1 gram to the overall weight! It was a good thing I did take all precautions, because when I put the envelope on the scales they maxed out at 100g. I couldn’t believe how lucky I’d been!

Now, I really want to thank the wonderful ladies at my local post office. I walked in there and told them I had about 250 DVD’s to send, and they didn’t even bat an eyelid. She gave me a whole sheet of airmail stickers, customs labels, and even lent me her “small packages” stamp. I headed back to HQ and packaged all the DVD’s, then back down to the post office where the 3 members of staff formed a production line with my DVD’s, each of them sticking on a different stamp! Local post office services in the UK are truly amazing, and even though the royal mail as a single breathing organism has major problems, the staff in these local offices really provide a wonderful service! One of them even bought a DVD!

So, everyone in the UK should be getting their DVD in the morning as they were all posted first class. Those in Europe can expect anything from 2 days to never arriving, depending on how lucky you are! Everybody who placed an order before 8am this morning has had their DVD despatched, and those who ordered today will have there’s sent tomorrow. From now on, all DVD’s will be sent the day after the order is placed. Also, the price of the DVD and HD download option will be going up to £19 as of tomorrow. I’m leaving it for 1 more day so people that perhaps put off ordering due to the pre—order can take advantage of the introductory offer.

I just want to thank everyone who has placed an order for showing plenty of patience, and I really hope you feel as though the wait was worth it and are pleasantly surprised when you tear open the envelope! Enjoy my friends!

Today I expected to be sending out DVD’s. I really did. This is because I trusted that there wouldn’t be any more delays, because I’m a trusting kind of guy. Unfortunately I was wrong. The epics I’ve had with the DVD manufacturer have only continued. I’m not going to write how bad they are on here, but if anyone who reads this ever wants an (anti)recommendation, send me an email so I can help you avoid getting into this situation!

The printers have had issues with the machinery, so the digipaks have been delayed further. Yes, it’s ridiculous, I know, but it’s out of my control (which is someone I hate at the best of times). I’ve told them that I will drive down to collect them the second they are ready as everything else is ready to go and if I can save a day by driving there instead of waiting for a courier then I’ll do that. The bulk load of padded envelopes I’ve ordered have arrived, and the addresses are all completed, so I literally only need to put in the DVD’s and put them in the post.

I can’t apologise enough, and even though the delay isn’t even my fault, I feel personally responsible, so I’m genuinely sorry. I’m being told that they will be ready to go on Wednesday, so depending on the time of day they are ready I will post them Wednesday or Thursday morning. I’ve been assured that there will be no more delays, so you can expect a DVD in your post on Thursday or Friday. They’ll all be getting posted out first class to those in the UK, and airmail for those outside of the UK.

On top of these issues, my website has been down most of today for a reason I can’t trace (but which has suddenly resolved itself!). Plus, on the way to England someone reversed into me whilst I was stopped at the swiss border control and then I had two near misses at the airport when I had to sneak through the barriers because I didn’t have a train ticket, narrowly avoiding about 10 policeman, and then almost not being allowed on the plane because I was supposedly late (even though I had 40 mins before the plane left!) and my bag was grossly overweight! It was quite a funny little journey!

Sorry.

I’ve just spoken with the DVD manufacturers, and they have told me that the DVD’s have been ready since wednesday, but the hold up is now due to the digipaks. They must be getting sick of me by now, as I am constantly emailing them, desperately asking if they can get things done faster, and likewise I’m beginning to get sick of them. The bottom line is that DVD’s will not be getting sent out today, Friday 13th. This is a big negative, as I’d hope to hit this optimistic date, but as with everything there is a positive. The price of the combo will remain at £17 until the DVD’s are shipping. Once they are shipping it will jump up slightly, so if you’re umming and arring, then cease doing so and commit. The first step is always the hardest…

I’m on my way back to England right now so if necessary I will drive down to the DVD manufacturers and pester them in real life. As I said, I’m doing everything I can to get these out the door as soon as possible. To those who have ordered only the DVD, patience is a virtue sent to test the strong. If the reviews are to be believed, it will be worth the wait!

