‘The Long Hope’ DVD Trailer Now Online

Our new film, ‘The Long Hope’ is now available on DVD and HD download.

 The Long Hope DVD, Cover photo by Lukasz Warzecha, design by Ifan Bates

We had a great time at the premiere last week, with a sold out theatre at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. Folk seem to really enjoy it. It was great to be over hearing so many positive comments in the bar all weekend at Kendal… Not that we spent all weekend in the bar… just most of it!

 The Long Hope premiere, pic Lukasz Warzecha

Highlights of Kendal for me include, Cory Richard’s and Anson Fogel’s short film 'Cold' and John Beatty’s A/V presentation, ‘Wild Vision’.

On the Sunday night we were all thrilled to win the People's Choice award, thank you to everyone who voted for the film.

The winning team! Andy Turner, Guy Heaton, Lukasz Warzecha, Ed Drummond, Matt Pycroft, Claire MacLeod, Dave MacLeod, Paul Diffley, presented by Nico Favresse

If you want to know what all the fuss is about, watch our new trailer and don’t fear the ‘Full Screen’ button, its 1080p!

'The Long Hope' - Trailer

Do you want to see it all? DVDs and HD downloads now available from hotaches.com.

Diff.

P.S. Please hit one of the magic buttons below to share this blog and share the love x

Why Rock Climbing Films Are Like Desert Island Discs

'By the sleepy lagoon' (Eric Coates), the theme music to Desert Island Discs, why not enjoy this as you read.

A student I taught at the Adventure Film Academy last year recently sent me a link to a climbing film he had completed and asked for my opinion. The piece was well shot and edited yet it failed to move me as a film. I was considering why that was when I came up with the idea for this blog.

To me, the most important thing about film is emotion. As a filmmaker my job is to create films that generate emotion in the audience. In my opinion, for a film to be truly great it has to make you laugh and make you cry. In last seven years of attending mountain film festivals there have been only a few which have achieved this benchmark (e.g. Alone Across Australia, 20 Seconds of Joy, Solo: Lost at Sea, The Endless Knot, Touching the Void).

I have to admit that I have yet to make such a film. However, I feel sure I have created films that have generated emotion in audiences. As I continue to learn my craft I hope that I too can create a work that will generate a standing ovation from a tearful audience.

The student’s film in question showed a climber making the first ascent of a route. When the climber topped out I felt no emotion. Why? Because I knew nothing about the climber or what this climb meant to him. I had watched him climb from the bottom to the top, but I had no connection with him.

Andy Kirkpatrick, “Climbing is like masturbation…”

I think rock climbing films differ from say skiing films or skateboarding films because for the most part climbing is fairly dull to watch! Andy Kirkpatrick hits the nail on the head when he says, “Climbing is like masturbation… it’s fun when you’re doing it, but no one else wants to hear about it!”

Don’t get me wrong, I love climbing films and I think film is great medium for telling stories about rock climbing and mountaineering. But what makes climbing films great and interesting is not the climbing action, but the climbers themselves.

The reason Desert Island Discs is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio is not because of the music it plays, but because the audience learns something about the guest. The show is about the person not the music, and in climbing films the film is about the climber, not the climbing.

Diff

Day 3 - Minus Three Gully

Day three of the Smith-Marshall Project and Dave and Andy climb Minus Three Gully.

The Great Chimney - 50 years on

Those who knows anything about Scottish winter climbing will know the names Jimmy Marshall and Robin Smith. Although their reputations as climbers spread well beyond what they did in this week 50 years ago , 6-13 February 1960 will forever be acknowledged as a significant time in the history of Scottish climbing.

As part of a commemorative event to mark the achievement, Hot Aches is working with the Fort William Mountain Festival to film Dave Macleod and Andy Turner repeating the adventures of Smith and Marshall. We will be filming and editing as we go. Below is a short clip of their ascent of the Great Chimney.



