Tuesday 30 September 2014

Background to my Wainwrights Run as part of the Brit Rock Film Tour



It is only two days to the première of the Brit Rock Film Tour at Rheged. This includes a 30 minute film of my Wainwright run together with three other films all put together by Al Lee. I am getting quite excited and nervous about this. To go to the première where quite a bit of the film is about me will definitely be an interesting experience, especially as I have not seen the film so I have no idea how I will come across and what I said.

The film Trailer is well worth a watch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG7XrXJ004s). My Wainwrights run does not look very exciting compared to the other bits: including Rob Jarman doing some mad mountain biking and Julian Lines some amazing climbs. Hopefully the story will come through in the 30 minutes about my Wainwrights run.  I am sure there will be lots of bit of me suffering but also some bits of the beautiful Lake District scenery.

To see some of the amount of effort required to produce a good film is really enlightening. I spent three days filming with Al before I started. We did some filming around my house but also went up Blencathra each time carrying really heavy film equipment. This included a Hexacopter one day and a jib another (which was really heavy to carry but we could not use as it was too windy!).  

For the run we had Handy Cams for my support team to use, to catch the moments when I was really suffering or the amazing views. They did a great job and took about 15 hours of recording. It has been a major effort by Al to then pick out all the best bits. Al (together with Rob Jarman) then tried to get some high quality footage each day. But he found this a bit of a different challenge compared to a climbing film. The first day he and Rob carried all the heavy equipment up to Hay Stacks. However, I approached on a slightly different line than they were expecting so the shot was not quite right. On the second day they climbed up Yewbarrow in amazingly beautiful weather but it clouded in about 20 minutes before I arrived. Later that day they climbed Scafell but it started to drizzle just before I arrived. Al was getting tired and fed up from all this walking up and down Wainwrights with heavy kit and not even getting any good shots. Later in the week he tried to get a man with a paraglider and an attached motor but again there were problems as I was on High Street and the guy could not find me. 

After that things went better with the filming. The next day the paraglider man found me a couple of times. Then Al got some great shots on Skiddaw and on the final day he got a helicopter and got some great shots in stunning weather. 

I will update this blog when I have seen the film, unless I hide for a while because I have said something really stupid!

http://www.rheged.com/brit-rock-film-tour-world-premiere/

Monday 8 September 2014

Wainwrights Film and Talks



A film of my Wainwrights run is being made by Al Lee, using footage from lots of my supporters who helped film during the week. This will be part of the Brit Rock Film Tour which is being shown at venues all around the UK. Details can be seen here:
and the Trailer can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG7XrXJ004s
The première of the film will be shown at Rheged, near Penrith on Thursday 2nd October.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about my run or asking questions then I am talking at the Buxton Adventure Festival (http://www.buxtonadventurefestival.co.uk/)  on Sunday 12th October and at the Kendal Mountain Festival (http://www.mountainfest.co.uk/) on both 21st and 22nd November.

If I get an appearance fees for any talks I will giving this money to my MS charities. After all the donations that other people have made to these charities during my Wainwrights run I think this is a good opportunity for me to donate as well.