Also, a special thanks to Jarmo Annunen who really went way beyond the call of duty by spending many hours re-writing a bunch of code for my site in order for the download system to work flawlessly. Not only does he code superbly, he has a great climbing gym and a great shop, so if you’re lucky enough to be in Finland, check it out!

In between all the late nights editing and problem solving, it’s easy to forget what I should be doing with my time… which is climbing (in case you’ve also forgotten). Yesterday we took a trip to a gym in Flirsch, which seems to have a VERY disproportionate amount of very strong climbers. Flirsch is basically a small village, yet it has a rather good climbing gym and lots of beasts (home to all the Zangerls for example) so perhaps there’s something in the milk there? The cows certainly looked handsome as they came down off the mountain a month or two ago;

The session at the wall was good, although I definitely felt like my skin wasn’t used to climbing. It’s all thin, lacks grip, and basically disgraces me. My movement is also another aspect that I feel quickly degrades when I don’t climb so I end up jumping for holds and fumbling them. The basic power level isn’t too bad, but it’s not exactly good either…

It was nice to climb again, and the scene in Flirsch seems really good too. It’s kind of far to go every day but as a weekly jaunt it seems like a viable alternative to training here in Innsbruck. Variation is key. I also had a somewhat big, but obvious realisation whilst leaving the gym in Flirsch. I’d been trying a certain boulder problem, and hadn’t quite managed it, as each go would result in something different going slightly wrong. Either I’d fumble the hold or my ass would swing just a shade too far out and I’d slide off the slopers. Each go it felt like something different, and the sum of all my goes was failure. I couldn’t correct all my mini errors in one succesful go. This is perhaps partly due to a lack of climbing, but it served me an important lesson. When we are “training” we (and I say we, but mean I) concentrate mainly on increasing maximum strength, maximum power, or other maximum levels. Everything should be maxed out, right? In a way, yes, but not when these come at the expense of other strands in your climbing portfolio. I thought back to my horrific World Cup experience earlier this year and I didn’t fail on any of them because my maximum level was too low in one area. I failed because I lacked a fully functioning error detecting and correcting algorithm.

I’m a pretty analytical person, and I am constantly analysing myself, but realising errors is one thing. Eradicating them is quite another. Being able to eradicate a number of errors all at once and in a moment of your choosing is the level beyond that. This isn’t a magical skill, it’s one that can be trained, like almost any other. I think that for me it’s definitely a worthwhile excercise to work on these error correcting techniques so when I fall off a problem 3 times in a row for 3 different reasons, my 4th go will be succesfull.

I definitely think that my shortcoming in this area is why I am not only terrible at flashing boulder problems, but generally not very good at doing problems quickly. All the hard problems I’ve climbed (with a few notable exceptions) have taken far longer than they should have taken and as I look back I can see it’s because I wasn’t able to eliminate all the small errors quickly enough. When you try a move 100 times your body naturally eliminates small errors, but being able to eliminate them for your 2nd try is somthing I’m aiming to improve. Set your targets, then run for them full pelt.

If there’s anything I’ve learned in the past couple of weeks is that it’s impossible to get other people (read; DVD manufacturers) to work as hard for you as you do for yourself! It’s been a little bit epic to be honest, but after over a hundred emails (yes, seriously) they finally understood what I wanted and how to make it a reality. I really thought this would all be wrapped up already, but alas, each day presented a new challenge.

So technically, it’s only kind of on. The DVD manufacturer isn’t the most expeditious company I’ve ever dealt with, but I’m probably just overpsyched because this something I want and I want it now! They’ve now told me that the DVD’s will be ready by Friday 13th. It’s much longer than anticipated, but there is nothing I can do as it’s out of my hands. Maybe I should have just burned them all on my PC and hand drawn individual covers made from old weetabix boxes? It would have been faster, that’s for sure.The DVD will be sent out to you lovely people on either Friday 13th or Monday the 16th. I can’t make any guarantees, but you should understand that I will do everything in my power to try and get them out to you the second they are delivered to HQ. The roadblock is nothing to do with unclesomebody, because here at HQ I know nothing of EU work regulations and the only maximum in place for number of hours worked in a week is the number of hours in the week.

