Go behind the scenes on an expedition for National Geographic with a group of climbers and filmmakers from Camp 4 Collective. Their mission was to determine whether an obscure peak in the Burmese Himalayas, Hkakabo Razi, was the highest point in Southeast Asia. Trekking for miles through snake-infested jungles and scaling snow-covered mountains without any porters posed many challenges for the group, but the greatest of all was their rapidly-shrinking gear. After hiking for 80 miles, they realised they needed to leave at least half of it behind if they were to continue, and from there, almost all of their remaining gear gradually broke. They called this “barely making it happen.”
Camp 4 Collective Director Renan Ozturk discovered his ability to shoot blind with his RED camera, allowing the team to capture great footage that otherwise would have been missed. Ozturk admits that the trip was extremely challenging, but acknowledged that it taught him some important lessons as a filmmaker. “slipping away from all the gear was a good thing for me.”
“Slipping away from all the gear was a good thing for me. In this day and age you get attached to all the technology,” he said.
“It was good to pare all those things down and focus on what is important, which is story.”
You can see more of Camp 4 Collective’s amazing work on their website, Vimeo, Facebook and Instagram.
Below are some of our favourite screenshots from the film:
