Written by new-contact on Mar 20, 2013. Posted in Production News

3D Everest ascent feature Beyond the Edge filming on location in New Zealand

A 3D feature recounting Sir Edmund Hillary’s famous 1953 ascent of Mount Everest with Tensing Norgay has started filming on location in New Zealand. Beyond the Edge will film mainly in the Mount Cook region of the Southern Alps, but there will also be a second-unit trip to Everest itself.

“[The Mount Cook area] is considered to be an excellent stand-in for the Everest region,” comments producer Matthew Metcalfe, “and we understand in mountaineering circles it is also considered an excellent training ground for climbing on Everest. It is also considered to be Sir Ed’s spiritual mountaineering home.”

New Zealand’s General Film Corporation is using specialist 3Ality rigs with Red Epic cameras at high altitudes in the mountains to film scenes in 3D. Original stills and film footage from Sir Edmund's actual trip will also be used and converted to 3D for integration into the finished movie. Two weeks of second-unit filming are scheduled for Everest.

There are plenty of challenges from safety to the simple logistics of getting a camera rig to properly work in these sorts of conditions.

Matthew Metcalfe, General Film Corporation

“There are plenty of challenges from safety to the simple logistics of getting a camera rig to properly work in these sorts of conditions,” Metcalfe adds: “However, we have excellent people working on this production and they have all come together to make it happen.”