Archive for the ‘News’ Category

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/green/Earth-Day-Made-Epic-120315584.html

‘Into the Cold’ screens for Earth Day at the Dallas Museum of Art, 2:30PM, as part of the official festivities for Earth Day Dallas on April 22, 2011!

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2011/04/15/into-the-cold-for-earth-day/

Also, don’t miss the print edition of National Geographic Traveler this month for a full page spread of Sebastian Copeland and REVO Sunglasses, in support of this month’s DVD release.

Into the Cold: A Journey of the Soul, Sebastian’s award-winning documentary about his journey to the North Pole, to be screened privately at Soho House Los Angeles on April 21, 2011.

The event will be sponsored by REVO Sunglasses, and co-hosted by Kate Bosworth. The screening comes in time to celebrate the official DVD release of Into the Cold for Earth Day.

A member screening to follow at 9:30PM.

Learn more about the film and get your copy of the DVD at www.intothecold.org!

Following the successful turnout and rave reviews from the screening of Into the Cold: A Journey of the Soul during the Environmental Film Festival (www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org) in Washington, D.C., the film has been asked to be part of special programming for an encore presentation of the week’s favorites on April 17th, 2011.

For scheduling and location, please visit www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org.
—————
Update: Into the Cold was well received by a crowd of more than 100 attendees. Thank you Environmental Film Fest!

The 48 Hour Film Festival is hosting Go Green 48, an eco-conscious film competition that follows the same format as their widely popular international documentary festival.

Sebastian Copeland will be the official event partner, and his feature documentary, Into the Cold: A Journey of the Soul, is the official film screened for the festival.

Screenings will take place in Portland, San Fransisco and Los Angeles. Keep up to date on times and locations on our official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/IntoTheCold.

Learn more about Go Green: http://www.48hourfilm.com/.

The "warm" glacial summer breeze. T-shirt weather!

Yesterday followed more or less the same format as the day prior. Except for the classic photo shoot standout: the client needed an image of me near water to underscore a lens coating technology developed specifically to optimize details on the sea. The release target for the ad is next summer. Consequently, a prerogative for that shot was to communicate summer…by the sea. Yikes.

The glacial lake could suggest one aspect of the order—the near freezing temperature of the melt water gives it a light blue color that could pass for Caribbean. Ish.

A curious and undaunted hawk

But true to Murphy’s law, the katabatic winds were blowing intermittent rain sideways, which would occasionally be replaced by spray coming off the lake! So strong was the wind that water lifted from the surface in sheets of liquid smoke! In that context, I was asked to remove my coat and, with but a T-shirt, brace the 60 mile-an-hour winds, and communicate the warm comfort of a lazy summer’s day… Well. The shot was done hastily, if only for the fact that my T-shirt was instantly pelted with horizontal spray! Luckily, a photo happens in a fraction of an instant, and the chaos will all be lost to the finished image! Those REVO lenses work great, though…!

The next day is spent filming the short segment for the marketing campaign. That afternoon we shot a brief scene for the film that Ross, the director/DP, is putting together. He concocted a story whereby I board a ferry on the lake that will take me through the last leg of my long trek to reach the glacier. It is an improbable scenario in which I am to meet the boat’s captain who greets me with a “welcome back, Sebastian”, as if I were some kind of mythic ice legend, making good on my promise to be back to re-visit the famed glacier. To this I reply, all in Spanish, no less: “Hello captain Betto. You’ve grown your stomach!” The scene is all the more absurd as the “captain” is a tourist who shared the ferry with us. His Russian fur hat spontaneously won him the part, which he enacted as poorly as I believe I did. The following scene has me gazing into the distance, playing right in the habitual romance film has with broad clichés! Ross is a good man, though, and his enthusiasm wins my willing participation in this thin scenario. (“We meet again, mister Bond!”) In the end, the landscape wins the choicest role—ultimately that story is about me trekking in REVO’s across Patagonia and—no offense to anyone—it beats shooting in Detroit!

