The making of the Muir Valley Project.
Bryan Lemon & Clinton Lewis work their way to the top of the Shawnee Shelter wall during weekend three of production. Great vantage points gave us stellar video that'll make the final cut of the video.
After four weekends of production spread out over two month, we've wrapped up the field work for the Muir Valley Project. All the logistics, planning, and shooting has come to an end; however, the project is far from over. Now it's on to editing all of the content to get the final video ready for its debut in early 2014. Dozens of volunteers, the Friends of Muir Valley board of directors and Rick and Liz Weber are really what made this production possible and for that a huge round of thanks goes to them all! Hours of prep work were put in by the creative team which included numerous status call and meetings with FOMV board members to hash out details and plans for shooting. It has been a fun ride up to this point and I just wanted to share some of the pictures and video we've shot from behind-the-scenes on this project so far.
Collecting footage during the last weekend of production for the Muir Valley Project.
Our shooting schedule was tight and often included early mornings and 10 to 12 hour long days lugging heavy, bulky camera and lighting equipment up to the crags we were planning to shoot. Weekend three included a 4:30a start and a predawn shot for the documentary. We did however have the weather on our side. Out of four weekends, zero had rain and although it was chilly during some shooting and sweltering during other weekends none of the production schedule had to be postponed because of the forecast. Weekend one was spent focusing on the interviews for the video, while the third weekend consisted entirely of climbing and hiking video. Weekend's two and four were used for collecting much needed extra b-roll around the valley. Quite a bit of video equipment was also essential to making the production a success. We had three Canon DSLR cameras, a DJI Phantom Helicopter equipped with a GoPro Hero 3 camera, audio equipment, lighting equipment, generator, jib crane and camera slider among other gear. If you'd like a full equipment list, shoot me a message and I'll be glad to hook you up.
Also, a big thanks to the companies that helped out by providing product for the video: Teton Sports provided packs and ENO provided hammocks. In addition props goes to Land of the Arches campground which provided the crew free camping during every weekend of production. It was super nice to have a home base only minutes away from the valley. Land of the Arches is in a primo spot close to all the action in the Red! The Access Fund has also played a large role in this video. Joe Sambataro provided awesome insight into the preservation projects that are taking place in Muir Valley.
Bryan Lemon, a DP on the documentary, fights his way up to shoot from a vantage point high on the wall during one of the production days.
To put on any production of this size it takes a small army of people and with very little prodding required we were able to get a lot of great people to join the ranks to make this video possible. THANK YOU to all who were involved in some way with the project! And of course... thanks to Rick and Liz Weber for inviting all of us into their backyard during this fall's production. The goal of the Muir Valley Project is to inspire climbers and outdoor enthusiasts to give back to the areas they use and frequent. It was so encouraging and rewarding to see volunteers really step up and dedicate entire weekends to helping make this project a success. Over and over again I heard the crew (all of which were volunteers) say they wanted to help because Rick and Liz Weber are amazing people. They have given so much to the climbing community and this was our crew's way of giving a little something back to them. It's that spirit of volunteerism, dedication and responsibility that I'm hoping this video will inspire. That's the thing about it, Muir Valley isn't the only place like this in the world. There are other crags that need support and need climbers to step up and take responsibility for upkeep and donations. Lets make every "Muir Valley" a project. Ok... I'll get off my soapbox now.
Look for much more as we start editing the final documentary and of course be watching for its release sometime early next year.
Crew:
Director - Dave Docimo
Producer/ Writer - Stuart Peck
1st Director of Photography - Clinton Lewis
2nd Director of Photography - Bryan Lemon
Helicopter Pilot - Tom Donalek
Rigging - JJ Jones, Zachary Davis, Erik Kloeker, John Seymer, Anne Altor, Roger VanDamme
On-Camera Talent - Peter Schmalzried, JJ Jones, Melanie Hobgood, Bill Ellis
Interviews - Rick Weber, Liz Weber, Joe Sambataro, Roger VanDamme, Jared Hancock, Karla Hancock
Production Assistants - Mike Jerstad, Sandra Samman, Ross Kasner
Volunteer Wrangler - Matt Howell