English man in Font

Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction, and sometimes it’s just so terribly mundane that it makes for such bland writing, to the point whereby the words seem wasted. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out which has actually occurred in the last couple of months.

Whilst autumn was spent editing and cursing a seemingly never ending series of rendering issues, winter would be different. I would finish the film, pack my car, and head to the rocks. I would regain my form, climbing myself into great shape, and then go to Font to settle my account. Unfortunately the truth was a much more sombre affair.

Sometime around the end of November I ended up in England and whilst climbing one weekend at the climbing wall I noticed a strange pain in my hand. Nothing particularly noticeable, and it became far less noticeable when my back suddenly seized. The pain of not being to raise my left arm above my head, or being able to bend down to take off my shoes made me forget all about my strange little hand pain. When I did return to climbing after my back had loosened off, I found my hand hurting much more. What was a tiny little lump at the base of my ring finger, in the palm of my hand, was providing me with a rather incredible amount of pain. After trying to climb at Tivoli once or twice during December I realised something was seriously wrong. The lump was small but very hard, and seemed to be getting more painful. After one session my hand was so painful that for the next several days it hurt to even open it. Massaging the affected area seemed to only make it worse. Climbing was out of the question. More days and weeks were passing, and all my dreams of getting into shape were slipping away.

In January I decided to head back to England to try and see a doctor so I could get some professional advice. Unfortunately the GP said nothing more than “you need to see a hand specialist”, then referred me on. I spoke to another doctor (also a climber) who told me that she had exactly the same thing, and a bit of rest, plus lots of Ibuprofen helped her get over it. So I tried that, and 2 weeks later it’s still painful, but less so than it originally was. I tried climbing again last night, and could really feel that my hand wasn’t right. I expected to wake up with it in pain this morning, but the good news is that it’s not ultra painful, only mildly aggrieved. What was annoying was just how much of a punt I was at the wall. My fingers were weak, my body lame, and my movement terrible. It’s not too annoying, because I know that once my hand is working properly I can be back in form after a month or two of hard work. That isn’t in any doubt, but the seriousness of my hand injury is in some doubt. My appointment with the specialist is next week, so hopefully I’ll get some answers that can aid in my recovery, and not simply advice to the tune of “Don’t go climbing for a while”.

I’ve been very lucky when it’s comes to injuries in the past, as I’ve very rarely suffered from anything serious. In terms of enforced rest, the longest I’ve had to take was probably no more than 6 weeks, which always led me to believe that my body was pretty good at adapting to training. That’s why I’m so surprised at this strange hand injury. I can’t remember ever hurting it specifically, only that a dull ache from that point in my hand turned into a small hard lump which was extremely painful in the space of just 6 weeks. I know that isn’t right.

So that’s the boring truth. I have no big house. No warehouse. No world class training venue. Only a hand injury which is causing me some frustration. Turns out that the truth is only mundane in this case, sorry to disappoint you. P.M.A. Always.

After Between The Trees went platinum, I decided to take some time off and look slightly beyond the horizon. I bought a big warehouse in China and have a team of 40 people who do nothing but box and ship DVD’s out in their thousands. I was surprised by the take up in nations such as Bolivia and Iran, but it turns out that they want to see hard things look easy too.

Once the factory was set up and I knew that I could manufacture tens of thousands per week I decided to do the only sensible thing and reinvest into Unclesomebody Productions. I’ve hired a few guys who are all now perma staff on the team. Wes, Steve, and Andrew are now working on scouring the globe for the next big project. I also poured some money into other fixed assets, such as helicopters, RED cams, and Hollywood grade editing suites. It’s all looking pretty handsome right now, and from where I’m sitting, the big time is looking like a comfortable place to spend some time.

Once I’d taken care of business, it was time to take care of myself. The advantages of now having a American Express black card are truly wonderful, and I can’t even imagine how I lived without them in the past. I decided it would be nice to have a staffed house in the Bahamas, so I made one call to my personal concierge service and within 1 hour I had the house, the first class flights were booked, and a car would be waiting for me. It’s little details like this that make me really glad I decided to make Between The Trees. Who would have thought it…

Life in the Bahamas has been really nice. Being December, the climate is generally rain free, and daytime temperatures around 21C are perfectly comfortable. I’ve been spending much time on the veranda, staring out past the orchard and onto the shimmering blue of the Atlantic. Somewhere in the distance I can hear the sound of hard work, but it’s barely audible over the sounds of my personal DJ. This is a great service and is once again something I don’t know how I survived without. I used to have to seek out new music myself, cue it up in winamp, and listen to it via a couple of NAD amplifiers hooked up to KEF speakers. Now it seems that all I have to do is think about what I fancy and the beat begins to match. My pulse/heartrate and other physical stats are transmitted to the DJ (who also happens to have gained his Doctorate from Cambridge) via a small chip which he implanted. Now he knows when I’m beginning to wake up so he knows when to start playing the morning set. It’s a wonderful sensation to open your eyes and hear the perfect sound whilst laying eyes on the most beautiful landscape one can imagine.