While the bulk of my acting duties was to walk this way or that, I am amused by the attention I receive for the acquired skill of placing one foot in front of the other. A film or photo crew is conditioned to pamper the “talent”, and I see now why so many actors are such babies. I am reminded of a quote I once read from Ed Norton, citing a 1920’s thespian who said: “When you scratch an actor—you find an actress!”

My mostly-menial performance is redeemed somewhat by an on-camera interview where I share intimate sensibilities and philosophies…in raging sixty plus mile-an-hour wind!

The long day ends with a ride into the spectacular Patagonian sunset, on our way to a traditional Asado restaurant. No place like Argentina for eating meat. Though I have a conservative and environmentally motivated position on meat consumption (the truth it, it is simply not good for anyone) that position is placed on hold when I am down here! The grass fed, free range animals produce the best red meat in the world. And the traditional asado cooking over burning wood yield a taste that is truly deserves the phrase: “holly cow”!

That said, come next week I will return to abiding by the grass roots campaign of “No Meat Mondays”. For a start.

Tomorrow is the long trek back to the northern hemisphere, in what will amount to about 24 hours of travel, counting layovers. Goodbye Patagonia. I’ll be back!

The jagged edge of the Perito Moreno glacier--last stop before calving.

~

The night was short. Between crossing five time zones since Los Angeles; the eighteen hours of summer daylight (at this latitude); a late dinner and early rise; it wasn’t hard to dose off during the hour ride to location. Nothing like the crisp glacial air firing into the lungs to shake sleepiness out of the crow’s feet!

A short boat ride gets us to the shoulder of the glacier, and it is now clear why the Perito Moreno was named world heritage site. There are views through the trees’ foliage framing the approach to the ice that feel like an artist’s rendering of a Tolkien-like fantasy world.  The mass of blue ice looks surreal against the ash colored bark of the trees and the green leaves. It is simply stunning.

~

I get my camera out to grab some shots but I am told to move on, as our time on the glacier—under the strict supervision of the National Parks attendees—is short. Two things sink in: there won’t be a night spent on the glacier (it’s not allowed); and I am here as talent—not photographer! I cannot help but see the irony in walking past extraordinary shots, which production time won’t allow me to take…because my life as a photographer is being chronicled for a portrait ad!

I have typically witnessed glaciers in the Polar regions, which are naturally void of trees—no such vegetations at those latitudes. But here, the proximity of foliage to the ice gives this familiar landscape a new dimension. As to being a model, I know the odd feeling I am experiencing will be redeemed with the interview portion of our affair, which will be done in a couple of days. For now, being told to look right, look left, walk on, walk back is met with a mix of amusement and some measure of clarity: in knowing where the camera is and what needs to be captured, a part of me can’t help but re-live the feeling I got while on the Napapijri shoot (the outerwear brand for whom I am also an ambassador): this is the only time that I can actually communicate directly by osmosis with talent on how and where to be! With a shooter’s point of view, I have effectively cut off the middleman!

I give Bill Zelman—the photographer—a lot of credit: it’s never easy telling an old photographer dog what to do! With that in mind, I am as compliant as I can be. In spite of our short time on the glacier under the watchful eye of the National Parks attendant, it’s nice to put on a pair of crampons and drive and axe into the ice. The setting, replete with cracks and crevasses, and various shades of deep blue is otherworldly.  In this context, it’s hard to take a bad photograph.

The Patagonia ice sheet is the third largest in the world, and the katabatic wind is vicious at this end of the glacier; and unrelenting. I am asked to build the tent twice today, once on the ice, and once on a beach where the venturi effect has accelerated the wind to 60+ mph! Today we hear sobering news that an expedition on the glacier suffered a fatality. The men ventured for a three-day jaunt on the ice—with a guide—and somehow lost their tent to the powerful winds. One of them died of hypothermia before they could dig themselves a hole in the ice. I re-visit the seven days I spent pinned down by an unrelenting windstorm in Greenland and my partner and I speculated whether the tent would hold up. We had dug an ice cave next to the tent, just in case, for precisely that reason… This type of news always leaves a chill—no pun intended.

