A fellrunning documentary?

[Quosh]

short film on fell running

[barnyc]

i think any 'tough guys' who fancied a dabble at fell running would be put off after their first serious ascent. they wouldnt have the energy left to run down any banzai descents!

[Mark L]

"Griff Rhy-Jones, Jordan, Rory McGrath and Howard from the halifax adverts are on a mission. We have given them seven days to become fully fledged fell runners before throwing them in at the deep end. They'll be competing in the tough and challenging Round Latrigg fell race. Training them will be fell running legend Ben Fogle. Can they rise to the challenge?"

And the loser would be gassed. On TV. I'd watch that.

Seriously though, the idea that "getting more money/people/exposure into the sport" seems to be taken for granted in most sports. Most grass roots participants have actually very little to gain from this.

Fell running is one of the few sports left where there is no "us and them." At the moment I am just as much a fell runner as the bloke/woman who wins the race and I love that. I am a "real" fell runner.

In contrast, for example: the fat blokes playing football on Sundays are not real footballers.

Rock climbing is going the same way - with every mention of some new achievement being followed by a list of the guy's sponsors!

Don't promote it - leave fell running for people to find. If they find it and like it, they will find a unique and welcoming community.

[andy k]

Orienteering is in pursuit of media exposure.
The powers that be at the international level think that they need to be olympic, they think to do this they need media value. They keep inventing new types of race in order to try and appeal to the media.
Over the last 20 years the World Chamionships have become more and more devalued / dumbed down, with courses getting shorter and simpler all the time in the hope that they can be more easily televised.
Where once the race was 100 minutes for the winner through remote forest and encompassed every navigational challenge that could be thrown at you we now have 12 minutes running round a city park. Where the Men's realy was 4 legs of an hour now its 3 of half an hour, with talk of moving to mixed teams with shorter legs, possibly urban.
The sport is selling its sole in its attempts to interest the media, which they never will. The sport is far too esoteric.

[L.F.F.]

Orienteering is in pursuit of media exposure.
The powers that be at the international level think that they need to be olympic, they think to do this they need media value. They keep inventing new types of race in order to try and appeal to the media.
Over the last 20 years the World Chamionships have become more and more devalued / dumbed down, with courses getting shorter and simpler all the time in the hope that they can be more easily televised.
Where once the race was 100 minutes for the winner through remote forest and encompassed every navigational challenge that could be thrown at you we now have 12 minutes running round a city park. Where the Men's realy was 4 legs of an hour now its 3 of half an hour, with talk of moving to mixed teams with shorter legs, possibly urban.
The sport is selling its sole in its attempts to interest the media, which they never will. The sport is far too esoteric.

Sounds awful.

I agee with Mark L above about letting people find it. If I do want to see any footage of fell running (which I have quite a bit in the past), I'm more than happy with the great little films on Youtube, done by some of the contributors on here. Simple films of a simple sport, but nonetheless beautiful for that.

And, not being flippant, but I liked Andy K's slip of the tongue with his 'selling its sole'! Does sort of work both ways.

[Marvin]

Interestingly I’ve just spent the past two days as an extra in the filming (which finishes today) of a cinema/TV commercial for Hovis. It’s a big budget ad featuring a race in the countryside amongst Hovis wheat farmers. Full of clichés, characters and obstacles such as gates, walls, cattle grid, barbed wire fence, river crossing, mud, steep climbs and even steeper descents. The setting is a farm near Macclesfield, with Shuttlingsloe as the backdrop to several shots, and the weather couldn’t have been better for it given that it’s still March.

I’ve never been directly involved in anything like this before, so it was a bit of an eye-opener. Huge numbers of people were involved – over a hundred with crew, actors and extras (background).

I’m not sure when it will start being broadcast, but too clichéd I think to do fellrunning any harm or good.
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[ZootHornRollo]

Orienteering is in pursuit of media exposure.
The powers that be at the international level think that they need to be olympic, they think to do this they need media value. They keep inventing new types of race in order to try and appeal to the media.

British Cycling doing the same in league with Sky

[Tuffer]

Don't promote it - leave fell running for people to find. If they find it and like it, they will find a unique and welcoming community.

Absolutely right

[eardstapa]

As someone who makes films professionally and is a modest runner, it doesn't surprise me that this idea has received such short shrift.

But those posters who have turned up their noses at the idea sound too much like Richard Feynman when he said that philosophy of science is as much use to scientists as ornithology is to birds. Well, birds may have no use for ornithology, but that clearly doesn't mean it is useless in itself.

So it follows that a film about fell running could well have an appeal to an audience well beyond those who take part in the sport.

It should also be said that there are so many different things that a film can be, and that it's foolish to be dismissive of the idea without seeing a proper outline proposal or treatment, or reference material. A film is an artefact in itself and should be seen as such rather than as a poor relation to any actual experience that it represents.

(Experience tell me to anticipate gruff responses...!)

[ZootHornRollo]

Good post eardstapa, you're right: I would have to know a bit more about what sort of film it would be before I got involved.

One of my passions and interests is cultural history, especially that which is distinctively English and tied to locality. Many rural traditions and ways of life have died out since the around the time of the first world war and much of it is forgotten and barely documented. Much of what was characterful about English life has been bleached away by retail parks and motorways, bland commercialism and homogenous corporatism.

I'm not saying fellrunning is either particularly ancient or in danger dying out - but it is very distinctive of location and in its spirit of community and volunteerist ethics, and that makes it a thing of interest, I think.