The Making of Left for Dead: Miracle on Everest
May 16, 2008 |
Jennifer Peedom |
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| Essential Viewing Group |
When I bumped into fellow Australian climber Lincoln Hall at Advance Base Camp on Everest in 2006, we were both on the mountain for different film projects. Neither of us could have imagined that soon they would be working on a film about Lincoln himself, based on an unimaginable set of circumstances that occurred that season on Everest.
It was one of the deadliest seasons on record on Mt Everest. Eleven people died, and Lincoln Hall very nearly made the death count twelve. As my team made our way up the mountain on our final summit push, I ran into Lincoln again. We stopped and chatted for a while, then climbed together briefly, between camps one and two. It was the last time I saw him on the mountain.
Following the expedition, I was exhausted and emotionally drained. On the way home to Australia, my husband and I having both lost about 10kg, decided to stop over in Thailand for a week to rest and recuperate. It was there that I received and email from a mutual friend of Lincoln’s and mine with the shattering news that he had died. As I sat in the tiny internet café, I really wondered what the point of it all had been. The final, pointless death in a horrendous season. I vowed never to return. Later than night at dinner, I received a phone call from the same friend, with the news that Lincoln may still be alive. Only a couple of weeks later, we were both in Sydney, sitting in a café, looking at the blackened frostbitten tips of Lincoln’s fingers.
It was decided that we would re-create much of Lincoln’s ordeal, as no one had been filming. We would intercut this footage with actual footage from the mountain, including the extraordinary real radio transmissions made on the mountain at the time.
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| Left For Dead: Miracle On Everest Premieres Tuesday May 20 at 9p. Click here to preview. |
Knowing the dangers and difficulties of filming at altitude only too well, I decided to shoot the recreations in New Zealand Alps. I assembled a crew of climbing experts, two of which had summited Everest in 2006. Five times Everest summiteer, New Zealander Mark Whetu who acted as advisor and 2nd Unit cameraman, and fellow New Zealander Wayne Alexander who was cast to play Lincoln Hall in the re-creations.
I felt it was important we cast Lincoln with someone who understood the physical and emotional demands of climbing the world’s biggest mountain. They needed to understand the pain. Wayne not only had the right sensibility to play Lincoln, but knew what it took to climb the mountain in a physical and emotional sense.
Having Mark Whetu on the crew was always part of the plan. I climbed with Mark on Everest in 2004 and 2006, and there are very few people that know Everest from the North side as well as he does. He is also one of the few other people that has spent the night out on Everest and survived. He was an invaluable part of the team in terms of his ability as a cameraman, but also matching New Zealand locations with the North side of Everest.
In addition to the local experts, I cast real Sherpa people in the 2 main Sherpa roles. Because the Sherpas played such a crucial role in Lincoln’s rescue, I felt it was important to cast real Sherpas in those roles. They lent a level of authenticity to the shoot that was very important. Their accents, the way they move in the mountains, their facial expressions all needed to be the real deal.
It was an incredible privilege to have the Sherpas there. They performed a traditional ‘Puja’ ceremony at the start of the shoot / expedition, as they do on all Everest expeditions to ask the mountain gods for safe passage on the mountain. The shoot was incredibly blessed, with no bad weather in 10 days. Unheard of in New Zealand!
Comments (2)
I just saw the show and enjoyed it, but I could not understand how there could be live film of such an event. I guessed that this must have been a dramatic recreation, and reading this blog is the first confirmation of this.
I think the barrier between real, actual footage and recreations such as this is too blurred. We need to know when we are watching dramatic recreations; not making this clear diminishes the value of live footage. Knowing that some of the scenes are fake makes you wonder if any of the scenes are real, and from what I am reading here, none of this show contained real footage, other than a few very isolated scenes.
Nat Geo is not the only channel doing this; so much of what you see on TV now is a recreation, but presented in a documentary format and thus suggesting 'real'. Personally, I feel 'cheated' watching such shows. I think there should be an overlay stating 'dramatization'.
Posted by Steerpike | May 26, 2008 3:28 AM
National Geographic, where's the video for sale?
This is one video that hits home personally and I'd love to get a copy of it!
Posted by NevadaSlim | July 2, 2008 4:39 PM