Basejumper.com - archive

Hey BASE Jumpers. Joy and I want to let everyone know we very much support Marah's efforts to restore, edit and digitize Carl's original BASE footage. I've seen the trailer she put together and the material is very good and has a real personal side of BASE, not just a bunch of jumps. I spoke to Jean Boenish yesterday and we all agree that we will donate the money we've been collecting this past year for issuing the BASE numbers and cards to Marah's effort. Until further notice, we will continue sending any money we collect for issuing the numbers to help the cost of restoration. As I'm sure most of you know, Carl was the world's best skydiving photographer in the late 60's and all through the 70's and everytime you made a BASE jump with Carl, you were going to wear at least one helmet mounted camera. Folks, this stuff has to be preserved before the film gets any older. Marah intends to make DVD's once the work is all done and she needs support.



Thanks and remember, Drive Fast, Take Chances. For those who don't know, it means, be careful out there.

Rick and Joy Harrison

BASE 38

http://www.kickstarter.com/...s-archive-and-finish

I think this would be a great sticky...

I'll second that. It should be sticky for sure

 

Just made my contribution last night. Very glad I did- & encourage others to too!

Just donated too, good luck! Hope enough gets raised...

Hey all,

My wife and I went out to dinner one night last week with Marah. She told us about a golden opportunity that I don't think has been mentioned yet:

The LA Film Festival has accepted Gravity, one of a small handful out of a huge number of applicants into their selective marketing program. I don't have the exact numbers, but Marah's interviewer indicated that she was one of a few out of a thousand applicants to be accepted into the program. The LA Film Festival's "Fast Track" film financing program connects filmmakers with financiers, production companies, and other high-level industry professionals. It is sponsored by a little company called Eastman Kodak, and has resulted in a number of award-winning productions.

Speaking of high-level industry professionals, Gravity's executive producer is Alex Gibney. Alex won an Academy Award for producing and directing the 2002 documentary film, Taxi To The Dark Side. This year he won the Yale Film Studies Program award for his contributions to film culture. His professional background and numerous accomplishments throughout his career are sure to help open doors for Marah's film that would quite probably be unapproachable otherwise.

Gravity will be a film shown in theaters that highlights the beauty of base jumping from the jumper's viewpoint, rather than that of the whuffo's. Everyone who ever dreamed in their childhood days of being able to fly will love it. I know I will.

Let's get behind her guys. Have I steered you wrong so far? This is a movie that needs to be made.



Mike Pelkey

 

101% is an excellent start, but Marah no doubt can still use more help. She will be spending at least a couple of weeks at the LA Film festival this month (sans paycheck), and I know for a fact that she travels back and forth from her home in New York to the Los Angeles area on a regular basis.

I haven't done my part yet. Among my wife, daughter, son and myself we'll be scraping up at least a couple hundred next week.

The $10,000 number just covers the cost of digitizing Carl's film footage to electronic media.

Let's do this. We'll all feel good about it when the movie goes public.

Mike Pelkey

Hello,

Happy start to summer.

Thank you everyone who has donated. I am very happy we have made our goal! YAY! Please spread the word as we are hitting our last 3 days. I will not be offering Mike Allen's fllms or photos for sale beyond this fund raiser and also will no longer be offering the amazing Japanese prints or other fantastic prizes. So get them NOW and spread the word. After these 3 days I will be getting to work and be busy and won't bug you about money.

There is still a half off 50 % off saving being offered by APEX BASE for a canopy. A great deal you will save around 200 bucks and also get some other great gifts.

Please spread the word that is is the last and final push! The money will really be put to good use including making sure some of the most damaged sound footage gets into a temperature controlled room before summer hits.

http://www.facebook.com/l/72813;www.kickstarter.com/projects/marahstrauch/help-us-transfer-carl-boenishs-archive-and-finish

Or

http://www.facebook.com/l/72813;gravitythefilm.blogspot.com/

Thank you,

Marah

so hows it coming along any updates
??????????????????????????????????????????

The kickstarter-supporters got an email about the status 11 days ago. Work is in progress...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marahstrauch/help-us-transfer-carl-boenishs-archive-and-finish/dashboard

Keep track of my progress here!

or my blog
http://gravitythefilm.tumblr.com/

Any updates?

Here's one.
http://www.nrk.no/...og_romsdal/1.7781194

Don't miss the video at the end of the article...

So it's been a year, any update?

https://www.facebook.com/...Film/163034613758388

I made a point to bring this up to Jean Boenish in an email and on the phone last night. I myself was wondering if we had a time line to see Carl's old footage in digital film. Looks like, Marah, in order secure enough funding for her planned film "Gravity" was somewhat expanded into the world of Wingsuits which is of course a major part of BASE nowadays. My disappointment was that I promoted her efforts onliine primarily to get Carl's old BASE footage digitized and edited regarding the history of BASE. Turns out that some of that old history is routed in Norway, where Carl died in July 1984. Carl had friends in Norway and they were in fact some of the very first big wall jumpers in early BASE so it is a legitimate extension. However, part of the reason she is relying on adding some of the Norge wingsuit footage is that she is securing some funding from the current Norwegian BASE and wingsuit jumpers so the project has been extended a bit into including some Norway wingsuit flying. I expressed to Jean Boenish my concern that Marah may miss a window of opportunity to find a good market for her entire effort if she continues to delay production of her planned film "Gravity" since there is so much new happening in the world of wingsuits. Nevertheless, Jean assured me that her efforts are on track to get some final editing and inatervies done next year, with the help of the funding she is getting from the Norge's as a result of including a little of the transition from normal BASE history to wingsuits. I personally have seen a trailer she put out with some of Carl's old stuff, and I really love the approach, not just a bunch of jumps, it's much more personal. To put it mildly, I tried to put a bit of a fire under this to get a product out while most of the newer BASE jumpers still remember the name Carl Boenish and the beginnings of this crazy activity as a sport. I knew Carl and he was a visionary. I'm not sure even Carl could have envisioned the huge advances in gear and knowledge it takes to be an expert wingsuit flyer, but I still have hope that she will come on the market sometime next year with a product that covers the early history of what we all did with crazy skydiving gear to the modern aspects of the sport which is of course the great wingsuit stuff going on now. I in fact will go to China to help judge the WWL race and am excited to witness just how far this sport has expanded. I think Carl would even be pretty impressed, although it took a lot to impress Carl as he was the foremost freefall photographer and one of the early camera wingsuit pilots way back before most of you were born. Let's have some patience since I do very much like Marah's personal approach with interviews, history etc. There is a wonderful BASE museum being done in Norway which includes some of this, and I have faith that when a final product comes out, we will all enjoy it as it will tie the early stuff with the modern aspect of wingsuits off the big Norwegian walls. I still support her project, but have asked that she stops moving the goal post further back to a time when many of the new people we have been issuing BASE numbers to do not even know the name of Carl Boenish. I knew him, jumped with him, and he was the visionary that got all of this going. The history and transition to wingsuit flying should be very worth while in adding to your libraries.
Rick Harrison
Director
USBA

Thanks for the update Rick. This should be a great film.