You will be able to see more footage from the week on the Ben at the Fort William Mountain Festival on Sunday 14th February, dubbed "Marshall / Smith night". Jimmy himself will be there. You can book tickets for the event online at: http://mountainfestival.eventry.co.uk/

Paul will also be giving a lecture at the Fort William Mountain Festival on Saturday 13th February. This is aptly titled "Climbers I've shot and some I'd like to shoot". Tickets for this can also be booked online at: http://mountainfestival.eventry.co.uk

Committed 2 Wins In Banff

We are making the long journey home to the UK from Banff, Canada. Whoever booked the flights clearly didn't take time to look at a globe, for I am currently sitting in an airport at Houston, Texas, feeling rather tired.

At Banff this year the Brits scooped just about all of the climbing related awards:
Rockfax won Best Guidebook
Al Lee won a judges special prize for Patagonian Winter
And Hot Aches won 3 Awards, yes 3 ?!?

Banff Mountian Film Festival is probably the most presigious of all festivals to win awards at, so we were pretty happy chaps, as you might well imagine.


The awards we received were. Best Climbing Film. Best Short Film. Audio Post Production Award


It is only 10 days now until Committed 2 will be out. A reminder of course that you can pre-order your copy at the link on the right.

--
Dave B

ps. Quote of the week was from Andy Kirkpatrick (via Al Lee) 'Andy can't be here to receive the award as he is currently in the States teaching Barak Obama to slackline...'

Award for Committed 2

We were really pleased tonight to pick up an award for our new DVD - which isn't even out yet, another 4 weeks to wait I'm afraid, but for very good reason, I assure you.

The new DVD contains 5 separate films, and most of these will be premiering at Banff and Kendal film festivals soon. however we decided to show one of the films at Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival. It was one of our favorites from the DVD, in fact.

Grit Kids features the audacious climbing talents of two teenagers from the Peak District. You might remember our blog posts from earlier this year.


The Whittakers (featured in the film) are not going to be at Kendal (they are going climbing...) so we thought it would be cool for them to see the film for the first time in the theater in Edinburgh. And we are really happy to have seen how well it was received. As a film maker you know you have done your job well when it is the climbers, rather than the film makers, that people go up to afterwards and say "that was amazing"...

...and enough people did think "that was amazing" for Grit Kids to pick up the Go Fast People's Choice Award at the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival.



It was cool to watch the reaction to a film that we found quite hard to make. All the other films on the DVD have been quite straightforward. But the Whittakers just kept climbing and climbing. The decision on what story to tell was a tough one.

Committed 2 is out in early November. The trailer will be out in a couple of weeks, so we will keep you posted.

dave b.

A Muerte 9a

A Muerte 9a 'To The Death'

Dave MacLeod commencing the crux sequence of A Muerte. Copyright Hot Aches Images

The Hot Aches team were back in Suirana, Spain last week to catch up with Dave MacLeod who had been out there for some time attempting to climb Rich Simpson’s A Muerte.

Filming on A Muerte. Copyright Hot Aches Images

Our blog readers may recall that Dave had tried this line in the past. The route is a steep and relatively short line. Just 21 moves take the climber up first through f8b climbing, then into a 6-8? move crux sequence, before reaching a jug and shake-out. Thereafter it is only f8a to the top. As Dave said, you won’t be pumped when you reach that point, because if you are pumped you won’t reach that point. Simple?

Dave MacLeod below the crux sequence of A Muerte. Copyright Hot Aches Images

This filming schedule was going to be super tight. Only 3 climbing days were available for Dave before he returned home. Filming routes at this kind of level is always going to be a real gamble. But if you’re not prepared to gamble then you never get any really interesting routes filmed (unless you want to re-shoot them after the event – but that is somehow never quite as good).

On our first day out we rigged the route and filmed a couple of failed redpoint attempts. After that we all had two days of ‘work’ at the Torrello Mountain Film Festival.

At least one of us 'working' at Torello Mountain Film Festival. Josune Bereziartu and Dave MacLeod. Interestingly Josune is more motivated by mountain trad that by hard sport climbss (if the audio translation was correct). Photo Hot Aches Images.

Work in this case seemed to involve 4 hour lunches and copious amounts of wine. The Catalans certainly seem to have perfected the art of hospitality.

Dave MacLeod mid-crux on A Muerte. Copyright Hot Aches Images

After that it was back to the crag and Dave’s enforced rest period had clearly paid off. On his first attempt of the day Dave dug deep, and not distracted by tracking cameramen being winched around on pulleys he quite literally sprinted through the 21 moves to arrive at the shake out.

