Nat Geo’s Free Solo – a Guide for Indian Content Creators on how to Nail Nerve-Wracking Content
The unbelievable bout was assembled into an undivided documentary by Nat Geo production that won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Free Solo, Alex Honnold’s story of resoluteness in a series of breath-taking moments is astonishingly great and beyond belief. He is the first climber to ascent Yosemite’s 3,000-foot EI Capitan wall without ropes. The unbelievable bout was assembled into an undivided documentary by Nat Geo production that won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Post its much-celebrated win, the documentary hit theatres in India in the month of April. However, what caught the undivided attention is the visual appeal, astounding cinematography, and the essence of real fear, which the people outside the screen faced.
Capturing a Story of a Lifetime
Director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin documented and directed the most thrilling visuals of the legendary rock climber, who became the first person to scale the world’s most famous granite monolith. Also, he did it with utter simplicity wearing just shoes and a chalk bag; no harness, ropes, or anything that could have made him safe from the deadly repercussions. Capturing such a story is rare and one in a billion. Not everyday something magnificent can be produced and become iconic or history. The contemporary documentary makers should widen the scope of their subject and seize such narration that is out of the box.
The documentary was made with sheer risk and the crew was assiduous in their efforts. Chin hired a crew of hard-core Yosemite climbers, who were rappelled to key spots along the route and planted remote cameras to avoid disrupting Honnold’s concentration. No one could whisper, sneeze, or create a disturbance that could have dragged Honnold to death. The documentary was filmed with 10 cameras with eight cameramen and two remote cameras.
The Justified Appreciation
Free Solo’s momentous global release has not only captured audience’s attention but has also set several box-office records in the US. The launch of this Oscar-winning film in India garnered immense praise, love, and sought inspiration. Very few cinematic experiences can give you goose bumps and this documentary is one of them. Honnold did not make it to the top on his first try. As shown in the film, he set out on an early morning in November 2016 to conquer the rock face. He only got a few hundred feet into the climb before he turned back, using a series of fixed ropes to return to the valley floor. The film for sure deserved an Oscar. We hope to see such magnum opus to be created more often.