Upon returning from Nepal, Pickell set about cutting through about 45 hours of tape, first producing a trailer and then a full-length documentary. A self-taught editor, he spent 7 or 8 weeks cutting the film in Final Cut Pro on a PowerMac G5.
Audience share. Sherpas watch an iPhoto slideshow at Gompa Lodge, Khumjung, Nepal. ©Dick Jackson 2004. All rights reserved.
The structure of the film derives from the goals of the trip and the arc of the journey. “We broke it down into scenes we wanted to include, mapped it out on a whiteboard, then blocked it out in Final Cut,” says Pickell. “Some things tightened up, others didn’t make the cut.”
Nearly missing the cut were exchanges central to the story, when Pickell’s footage confirmed what he had learned running camera: it was easier getting Sherpas to fly than to talk. “We wanted the film to revolve around the interaction between Westerners sharing this experience of flight with the Sherpa people. But they’re very stoic, and most don’t speak good English. So it was really hard to get that side of the story. We lucked out with a few guys who were able to convey their thoughts and ideas.”
One of those guys, Pema’s cousin Urken, recounting how his dream of flying over Gokyo Lake comes true in the course of filming, cinches the film thematically as surely as the images bring the action.
“We wanted the film to revolve around the interaction between Westerners sharing this experience of flight with the Sherpa people.”
Pickell finished the film largely in-house: “The titles are really basic, so I did all of that in Final Cut,” he says. “We recorded the voice-over in a studio at a friend’s house. He mixed the tracks in Pro Tools and got them back to me. I created the DVD in DVD Studio Pro — just burned a copy here and sent it off to the duplicator. ”
Reaction Shot. Frank Pickell filming an interview with Urken in Khumjung, Nepal. ©Dick Jackson 2004. All rights reserved.
Smooth Landing
The film premiered at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival in May, 2004. It has since played other festivals, including the Coupe Icare near Grenoble, France. There are also plans for a website featuring several episodes documenting the progress of the trip.
For Jackson, the film captures his vision as effectively as it documents the expedition: “The bottom line was that the vision we had going in was fully realized in the final outcome of the movie itself. It truly represents what we wanted to do, start to finish. Our philosophy was to share this freedom of flight and to make the movie more about them than about us. In that sense, I think we got there.”