C300 cameras on the ground. One with
a 600mm lens with an f/1.4 extender
and one with the Canon CINE-
SERVO 50-1000mm.
Then we had six fixed cameras on the
wall and four people on the wall also
filming. We had another camera on the
ground filming Alex approaching the
climb and when he left the bottom. We
had two people on top filming, as well.
We used the Canon C300. The remote
trigger cameras were Canon 1D Xs with
a range of lenses, including the Canon
24-105mm f/4, the Canon 24mm f/1.4
and the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8. We also
had an ALEXA Mini at the top and bot-
tom as well as a RED Dragon in a heli-
copter that was shooting from 3,000 feet
above with a 50-1000mm lens. You can’t
fly drones in national parks, but we also
didn’t want a little buzzy thing flying
around Alex. Most of the camera angles
are from us hanging off the wall.
That shooting position must
have been extremely intense on
a number of levels.
Basically, everyone on the high-angle
team had to be a world-class climber as
well as a world-class cinematographer.
There are only a few of those in the
world, and they were all on the team.
Our top high-angle team member,
Mikey Schaefer, was hurt in [an unre-
lated event] to our production. He
was my high-angle DP, and he and I
were up on the wall for 99 percent of
the production. But he couldn’t be on
the wall the day Alex actually went
because he had blown an ACL. So he
shot from the ground since we needed
someone there anyway.
He was the one that couldn’t bear to
look at Alex at a few points on the way
up. The high-angle members were Mikey
Schaefer, Cheyne Lempe, Sam Crossley,
Josh Huckaby, myself and a rigging team.
Did you hang off the face of
El Capitan for the almost four
hours it took for Alex to do
the climb?
A little less. We let him get off the
ground but wanted to be ahead of him
and not leave anything to chance. It takes
a couple of hours just to get into position.There was one particular move
Alex had to do mainly with his
thumbs. That seemed to be
shot fairly close with not that
long of a lens.
That was with one of the remote-trig-
gered cameras. He didn’t mind the
cameras there. He just didn’t want his
friends there. There’s this weird reflec-
tive thing. He can feel us being scared.At one point, he does encounter
some people up on the wall.
One, strangely enough, dressed
like a unicorn. They seemed to
have no clue he was coming up.
No. This whole production was made
in secrecy. That area was probably 5
feet wide. I think Alex might have said,
“Good morning” when he passed by.Your wife, Elizabeth Chai Vasar-
helyi, and you teamed up to
make “Free Solo.”
We were co-directors and co-producers,
but we bring very different skills to the
table. She was managing and directing
all the footage on the ground, includ-
ing where you see Mikey. She was also
the mastermind behind the edit. We
all sat in the edit bay, but there are so
many different aspects to filmmaking.
I get the hero role of, “How did you get
up there and film it?” But she actually
does a lot of the heavy lifting when it
comes to filmmaking.
All of the vérité scenes, making it into
a love story, the narrative structure—
there are 10,000 decisions to be made
on the edit, and it’s very subtle because
obviously, you don’t want to have people
thinking about the filmmaking when
they’re watching the film.The audience was definitely
questioning the relationship
Alex had with his girlfriendwhen he ran into some climb-
ing issues on the run-up to the
big free solo day on El Capitan.
That was a strong thread that
ran through the film thanks to
great editing. Regardless of
the outcome of Alex’s attempt,
would the documentary still
have been released?
Ye s , a b s o lu t e l y.Most people watching the film
know the end, yet you’re able
to convey all the suspense that
everyone involved was going
through at the time.
That was a lot of the craft of filmmak-
ing and the storytelling and the editing
and the music and the graphics. There
are so many elements. The whole
soundtrack was original, including a
song performed by Tim McGraw and
written by him and Lori McKenna
called “Gravity.”
I don’t want to tell people what they
should get out of the movie. I think
everybody gets something different.
I think it was a remarkable intersec-
tion of Alex bringing the best of what
he could bring and a production team
that absolutely brought the best of
what they could bring. That’s what
made the film special.Is there going to be a “Free
Solo II?”
Ah, no. I don’t think I could sur-
vive another one. We’re working on
another nonfiction film, and we’re
looking at a lot of scripted films as
well. The next documentary is about
K r i s t i n e To m p k i n s , D o u g To m p -
kins and Yvon Chouinard and their
story. Doug started The North Face,
Yvon started Patagonia. They’re the
greatest conservationists of our time,
and Kris is the glue that made all of
it happen. DPPFor more on Jimmy Chin, his crew and
“Free Solo,” go to nationalgeographic.
com/films/free-solo. digitalphotopro.com July/August 2019 | 55