Shooting the event was the easy part. It took a crew of 5 camera operators on race day to shoot more than 300 gigabytes (and over 4000 individual clips) of footage. 3 additional operators provided extra interview and race footage during the course of the documentary's editing phase. On top of the race footage, we shot 17 interviews with various runners, organisers, record holders, and even high ranking officials such as the Mayor of Kawerau. Each of these people had an important role to play in the mountain race at some point over the past 60 years of the event, and were vital to telling its story.
The editing is where most of our time was spent. Crafting a story from so much raw footage and hours of interviews is an intensive process. We wanted to really capture the spirit of such an iconic and inspirational event, so we did not rush it. More than 5 months was spent in the editing phase, and the video went through more than a few iterations. But with a great deal of help from Lee Barton from the Kawerau District Council (who was our acting associate director), we managed to pull it off just days before the 2015 event was due to kick off. And today almost 12 months after we originally shot the event, the video has been released online for all to see.
I've learnt a great deal about this amazing event over the past 12 months. This is a project that has taken a great deal of time, but seeing the end result makes the hard work worth it. If watching our video can inspire just one person to take up the challenge and run up that mountain, then we will have done our job well.
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Below you can view the documentary. We love to hear your feedback, so feel free to leave a comment or get in touch - info@ninmoproductions.co.nz.
Also make sure to like us on Facebook to get updates on our many upcoming projects.
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And if you're feeling adventurous - head on over to Kawerau on Saturday the 31st of October to check out the race and watch the documentary on the big screen.
