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it is
strangely engrossing
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i'm shooting a vr film because
it seems like a interesting way to share
a fairly unusual experience with the
number of people
i'm excited for my friends and family
that have like seen all my films and
seen interviews and things like that but
they don't
you know they can't necessarily
appreciate the position because they've
never sold they've never been in those
places and i think vr will take them to
those places a few years ago i did an
everest virtuality film and it felt
natural to do a soloing film after that
so i sent alex a headset about two years
ago just to show him what vr can look
like when it's done really well
when i saw the everest piece that he'd
created i was
fully immersed
totally transfixed by it i was like that
could be amazing
okay well mic sync take one
action
oh it's pretty impressive to see the
whole vr
apparatus come to life i mean i don't
even know you called the whole junk show
that is the tripod the monopod the titan
the giant camera thing that sits on the
end all the extra ropes that hold it all
in place all going in and out of a
backpack untethered over and over
without anything falling off the
mountain or getting too damaged i mean
it's pretty impressive considering just
climbing a wall is is pretty hard then
to climb up with this giant
virtual reality camera setup is it's
kind of insane
monkeys are
on the wall monkeys are jogging
okay
out she comes
i just love that while we talk about
thomas is up there prepping the route
it's just
well it's just good that it's like the
work is happening
while we don't do anything
okay do you guys want to put up with the
ropes a little bit so they're out the
shot
please
all right so you guys are gonna get
ready and like have a little chit chat
about what you're doing and then
you will just like do the first few
meters so mike's saying this is setting
up at the bottom so just chat you guys
okay here i'm putting the grigri on here
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the true power of vr is just in its
reality and its honesty of what it
captures it's very hard to fake a scene
in vr because you know the viewer sees
everything and it's so powerful because
it's audio wise you hear everything you
hear every tiny bit and it really draws
you into alex
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yeah it's a wrap right
one of three
it's it's kind of weird though i thought
i'd be more scared watching alex solo
you know because when we were watching
him up on the wall i was like oh okay
well he's just so karma's okay but i'm
sure when i'm like on the wall like this
wall here dangling you know over the
other hands with him i'd be like oh my
god but somehow it's like
i don't know it felt super chill today i
don't know what it is yeah he just like
exudes relaxation when he solos
the best thing about shooting all the vr
stuff is when you actually get back and
stitch it together and put it in a
headset just what alex is watching right
now and you get to
actually see what it looks like you know
normal camera works you can just hit
play on the back of your camera and you
can see what you're shot in vr i have
absolutely no idea what it looks like
until actually get home spend two days
stitching it on a computer and then put
it in a headset and have a look so it's
not until then that you watch it and
you're like okay this actually really
worked out i really fell in love with
the goggles because um i really felt
that i'm just here at this the moment i
can feel the snow around me and the the
exposure and yeah it was
pretty intense so the footage is
fantastic i've sent it to
you know the producers around the world
and the response has been incredible
shenanigans and my wife and plenty
people in charming who are all climbers
and they've all been pretty flawed and
gobsmacked by it and what's really cool
is that for me the dolomites is like the
warm-up to the film it's not even like
the big stuff that we're about to do yet
so if already the intro is really like
like flaws climbers they're so amazed by
i know that what we're gonna do and the
finale and everything else will just be
yes it's just incredible but it's so
watchable isn't it it's like you're
fully engrossed you don't want to be
jumped another scene you want to just
stay in it and keep watching just keep
watching yeah it's really cool
alpine terrain isn't really conducive to
so long because often you need a partner
in a rope and nicholas just has an
incredible level of fitness and just
looks so comfortable on alpine
nico has turned out to be this really
great partner for alex in this shoot
i think because he's so mellow and
relaxed and he doesn't seem to have an
ego at all
kind of crazy but
i think this will be the uh
the hardest albinism i've ever done
you hit record and then i'm just like so
focused on the camera because you know
tiny bits of wind which you always get
in the mountains with that much leverage
and with the ropes going up there's
always going to be stuff that moves
about and you can't
have a camera that wobbles in vr because
the viewer will then be wobbling and
it's really uncomfortable and it always
wobbles a little bit but it's kind of
okay and i'm just trying to like work it
out but also desperately hoping it
doesn't wobble so much that it suddenly
loses that balance
alex
just look up because if anything falls
down while i'm rigging it it'll kill you
perfect
we weren't even starting to descend
until 7 or 8 p.m which is like so late
because to be 2 000 feet up a wall sort
of quite cold with like clouds swirling
all around you and watching the sunset
and none of us had headlamps because we
were all sort of expecting it to be a
much more casual day and uh probably
1500 feet off the ground john made the
executive call instead of cleaning all
the ropes as we descended we were just
gonna leave the ropes in place zip to
the ground retreat to camp
feel like basically do some self-care
get some sleep and then go back and
clean the ropes the next day
i am signing off for the night
don't need any complications here
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you want every shot to be really
exciting so the only tool your
disposition
is location because all you can do is
put a camera in a location
you can't do anything with the lenses
right because it's meant to it's meant
to be just our human vision
which means that like getting that
location perfect is everything in vr
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if we shot like a film of you soloing
some kind of like really crap crack down
in the valley or something then that's
just what it would be really uninspiring
but you can make a cool film about it
right because you'd like all the cool
angles and you know make it exciting
yeah but to actually make a really cool
vr film about your soloing it has to be
it has to actually be cool at the core
like it has we have to go somewhere
proper
you'd feel it you know like you would do
if you were there
and that's super powerful that's why i
love vr you know you can use that power
so much more for important messages in
life
than we can with other mediums
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you