~

Just announced: Sebastian’s award winning documentary Into the Cold: A Journey of the Soul will be featured during the Victoria Film Festival in Victoria, Canada, February 4 – 13, 2011.

The mission of the Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival is to expose youth and adults to a broad range of cultural, artistic and philosophical ideas and lifestyles through the presentation of film, video, and new media in order to stimulate critical analysis and inspire an interest in using the medium as a creative too.

Check out the Victoria Film Festival‘s website.

Support Into the Cold yourself by adding the film to your Netflix queue!

Wild Parakeets

Patagonia on the trail for a shoot location

Today was a long day of driving around with photographer, cinematographer and production crew in tow to find locations for the next three days of work—two days for the print campaign; one day for a short film designed for the web.

The latter tells a story of me walking across Patagonia on my way to the Perito Moreno glacier. Needless to say, it is a loose interpretation on reality, one that draws on the romance of venturing out into the wild with a pack on my back and not a care in the world. The sprawling landscapes allow the imaginary to roam through the chambers of one’s own adventurous inner world. While I favor polar or mountain environments to trek through, the theme echoes of notions I entertained many years ago of living a nomadic life on the trail.

Patagonia upholds its reputation as one of the more arresting landscapes in the world. Condors fly overhead. Sheep and wild horses graze the windswept valleys framed by mountain peaks stretching towards the sky, while glaciers pour into turquoise, freezing lakes. Rabbits and hares hop around, nervously evading the bold and menacing hawks or red tailed foxes. Vistas here will take your breath away.

We spend the day getting in and out of the van, and end the day on a working sheep farm. The “gouchos,” sporting their traditional “pepe-le-pew” berets, ride the herds on horseback. With the high snow-capped peaks for a backdrop, this is a horse riding paradise.

After what amounted to virtually twenty-four hours of travel time from Los Angeles, via Atlanta and Buenos Aires, the plane finally touched down on the El Calafate runway.

I am with the REVO team, and their photo and video crew who came down to shoot my portion of REVO’s 2011 advertisement and communications campaign. Upon discussing where would be a good place to shoot, we all agreed that finding the right ice environment would be appropriate. I have been newly appointed brand ambassador for REVO, and given that they are a sunglass company—we also needed sun! In early December, the options for the combination of sun and ice are narrowed down dramatically. The northern hemisphere is mostly dark or grey at this time of the year. It is hardly a safe bet for sporting polarized shades!

That leaves the southern hemisphere, which of course is entering its summer cycle. Antarctica is difficult to access for just a week of work—it is also unpredictable and very expensive. We were quick to narrow the search to Patagonia, and settled on the Perito Moreno glacier in the south west Santa Cruz province of Patagonia (S 50˚29’ W73˚03’).

We all met in the Buenos Aires airport and I was happily surprised to find out that Ross Richardson would direct and film the video portion my piece. Ross is a very talented director of photography with whom I worked many years ago on a Tommy Hilfiger commercial that I directed. The spot had turned out very well, and was notable in that it was to be the last commercial that I would direct after more than fifteen years in that business. I found it difficult to be pushing consumerism on television while speaking publicly on the urgent need for a path to sustainability, which clashed unequivocally with vapid consumerism. Mine was a personal choice of what I perceived to be a necessary break in favor of my environmental commitment. I am not dogmatic about it, but to pursue a career pushing product on TV while preaching responsible consumerism felt shy of authentic, if not outright opportunistic. That choice proved to be hugely rewarding.

Running into Ross was serendipitous and had us recollect on the old days. It also makes me feel more comfortable with the prospect of being in front of the camera. Ross is a good man, and if I can’t be natural with him, my case is hopeless! By coincidence, I also ran into one of his crew guys whom I had met in the Minnesota Boundary waters area in February 2009 as I trained for my North Pole trip. He was there shooting dogsled footage, and we had had a moment to discuss my upcoming trip. Small world indeed.

We’re up at 6AM for a reconnaissance of the glacier, and to outline what we will be doing while here. I have a feeling I will spend a night or two sleeping on the glacier…