It was freezing cold, even too cold for the Scotsman. He spent a while at that rest trying to warm his fingers and regain sensation before launching into the top section. Emma was a very nervous belayer at this point, quite literally shaking. But there were no mistakes, of course. And so Dave MacLeod has now climbed his first 9a. A fantastic route and a test-piece that has spat off many accomplished climbers over the years.

We think this is the fourth ascent. The line was bolted by Tony Arboles several years ago. In fact Tony says that is was the first line to be bolted on the famous crag of Campi qui Pugui. And whilst routes there such as Anabolica 8a have had over 500 ascents, this line remained unclimbed until 2006 when Rich Simpson grabbed the very prestigious first ascent.

Dave MacLeod making the final crux move on A Muerte. Copyright Hot Aches Images

One note on the climbing sequence. Dave had made some interesting progress using a different sequence to the previous ascentionists. A horrendous looking two finger match, when it worked, allowed him to bypass 2 of the holds on the crux section. But by the time we arrived Dave had decided that this method just wouldn’t work and had gone back to the normal method.

I asked Dave about the relative level of difficulty in comparison with his other routes. I’d prefer him to put these in his own words rather than paraphrase, but ‘not much harder than Rhapsody’ [his E11 at Dumbarton] was one of the several interesting comparisons that he made.

Dave MacLeod. cold hands at the shake out on A Muerte. Copyright Hot Aches Images

Congratulations to Dave. It was a great piece of climbing to witness. The footage is destined for one of our current film projects, probably for inclusion in Committed Volume 2 which is featuring a range of different climbing disciplines at locations around the world.

So what did we do with our spare day at the end of the trip? Well, we had plenty to film, of course, and Mr MacLeod had another even harder line to inspect. La Rambla 9a+. We shall see…

Filming on A Muerte. Copyright Hot Aches Images

Dave / Paul

ps. thanks to Emma and Caroline for all he help in rigging and belaying.

Award for Committed

The autumn round of major film festivals is almost over. The Hot Aches team have been flitting around the world, to USA, Canada, Kendal in the UK and then this week to northern Spain.

No less than 6 films that we have been involved with have been playing around the world:

E11 continues to pick up awards, and we will be screening this at the prestigious Torelló festival in Spain next week. Dave MacLeod will also be giving a lecture (in his best Catalan!? should be interesting).

'Ice Mines' had it's world premiere at Banff and was really well received. This Will Gadd film is about an underground ice climbing expedition (yes, subteranian) in Sweden, and was filmed by Dave Brown and Slackjaw's Ben Pritchard. Gadd himself is in the UK at the moment, lecturing and judging last week at Kendal, and then to Dundee Mountain Film Festival this week.

On set in Will Gadd's Ice Mines: Photo copyright Christian Pondella

'To Hell and Back' had it's big screen premiere at Kendal. Watching this certainly brought back some disturbing memories. This 60 minute program is edited for TV, and I will check up on the latest news on plans for it to be broadcast nationally on BBC.
Meanwhile you can download the full movie at reasonable resolution here.

Dave MacLeod leading the second pitch, Dave Brown filming. Photo copyright Claire MacLeod

Committed is now playing to audiences world wide in various incarnations;

A 60 minute edit from the DVD has been played at Banff and Kendal. A short edit is touring northern america on the 60+ date ReelRock Tour. Committed:To Grit is now playing many dates on the Banff World Tour.

And finally, Committed:Keen Youth picked up the award for "Best Short Film" at Kendal Mountain Film Festival.

A young James Pearson wearing his first harness (From Keen Youth,
© James Pearson)

Wow, it's been a busy autumn. One of the great things about the autumn round of film festivals is that it gives us the chance to re-charge our batteries and enthusiasm. The ideas are flowing; lots of plans for new movies (plural). Lots of big decisions to make.

So we head to Spain on Wednesday to start rolling the cameras again for the new season; hopefully some interesting news to blog about. We'll see...

Dave/Paul

‘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.

--
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.

--
Dave.

Committed DVD - Out Soon

It's been an insane year of filming and editing.

