Climbing Narcissist » Spray

Rewind DVD Review & Sale

Narc — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:22:00 +0000

BS Productions has released their 5th climbing movie, Rewind. The movie includes highlights from previous BS Productions movies The Life, The Australia Project, Karma and Spray as well as random archival footage that has been amassed over years of shooting.

I really like the idea behind Rewind. There is no attempt at creating a storyline, it’s just a non-stop stream of climbing with some shenanigans thrown in for good measure. It’s basically climbing porn at its finest. Here is the synopsis of the movie from the BS Productions:

Through five full-length films, BS Productions has amassed years of footage featuring hundreds of climbers doing what they do best. It is finally time to open the vaults and reveal the adventures as one seamless film. In Rewind, you will travel back to connect the stories from The Life, The Australia Project, Karma, and Spray with years of never before seen footage. Join us to traverse the lives of Dave Graham, Jason Kehl, Joe Kinder, Emily Harrington, Chris Lindner and many many more in a non-stop stream of action that will flash over 15 years of climbing before your eyes.

While it is always nice to see the latest sends of the hardest numbers, I think more “classic” footage of people sending routes “back in the day” is really cool too. Of course, the one trade off in some instances in Rewind is that the camera work is less than spectacular. This is especially true with the footage from The Life that was mainly shot by the climbers themselves. Despite this, it is still cool to see the footage of Dave Graham’s FA of Livin’ Astro (5.14b/c) at Rumney and his FAs of several lesser seen RMNP boulders like Stranger In A Strange Land (V12).

Rewind does include some footage from the 4 previous BS Productions releases, but it also includes a fair amount of unseen old footage. The old footage features somewhat lesser known climbers like Dave Chancellor climbing in SoIll, Chris Sierzant climbing 5.13 barefoot, Harry Robertson crushing The Automator and Brian Capps doing his thing.

The movie begins and ends with a teaser for BS Productions’ next release slated to come out later this Spring, The Players. Featuring climbers like Ethan Pringle, Joe Kinder, Chris Lindner, Alex Puccio and Lisa Rands it looks to be worth checking out. More to come on that movie after it’s released.

Overall I think Rewind is a great movie to have in your collection if you like climbing movies that have non-stop action. To me one of the most appealing aspects of the movie other than the cool footage is the fact that you can buy it for only $14.99 with shipping included (U.S. only, non-U.S. pays shipping). I’ve long had a hard time justifying spending $30 + shipping on every climbing movie that comes out so I am a big fan of this reduced price point. You can get more information on how to order at the BS Productions blog.

Here is the trailer:

Here is a semi-exhaustive list of climbers you will see in the movie:

Dave Graham
Ethan Pringle
Luke Parady
Adam Osterhoff
Matt Segal
Rob D’Anastasio
Emily Harrington
Chris Sierzant
Dave Chancellor
Brian Capps
Lizzy Asher
Adam Stack
Justin Bourque
Daniel Woods
Harry Robertson
Jason Kehl
Joe Kinder
Chris Lindner
Mark Hobson
Alex Puccio
Lisa Rands

Here is a semi-exhaustive list of areas you will see in the movie:

RMNP
Bishop
Fortress Of Solitude
Red River Gorge
Rocktown
Rumney
Southern Illinois
Joe’s Valley
Hueco Tanks
The Monastery
Mickey’s Beach
Grampians
Foster Falls
Satellite Boulders
Castle Hill
Boone
Lost Rocks

In related news, BS Productions has created a channel on Vimeo where they will be sharing various HD trailers and clips. One of the first clips to be addeed is the “lost” footage of Mark Hobson repeating the infamous Zion.

Rewind DVD Review & Sale from Climbing Narcissist

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Climbing Movie Soundtracks Released: King Lines, Spray & Karma

Narc — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:10:49 +0000

I don’t know about you, but any time I hear certain songs that have been in climbing movies I am immediately reminded of the climbing that was taking place at that moment in the film. For instance, any time I hear Jah Jah City I feel like I am right back in the moment watching Chris Sharma gun for the FA of Realization at the beginning of Dosage 1. Or if I happen to pop in my Big Up Volume 1 CD and hear Dem Come I can visualize Sharma in Free Hueco awkwardly explaining that…um…roof climb…um…Rumble In The Jungle? In other words, a tight soundtrack is key to any good climbing movie. Here is some more info on how to get your own copy of the soundtrack from 3 recent releases:

King Lines

Big Up has selected 15 tracks from King Lines that you can purchase through their website for $11.95. If you visit the music section of their website you can listen to sample clips of the 15 tracks on the soundtrack as well as download 11 additional tracks. Here is what Josh Lowell had to say about putting together the music for their movies:

We’ve always put major time and effort into finding and featuring hot new music from independent artists and we’ve gotten great responses from our audience – people are always emailing about how to find various tracks. Putting out the album is a great way for us to hook the audience up with sounds they might not otherwise have found, while funneling a few dollars back to the artists that are working hard to make it.

