In 2012, a team of professional climbers sought out to summit the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest. The expedition commemorated the 50th anniversary of the first American ascent of the mountain.

Working with The North Face, National Geographic Magazine, and the Mayo Clinic, the team participated in studies looking at the human body at altitude and the geological makeup of the mountain. Conrad Anker and Cory Richards attempted to summit the West Ridge, while the Southeast Ridge Team consisted of Sam Elias, Kris Erickson, Emily Harrington, Philip Henderson, Mark Jenkins, David Lageson PhD, and Hilaree O’Neill.

The film follows Cory Richards and Sam Elias as they deal with the physical and mental stresses of summiting Mount Everest.

For this assignment, our goal was to edit and produce a documentary film that would showcase the toolset of the Verse interactive platform and the lifestyle brand of The North Face.

The Verse platform combines embedded clickable hot spots, video slideshows and interactive interviews.

The foremost challenge with this project was that all the verite footage was taken from an expedition to Mount Everest that took place three years before we even set out to make the film. The expedition had long since been completed, so we were unable to capture any pick-up scenes or additional footage that could supplement the film’s narrative. Additionally, there were numerous incredible characters, several different narrative arcs, and tons of additional footage that we were unsure we would be able to fit into the film.

To connect and structure the verite footage from the 2012 expedition to Mount Everest, the production team went to Bozeman, Montana to interview some of the key characters in the story. We were able to construct the narrative of the film through their reflections, memories, and stories from the expedition. With the large amount of extra footage, we were able to use the interactive toolset of the Verse platform to add additional scenes, interviews, and footage that the viewer could explore. This allowed us to keep the main film streamlined without losing the best of the additional footage on the cutting room floor.

The short film and interactives were placed within the Verse platform to create a non-linear interactive documentary about the 2012 North Face expedition to Mount Everest. The film highlighted the toolset of the Verse interactive platform, and served as an example of how the platform could be used to endorse commercials brands.

Verse is an interactive platform with a toolset that showcases non-linear multimedia storytelling.

2016 Webby (Finalist)
Websites: Best User Experience