But now, at last... Committed is ready to hit the shops. It should go on sale worldwide from October 15th 2007

Watch the brand new trailer here

Order On-Line

You can now buy on-line direct from our web-shop. Guarantee your copy early by pre-ordering now. (last year sales of E11 were crazy and we had to rush to get more stock made). All pre-orders will be shipped on October 13th.

Many thanks to our sponsors, Mountain Equipment and Gore-tex for their support in making the film.

More Information

See our films page for more details about the movie.

• For media see our press kit here.


• For retailers see our DVD Info Pack here.

Film Premiere

We are delighted to be premiering Committed in Sheffield, England at The Climbing Works. Date is 14th October, 8pm. Tickets will be in short supply, to get yours contact The Climbing Works. See Heason events for further details.

A lot of people are going to be travelling there for the weekend, so come and get some climbing done, outside or in - then have a beer and watch the full movie.

We will also be selling copies of Committed on the night at a special one-off price for ticket holders. For more information sign up to our newsletter below.

Committed Screenings

The movie will also be playing at a number of film festivals around the world this autumn.
Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival, October 20th. Committed is shortlisted here for the 'Best Film' Award.
Kendal Mountain Film Festival, 9-18th November, screening dates to be anounced

• We will be arranging plenty more screenings this autumn. Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest info (the box to the left of this text)

Reel Rock Tour - North America

A special short cut of Committed is touring North America along with King Lines, the amazing new Chris Sharma movie from Big Up and Sender Films.

This is running over 60 dates, so a lot of you should be able to get a preview of what is in store on the DVD. Check out the tour calendar.

Other stuff.

We are finally out of 'editing hell' so now have a bit more time to bring you a lot more information about the new movie. 100 hours of footage were shot for Committed, and obviously there is so much that didn't make it into the final cut.

So we are going to bring you a series of regular pod-casts. Be it 'what happened next' after a climber plummets to the ground, or an in-depth interview with Johnny Dawes, or the making of the movie, there are lots of goodies to look out for.

Sign up to our mailing list (the box to the left of this text) and we'll keep you posted on the latest happenings, plus some special give-aways too.

--

Dave and Paul

11th International Award for E11

E11 continues to pick up awards around the globe.

Most recently Best Climbing Film at Squamish, Canada, and then last week The Grand Prize "Grand Prix du Festival" at Festival International du Film des Diablerets, Switzerland.

E11 will continue to tour the world for the next 6 months. About 25 more festival screenings are programed at this stage in locations as far flung as Nepal, Bulgaria, China, USA, South America and also many in Western Europe.

Telluride - 9th International Film Award for E11

We are really pleased to have just received a further film award for E11, and a rather special one at that. This time from America's longest established mountain film festival at Telluride in the San Juan mountains of Colorado, USA.

The Charlie Fowler Climbing Film Award went to E11. Many of you will doubtless be aware of the death of Charlie Fowler and Chris Boskoff. Locals to the San Juan mountains they were prolific climbers, well known and highly respected throughout the international climbing community.

The background to this award:

Based on an idea by Charlie’s sister Ginny and her husband Maurie, Mountainfilm in Telluride is honored to announce the establishment of an annual Charlie Fowler Climbing Film Award. The cash award of $1,000 will be initiated at the 2007 Festival and will be announced by Charlie’s sister at the Closing Picnic & Awards Ceremony at Telluride Town Park on May 28, 2007.

Pic. Gus Gusciora

The film selected to receive the award would express a love for documenting remote exploration and climbing, exhibit an adventurous flair for filmmaking, and would include but not be limited to either first ascent attempts or a strong cultural thread throughout the piece. The hope is that the award will afford the winning filmmaker the opportunity to continue making climbing films, a cinematic genre that Charlie was very much a part of, either as the main talent or simply as part of the crew. This yearly tribute to a former member of the Mountainfilm Board of Directors and Advisory Board member until his death, a humanitarian, and one of the finest mountaineers in the world aligns with Mountainfilm’s idea that friends, adventure, passion,and powerful ideas are worth sustaining.

I was lucky enough to be out in Telluride to collect the award, as well as sneak in some jet-lagged sessions of climbing.

The DVD E11 is on sale throughout North America from many outdoor retailers and web shops, price $29,90

Retailers can contact Vista Cerro in USA for distribution.

