English man in Font

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!

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.