Ice Climbing in Ouray Colorado

I went with CU's Outdoor Program to the World Famous Ice Climbing park in Ouray, Colorado to shoot this segment. It's a spectacular venue for the sport, and everyone from beginners to world-class athletes go to Ouray each winter.

Again, it seems that a number of subjects translate well to video, and action sports in spectacular outdoor settings seems to be one of those.

I shot this video as more of a promo-type package, and cut it as a montage with a few soundbites interspersed for variety. Because of the music choice, the package is a little bit longer than the typical two-minute news package. Nonetheless, it seems like ice clmbing would still be a good subject choice for a story on a newspaper website in part because of its evergreen quality.

Two choices help to make this pacakge unique. First, I sometimes like to go with less-obvious music choices. In this case, for an extreme sport like ice climbing, the obvious choice would seem to be some fast-paced rock-and-roll. Instead, I went with Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, which I think instead emphasizes the inherent grace and power of the sport.

Secondly, I really made a focused effort to try to edit to music, choosing shots that build in terms of imagery and drama along with the music. I also threw in a few special effects for variety as well.

Enjoy...