would you pay to look epic?

Long Duk Dong,
There's always that guy. Today that guy is you. When a request for honest opinions is presented one must be willing to endure painfully sad responses from people that have a bitterness somewhere in their day to day. I understand the need to utilize outlets and if my idea needs to be your outlet today, ok. Please keep in mind though that one day I may need an outlet as well and your creativity may be subject to my harassment as mine has been subject to yours. Hope tomorrow is a better day for you.
Now, back to the show.

My only advice is get good insurance or make sure your clients have it. It's scientific fact that the presence of a camera makes people do dumb shit.

Jon, you may wish to partner up with a guide service or two ? A lot of folks will enjoy watching the climbing footage that you shoot for them. Those are the ones that will hire you. The sound is annoying but perhaps that will soon change as the drone evolves ? Perhaps disguise it as a flying dog ? All climbers seem to love dogs, even when they piss on your pack and steal your lunch.

Jon Sullivan wrote:I will most likely be going through with the idea only because its just too easy.

How much is the $1M liability insurance going to cost you when you apply for your Forest Circus permit?

Easy peasy.

Scenario: On the way to a climb walking in a sweet smelling pine forest, tree tips bright green from the most recent year's growth, stream moving swiftly on one side, couple buddies in a line trucking our way up the trail, gear jostling in our packs. Suddenly, a light buzzing penetrates our eardrums. A swarm or bee's? No, too mechanical...oh, look! (suddenly regretting moving to Boulder) It's a dude flying a drone?! Interesting. Conversation ensues..."So, those things easy to fly?" I ask. "Sure, they automatically adjust the rotation between propellers to keep it upright and balanced." Says the drone pilot. "Interesting! Do you mind if I give it a try?" I reply. With some hesitation the pilot accepts my proposal, knowing fostering relationships with local climbers could be his next big chance to exploit the vanity driven social media adventure scene. I take the controls, knowing I have long lost the delicate finger coordination I gained playing Mario and FIFA as a child. And it's off! The drone hovers effortlessly 5,10, 20 feet off the ground when I spot my target in the background, a 50 foot Ponderose Pine snag. I man this small, nonsensical craft straight toward the snag as my grin gets wider and wider. The drone pilot's eyes become oval, his eyebrows raised and "crack!", the drone loses its battle with the snag and tumbles to the ground. The drone pilots mouth agape, I casually hand him the controller back and continue our hum-free approach up the drainage, knowing full and well that I did a great service to the world today...if only I had a drone to have filmed it.

nydailynews.com/news/nation…

I'm not too sure about the weekend warrior side of this, but I could understand a climber who had been working on a project for a while, something like 5.13, .14, to want something like this. I know I would like a setup like this when I work some of my harder projects. Good idea in my opinion

So I guess a video of me projecting my 5.7+ isnt cool enough, oh well...

Is epic good or bad now? Some footage of Bastille crack epics (bad), would be fun to watch, especially close ups of panic stricken faces.

no no, your 5.7 is just fine to shoot. its not for others as much as it is for you. I think everyone should have the opportunity to experience something as cool as ending up on film just like all of our climbing idols have. Just because you don't crush doesn't mean that you should be stripped of the opportunity to see yourself working something. Thats the whole point!

you know, I use it in both contexts. "Epic day" (good) "we had an epic today" (not so good).
whatevs.

Jon Sullivan wrote:no no, your 5.7 is just fine to shoot. its not for others as much as it is for you. I think everyone should have the opportunity to experience something as cool as ending up on film just like all of our climbing idols have. Just because you don't crush doesn't mean that you should be stripped of the opportunity to see yourself working something. Thats the whole point!

I'm just being a sarcastic dick ;), honestly you should just go to the crags and volunteer your services a few times and see what turns up after. Show us a video of an easy climb filmed in a way that looks cool. Some folks might just pay to see how they are climbing their current proj similar to ball players studying film in the locker room.

This is the wrong crowd. But it **might** be worth your time to photograph people being guided. Similar to the photos you can buy after whitewater adventures.

As for being filmed/photographed with my bro's - no way. It totally messes with the dynamic.

You would probably do better if you had good looking models to belay the clients.. a lot more wow factor in the photos they would take home. Jobs for climbers too.

M Sprague wrote:You would probably do better if you had good looking models to belay the clients.. a lot more wow factor in the photos they would take home. Jobs for climbers too.

You could hire professional climbers as "stunt doubles" and make it look like the person paying to be filmed can flash 5.13....

I like the fact that no one wants this service because no climber needs or takes fancy photos. BULLSHIT! Maybe Jon could shoot your profile picture. You know the one you got there with the most badass location you've been to. The one you be so proud of.. How great would it be to have a professional style profile pic?

I take pictures of my clients when climbing. There is certainly a market for professional level photography/video. Hell I would be inclined to pay just to get any pictures or video as I don't like carrying photo gear along and am relegated to phone cameras. I had the best ski run of my life in the SLC backcountry a couple weeks ago and didn't even think to get the camera out but would of loved to get a couple pics or video. It's hard to know when things are going to go that well though.

I think there is also a potential coaching aspect. My skiing needs improvement and having video would allow more feedback. I use video in coaching climbing to point out things. If people are paying for the coaching they may pay a little more for the video feedback.

The difficulty is being unobtrusive. I think in my everyday climbing I'd be annoyed by something buzzing around but on something big or more difficult it might be kind of cool. I kind of want you to follow me around skiing so I can self critique. I'm going to guess it costs more than I'm willing to spend though.

I'll do it for super super cheap, just to have some marketing material. I'd do it for 150.00

You got your permits in place for commercial filming on Forest Service land?