PEAK POWER PRODUCTION.
partnership with Red Bull Media House and Meta Quest, viewers are transported to some of the world’s most remote and beautiful climbing locations, captured using the latest high-res 3D 360° cameras. UP FOR IT We know Honnold’s job is a perilous one, but imagine being the person filming him in the mountains of Europe and the US – it’s a tough assignment even for elite climbers. Meet Renan Ozturk, an experienced expedition climber for The North Face and a photojournalist for Sony and National Geographic. For him, heading to extreme environments requires the highest levels of focus and gear prep – filming someone of Honnold’s standing is as intense as it gets. “We try to prepare ourselves for success,” Ozturk says. “On the wall itself, every gram matters. You don’t want to be worrying about gear in those scenarios, because you need to be thinking about safety and survival. You must know that all your kit is going to be up for that kind of a test.” I’VE GOT THE POWER When you’re working in extreme conditions with zero amenities, an essential part of filming is having enough battery power to make following someone on a treacherous adventure worthwhile. Ozturk had some bad experiences with batteries in the past, so was desperate to avoid the same when he started working on Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR . “We’ve had cheaper battery brands fail; we’ve had them taken away at the airport,” he says. “It’s something we do not take lightly, especially with the trips coming up this year. If the batteries fail, we have nothing.” Having shopped around, Ozturk explains how the Anton/Bauer Titon Base was the answer. One of the key features of the IATA-certified, ‘travel-friendly’
68Wh base is that it offers filmmakers ‘portable power they can take anywhere’. It functions in freezing temperatures, making it conducive to brass monkey weather and extreme filming techniques. “I found it super useful, as I’m a time-lapse junkie,” Ozturk says. “We used the Titon Base for landscape time- lapses every day – and when we’re doing lighter-weight stuff in the mountains with Alex, it powers the full-frame Sony Alpha camera perfectly.” At 14v/8A continuous draw, the 68Wh battery prides itself on delivering hours more runtime than standard batteries supplied with cameras. The Titon Base was also used to power an extra monitor for the drone as well as the crew’s phones. “There were countless times we’ve taken the base just to charge other accessories in a pinch,” he adds. What’s more, with the built-in LCD display, users know their battery life down to the minute, which suits shooters like Ozturk. “It’s cool just to be able to get into the mountains, pop the camera up and run a time-lapse for hours not having to worry about battery failure,” he says. “We had no way to charge on the mountain. Every
bit of power is precious.” DON’T LOOK DOWN
Even a seasoned professional like Ozturk struggled to balance high-level climbing and filmmaking with no margin for error. After all, it’s quite literally a matter of life and death, so even he had fears.
“You don’t want to be worrying about gear, because you need to be thinking about safety and survival”
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HIGH PLACE Lugging camera equipment to the top of a mountain is no picnic – it pays to pack light
27. DECEMBER 2022
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