Podcast - Niall McNair: Climbing on Pabbay

In the second of our series of Committed podcasts, Niall McNair talks about climbing on the Hebridean Island of Pabbay, and his new multi-pitch route on an unclimbed seacliff; Redemption Arc, E6 6a xs, climbed onsight.

Niall McNair

"Redemption Arc' takes an completely unclimbed wall, severly undercut. The really beautifull thing is that that rock has been there for billions of years, and just knowing that our hand were the first to be on it was quite a unique feeling. "

"...the birds and the wildlife really add to it as well. You'll get dive bombed by bonksies, you'll get puked on by fulmars, but you also see basking sharks and otters and seals and all sorts of wildlife, and so you can sit on that belay ledge for hours and hours and just watch the wildlife around you."






You can watch Niall climbing on Pabbay at the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival this Saturday night, as part of a special cut of our film Committed.


You can also read more about Pabbay and Redemption Ark in our blog entry following our filming trip back in June. Committed Volume 1 DVD will be hitting the shops in the next few days.

Paul.

Committed Premiere

On Sunday, the Climbing Works in Sheffield played host to the world premiere of Committed.


It was great to be able to screen the movie there. Firstly because Committed features climbing from all over the UK, and so Sheffield is a good central location for the featured climbers and people who helped out with the film to get to.


Secondly it was a really good venue for this type of event; less formal than a cinema, more of a relaxed atmostphere.


Thanks again to the film sponsors, Mountain Equipment and Gortex, and also to the event sponsors, Mountain Equipment and Outside, and Heason Events for organising the whole event.

Mr Heason events himself; Matt Heason, compering the gear give away during the half time raffle.

Katherine Schirrmacher; making an entrance

Adam Long

The turn-out was great, and by all accounts the venue worked really well for this type of event. Sam and the team at The Works are now going to look to install permanent screens for more events like this.

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Hot Aches head south

'Our work is done'

Well, yes. We are finally finished. The Premiere of Committed is just 2 days away.

Dave B is just back from America where he has been eying up some stunning unclimbed winter lines - back to Colorado quite soon, or maybe not so soon, tonight's first training session with axes was a rather rude awakening.

Paul D is just finishing his first climbing comp of the season. I left Alien Rock (Scotland) early, after Paul had flashed the first 2 problems. Maybe this year? Or maybe 3 months of sitting in front of a computer monitor editing the moves of greater mortals will have taken it's toll?

Fortunately, as film makers, there is no obligation to be good climbers as well. I can think of only one film maker in the world who is rude enough to also climb really well - I'll resist the temptation to out him. He lives in Sheffield, that's plenty enough clue.

So we have an alpine-ish start planned for tomorrow; to The Peak and the promise of good weather.
2 days of climbing, with our super-psyched friend who couldn't care less about climbing movies; she just despairs at why we wont get up at 4.00am so that we can drive down and get a full day of climbing.

Sorry to sound jubilant, but yes 'our work is done'. It's been a great year filming, and a horrendous summer editing.

Right now, the thought of that the sensation of friction, when everything sticks and the seemingly impossible happens; that seems more important than any magazine review or sales statistic.

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Dave

Podcast - James Pearson talks about ‘The Promise’ E10

In this new series of Hot Aches podcasts we are bringing a whole series of 'extras' to accompany the new movie Committed, due out next week.

In this first podcast, James Pearson talks to the camera in the twilight after his late evening ascent of what is probably the hardest route on Grit, The Promise, E10 at Burbage North.


"For the last few years I've been trying to find something on grit that's really hard - a really good line - quite a standout feature, rather than some poxy squeezed in eliminaty hard thing, something really outstanding to do.

I'd been racking my brain for ages, so to finally manage to do something like this really cool looking arete it's really good. To try and leave my "mark", if you know what I mean.

Because there's not much stuff left on Grit, which is a shame because the climbing is so nice and the routes are all really good; there's just not much left of great quality. I'm happy I've done it."

You can also read Hot Aches account of that day back in January 2007 here.

Check back here regularly for more Committed extras podcasts, or better still, sign up for our newsletter (box to the left) and we'll keep you updated.

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Diff.

Committed DVD - Delivery Dates

Sorry to have to report that the european stock (PAL) of Committed has been delayed at the manufacturers (in Germany) by a few days. All orders from on-line retailers (HotAches.com DaveMacLeod.com etc.) were due to be posted out on 13th Oct. They will now go out on 18th Oct.