As with most Big Up releases, the music in King Lines does not disappoint. Here is a list of songs on the soundtrack:

1. “Glitter Clatter” – Throwing Snow
2. “Partners in Progress” – Ryan Szarko
3. “Dance Your Troubles Away” – Up, Bustle & Out
4. “Musica De Paz” – Papa Shanty
5. “Tout L’art De Rouler” – Broken Sound Collective
6. “Under the Counter” – Custom Blue
7. “Midnight Running” – Will It Snow
8. “The Itch” – Bussetti
9. “Claisson” – Jonathan Deans
10. “Death Ain’t Nothing” – Broken Sound Collective
11. “DaBooDaBee” – Sander Pick
12. “Revisiting the Tomb in Miami” – iPascal
13. “Hours” – The Late Greats
14. “Stormbreaker” – Vasco & Paul
15. “All Out King featuring Romanowsky” – Up, Bustle & Out

Spray & Karma

BS Productions has put together two iMixes in iTunes with songs from projects Spray and Karma. I can’t comment on Karma as I have not seen it, but the music in Spray was one of the highlights of the movie. However, it doesn’t look like all the songs featured in Spray are available for download through iTunes (no ODub???).

You can read my review of Spray by clicking here. You can find out more about both films at BSProductions.us

Click the below images for an expanded view of what songs are on each soundtrack. The links will take you to the iTunes store.

SPRAY Soundtrack ($14.85)

KARMA Soundtrack – $10.89

Climbing Movie Soundtracks Released: King Lines, Spray & Karma from Climbing Narcissist

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Brian Solano Spray Interview Translation

T-Boz — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:13:01 +0000

Brian Solano, producer of Spray, recently did an interview with the French language climbing magazine Escalade. Thanks to Tony for proving that the public education system isn’t completely dead and translating it into English for us. Click here to win your own copy of Spray.

Interview with the director of Spray (a new American climbing DVD which I had the opportunity to talk to you about in one of my previous film clubs). Brian Solano lent himself to the interview for Escalademag and speaks about his latest production, shot in California, and the occasion of speaking about an original idea that is respectful of nature.

How is Spray an “eco climbing film”?

The whole movie, we make a constant effort to teach the viewers about the importance of maintaining and preserving our climbing areas. It’s a privilege to climb in these areas, not a right. Climbers need to respect their cliffs and act right if they want to maintain access in the future. Its only at this price that future generations can profit too. The film was shot on many beautiful beaches in the US, and that constantly reminds us how a climbing area can be fragile. In addition, and outside the message of the movie, we made an effort on the level of the packaging the DVD, since the jacket is made out of recycled materials.

Why the title Spray?

The title has multiple meanings. “Spray” refers first to the spray, when the ocean is blown by the wind, and also when the waves crash against the rocks: it splashes everywhere and it is refreshing, with all the fine droplets in the air. But “spray” is also a word used by American climbers. When someone talks about their day climbing and all the ways it is connected we use the word “spray”. At the same time to evoke the fact that he has “pulverized”, “atomized” in all these ways, but also to say that he bathes everyone in it. Climbing is part of our life, and we bath constantly in this culture, so we always hears climbers saying this word “spray”. With it’s double meaning I found it the perfect name for a film shot by the sea.

How did you choose the climbers?

Joe Kinder and Chris Lindner are two very different personalities that I wanted work with on this project. Chris approached me with the idea of making a film of the climbing areas in Northern California. I was very excited but I needed another climber. Joe is from the East Coast and always motivated, positive, and full of energy. Chris is from the West Coast, more relaxed, and more detached compared to the life. I thought that they would work well together, that they would form a sort of balance.

California is also one of the characters in the film, right?

Yes! Chris suggested shooting there because there had been nothing on this area until now. People had heard of it, but there was never any real press coverage, or any video putting all the beauty of the place on film. Thats also why I wanted to make this film. From an aesthetic and photographic point of view, I wanted to shoot in a primitive, fresh, and naturally beautiful place!

Thanks to Brian for his availability (and his course in English semantics )

Brian Solano Spray Interview Translation from Climbing Narcissist

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Spray DVD Review

Narc — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:59:51 +0000

The opportunity to investigate new and relatively unknown climbing areas is always exciting, especially when the climbing close to home is anything but world-class. “Spray”, produced and directed by Brian Solano, follows Chris Lindner, Joe Kinder, Luke Parady, Colette McInerney and Vanessa Compton as they explore northern California’s low-key climbing scene.