It seems that a number of people have been contacting me to ask about how they can get a DVD copy AND an HD download. This wasn’t something I’d thought about to be perfectly honest, but if someone wants it then I’ll make it a reality. There is now a third option on the products page, which means you can buy a DVD and get the HD download for 60% less than you would normally pay (if purchased individually). This way you get the best of both worlds (just like Jay-Z and R-Kelly).

However, since the DVD is currently a pre-order, I’ve decided to come up with a further special offer which I’m hoping will kill many birds with only one carefully aimed stone. During this pre-order period, you can buy both the DVD and the HD download for £17. Once the DVD is available, this option will go up to £19. So there are currently three options, a DVD, a download, and both. Consider your choices carefully as there are pro’s and con’s.

As I’ve written before, the DVD is best thought of as a limited edition. Due to music rights I was limited to how many I could produce so once this batch is sold out, they’ll be gone forever! The HD download will remain online for as long as the internet cares to exist as it falls under a different category, so you’ll always be able to watch Between The Trees, but you’ll not be able to hold it in your hands and drift off into a blurred vignette of wonderful sandstone boulders getting crushed in your vice like grip…

Sorry for all the waffle, head to the Products page to get your slice of the action!

Basically, I thought you’d have watched this film weeks ago. The final hurdles have been many, high, and seemingly never ending. I sent a copy of what I thought was the final HD film to Sara and she reported back that there was a 1 second glitch (a rendering artifact) at one point during the video. 67 minutes of footage, a 1 second glitch. I can’t leave it in, so back to the editor, back to the rendering process, the muxing process, the faffing about, and I’ve now got another final HD version. Hopefully this one will be fine.

I could work on this film for months more, on things that no one would ever notice. Are they important? That depends. I think that a film shouldn’t force you notice what’s going on, you should just enjoy it. You need not notice how much work went into a particular shot, because you should be absorbed by what’s going on. I think that’s a nice goal to strive for. Saying that, I won’t be working on this film any longer. It’s done (if Sara reports back with positive news).

The DVD version went to the printers last week. The artwork was a hotly contested race, and there were some great entries. My friend Mike didn’t even ask for a brief. The mere mention of a DVD cover sent him off into a frenzied state and he took it upon himself to name the film and design the cover in one fell swoop. Only when he came back to earth did he realise I’d already named it… This was his effort though, churned out in probably less (apparent!) time than Usain Bolt running the 100m.

Thanks for the effort Mike! The next version of the cover came from a designer friend of mine in England, Sam Beeson. He was given a ridiculous deadline and a remarkable lack of information but still managed to come up with a concept I really liked. I apologise for being so useless Sam. His proposals looked like this;

A late entrant to the game came from none other than Thomas Mills. In between creating wonderful spaces to exist in and broadcasting the purest techno this side of Berlin, he conjured this up;

James decided that knowing nothing about photoshop or design shouldn’t be a hindrance, so he set about his climb along the learning curve of cs4. What he eventually came up with was a big surprise to me, because he’d gone from zero knowledge to actually producing something decent! As a bi-product of undertaking this task, he know has a rather good working knowledge of photoshop! The advent of the internet and the power of community has made it possible for nearly anyone to do nearly anything… if you have sufficient motivation!

But the final choice, and gold star award, goes to Sander Pick. I can’t really explain how much effort Sander put in. He put up with my constant nagging emails, my ridiculous deadlines, and produced something which I think is amazing. In an ideal world, I would only work with people like Sander, and not the useless cretins that have plagued other aspects of this project. He is a perfectionist, which means that quality comes before deadlines, but in my opinion the world would be a better place if there were a few more perfectionists… although it might take longer to get there, it would certainly be worth it! I can’t recommend him enough if you need some design work, website work, or generally something very good looking. So the final DVD artwork is thus;

I’m really happy about it. It’s simple, it’s to the point, and it’s great. Tolstoy once wrote “There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness, and truth are absent”. In that vein, I think Sander created something great. Thanks man, I’m in your debt.

