Slowly, we have been luring renowned and colorful climbers of all eras to the call of this film. I’m excited, especially when these folks get excited too. That’s when I know I’m doing something right. That’s when I get the warm fuzzies and brew another pot of coffee.

So now that we have [a good amount of] the people we need to make this film, we enter the phase where we…throw our self-respect in the gutter.

It’s time to tighten up the concept, slicken up our image, practice the art of schmoozing, groveling, and a$$ kissing. It’s time to raise the rest of the budget!

How do we intend to lure the rest of the Benjamins? By showing exactly what we plan on doing.

I’ve been working intently on the demo video, an 8 minute piece that showcases the style and content of what the actual documentary will be like. It basically answers the “how” of the full length documentary.

Me: I’m making a documentary that captures the essence of adventure, the need for wilderness, the art of the American climber…

My Investors: Oh yeah, how?

Press ‘play’.

You get the drift. A picture is worth a thousand words — and a few hundred moving pictures with sound and music — will hopefully be worth a few thousand dollars…

Hence, hard at work on this video:

A barrage of equipment spread out neatly on a picnic table…remind anyone of any classic Tom Frost photograph?

Royal and TM Herbert go through their gear…

Me too!

If you don’t see the similarity, well who cares about you anyway.

We’ve been experimenting with the interview lighting setup and bagged the two interviews we’ll be using in the demo (Lars Holbek, Mark Moore) to illustrate how interviews will be used.

So far so good, although finding a balance between electronic firelight flickers which give me seizures and beautifully unnatural chiaroscuro side lighting has been a fun challenge.

Mark Moore, test interview subject 1

Lars Holbek, test interview subject 2

The demo is a segment on climbing in the 70s, in the middle of the Clean Climbing Revolution, and in the Red Rocks. In about two weeks, we may have some more stills to put up…or maybe the actual video (depending on the final say of our producer, Paul, who I have some exciting news about to be revealed in the near future).

Until then, wading through interviews, photograph, footage, broll, Doug Robinson’s timely package of Go Wild! Nevada and Larry DeAngelo’s much-awaited-in-my-mailbox ‘Red Rock Odyssey’. Preparing to go to the YCA Museum grand opening??

Again, if you are wealthy and have interest in putting the $$ in a$$ kissery, hit me up.

Beep. Slap. Cellphones just don’t have the same kind of dramatic hanging-up qualities like those old school phones from the 80s, I thought. But that’s for another day, and right now I was happy, celebratory, running around the house in my pajamas. I’d just gotten off the phone with Dana, a volunteer coordinator from the American Alpine Club who is trying to help me setup interviews with rock climbers in Colorado.

The greatest thing about this project so far (though we’re in the early stages, so, no gloating) is the great responses I’ve been getting from people in the climbing community. It’s genuinely inspiring.

When you hang out in LA and mention you want to make a film, expect your waiter to chime in ‘you, me, and everybody else in this over-priced hamburger joint, babe’. I wouldn’t really begrudge the comment because its true! (LA is crawling with filmmakers who want desperately to make crappy movies for lots of money.) But when you are making a film that means something to a whole community, well, it becomes more than just a personal fancy, but a group effort. And that feels pretty cool.

Alex, the crew member responsible for the hand drawings on the website, suggested that I put up bios of the climbers who will be interviewed in the doc. So here is a start:

Let me introduce you to our first official sign-on for the project: Lars Holbek.

Lars and a stray dog, circa 1973.

Lars has climbed, camped, kayaked and hiked across the continent, through North, Central, and South America.

He has lots of First Ascents from the [then] unpopulated Red Rocks of Nevada, including a sweet committing and traditional line known as Ginger Cracks.

(thanks to fivenineclimber.com for this pic)

Shortly after the trip in the Red Rocks where Lars completed this First Ascent with Mark Moore, the two were riding a freight train when, as luck would have it, they were spotted by a railway official. The official, however, only caught Mark, forcing him to get off with his two dogs, and leaving Lars behind. After they were split up, it would be months before the two friends would see each other again and find out what happened. (The details form one of my favorite stories, so I’m savin ‘em for the movie.)

Lars is also an epic figure in the whitewater kayaking and rafting scene, having done over 30-50 first descents in the USA. Remember the Tony the Tiger commercial with the Tony paddling down a river? Yup, that was Lars.

He currently has a converted vegetable oil bus, and is building a green sustainable home/barn/paradise on some land in Colorado. The last time I saw him a few years ago, he was sleeping in a mattress propped up in a tree on that land.

The man has stories to make you laugh, gasp, and get goose bumps.

A crackling on the other end of the line. “Well, I’m honored you want to talk to old geisers like me,” says the man whose rugged face graced billboards across the world, in his cheesy but wonderful off-handed sense of humor.

This is Lars. Our first real subject.