Stock should be hitting the shops around the 20th Oct.

In USA, stock (NTSC) is on schedule and is going out to retailers today.

Apologies for the delay. Frustrating.

Committed Trailer + Committed clips on TV

As the launch date for Committed gets closer, the trailer that we launched a few days ago is getting huge hits from all around the world.

Urban Climber TV in America is currently running the trailer as their clip of the week, and judging by the votes and the comments on US forums it seems to be going down well. The trailer is also going up on lots of other climbing sites around the world.

If you haven't seen it yet then you can view the Trailer here.

Making a trailer is probably the single hardest editing job in the whole of film production. The normal method for making a trailer is in fact, to get someone else to do it! Sounds odd, but that is how it is normally done; as a director or editor you end up so 'close' to your hundred hours of footage that sifting it down to 2 minutes is an impossible task.

Last year Alastair Lee from Posing Productions put together the trailer of E11 for us (E11 Trailer). This year though, with all our film-maker friends up to their necks with their own projects, we had to go it alone, and it was hard work.

The 'Committed' Trailer Timeline

TV Clips
ITV news (STV) in Scotland should be showing some 'Committed' clips of Kev Shields, tonight or tommorrow. So if you are in this part of the world then check it out.

The STV feature on Kev can be watched online here:

‘Committed’ Screenings Dates

Our latest climbing movie, Committed, will be showing at films festivals and special screening around the world over the next year.

Here’s are the dates of the first few major screenings:

The Climbing Works - World Premiere

This is our world premiere and after introducing the film we will be showing the full 78 minutes with an interval at half time for a beer and a natter.

This should be a fun and informal night. There will be several of the climbers featured in the film attending. I’m really looking forward to showing folk the film for the first time and hearing their reaction to it.

14th October 8.15pm

The Climbing Works, Sheffield.
For details see Heason Events

Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival

At the EMFF we're showing a special 30 min cut of the film with some of our favourite chapters and particularly those that are set in Scotland or feature Scottish climbers.

Several Climbers from the film will be there, including Dave MacLeod, Niall McNair, Alan Cassidy and Kev shields.

20th October 7pm

George Square Theature
For details see Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival

Banff Mountain Film Festival

We are screening 3 films at Banff this year:

Committed: Keen Youth
October 27 at 12 pm
Eric Harvie Theatre

Committed: To Grit
October 30 at 7:30pm
Eric Harvie Theatre

Committed (60 min Festival cut)
November 3 & 4,
Venue: Eric Harvie and Margaret Greenham Theatres
Exact times to be confirmed.

For detaits see Banff Mountain Film Festival

Kendal Mountain Film Festival

Committed will be shown several times through out the main weekend, details still to be confirmed.

November 17th / 18th
Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

I hope to see you at a screening somewhere or at least in the bar after.
Paul

13 Awards for E11

During the last couple of weeks our last film, E11, has continued to tour round the world and has now brought the collection up to 13 international awards.

In Poland at the Ladek Festival we picked up the "Culture Prize" for (roughly translated); "an interesting portrayal of the human condition"Then this weekend at Taos Mountain Film Festival in New Mexico we scooped the top prize; 'Best Of Festival'. Dave Brown, who had been in Colorado, was lucky enough to be able to drive down to attend the festival and collect the rather unusual award...
Also showing at Taos was the first outing for the new Sharma movie 'King Lines' (the first outing outside of the ReelRock Tour). No surprise that this great new movie went down really well and took the 'Best Climbing Film' award.

One of the special guests presenting this year was Sir Chris Bonington, covering 'The Everest Years'. I'm amazed to say that I dont think I have ever seen him lecture before. Quite odd that this first time will have been half way around the world from where we both live.

Taos. The adobe buildings of Toas town centre

...Oh, that 'unusual award'? Well. It was very flattering. But I think I will be more happy about it than Diff: A portrait worth $25,000(?) by artist Jack Smith.
I can't imagine that Diff will be particularly keen to have a painting of Dave Brown hanging on his wall. So I guess I get to keep this one. He can have the trophy from Poland.

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E11 will continue to tour a few more countries this autumn. But it looks like Taos will have been the last place that we will visit to present that film. Next week we premiere the new movie 'Committed' in Sheffield, England.

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Dave.