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Odyssey Trailer Release

It's fast approaching that exciting time of year for us at Hot Aches, where we get ready to release our new films. We've had a busy year this time around, and have two films ready for release this November.

The first on the list is Odyssey. We have just released the trailer for the film this morning, and we are really psyched for the premiere on the 10th of November (details), and the subsequent online launch. Check out the trailer below.

Second on the list is Wide Boyz. This will be premiering at Kendal Film Festival, and will then be showing at Dundee Mountain Film Festival on the 24th November. Have a peek at the trailer for Wide Boyz below.

Last on the list for this years festival circuit and releases is the Long Hope Route. We are really proud that after it's success at Kendal Mountain Film festival last year, it is showing at Banff Film Festival this year, with both Dave MacLeod and Paul Diffley on hand to introduce, lecture and answer questions.

All in all it's been a great year, and we're looking forward to seeing the films on the big screen. Here's to the next few!

Adrian works for Hot Aches

Hi, my name is Adrian. This is my second post on the Hot Aches blog, I posted a while back about a trip to Alaska.

This is just a quick update to let the world know that I am now a member of the Hot Aches team!

Incase you didn’t see the earlier post about Alaska, I’ll tell you a bit about me:

I am a filmmaker and climber from Bristol, also a recent (1st Class Honours) graduate of Media Production from the University of Lincoln. I am passionate about the outdoors and filmmaking and love any opportunity to get out and shoot. Being a self declared nerd, I also love geeking it up in front of a computer.

During my time at uni, I worked for Hot Aches on a freelance basis. I am really grateful to have been offered this job so soon after finishing university. I don’t think I could have come at a more perfect time!

I started at the beginning of September and already, Diff has had me working hard on a few different jobs, editing things and also on a brand new Hot Aches website which is soon to be hitting the web.

My first major assignment for Hot Aches is to direct my very own film!! (due for release late 2013). This will be a combination of footage from the trip to the Ruth Gorge, Alaska and another epic location yet to be confirmed. The film will be a look into the lives of hardcore mountaineers’, Matt Helicker and Jon Bracey as they tackle some world first mixed technical mountaineering ascents... Keep an eye out for details on the next location.

Odyssey Release: Premiere at The Works

We are very pleased to announce that on November 10th we will be premiering our new film 'Odyssey' at The Climbing Works in Sheffield.

We've teamed up with The North Face to bring you a premiere with a difference, and starting at the same time as we show the film at The Climbing Works, we will release Odyssey online to stream for free for 10 days. During this time the DVD and download price of the film will be reduced.

‘Odyssey’ - Our 10th film (directed by Dom Bush) - is an epic two-week road trip with four of the world’s best climbers tackling some of the best areas of traditional rock climbing in the UK.  James Pearson, Hazel Findlay, Hansjörg Auer (Austria), Caroline Ciavaldini (France) and the four man camera team visited the Lakes, Pembrokeshire, Shropshire, Northumberland and North Wales.

We normally take the traditional route of premiering at a film festival, followed by the release of DVDs and downloads. This time round however, we wanted to do something different, and we hope that by releasing the film in this way  thousands of people will be able to enjoy it completely free of charge. We're hoping that people enjoy the film so much, that they will then purchase a copy of the film at the reduced price (available only during the 10 day period). 

During this time we will also be revealing exclusive offers on other Hot Aches titles.

We are very pleased to be working with Heason Events & The Climbing Works once again. Matt Heason from Heason Events said:  “A few years ago we held a multi-screen, simultaneous screening of ‘Committed 2’ at the Climbing Works which was a big success so it’s exciting to be working with Hot Aches again on pushing the boundaries of film distribution.”

Michele Scarano, Head of Digital & Social Media, The North Face (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) said:  "Since climbing is in our roots, we feel that authentic content is key to engage with the community from pro to enthusiast. We understand that followers and fans are hungry to know more about our athletes and their incredible feats through online platforms, as we've just seen with our live reporting from The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival."