The world of leisure activities was something which I seemingly knew nothing about, as I’ve seen spectacles that would defy belief in the last few weeks on my Island. One major advantage of being part of the nouveau riche crowd is that I am morally inept. It’s wonderful. I have furnished the island with a zoo of immense proportions, including animals from every land. Once a week we arrange a great fight, where the animals are paired via a random lottery system. They are then placed in the “cage of justice” and at most only 1 of them is allowed to leave. There have been times when, excitedly, neither have left the cage, the winner seemingly sacrificing his life simply for my pleasure. I have great respect for those champions. Last week we saw a wonderful battle between a cheetah and a chicken! Who would have thought that a chicken could put up quite so much resistance. The cheetah was nearly worn down, but in the end its speed combined with the chickens seeming lack of risk assessment gave the victory to the feather covered cheetah. I have proposed that we start airing these battles, so keep an eye out as whatever price I do charge it will be undervalued, I promise you that.

Climbing seems to have lost the appeal it’s once had. I did have a woody built to my exacting specifications in the stables, but I’ve only been down there once, to make sure all the holds were clean. I was surprised to see the Beastmaker boys still there, as they told me it would only take them 1 week to custom make every single one of the 30,000 holds I needed to train effectively. It’s no bother though, they generally keep themselves to themselves, stealing a bit of fruit from the orchard, but I grant them that for providing me with a fingerboard last year. It’s a simple training philosophy to which the board was build. Specificity. I have large board covered in only one type of hold, and a certain orientation, and at a certain angle. I then replicated this as angles ranging from 20 to 60 degrees overhanging. For every different grip type, there is a different board, as there is for every hold type (mono’s, pockets, undercuts, pinches, etc). I guess that with bundles of cash it’s easy to make your dreams a reality. My dream of the perfect training venue has been realised, and yet I lie here dictated my blog post to a beautiful girl who types away furiously whilst making me cocktails with her other hand. It’s these simple pleasures that really give life any meaning…

The future looks interesting. I’m thinking of staying in retirement for a good while longer. I’m taking the jetski out today to battle with some dolphins. They might have won the last round, but the war is far from over. I’ve got the spear sharpened, my speedo’s tighter than ever, and I’ve made inroads into holding my breathe for 10 minutes underwater. Half man, half fish, all rich.

The last few weeks things have been eerily silent on here. I’d like to say this is because I’ve made so much money from the DVD that I’ve bought a house in the mountains and retired. In actual fact, it’s nothing so glamorous. In actually fact, I feel a lot more like Marlow going to meet Kurtz, as I’ve been travelling all over the place catching up with friends, doing the odd bit of climbing (indoors), sending out DVD’s, and coming to find a deep love for public transport.

I’ve actually written several blog posts over the last couple of weeks, but none of them have passed the editor in chief and have been left in the gutter. I’ve also been writing them all by hand, something to do with my palin esque journeys along the public networks of the UK. There’s something oddly inspirational about looking out of a train window. It’s that same kind of feeling that you get when playing chess with actual pieces versus playing on a computer. The tactility of it somehow evokes far more deep rooted emotions. Maybe I’ll be the last generation to feel that (how over dramatic), or perhaps it’s something that’s a much deeper part of us. I don’t know, and quite frankly, it doesn’t matter. Back to my point. I’ve been writing blog posts by hand, as an attempt to resolve the dichotomy between the digital and the real world. Some sort of crossover medium. I was going to photograph them and then post them up on here. Perhaps I’ll still do it. It’s an idea I’m quite into at the moment. Plus I feel like my handwriting will give something away. I don’t know what it will give away, but I feel like it’s a good thing that should be given away.

I spent far too few nights whilst in the UK in my own bed at home, swapping it’s comfort for various floors, couches, sofabeds, and bus/train seats. “Wherever I lay my head is home” is something which was seemingly attainable but not really hold-on-to-able. After a certain amount of this, I felt like I’d lost my gravity. A young Jumbo told me in no uncertain terms that I simply needed to “refind gravity”. He was totally correct, and I went in search of it. What is it that holds us down? The thing that keeps our feet on the ground. The thing around which our beings orbit.  I went in search of it, and as with most journeys the first paths taken are never the most direct. Where would gravity be found… in my closest friends, in my favourite places, in my climbing, in my family? It turns out that all gravity is contained within. That’s what I needed to refind. This might sound like a totally ridiculous thing to say, but a few years ago I really did find my peace. This has already turned into a blog post that I can’t publish. Damn. My peace never leaves me, but sometimes I lose it momentarily. It only takes a moment in time, a Planck unit, for me to regrasp it, but when I do I feel so deeply seated again it’s as if my gravitational constant is larger than that of the universe. Needless to say I found it and I felt like I was orbiting the right piece of space once again. It felt good.

