Seattle International Film Festival

Went to two screenings of films today.

Earlier today I went to a screening at the Seattle Center of :"Three Minute Masterpieces," a short film contest held by SIFF and the Seattle Times. The film I shot was called "Three Minutes of Movie Masterpieces."

Timothy Watkins and Charles Forsgren's pastiche of movie history, filmed in and around Seattle, lampoons "Casablanca," "Psycho" and other screen classics.

I shot in on my HVX200, but unfortunately, they screened a version they'd downloaded off YouTube, so the quality was not very good at all.

The second film, "Black Coffee" directed by Tran Quoc Bao and written by Charles Forsgren and Tim Watkins was made for SIFF'S Fly Film Challenge. Shot on black and white 16mm film it was in the noir genre with nods to hitchcock. I was only a PA and so can't say I contributed anything much. But it was satisfying to see it up on screen. Good job everyone.

Lung Test at fourteen four

Thought I'd go test my lungs out before leaving for Pakistan. Climbed Gibraltar ledges on Mt. Rainier with photographer and artist Kendall Dewey.

Tried out a pair of La Sportiva's Olympus Mons boots too.

Conclusion: these are the warmest, most comfortable boots I've ever had.


And yes, my lungs still work.

Also, I did a sweet headstand. Well, maybe not sweet. But i did a headstand.

K2 and Broad Peak Expedition

We are pleased to be announcing that we've got some Summer plans worked out. While the prospect of loading the kids into the truck and hauling the Airstream around the great campgrounds of the West was very appealing, we have instead opted for a working vacation in Pakistan.

K2 and Broad peak, the second and twelfth highest mountains in the world are located right across from each other in the Karakoram mountains of Pakistan. K2 has been the scene of many notable expeditions, including one led by occultist and "wickedest man in the world," Aleister Crowley. We, however will be concerning ourselves with the 1909 expedition led by Luigi Amedeo, the Italian Duke of Abruzzi.

We have attached ourselves to an expedition to K2 and Broad peak being organized by Field Touring. Friend and occasional couch surfer at Ursus Films world headquarters, Fabrizio Zangrilli will be leading the K2 effort. The planned route is the SSE spur (marked in red) AKA the Cesen route after alpinist Tomo Cesen. This route is a slightly safer alternative to the Abruzzi spur (in yellow).

Dave Ohlson and Adam Forslund will be heading to Pakistan June 8th. Our primary goal is to film for a long planned documentary on the 1909 Italian expedition to K2. Besides comparing a modern day effort with the 1909 one, we are looking at the photographs taken by Vittorio Sella (images above are of the West Face of K2 and climbers in the Chogolisa icefall, 1909), recreating many of them and relating these to climate change in the Karakoram mountains. See more images of Vittorio Sella's by clicking here. Climate change in the Karakorams has many interesting facets that differentiate it from the rest of the world. While every research expedition we had hoped to accompany this Summer has cancelled due to the unrest in Pakistan, we think that accompanying this climbing expedition will allow us to make a solid start to the film. We plan to return in 2010 to follow research in the field and to do more photo recreations.

If everything goes according to plan we will be updating this blog via satellite phone every week or so. So please subscribe.