Queenstown on the Cheap - New video from LPTV

Have a look at this video that I made with the folks at Lonely Planet TV. It's all about Queenstown, New Zealand and how you can have a good time and not spend too much money in the process. Enjoy!

Running the Routeburn - Twice... The movie

Last May I undertook an amazing adventure with my good friend Christian Martin. We ran the spectacular Routeburn walking track, not once but twice in one day. It made for an amazing 65km journey. As we were running I was also filming. Now available on-line for the first time is the film that I shotthat day. Co-produced by the fine folks at Lonely Planet TV – I did the shooting (and the running) and they handled the post-production. They’ve done a fantastic job of putting it together and I’m really proud of the final product! Follow this link to see the video and I hope you enjoy!

Running the Routeburn with LP author Scott Kennedy
Cheers,
Scott

The Season Kicks Off

A few weeks back I wrote a post about The Season (the new web-TV series from the makers of The Dirtbag Diaries) – well it’s up and running and looking great! Have a look at the latest episode that most definitely qualifies as sea-kayak-porn (a not-oft uttered phrase...)

Enjoy!

The Season Episode 2 from Fitz Cahall and Bryan Smith on Vimeo.

The Best CGI I have ever seen

The buzz that is surrounding Avatar at the moment is reaching near fever-pitch. Deservedly so, in my opinion. It’s a great film with unprecedented effects. At least i thought so, and then I saw this video. This short film is ENTIRELY CGI that’s right; this breathtaking photo-realistic piece was all made inside a computer. Aliens can look like anything – a vintage Super-8 has to look just right – and here it does. Enjoy!

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

The Season

Hello Blogosphere! It trust the holiday season was kind to all and Santa brought toys to sew the seeds of adventure, art and a life well lived.

Regular Adventureskope readers will know all about The Dirtbag Diaries – for those not in the know, The Diaries is a superb outdoor flavored podcast that tells the tale of adventure. I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute an episode last year, which you can listen to by hitting this link.

Fitz Cahall, the mastermind behind The Dirtbag Diaries, has a new project in the works that look just awesome. He’s calling it, “The Season” and it is a 22-part television series that will be available for FREE on iTunes in the coming months. As you can see by the preview below, it looks like it’s going to be something well worth tuning in to watch – or downloading it as it were.

The Season Trailer from Fitz Cahall on Vimeo.

Here’s how Fitz describes the show – The Season. Five lives. A world of possibility.
From the creators of The Dirtbag Diaries and 49 Megawatts comes a new web television project following five athletes through the course of a single season in the Pacific Northwest. A veteran climber invents a new piece of gear. A pro snowboarder searches for a way to return to the roots of his sport. A boulderer returns from a series of injuries with new perspective. A family man goes to Whistler to test himself against mountain biking’s elite. A young sea kayaker with a troubled past sets out to reinvent his sport.

I’ll be tuning in – you should too!

Sand People

This video has been kicking around for a while and I finally got around to posting it on YouTube so that others could have a look at it. This was shot almost a year ago when I was cycling in Egypt and Sudan. When I came back from that trip I had all sorts of footage that got used for a few different projects – some was used by Lonely Planet to create a few cool vids (Click HERE to see the LP video) and some was used by myself in slide shows and to show friends what the trip was all about. In the end there was some leftover stuff that didn’t get used anywhere and I wanted to make use of it. I came up with the idea of a sort of DVD extra – the cutting room floor as it were. What was left had a fun and kinetic feel to it, so that is how I decided to edit it together. Hope you enjoy, thanks for watching!

Burning Man Evolution – Video

On the last day of Burning Man there was a strange feeling in the air. It felt like the morning after of a massive house party where there was little to do beyond clean up and try and figure out what just happened. The week was winding down and there was nothing me or anyone could do about it. The Man had burned and the Temple was set to go alight later that day, lost I walked from our camp and onto The Esplanade (the main street of Burning Man). In the morning haze and warming ambiance I saw my wife Sophie standing alone in the desert. She was lost in her thoughts and engaged in kinesthetic meditation. There is something simple, beautiful and wonderfully playful about hula-hooping. There she was lost in her thoughts when this song came on the stereo from the camp adjacent to ours. Teardrop by Massive Attack has always resonated at a deep level for me – there is something haunting about it that has always stuck to my soul. This version was a cover by a guy called Newton Faulkner and it just fit. It was the right song at the right moment with the right things happening right there and then. At that moment that song became the song of the trip – it is and maybe always will be my Burning Man song. When it came time to put together a film of my Burning Man photos and video – there was no need to even think about what song would back them.

This really was an amazing experience that affected me far more then I expected it to. I hope these images in some way convey what this experience was all about. Sit back and enjoy Burning Man through my eyes.

If you can't see this video - click HERE to go straight to the source.

Burning Man

It’s 3am on Wednesday night or I guess it would be Thursday morning. Days have lost their meaning. The desert air is cool and clear. The dust storm from earlier today has cleared to form a crystal sky. I can feel the structure swaying under the weight of all the people. I’m standing atop 10 meters of scaffolding with far too many people than what the manufacturer would have intended. I’ve just climbed a steep ramp to get to the top of an enormous slide. Like a kids’ slide from a playground reinvented by a mad scientist with no regard for public safety. In front of me the slide starts of at a reasonable angle before dropping away to near vertical for 25m and finally leveling out at the bottom. I should be scared that the whole contraption is going to implode. I should be scared that I’m going to get run over by some overzealous overindulged slider. But the truth is all that is the least of my worries. In truth I’m terrified that the catholic schoolgirl outfit I’m wearing – complete with micro-mini skirt - will offer me no protection from the inevitable rug burns from the Astroturf slide surface. Before I launch myself into oblivion I take one last look at the horizon. I can see fountains of fire bursting into the sky, full scale Spanish galleons sailing around the desert, the Thunderdome from Mad Max in full combat mode and countless other weird and wonderful things exploding around me. I tuck in my skirt, say a silent prayer to the god of rug-burn and go for it. Welcome to Burning Man.

Before I went to Burning Man all of my friends were asking what it was going to be like. In truth I didn’t have much I could tell them. Using the vernacular of the event I was a virgin – it was my first time. I was full of questions, unknowns and a genuine curiosity of what this thing was going to be all about.

So what was it all about? The week long event finished a fortnight ago and in many ways I’m still trying to figure out what the fuck it was all about. I look back on it now and it’s still a blur. Moments wrapped up in emotion, lit by fire and nurtured by love. People assume that Burning Man is some huge debaucherous party or some aged hippy love in. Or that it’s some raver thump-thump e-fest. Maybe it’s some oversized art festival with more cash spent on large scale art then I care to imagine. Maybe it’s just a huge social experiment with 40,000 people living together for a week in relative harmony. Maybe it’s normal people leaving normality behind for a week. Maybe it’s a playground for adults where flamethrowers, giant slides, contraptions with names like The Teeder-todder of Death are commonplace. Maybe it’s a place of unbridled creativity running wild for all to see. It’s a city, it’s a family, it’s anything you can imagine and some things you can’t. It’s all that. It’s none of that. It’s all a dream. It doesn’t exist. Don’t believe what you’ve heard. Run away. Forget what you think you know. It’s ok. Come closer. Sit a while and take it all in.

Burning Man is something that I will never forget and it’s something I’ll never really be able to fully explain.

have a look at this amazing time lapse video and get a taste...

The End

if you can't see this special video post - click HERE to go straight to the source.

and so it begins...

if you can't see the video click HERE to go to the source.