The last few weeks have also been hectic in terms of other plans too, so I’ve been battling my many loci of goals. I’ve refound a whole lot of psyche for my climbing, but translating that into double sessions every day is seemingly impossible at the moment. I want to pour all my energy into so many places, and that’s proving more difficult that I thought. In front of me lie a whole number of buckets, each labelled with a goal of some kind. The problem is that I want to fill them all at once, but with a finite amount of liquid. Jack of all trades, master of none. My goal was to be master of all trades. Ridiculous perhaps, but I never aimed for mediocre. So now I need to find a way to produce this magic liquid more quickly and more efficiently. I need to find a way to realise more goals, more quickly. I need to find the framework into which I can fit that allows me to do all of that.

Sometimes life is so simple. You wake up, you eat breakfast, and you go climbing. You return home at sunset with a feeling of such intense satisfaction that you wouldn’t change these days for anything the world had to offer. They are pockets of perfection. Other times, life is less simple, and given the choice of everything the world has to offer you find yourself stumbling at the first step; the choice. I’m not so much stumbling right now, as trying to figure out how to simply do all the things I want to do. I don’t believe it’s possible to take on too much, only to fail due to bad management. Be more efficient and you’ll be able to do more. I’m always chasing efficiency…

A few days ago I arrived in Fontainebleau, and a slice of those moments of perfection came back to me. Each corner in the road is like an old friend. When to brake, when to start accelerating into that blind overtaking spot, when to look out for police, when to take it easy, they’re all so familiar. I’ve spent so much time in Fontainebleau that it’s become a comfort zone for me. A place that now truly feels like home. I can’t remember the last time I looked in a guidebook. I feel so good here. So good that after arriving my thoughts drifting to perhaps moving back here. But that would be too easy an option. My goals are clear. This year was supposed to be the year of 8B+ and whilst that dream may still technically be alive (the dream never dies), it’s currently connected to a life support machine. I split the fold of skin between my first and second pad a few weeks ago and it’s never healed properly. After a day climbing here it began to bleed again. A day of rest didn’t help, and the following day during the warm up it become a load worse.

Two days ago I went to the Gecko bloc. My first emotional response to seeing it was “It’s not that big or that many moves!?!”. This wasn’t something I said or thought, but something that simply came up from the fire of feeling. It seems like I haven’t become 100% robot just yet. This guttural reaction was a welcome relief. If my skin hadn’t split open I think the dream would have been alive and kicking. Conditions were ridiculously good, perhaps amongst the best I’ve ever seen in Font. It’s no surprise that Sebastian Frigault repeated Gecko Assis yesterday. The guy is a legend, a true legend of the forest.  Once my skin had split and was bleeding I stood back and just observed the boulder. I looked at it feeling strong. Not the strongest I’ve ever been, but strong enough. My mind is strong and I know if the mind believes the body follows. I looked at with frustration in my eyes. I was frustrated because I know how much I want to climb it. I also know how it’s only a stepping stone on my journey through climbing. Why do I want it so much? Because then I can look at the next stepping stone. It’s all one big fractal. How do you maintain perspective though when it all looks the same no matter how far you zoom in or out? That’s more of a side note than a serious question.

I’d like to write a little something about the DVD sales. I honestly didn’t have any expectations before releasing Between The Trees. My only hope was that people would enjoy it. I’m not ready to give my own critical assessment and my own feedback to the reviews it’s had, but the emails I’ve had have been such a huge reward. When people tell me they are inspired then I literally couldn’t feel any better. To be partly responsible for that is a huge compliment and something I feel privileged to be part of.  I didn’t know how well the sales would go, or if I’d make a huge mistake distributing it myself. All decisions along the path were taken with truth, honesty, and honour in mind. Whether or not they turned out to be the best decision is something different, but I can say that I’m happy that I made them. This is a labour of love, not a product of financial viability. The DVD’s have been flowing out the door at a steady pace, which is good for me as it means people are enjoying it. The three boxes full have been reduced to only one, which is a pleasant surprise and something I’ve been trying to plan for. The most annoying thing so far is the lack of reliability in the postal system. DVD’s have been lost which is just an annoying for me as for the recipient. I guess this is to be expected on one level, but next time I should look into alternative methods of distribution (presuming there is a next time…).

I don’t know what 2010 will be. I’ve been thinking about it a lot actually. What will 2010 be in terms of both my life and my climbing. I know the 8B+ stepping stone will soon be trodden upon, and I already have a vague vision of the stone after it. But my thoughts are turning to more than climbing. I don’t know where they are turning, and perhaps the exact direction doesn’t really matter. What matters is the feeling behind the direction. A compass which aligns itself with a feeling rather than a destination. That’s what I’m moving with.

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…