Big Up Productions just released a short film they shot back in March at Massachusetts’ Central Rock Gym with athletes Ashima Shiraishi, Paul Robinson, Sasha DiGiulian and Vasya Vorotnikov. The goal of the short was to “capture the energy and physical thrill of gym climbing and training”. Did they succeed? Decide for yourself:
Stick around after the credits if you dare…
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Posted In: Bouldering, Sport Climbing, Videos
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Nice gym, good athletes, good holds routesetting. Energy and physical thrill? Not so much. I have a feeling they could have turned loose the cameras on a typical Tuesday night crowd there or anywhere and got something more interesting to watch. A good example of what happens when you try to script things too much?
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Boring. I watched 2 minutes and shut it off. It was just a bunch of feet cutting shots, which gets old after the first 2 or 3.
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And like Peter said, very scripted. Its not like when Paul Robinson hits the gym, he’s the only guy there with a crowd of onlookers to clap for his every move. Lame.
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I actually kind of dug it, but I’ll pretty much watch any climbing video. What I didn’t like too much is that it doesn’t capture the energy of a slightly overcrowded gym, with all the ambient noise, yelling, and swearing and waiting for your climb to open, etc, etc. Props to the route setter.
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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.
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That’s actually not Vasya – that’s a different climber, Dave Wetmore.
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To be fair the video isn’t really aimed at us- people who climb on a regular basis. This is more for the general promotion of gym climbing as an activity that non-climbers, who may know nothing about climbing at all, can get into. We weren’t the target audience.
So no wonder we all thought it was boring and displayed some gratuitous foot cutting and dynos. The massive swings and big dramatic movements are what grab attention from the average shmo, not locking off on some tiny crimp, or some crazy toe-hook.
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it would be nice to know if bigup had a specific target group among non -climbers.
to some non-climbers this vid might be more appealing than a more realistic one showing the average gym crowd having a lot of fun, to others the opposite…
still, i hope this isn’t the “direction” the sport wants to go! I love that chalky sweaty noisy social slightly competitive atmosphere, that’s what makes gym sessions a thing on their own and not just a surrogate of the outdoors…
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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.
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Spring is here and I can’t wait to get back in the gym!!
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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..
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I dunno, I kind of liked it. Sure there was an unnatural amount of foot swinging but some of the sections like Ashima climbing, and Paul climbing that sloper route with the crazy toe hook were pretty fun to watch.
Thanks for the free vid!
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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.
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I wish I had seen this before I went to the gym today. I just really loved it… The mini-segment with Vasya got me really syked on climbing and the Ashima-segment… Never thought it could be so inspiring. Very nice job. I’ll make sure to watch before my next session.
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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… 🙁
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Amen
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If you could capture all the energy of the haters posting on this, you could probably end our oil dependence.
Cool video for what it is.
Also, I like the shuts at the top of the routes, my gym just uses two draws, which works fine, but those would be even easier to finish with.
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“If you could capture all the energy of the haters posting on this, you could probably end our oil dependence.”
Haha! That is definitely the best comment ever 🙂
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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
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Umm, in many ways plastic IS where the sport is heading (before you straw man this comment – it’s not the ONLY place it’s heading, and rock will always be the main event.) While you may think those sections are “marketing”, stop and realize that the participants in those events VERY much care about them. Not everyone lives half an hour from a good sport crag. Gyms have allowed for a big influx of strong, young climbers, that have fun with what they’re doing…despite the attitudes of people like you. They also frequently go on to crush on ACTUAL rock.
“The point of…” you are making an assumption here that everyone shares YOUR opinion. The point of a movie is whatever the creators had in mind…obviously Big Up has a different vision than you. Who are you to say what their movies should be about?
God…they take their time and make a good, 10 minute hi-def clip for free, and people bitch.
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o plz… u guys are pathetic
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I loved this video. I thought it was completely original and served its purpose very well. In my opinion, the fact that the gym was empty simply served to focus all of the attention on the climbers, the routes, and the movement. I bet this will definitely raise some awareness for our sport among the general public. Great job!