The DVD showcases a number of climbing areas, including Arcata, Trinity Aretes, Donner Summit and Mickey’s Beach. Each has its unique features and Lindner and Kinder do well to point them out. The first half of the movie focuses on different beach bouldering areas as Solano, through several interviews, fleshes out the climbers’ motivations and inspirations when climbing near the coast. With a title like “Spray”, however, more bouldering, like that from the extras, would have been nice to see. Several times it appeared as though Lindner, Kinder and the rest of their crew were struggling to find something interesting to say during the interviews.

The movie really hits its stride near the halfway point when the crew arrives at Mickey’s Beach so that Kinder can check out Surf Safari (5.13d/.14a). Here is where “Spray” really shines as Kinder talks about what motivated him to improve; he discusses being a kid himself and seeing another kid, Chris Sharma, at age 14 climbing Surf Safari. Combined with the explanation of his motivations for climbing the route Steep Climb Named Desire (5.14a) at Donner Summit, Kinder rises out of his usual semi-coherent rantings and really delves into the heart of what motivates someone that climbs full time.

Throughout the movie, Lindner does the best job of articulating what it is that drives him, and he actually left us wanting to know even more. Specifically, when he describes how he stopped trad climbing and focused on sport routes after his father broke his back from a bad trad fall it seemed to just scratch the surface of what really motivates him. Despite this, his motivation for searching out new rock is evident throughout the movie, and his efforts culminate at the end of the movie with his FA of the incredible beach arete Window of Opportunity (5.13d). The awesome footage of this route alone could justify the purchase of the DVD. If nothing else, it certainly does a nice job of encapsulating the entire concept of “Spray” in one climactic scene.

Chris Lindner on the FA of Window of Opportunity

Photo: Brian Solano

To summarize: if you’re a person who enjoys watching climber after climber send a high volume of big number climbs, “Spray” is probably not for you. Instead, it is a DVD intent on expressing the importance of experiencing the environment as much as the climbing. Check out “Spray” if you plan to visit northern California, have an interest in the endeavors of Lindner and Kinder or are up for a laid-back DVD with quality climbing footage and don’t mind the some of the interviews.

Spray Links

SprayMovie.com – Check out the trailer and order the movie
BSProductions – Check out Brian Solano’s site to get your own copy of Spray
BSProductions Blog
JoeKindKid.com – Joe Kinder’s blog
ChrisLindner.com – Chris Lindner’s blog
Coletteloc.com – Colette McInerney’s blog
Click here for your chance to win a free copy of Spray! – 23 people are currently in the running

Spray DVD Review from Climbing Narcissist

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Spray DVD Giveaway

Narc — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:01:36 +0000

After the success of the recent MVM Subscription Contest, I am excited to offer another great prize: a free copy ($30 value) of the new climbing movie Spray. Thanks to Brian Solano for donating this great prize. You can order your own copy or check out his other work by visiting his website. I will have a review of the movie up as soon as I get a chance to watch it, but until then here is a brief synopsis:

To appreciate the spirit of climbing doesn’t require practice, technical prowess, or any serious effort at all. The simple act of unencumbered movement can reveal worlds of truth to the climber with an open mind.

Joe Kinder and Chris Lindner have spent most of their lives in the fast-paced world of professional climbing. In a sport that requires endless motivation and supreme confidence, there are constant pressures and expectations that would test the moral fiber of any person. Instead, Joe and Chris have found a way to explore the clouds with their feet firmly planted in the ground.

On their most recent journey, the duo teamed up with Collette McInerney, Luke Parady, and Vanessa Compton to explore the treasures of California’s coastline. Join them as they venture through the delicate beaches of Arcata, the stunning limestone of the Trinity Aretes, the historical shores of Mickey’s Beach, and the alpine stone of Donner Summit. For the next hour, immerse yourself in the natural spray of the California coast.

This time the method of entry will be a bit more difficult than simply leaving a comment. Hopefully the increased value of the prize will be an incentive. Here are the ways to gain an entry into the giveaway (you can have up to 2 entries):

Become a registered user at Climbingnarc.com (Free and easy) – if you are already registered then you are already in the running!

and/or

Post either a new Topic or reply to an existing Topic in the Forums. Need some ideas? How about an interesting link or video that people haven’t seen much before. Or share some stories about a roadtrip you have been on or share your future plans.

The contest will be open for two weeks at which time I will be drawing the winner. Good luck!

Spray DVD Giveaway from Climbing Narcissist

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