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News - Wed 3rd Oct 2012 - New UK Trad Climbing Film Takes Un-Trad Route to Top - Heason Events

New UK Trad Climbing Film Takes Un-Trad Route to Top

3rd Oct 2012

Hot Aches teams up with The North Face and The Climbing Works to launch worldwide free stream premiere.

Award-winning climbing film producer Paul Diffley is planning a new route he hopes will propel his latest film ‘Odyssey’ to the top of the climbing film charts.  Diffley has teamed up with global climbing apparel giant The North Face to attempt a daring alternative to the usual festival launch route.

The film is being premiered at the world’s biggest bouldering wall, The Climbing Works, Sheffield, on 10th November and at the same time will be available to view on free stream via the Hot Aches website for 10 days.  During this time the film will also be available to buy on DVD or via download at a reduced price.

‘Odyssey’ - Hot Aches’ 10th film (directed by Dom Bush) - is an epic two-week road trip with four of the world’s best climbers tackling some of the best areas of traditional rock climbing in the UK.  James Pearson, Hazel Findlay, Hansjörg Auer (Austria) and Caroline Ciavaldini (France) and the four man camera team visited the Lakes, Pembrokeshire, Shropshire, Northumberland and North Wales.  James will give a talk before the film and James, Caroline, director Dom and producer Paul will also be at the Climbing Works for a Q&A to give the audience their behind-the-scenes insight into the making of the film.


Cover image credit: David Simmonite

And there's a chance to win a taste of life as a pro-climber with the BMC's Facebook Experience Competition including:

  • 2 VIP tickets to the premiere
  • A personal one-to-one coaching session with James Pearson at 5.30
  • Complementary BMC drinks while you meet Paul Diffley from Hot Aches
  • The Hot Aches collection - a personally-signed Odyssey DVD and poster, and DVDs of All Mixed UP, E11, Committed Vol I, Committed Vol II, Monkey See Monkey Do, The Pinnacle and The Long Hope.
  • Free gear from Wild Country that James wears in the film including a Rock Lite helmet; Elite Ultralite harness; 10 x Astro quickdraws; nuts, cams, 2 chalkbags and 2 T-shirts.
  • Plus a new BMC Rock Climbing Essentials DVD and a set of four BMC guidebooks: Froggatt, Over The Moors, Stanage and Cheshire and Merseyside – all signed and dedicated personally to you by Niall Grimes.

To enter Like the BMC's facebook page and every Friday (12th, 19th, 26th Oct & 2st Nov) answer their question on Facebook – about James Pearson, Wild Country, the BMC or Hotaches. Get all four answers right and you’ll be entered into a draw for the Experience.

Producer Paul Diffley says:  “My normal route would be to enter film festivals and do a traditional premiere.  Once a film’s done the rounds at a few festivals it becomes available for download and sale on DVD and then via specialist channels.  Festivals are great for the people there but even the biggest ones only a few hundred people will see the film and a few thousand will ever buy on DVD or download.

“By holding a worldwide online premiere we hope thousands and thousands of climbers will enjoy it for free during the initial ten day period.  Obviously this is a commercial venture and I hope some of those people will then enjoy it so much that they’ll buy a copy to keep and maybe buy a DVD for a gift as a present for a friend.

“The North Face are natural partners.  In terms of climbing they’re probably the biggest climbing company out there globally.  When I started to put the team together I was looking for strong rock climbers.  I’ve worked with James and Hazel before who are both sponsored by The North Face who have a really strong rock climbing team.  So with two of the climbers fixed it made sense to make it a North Face quartet with Caroline and Hansjörg.  They also have a really strong online and social media presence so it’s a strong partnership to try an innovative new method of distribution.”

Hazel Findlay

James Pearson
Caroline Ciavaldini


Hansjörg Auer

Click here to download high res versions of these and other images

Michele Scarano, Head of Digital & Social Media, The North Face (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) said:  "Since climbing is in our roots, we feel that authentic content is key to engage with the community from pro to enthusiast. We understand that followers and fans are hungry to know more about our athletes and their incredible feats through online platforms, as we've just seen with our live reporting from The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival."

Heason Events & The Climbing Works are pleased to team up with Hot Aches once again.  Matt Heason from Heason Events said:  “A few years ago we held a multi-screen, simultaneous screening of ‘Committed 2’ at the Climbing Works which was a big success so it’s exciting to be working with Hot Aches again on pushing the boundaries of film distribution.”

Brian McAlinden General Manager at The Climbing Works, Sheffield said:  “We’re delighted to host this innovative premiere.  It’ll be a real treat to have James. Caroline, Paul and Dom at the screening to give the audience a flavour of what it’s like both in front of and behind the camera on an epic climbing trip.”

The Climbing Works will be showing an exclusive extract from Odyssey at the interval of the Reel Rock tour screening on Sunday October 7th.

ENDS

Click to download pdf version of this press release (Wednesday 3rd October 2012)

Click here to download IMAGES high res and web size & poster

Click here to download Paul Diffley's bio

Click here for details of the BMC's Facebook Experience Competition

Notes to Editors:


 

Venue
Climbing Works, Sheffield