James, Caroline, Paul and Dom will be at the screening to give the audience a flavour of what it’s like both on cutting edge climbs in front of and behind the camera on an epic climbing trip.

The Climbing Works will be showing an exclusive extract from Odyssey at the interval of the Reel Rock tour screening on Saturday October 7th.

Tickets to the premiere on the 10th November are on sale for £5 (£4

concession:

http://www.climbingworks.com/shop/media/books/lectures/odyssey-premiere-101112/

Win an amazing VIP experience with the BMC, See:
http://thebmc.co.uk/bmc-facebook-experiences

Press Release:
http://www.heason.net/news/2012/10/03/New_UK_Trad_Climbing_Film_Takes_UnTrad_Route_to_Top/

Calling all musicians!

Calling all musicians, we are looking to collaborate!

We are constantly working with music, whether this is in our multi-award winning feature films, or corporate and product videos, and we are looking to work with like minded creative-types.

We are looking for music from across the whole spectrum, from fast paced electronic tunes, through to mellow, acoustic pieces. At the moment we are mainly looking for completed tracks, rather than commissioned and assigned compositions.


So, if you are a musician, or know someone who is, send us a sample of work through to matt@hotaches.com and we'll get back to you.

Caro topping out safely on the 'The Jackals E8' 

End of the trip minus 2 days. If at this point I didn’t pick up the skill, then I must be a desperate case. I had the two best mentors you could think about: Hazel and James.

The easy part was to teach me about to place a nut, a cam. I theorie, it’s fairely easy: you get a hole, a crack, you stuff the cam in , release. Maybe it’s a bit more tricky when you have to insert the nut then turn it.

Placing the cam that just won't stay in, 'The Jackals E8'

That is the easy part, as I said. Except I realized just yesterday, watching Hazel than james on onsights E7 and E8, that you are definitely supposed to wiggle, look, check, until you are sure of your gear, then finalise by a massive tug. Here is my problem: once I placed my gear, I have no real idea of how solid it is, as a result, there is not so much point wiggling, as I won’t know if I am improving the proces or making it worse.

Master trad climber born and bred, Hazel on sighting 'The Cad E6'. Copyright Land and Sky Media

And then comes the real hard part of Trad climbing:being able to say: “this nut is solid at 90%”, or, ‘this nut is solid at 30%”. That’s what James is really trying to teach me at the moment. If you know you can relay on a solid gear, you can climb, run out. If you can’t relay on it, you have to find some other protection before moving up. If you can’t estimate your gear quality, you’re climbing blind, taking a chance with your life. Really very tempting, I have to admit, to just say in you head, “well, it will be alright, this cam in a breaky hole may hold, I should be at least slowed….”. Except no, Hazel and James are no stupid recless dudes, they insist on me not following this easy suicidal track.

Incredible, in fact, this trad attraction! I would have bet everything I would be a scared little mouse, top roping every route, crying one meter above the gear. But no! I find myself having just head pointed a route, with a big runout in the beginning, that I protected with a shitty cam in a loose hole. James onsighted the route after, and made me realize that my supposedly safe start was in fact not that far from a solo! Lesson of the day: do not accept “may hold” as a safety line, treat it like a solo! If you wouldn’t be happy to solo this part, then you shouldn’t be happy to climb with such poor gear. The real danger in Trad, is that it’s really easy to fool yourself, make yourself believe that you’re safe while the real wise trad climber is wise because he knows that he is committing into un-protected sections.

That committing stuff is my problem now. I don’t know where is the limit between being courageous and being an idiot. Watching Hazel and James, I really feel like they do succeed in that very well, having grown as climbers in that trad spirit. The question is, how long will it take me to learn to be a safe and courageous trad climber?

James in his element at Nesscliffe. Copyright Land and Sky Media

The Jackal, E8 - Sequence

Caroline Ciavaldini starting the crux of The Jackal, E8.

Making the first moves of the crux

Getting used to placing protection.

A second 'on the wall angle'. Getting pumped and worrying about the placements.

Reaching the ledge, and a huge sigh of relief.

Happy during an interview on the top.