The Insiders: A New Short From Big Up Productions

The only moment I liked during that entire movie was after the credits when Ashima actually surprised Vasya on the campus board. It looked to be the only unscripted, real portion of the entire movie. Everything else was boring, and slightly irritating due to the lack of people, the lack of noise, the lack of any sort of energy at all.

I can’t hate it but c’mon Big Up Prods… Energy? Really? Such a sterile look and feel it might as well have been shot in a dentist’s office. And all these mutants (no offense Paul, I love your work) want to talk about is “training” and “crushing at the next comp”. Most people I know hate the campus board!! Josh and Brent, as a couple of dudes from NYC you obviously know the drill of trudging through February snow and ice to the steamed up, chalked up, amped up gym. Through the door and greet your crew, the sh*t talking is as second nature as the warm up. Soon the creativity starts flowing as you cook up another crazy sequence through the hundreds of holds. Most of the time nobody cares about training per se; we’re just there because we love pulling down and cheating gravity for a couple of hours. For me I think you kinda missed the point on this one lads.

I had a session a few days ago in the gym that captured the energy and the thrill of it better than this. Awesome climbers, nice shots, good routesetting, but you cant script something in an empty gym and expect it to show the energy of it, that s the whole point of the gym, highest concentration of people who love the exact same thing as you, and who get excited about whatever you do, whether they know who you are or not. My two cents but this had good (and thus wasted) potential..

I think it captures a lot of the enthusiasm that some climbers have, not so much the energy and feel of the gym, but no big deal. It’s a pretty good video to get newcomers psyched so I sent it on to a bunch of my buddies.

Holy crap what a critical bunch – well, only a few I guess. I’d say success. I think it had little to do with trying to present some type of false atmosphere of climbing at the gym and more to do with the fact that there is come pretty cool movement at the gym. We’ve all seen a gym recording, there’s background noise, it’s a warehouse. I mean, we’ve all seen the commercials of Disney land too and we’ve all been there but most of us go regardless and don’t tell the kids on the way that they aren’t really going to see Snow White. Some gym routes get me psyched like a rock route – other’s don’t.

Scripted? Every movie is scripted – it’s called having a budget and having to use it wisely. Like…a climbing flick on real rock isn’t scripted? “Hey Fred can you do that thing where you blow off the excess chalk on your fingers? I want a close up of that – ya nice.” “Wait, let me add a spot light under that rock so it looks like it’s glowing, and hey Joe, hold this reflector and direct the sunlight here…ya nice” Movement too big? Ya, I hate watching people do cool s**t I can’t do too. Sterile? I love it when it’s sterile at the gym, I can’t stand knowing I’m grabbing a plastic hold some dude just sneezed on (or worse).

That was cool…and it was free and just to spite all of you I’m going to watch it again. Thanks for the post! Sorry everyone, your all cool, I’m an ass, I’m injured and been trying to avoid climbing news…

my least favorite section of recent films have been the marketing section where world cup event and plastic comes into the vid.

Have not watched and don’t plan to…the point of climbing porn is to take you to places you can’t get to at the moment. Not to the places that you can go to in almost every city in america.

Shows where the “sport” and big up is heading

It was better than cats. Seriously, great vid. Not sure how anyone would say it was lacking in energy. ce

I agree with toothbrush and sean, awesome video, badass setting, got me psyched to go climb in the gym which is exactly what I did 5 minutes after watching. my hypothesis is that the gym was empty because they didnt want a hundred screaming people to deal with while they were focusing on the movement and mindset of indoor climbing which was the point of this short, just a guess.
It all depends on what you like. Hate indoor climbing and would rather do some “real climbing” at your local crag? Excellent, go do that. Wanna go hike Longs Peak and then watch Touching the Void? Sweet, do that too, but in my opinion it is boring as eff to watch or even read about mountaineering/big wall/ice climbing etc. What is my opinion, on which style of climbing is the “best”, worth? Same as everyone else’s, not shit

@on set: 1. Chuck’s new movie Core is shot on the Red. 2. Frankly I don’t want climbing films to be story boarded, maybe a few transitional segments but the action should be real and not staged.