Figuring out how to climb and shoot with a large, fully loaded Canon C300 was a challenge. Each cameraman had to be his own independent unit, serving as rigger, AC, and focus puller, while also carrying his food and the supplies needed to shoot and climb for the day. Vasarhelyi and Chin wanted a grand scale that required shooting in 4k with cinema cameras and lenses, including a large 17-120mm zoom. “Yes, you don’t want to be in his eyeline, but he knows you’re around.” “They’ve all been practicing for so long, Alex has an understanding of where to anticipate people,” said Vasarhelyi. According to Vasarhelyi, the key to solving this problem was in the extended preparation. In the film, Chin and his crew struggle on camera with how to film and not affect Honnold’s climb. It was very surgical.” “Free Solo”: Alex Honnold on El Capitan National Geographic/Samuel Cross “How we would stay out of the other person’s shots, how we were going to move, when we were going to shoot tight and when we were going to pull back. “On the day of the climb, every single person knew exactly what shots they were supposed to get,” said Chin. They figured out which positions allowed multiple key shots, and would also allow them to quickly climb ahead of Honnold for the next one. That shoot-edit-iterate workflow allowed Vasarhelyi and Chin to maximize what they got from each cameraman. You can’t always afford to do it it was nice to be able to have an assistant editor on site with our DIT.” That way we can improve and make it stronger. “So we’re constantly looking at the shots and trying economize on what is the impact and what we really need. “One thing about our high-angle shooting is we edit while we are shooting,” said Vasarhelyi. Most importantly, the documentary had the resources for the camera team to film Honnold over two years as he trained using ropes and safety harnesses to figure out how to climb El Capitan. The safety side and climbing can’t be a question.”Īccording to Vasarhelyi, there are only a handful of climbers/cameramen in the world who met these qualifications, and they all knew each other and had climbed or filmed Honnold in the past. There’s a head-game aspect of this and we needed to be focused on the technical filmmaking challenges. You literally go over the lip to El Cap and there’s 3,000 feet of air below you, and to even flinch is taking up bandwidth in the creative part of your mind. “It has to be second nature to be on the wall and get to the top of El Cap. “From my experience, it’s a lot easier to go from a world-class climber to great cinematographer, than a great cinematographer to world-class climber,” said Chin. Chin, a professional climber with 20 years experience filming “in the vertical,” knew he would need a handful of cameramen with his level of experience to climb and shoot. Chai Vasarhelyi on location for “Free Solo” National Geographic/Chris Figensĭrones are not allowed in Yosemite, which meant everything had to come from someone holding a camera. National Geographic provided the resources: Honnold was a prominent free solo climber, the climb was historic, and Chin and Vasarhelyi previously directed the critically acclaimed climbing documentary “Meru.” However, it’s the way the filmmakers put those resources to use is what makes “Free Solo” play like a real-life “Mission Impossible.” Jimmy Chin and E. It had to be grand, it had to be really perfectly executed and push the edge of what I’d done in the past.” We needed resources to support the scale of this and how we wanted to shoot. “We like the classic cinematic shooting, but pushing the edge a little bit. “I don’t particularly like big moves or really dramatic shooting that call attention to the shooting,” said Chin, who also served as a cinematographer and camera operator. The intimate synced sound of Honnold draws us closer, heightening the subjectivity of the moment. The camera is still, the vibrant 4k image properly exposed and optically perfect. The overlapping shots not only allow for match cutting on action, but the sequencing feels storyboarded with each edit reframing and intensifying the tension. Each aesthetically balanced shot has an intentional composition that perfectly calls attention to the physical drama at that particular moment. If it wasn’t for Honnold being one misstep or loose rock away from falling to his death, the scene would seem staged for camera.
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