Fly Another Day - DVD

Just in case you thought that we were putting our feet up after finishing Committed 2, we now have another DVD coming out.

View the trailer here

Fly Another Day
The Story of the Tip To Tip Paramotor Expedition

Six men set out on their quest to fly the length of Britain on paramotors. Like the earliest methods of aviation this is flying in it’s most simple form. Suspended beneath a fabric wing and with a small propeller on their backs they set off on the journey of a lifetime.

The range of flying conditions that Britain throws at them takes a heavy toll and one by one the pilots encounter their own personal disasters. There are mid air wing collapses and free falling through the sky, crashes on take off, wings sucked into the engines and emergency landings abound. This is no easy ride.

The tension rises and when the team are forced out of the sky over the Scottish Highlands it looks like the expedition is doomed. But with true British determination they gradually they inch their way ever northwards into the eye of the storm.
--

The Tip to Tip expedition was created to raise funds for the Air Ambulances of England and The Forces Children’s Trust. £5.00 from the sale of the DVDs go to these charities.


When we went to film the Cornish Air Ambulance I was really surprised to find out that it wasn't publicly funded. It seems ridiculous that such an important emergency service should rely on charity. Each air ambulance and it's crew costs over £1 million a year to run. But I changed my mind on this one. The reality is that if the air ambulances were publicly funded, then they would be the first part of the ambulance service to be cut when funds are tight, so staying independently funded works.

--

The DVD is released on 12th December.
You can pre-order your copy in our webshop now.

Indian Face - Johnny Dawes and Nick Dixon Interview

With all this talk about grades recently... we decided to publish a fascinating interview about what was the very first E9. This footage had been languishing in our archives for a while so it seemed like a good time for an airing.
Johnny Dawes and Nick Dixon were two of the most influential climbers of their generation - no less than climbing legends. In this interview they talk about their experiences on Indian Face. It is fascinating stuff.

Gordon Stainforth on UKC wrote 'PHENOMENAL! Possibly the most interesting climbing interview I've ever seen.'

This isn't an interview that will appeal to everyone, but to those climbers who have been kicking around for a while and remember the time when major climbing ascents made the centre pages of The Guardian, or film releases such as 'Hard Grit' prompted TV appearances from the stars doing one-armers on Breakfast TV - well, for this generation at least, this inteview might well raise the hairs on the back of our necks - two climbers talking frankly about their ascents of one of the most significant rock climb in recent history.

What is even more significant for me was the fact that this was the first time that these two guys had got back together for over a decade. They had shared so much common ground, experience and history. It is such a shame that so many of us drift apart and go our seperate ways.


That day back at the crag (The Roaches) and also later on in the pub - it was as if all the years hadn't passed by. The conversation was the same, but the benefit of all those years of hindsight had definately played a part too...

Check out the video in a UKClimbing.com video exclusive http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1481

One important hint - watch the last 60 seconds!

Dave B.

VAT Price Reduction

Probably the dullest blog post I will ever write... but nonetheless we ought to mention it:

VAT is down to 15% today, so of course we are passing on that price reduction to our customers.That means that in our webshop Committed Volume II (and our previous DVDs) are all reduced to the nice round figure of £19.56 (£18.58 for E11).

On another more interesting subject, we are finalising another DVD right now. Should have a trailer up for it over the next two days. More on that soon.

dave b.

Committed 2 has arrived

It is one of those great days. After a year's worth of filming and editing, the DVDs finally arrived back from the manufacturer.


After a nervous check to make sure that everything is right, and it all plays properly (film makers get paranoid!), and now we can get down to the business of getting stock out to our customers and to retailers.



We are heading down to Kendal for the weekend's mountain festivities. We have no less than 5 films screening there, three of which have never been seen by the public before. So that is quite exciting.

On Friday evening we have a special screening / lecture session with James Pearson talking about his climbing and a screening of our two new films about his routes. 6.00pm in the Town Hall. It is a bit early in the weekend for everyone to make it to, but it should be a good session.
Elsewhere at Kendal, 4 of the films are getting multiple screenings, so if you are at Kendal then there's no excuse to miss seeing them on the big screen.

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...'

Committed 2 Trailer

Committed Volume II presented by THE NORTH FACE


“This film had my jaw dropping, my palms sweating and at times my heart threatening to pack up, but above all this film had me inspired. Superb. Highly recommended” - Ian Parnell

Committed Volume 2 is finished at last, and will be released on November 22nd 2008.

We are now taking pre-orders for the DVD on our webshop. It is going to be a rush getting all shops supplied, so guarantee your copy by pre-ordering now. We aim to be posting out on 21st November.




Thanks to the huge number of people who have helped out on this year's film. There is a listing and film credits here. A particular thanks to our title sponsor, THE NORTH FACE, and supporting sponsor CLIMB MAGAZINE whose input has helped make this a DVD that we are really proud of.

Watch the FILM TRAILER

For more about the film see our films page.

Tomorrow we are heading to Canada, to Banff Mountain Film Festival, where three of our films are finalists this year. As you might imagine, we are looking forward to a well-earned break!

More news soon...

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.