EXPOSURE tells the story of a man driven to climb a mountain. I know what it’s like to be obsessed with climbing a mountain.
I discovered the Matterhorn as a kid the first time I went to Disneyland. I was more fascinated by the climbers in lederhosen costumes scaling the mountain than by the roller coaster ride. I decided right then that I would climb the real thing.
I first traveled to Zermatt during college. At first sight, the Matterhorn entranced me — as I imagine it did young Edward Whymper. I just had to climb it. I met a young Argentinian priest who shared my Matterhorn dream. We bought a rope, slept in the ‘hut’ at the base of the mountain, got up early with the official mountain guides, and tried to keep up with them. We fell far behind.
By midday, we arrived at the Solvay Hut, a tiny shelter perched on a cliff only two-thirds of the way to the summit. If we had continued to the summit, we would have ended up descending in darkness, an extremely dangerous situation. We had to turn around. But I vowed to return and complete what I had started.
Little did I know that it would be decades before I would return. I trained as a mountaineer in the High Sierras in California. Then I finally returned to Zermatt last year to scout for this movie. Despite historic snow and ice, I ascended to the summit on August 17 (this time with a guide). It was amazing. Fully worth the effort. And it enabled me to tell Whymper’s story. I was able to develop the detailed plan for “Exposure”, find locations to shoot on the mountain, in Zermatt and surrounding towns, and arrange for local resources for the shoot.
Whymper was an outsider – an Englishman in Europe, surrounded by the Swiss, Italians and French. He was young, much younger than the leading amateur climbers of the day. And he was from the working middle class; most of the British climbers he met in Zermatt were aristocrats and professors. He felt he had to prove himself – to be respected and taken seriously. I identify with Whymper, the outsider. I lived in France several years and have a sense of what it feels like to be an expatriate. At 21, my first film was accepted into the Cannes Film Festival. I was the outsider – in language, in age, and in experience in the film business. I had to prove myself with my film.
I love the mixture of cultures in this story. The English, Swiss and Italians all work together, then finally compete for the big prize. This film is a great opportunity to celebrate different cultures and set them against each other in competition.
My vision for Exposure is clear. I understand Whymper and I know the mountain. My technical expertise in cinematography, digital technology and mountaineering allows me to fully prepare the production and realize my vision. I plan to use drones to complement the photography of the climbing, and put the viewer right onto the cliff with the climbers. They will understand Whymper’s passionate will to climb.