--

Dave

8th International Award for E11

Bratislava

We're pretty chuffed that E11 has picked up another award. This time an international jury selected it as Best Climbing Film at "Hory a mesto - Mountains and City" Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia. I can't translate the judges comments so we're not quite sure what they made of it...

..But anyway, it's really good to see that British Trad climbing is being watched and appreciated around the world. Actually that is quite important seing as we will have soon devoted most of a year to making the new movie Committed... which also happens to be about British Trad climbing.

Whist we're on the subject of E11, a quick reminder the the Hot Aches E11 T shirt is now on sale through Dave MacLeod's webshop . In organic cotton it is available in both mens and womens cuts.

E11 T-Shirt Design

ShAFF 2007

The Sheffield Adventure Film Forum is coming up soon, March 21 - 25. If you haven't heard of it, or bought your tickets yet then check out their website It has to be the best line of of climbing films (and non-climbing films) ever assembled for a festival. Rather than being a film competition that randomly relies on movies being entered to it, organiser Matt Heason seems to take rather more direct approach - deciding what films are needed and then sweet-talking or brow-beating the film makers until they say yes.


From the Hot Aches stable there will of course be E11, (can there be anyone in Sheffield who hasn't seen E11 by now?), which is being screened under the 'Best of Kendal' banner where is won the Judges Special Award last year.

James Pearson is also giving a lecture, so look out there for a sneak preview from our new movie 'Commmitted' with footage of Jame's ascent of The Promise E10 7a.

Other things to look out for include some footage of James' recent bouldering spree in Switzerland, courtesy of Crabstix Productions as well as a section from the recent Winter Sessions movie . From the Slackjaw team 'Esoterica' is getting it's first screening. 'Cobra Crack' is a must see for any climbers. Well there's loads more... including a bouldering comp at the Climbing Works that should be good entertainment.

Unfortunately we've got some TV work lined up in Sweden so won't be there ourselves.

E11 Wins 7th Award

E11 has just won it's 7th award. This time at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival. The international jury awarded E11 The Katharine Anne Rae Award for Best Film on Rockclimbing.


I’m thrilled to win another major award for E11 , particularly at Vancouver as E11 was up against a lot of great films there this year, including films which have already won awards at other festivals.

All those days I spent hanging off the top of Dumbarton Rock after ringing in work sick, now seem more than worthwhile.

diff

E11 wins two more awards in Slovenia

This weekend saw the first Domžale-Ljubljana Mountain Film Festival.

All Pics Dejan Ogrinec

The festival screened over forty mountain films from around the world. Included in that line up were three films from Hot Aches Productions…

Fools With Tools
CaveWoman
E11

I met the festival director Silvo Karo in the bar at Kendal this year and he told me about his plans for the festival and asked if we would enter E11.

Silvo Karo is man smiling in the middle of the picture

From what I see and hear the first festival was a great success, I hope we can make it over there to this festival in future years.

An international panel of judges awarded E11 the Best Mountains Sports and Adventure Film Award. This is how the award was announced:

The Judges: Daniela Cecchin, Julie Summers, Ines Božič Skok, Michael Pause, Igor Likar

"The award for this category goes to a film that explores the limits of personality beyond belief, pain, stamina and life goals. There is a clear idea by the film maker to follow this climber in all aspects of his life, both internal and external as he makes a commitment to a difficult route on a local rock. His is a small world but his aims are universal. Using modern film techniques, narration, music and editing the film is entirely successful in addressing issues bigger than the climb itself – that of personal achievement. The film is E11."

In addition to the awards presented by the judges, the Alpine Association of Slovenia awarded their Best Alpine Climbing Film Award to E11.

You can see the full list of award winners here

--
Diff

Also
Dave Brown was in Eastern Europe over the weekend and adds that
I met some Slovenian climbers involved with the festival and E11 certainly seems to have made a big impression. It is probably no coincidence that the film has done well in a country that also has such a strong tradition of trad climbing. I'm psyched to get out there to get out there myself on a climbing trip soon.



E11 On Sale
A lot of climbers in eastern europe were unaware that E11 is on sale on DVD. We don't have any distribution in arrangements in this part of the world, however the DVD can be purchased on-line at many websites, including direct from Dave MacLeod's own webshop.