CORE in Brazil

I just got word that the CORE show in Brazil was a great success. Our host there prepared Portuguese subtitles for the film, and he said that many more people showed up to see the film than what they expected.

CORE in Brazil, blog post (in Portuguese).

Awesome to have a representation in Brazil. I would love to visit Brazil some time to do some climbing and some filming there, and meet all the cool people.

Cheers,

Chuck

The Jamie Emerson Interview

Today I went up to Boulder for a day. I had lunch with Chris Clark from Scarpa, dropped into The Spot Bouldering Gym, bought a new microphone cable, and met up with Jamie Emerson for an interview.

Red Bull Austria is currently close to finishing a project called Elements, which follows Kilian Fischhuber through several travels and competitions. I've worked several days on this film over the last few years, and I think about 5 or 6 minutes of the film will be from footage I shot. Today I sat down with Jamie to find out what it's like to set routes when you know that Kilian is going to show up and try to break down your hard work.

As usual, Jamie was outspoken and very knowledgeable about the topics. I would speculate that few people spend as much time thinking about climbing as Jamie.

For this video clip, I told him to pretend like I just down-graded his project. Look at that mean face. Love you JE. I am shooting the Red One on build 30 at the moment, and really liking the results I'm getting. Red has changed around the FLUT which is a component of the color science in the compressed RAW data. I'm finding that I'm getting better skin tones overall with the new color science. Geek of the day award goes to yours truly.




The film will be released mostly in Europe I believe. Not sure exactly when but I'll post up some more info when I have it.

Cheers,
Chuck

Before and After

I'm currently testing some footage from the new generation of Red cameras. One of the best things about shooting on Red is the amount of processing you can apply to the footage. Here, we see a test clip that represents the raw data from the shoot. In other words, this is what it looked like as raw capture data, straight from the sensor.



After applying some correction, processing, and some effects (more than I would typically use... but hey... we're testing here) I was able to get a more dramatic image from the original data.



There are huge advantages to shooting with a raw camera that has over 13 stops of dynamic range. If you're an art director or marketing person for a company, be on the lookout for the wave of photographers who are currently dabbling with 'movie mode' on their SLR cameras and hocking the results as professional. You can get away with murder if your end result is Vimeo, but if you are aiming for a higher-quality playback format... beware!

Looking forwards

The Red One's big brother - Epic.

With the release of CORE I'm now free to look forwards once again. As I'm now inbetween films, I can do some commercial work, recharge my creative batteries, and wait for the inspiration to arrive so I can dive into another project.

I currently have no less than three feature films that are in various stages of production or pre-production (one of them is about climbing), but everything now is at a standstill as far as production is concerned. I get to take a breath and make some careful considerations about what comes next in my own artistic and technical development as a director and cinematographer.

Red, the revolutionary camera company that is bringing cinema-quality gear to market at prices that even hacks like me can afford, has announced the upgrade path to their next generation of camera - the Epic. I'm one of the first in line for the new generation of cameras but I need to consider carefully if now is a good time to upgrade from a camera that is already pretty gosh darn amazing.

On another note, Panasonic has announced plans to release a full 4K Display. This is the first display I've heard of that has the capability to display 4K resolution, which is of course the native resolution of the Red One.


The Panasonic 4K Plasma. If you have to ask how much it costs, you cant afford one.


As I've always said, there's no need for sharp gear when you have fuzzy ideas. And right now I'm creatively depleted from CORE, so time will tell if I step up to the plate and once again pounce on the highest quality cinema gear for my upcoming projects.

Cheers,
Chuck

Viewings

So at this point, Blu-ray copies of CORE are circulating, and the global tour now has over 50 live shows. The DVD hits shelves worldwide on May 1st, and the HD download starts on the same day.

I was reviewing the full-length copy of CORE today once again as I prepare the 52-minute version for TV broadcast, and I wanted to offer some hints about what to look for if you've already seen the film. There's a few layers going on in the film aside from just people climbing on rocks.

Layer #1 - People climbing on rocks
Layer #2 - Money
Layer #3 - Work / What is a professional climber?
Layer #4 - Todd Skinner

To be continued...

Blowing like the Wyoming breeze

The World premiere is concluded. We had a packed house last night at the Boulder Theater for CORE and overall the film was very well received. Always great to hear the audience cheering for the climbers on the screen.

At this point, I still have a lot to do to wrap up the project, but my mind is now free to wander off and get inspired for the next thing.

An Early Review

So I guess whenever anyone says anything about a "FILM", you are supposed to put it inside these laurel things. Usually you see pretentious film festival awards featured inside these little plants but as many of you know I could care less what a panel of judges thinks about my films. I got a comment earlier today from an early blu-ray buyer and I thought it was worth re-posting here, so I put it in some laurels so as to adhere to tradition.



Please join us at the World Premiere of CORE at the Boulder Theater on Wednesday at 7pm.

Cheers,
Chuck

CORE goes out the door

Well it's April 1, my scheduled release date for the Blu-Ray edition of CORE. Today is the start of the release of the film, with the Blu-Ray shipping today, live screenings starting in just a few days worldwide, and then on May 1 the DVD will hit shelves around the world and the HD download goes live.


A frame from Nalle's Finland segment

CORE represents a massive statement about the sport of climbing and the athletes who I feel best represent the spirit of the sport. The concept of the heart, the title of CORE, the opening scenes, the symbols of what we take away from the experience. It was a goal of mine to try to create a defining film. Without doubt, the production level of this one particuar micro-budget film genre has been multiplying each year. When I started making videos, I just went climbing and carried a camera around and what I created was good enough to sell thousands of copies. Now I'm shooting with a $50,000 camera system and hiring lighting designers. I traveled to Finland for two weeks and came back with just 5-minutes of CORE. Based on some early reviews, I think I may have hit my mark however. One reviewer said

"I think that CORE is a turning point. There will eventually be two kinds of videos - those that came before CORE, and those that come after."


A frame from Matt Wilder's Hueco segment

It's optimistic to think that I've created the iconic climbing film of our generation. Eventually the hype will cool off and then we'll really see if the film has the kind of staying power it takes to keep people talking about it for years instead of just months.

I'm proud to announce the release of the Blu-Ray edition of CORE. It's taken a long time to create this film but it's finally ready to go out in the best format currently available. I've watched the blu-ray several times on various types of monitors and projectors and it's really amazing how realistic it is. Less like watching a video and more like looking out a window.

The Blu-Ray features the uncut Fred Nicole interview - sit down with the legend himself for a full 60 minutes of uninterrupted conversation.

The Blu-Ray is available now, and it will start shipping out today.

ORDER HERE

If you're in the Denver / Boulder area, please join us for the world premiere of CORE at the Boulder Theater on Wednesday, April 7th at 7pm.

Best,

Chuck