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It was better than cats. Seriously, great vid. Not sure how anyone would say it was lacking in energy. ce
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Kind of cool video. For us folks living in an erea deprived of real rock, we need some extra motivation to keep up our gym routine until we can go on our next climbing trip..this video does just that.
Also cool to see how professional athletes set up simulators in the gym to finish their outdoor projects.
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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
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The problem is, I think, that climbing vids need to step up their game a little bit (or a lot). There’s never been a vid that had actual cinematography in it, like they teach in film schools, with cranes, dollies, lighting etc, story-boarded out on paper, shot with cine-style lenses by people who know what they’re doing. It’s always handheld, point-and-shoot “prosumer” cameras, all of which are about 5 years old at this point and practically obsolete, or even worse, DSLR’s that shoot video but have horrible color sampling and recording formats. The new Red cameras (Epic and Scarlet – BigUp are you listening?) that will be out this year will hopefully find their way into the hands of someone shooting a climbing vid with a story to tell and the means to get the camera where it needs to be that doesn’t involve a cameraman on jumars.
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@on set
– That’s kind of a different topic, but I couldn’t agree more with you on. Since getting into climbing a few years ago, I’ve checked out the movie scene, and it is surprisingly lacking. I think that when it comes to “alternative sports” films, the snwoboarding industry is where you have to look for the gold standard. Big Ups seems the closest on production quality, but really, the only movies that have come close to giving me that vibe a good movie can, are those made by Peter Mortimer. (Although even there, when watching a few of them with friends, who liked them, I had to kind of cringe and say, “just ignore this part” for all the timmy o’neil segments)
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Red fanboy much? JK. Check out Chuck’s CORE movie available on Blueray… full of crane moves, dollies, etc etc. Shot on a RED1. Pretty impressive really, carrying around 50 lbs of gear and taking the 30 minutes between takes to set that rig up.
When you think about it though… what’s the point of dropping $40k on a basic RED set up for shooting climbing when there is little financial reward and infinitely more work involved. You can’t shoot with that rig from a rope and you are immediately limiting the other locations you can get to.. In the end the final product is going to be streamed on the web in 720p at best so maybe time and energy is better spent elsewhere?
tk
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“what’s the point of dropping $40k on a basic RED set up for shooting climbing when there is little financial reward and infinitely more work involved. You can’t shoot with that rig from a rope and you are immediately limiting the other locations you can get to..”
Maybe you should have told Chuck that before he bought it and shot from a rope with it…
They use CableCam rigs to shoot snowboarding and mtn biking vids, no reason why climbing vids couldn’t do the same. Imagine things like Silbergeier or Hotel Supramonte shot that way…
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You should inform better on the DSLR scene, and what is being done with it, check out this Zacuto review on DLSR’s compared to film http://www.zacuto.com/shootout
or http://vimeo.com/philipbloom
DSLR is the future, if in the right hands, the thing is that for now most of people using them are photographers or newcomers to filmmaking, the equipment doesn’t make the movie the filmmaker does.
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@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.
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The Ski/Board films have larger reach but they are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills too as DVD sales continue to decline. Still, the 3-4 crews that are shooting Red (and that I’ve worked with) in the ski/board world aren’t flying their cameras on Cable Cams.
Chuck had money to burn and bought a toy that motivated him creatively… but he’s making money with it shooting products you’d find in Walmart, not shooting climbing.
There is a reason that CORE was primarily bouldering… and why much (all?) of the roped climbing isn’t shot on RED. Holding a beast like the RED stable with anything less than a set of solid sticks or heavy duty Gyro/Steadicam Setup negates any purpose of shooting it in the first place.
So I guess I’m back to what I said in the first place, could you do the things you suggest…. Yes, but I don’t think you will see anyone doing them any time soon because shooting with RED is way more involved and difficult and because there isn’t a solid ROI. So unless somebody has deep pockets with money and time to burn in the climbing world you are SOL.
Now something with the 5d/1d might be more realistic and probable. tk
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WORD!
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