This year's People's Choice winning producer spills the secrets on how to win at Kendal, next year's project, and more...
After a day and a half in Kendal we managed to find Alastair Lee in the Brewery Arts Centre Café fitting in nicely with the crowds – eating dinner, discussing the films, and working out which combo to watch in the afternoon session. We managed to drag him out of his anonymity for a few minutes to answer some questions on Psyche, the latest climbing film from Posing Productions and winner of this year’s People’s Choice Award. Here’s what he had to say …
It was rather brave making three films this year instead of one. What prompted that idea?
Well originally there were going to be seven films but they would have been much shorter ones. The idea came from Dosage – which is a series of bouldering and sport climbing films from across the big water. There didn’t seem to be a UK equivalent but I thought the structure would work quite well.
With so much filming to do, did you ever think you weren’t going to make it?
Well, it rained so much this summer that we almost ran out of time shooting the sport climbing section of the trio, with Steve McClure. In the end we only had three weeks to film the entire thing, which wasn’t long enough for Steve to set any new routes so he had to repeat routes he’d climbed before.
When did you actually finish the film?
On Tuesday night, and the premier was on Saturday, so that’s four days early:-)
Were there any big surprises along the way?
Yes, Andy Kirkpatrick and Ian Parnell actually returned the camera I sent them to Patagonia with – I couldn’t believe it. It even had some great footage on it, so thanks to them for that.
Do you have any ideas yet for next year’s offering?
Yes, my local crag has routes on it from pretty much every decade in the last hundred years and I thought I could do something about that. The idea will probably change though.
Which other films at this year’s festival should we look out for?
Zoltan, which is a kayaking film and definitely the funniest I’ve seen at this year’s festival. Underdeveloped is also good - it’s a bit of a feat of stamina and should probably only be 15 minutes not 50 but the boys are absolutely crazy so it’s a great laugh. Particularly if you like watching people jump straight into a sea full of jellyfish! Great White Fright was good too.
What’s the secret to your ongoing success at Kendal?
At this point, one of Al’s mates suggests that they should take voting forms around the café and make everyone vote for Psyche on the spot. That would ensure another win in the People’s Choice Category.
More seriously, the films speak for themselves (our words now, not Al’s) but he did say that he found this year’s win particularly gratifying because the film he pipped to the line had a multi-million pound budget whereas Psyche is made by a few men and their macs. Good work!
Are there any extra surprises on the Psyche DVD?
Yes, there’s an extra film called ‘Canadian Chaos’, which follows my road trip across Canada to go climbing ten years ago. I had long hair and looked a bit camp – and some of the film quality isn’t that great as it was made on an old VHF by people who’d never used a camera before – but we had a great laugh anyway so the film’s dedicated to our youth.
Those were all Alistair Lee’s words (more or less!) so thanks to him for chatting to us.
Just to back up the last bit about Candaian Chaos, we’ve seen the film and it’s a humorous mix of hitch-hiking, benightings on long multi-pitch climbs, and as you’d expect of Canada, some fantastic scenery. Al would be the first to say it was a rather amateur job, but there’s something quite touching about that amateurism, so it’s a nice addition to the Psyche DVD even if it wouldn’t make a masterpiece by itself.
That’s it for this year’s words of wisdom from Posing Productions but look out for the films Al recommended at ‘Best of Kendal’ evenings around the UK.
Full details of DVDs from Posing Productions are available on the website.
