Western Gold - the boulder film in the local press

[squamish climber]

Both the Squamish Chief and the Squamish Reporter have stories on filmmaker Alex Savage and his latest project, Western Gold. The full length DVD or HD download was released in late April. I’ve just seen the trailer so far, and the shooting looks great. Part quest for the best highball problem in Western Canada and the US Northwest and part visual inquiry into the appeal and addiction of bouldering, Squamish stands out as beautiful place to boulder.

The film follows Jeremy Smith around Squamish as he ticks off some of the best and boldest problems.

I read in one of the pieces that Alex has moved here for the season so you may see him around. He’s probably the guy with video camera and boom mic filming boulder problems in the forest.

Alex submitted the film to the Squamish Mountain Film Festival, July 11-15. Congrats Alex

[squamish climber]

I don’t boulder and I haven’t written any film reviews but I thought I would give a crack reviewing Western Gold, the new full-length bouldering doc by indie-filmmaker Alex Savage. Initially I thought it would be a difficult task getting engaged into the film. But not so, Western Gold pulled me in from the beginning with it’s creative shooting and beautiful scenic shots.

A lot of climbing films are quick hits that zoom in on the climb and climber, ignoring the angle and depth of field. You really notice the artistry and effort that went into this film. The film makes effective use of slow moving pans. The camera is held extremely steady so there is not the dizzy inducing camera shaking you see in many other films. You can tell a lot of time went into thinking and testing camera angles. Alex got the camera in really close to the action for great effect. It was as if you could anticipate the next moves and in the next instant the camera was there for the close up of the hand slapping the hold.

The other thing you notice watching the film is the excellent audio quality and capturing of ambient sound. There is nobody recorded off mic as often happens in lesser quality films. And Alex obviously made a conscious effort to capture the sound where he was shooting, you hear birds in the forest and rushing water on the riverbank boulders.

I can’t imagine the number of hours it took to shoot and edit this film, but watching it you can tell it must have been a lot because each shot is close to perfect in terms of lighting, angle and depth of field. They say in documentary film-world a ratio of 7 to 1 is average, that is seven hours of shooting to one hour that makes it in the film. I would be curious to know how many hours Alex shot because I think a lot ended up on the cutting room floor.

A 90 minute documentary is hard to sustain and Western Gold lags at several points. Alex would have done well to carry his “less is more” philosophy in camera angles and shooting into the edit room. You can almost feel this as film spends a disportionate amount of time in Leavenworth where the doc begins and the less time in Cody Wyoming and Squamish which come at the end. Editorially, the film lacks a defining storyline, it feels at times there are a couple competing storylines, there is the search for the best and hardest highballs in the West and there is also the narrative of profiling some locals and their motivation for bouldering. The lack of dialogue puts a lot of the burden of moving the story forward on the images and editing.

There are several memorable moments in the film. One is the interview with Flannery Shay-Nemirow a visiting climber in Squamish. This young climber captures the vibe of Squamish when she talks about locals and non-locals climbing and sharing stories at the boulders and in the parking lot. I also like how Alex shoots the high-ball World of Hurt. In the first shot there must be at least ten spotters ready to catch the climber from a very rocky landing. In the next shot there is local Jeremy Smith, alone except for a few pads at the bottom. Jeremy’s understatement of enjoying the challenge of controlling the mind when climbing highballs hits home with a touch of humour in this scene.

Western Gold is available as a DVD ($24.99) or HD download ($14.99) or both for $29.99.

Western Gold Trailer