So, the DVD is being pressed, the artwork is being printed, and I’m awaiting news of a delivery date. Once I have an idea of when a box of DVD’s will arrive at my door then the pre-order will be open. I should hopefully know that information tomorrow, but I’m not having a huge amount of joy with the dvd manufacturer to be honest. I’ll keep you updated though, as everything else is ready to go. Behind the scenes it’s all going on, even though the surface appears still, a geyser is set to erupt any moment…

At the tail end of last week I finally completed the HD version of the film which will soon (very soon I hope!) be available right here. On Friday morning, at 6am, I overcame what I hope is the last obstacle and went to bed for 3 hours of sleep. When I arose I definitely felt like I need to get as far away from this monitor as possible so plans were made and come evening James and I were on the road to the Dolomites.

It turns out the dolomites harbour some rather large pieces of rock. Very large infact. Flicking through the guidebook we saw routes with over 1km of climbing. We were lucky enough to be met by Lorenzo, all around hero, and dolomite guide for the weekend. He spun us tales of being lost on the huge faces, using his chalkbag’s 3mm cord as abseil tat to escape from irreversible situations, and on Saturday morning he led us in to face the project for the day. We parked high up in the Sella pass, at something around 2300m and were dominated on both sides by huge imposing pieces of limestone, in places covered by snow and ice. What had we signed up for?

Luckily I know Lore quite well, and so I knew roughly where he would be taking us, so I wasn’t at all surprised when he announced “this is it” and before me stood a 2m, 50 degree overhanging boulder problem! I was mildly psyched, but I hadn’t come here to boulder, I’d come here simply to come here. The sky was a perfect shade of blue, the air had that wonderfully crisp property that cools your nose and invigorates your lungs, the ground was partially covered in ice/snow, and I remembered how wonderful the world outside of my room really is. I was more than happy to just recline in the sun, enjoying the fine line between the cold air and the warm sun.

Within 10 minutes I was being sucked into the black hole of bouldering, so I began warming up on the very strange limestone that filled my sights. I’m not a fan of limestone, but this was something a little different. It was grippy for a start, and the holds weren’t all small, sharp, and painful. They were nicely shaped, smooth, and felt nice. It’s a rapid departure from raven tor. Before I was half way through my warm up James had sent both problems on the bloc, called Redline Inside and Redline Offside. The guy doesn’t mess about. I hadn’t even seem him do them, seemingly crushing them in the blink of an eye. Luckily Lore’s shouts and general dismay confirmed what I’ve come to regard as ordinary – James crushing. Fifteen minutes later and I wasn’t warmed up but it was time to shine. I felt bad on the rock, shaky, weak, and like I was falling off every time I moved a hand. Once I had 2 hands on the rock I felt stable enough, but the inbetween positions were very wobbly. I flashed the left problem (not sure which is which – turns out the left one is called “no name” and the right one which we did is called Redline Offside, which is the lower of the two starts!) and then by some miracle I managed to do the other problem 3rd go, which came as a great surprise to be honest. I hadn’t really worked the moves much, I hadn’t had a million tries, but I was on top. It felt good. I imagined that this is what it must feel like to be more like James or Tyler, or any one of the other great climbers I spend time with. I was also surprised by what my heart appeared to be doing. I lay on top of the boulder breathing rapidly and trying to count my heart rate… which came out to around 180bpm. I don’t know if that’s possible or not, but it was certainly beating fast enough to worry me slightly. I’ll put it down to the thin air instead of me being grossly unfit. I don’t know the grades of said problems, but a quick hunt on 8a.greatconcept.badlyrun reveals that they are either 7C, 7C+, or 8A. One of these grades is probably close to correct for either of these problems.

Probably the only italian to go bouldering with an old school Liverpool FC hat on…

We also climbed a nice (albeit lowball) problem called Mecca 7C. It had surprisingly great moves, but was marred by the proximity of the ground. If it had been another 2m in the air it would have been superb, and I don’t say that lightly considering we were bouldering on limestone. All in all, the limestone bouldering in the dolomites taught me that not all limestone is bad totally horrific. Far from it, limestone can actually be good unobjectionable. Whether or not I’d ever choose it over sandstone or granite remains to be seen (actually, definitely not), but there is room in my cup for more than 1 flavour of ice cream. In fact, if you’ve followed my adventures for some time you’ll know there is room for at least 29 flavours…

I’ll post an update regarding Between The Trees later tonight or tomorrow morning, but the simple version is that it’s closer to you that you realise.

ps. Apologies for the pictures. I’m still hindered by using a camera phone!