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Documentary On Grip


The Natural

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Hello all,

I'm working with an experienced documentary maker in the Atlanta, Georgia area to create a documentary on the sport of grip. Some of the footage for the documentary will be acquired at Chad's competition, which will be represented as the cutting edge of the sport.

After some conversations with the film maker, we've agreed that the history of the sport should be addressed, and one of the best ways for this to occur is to have a combination of footage/images of historic grip feats/events and interviews of important people within the sport.

I've sent him a copy of Dennis Rogers' video "336 Pounds of Fury", so he can get an idea of how things might look. I've also sent him some YouTube videos of grip performances that I thought he would find exciting. They definitely piqued his interest. He told me several times that he seeks out unique subjects for documentaries, and grip is certainly one of those.

In order to acquire more footage/images for the documentary, I need everyone to help me. Please send the original video files/images to

gripvids@gmail.com

of any feats/performances that you regard as being of historical importance. I need actual video files, NOT YouTube links.

Eddy and I will go through all of the material (as there is a plethora) and decide on what will make the final cut. We will then send out some release forms to those who own the materials, requesting permission for use.

While the project is still inchoate, I have lots of confidence in this guy. He is taking the project seriously, as am I. With the Gripboard's help, I think we can round up some good stuff.

Some things to keep in mind for those sending in materials:

Continuity of the sport--we don't want any "gaps".

I'd like an equal focus on competition and feats. I respect both feat performers and competitiors, and I want to try to give due credit to both sides of grip.

Also, please feel free to make any other suggestions. I have a good idea of how things will look already. Special attention will be given to how fast the sport has developed in the last 18 months or so. Chad's competition will make for a nice ending, given this theme.

Let's move this thing along!

:rock

-Rex

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Sounds like a great project. :rock You might want to contact Gazza and ask if he can provide some video of his bends (and maybe an interview) as they are no longer available to the public. I know you don't personally feel unbraced bending is a "grip" feat but the importance of lower arm/wrist/hand strength is significant. I can't be alone in thinking it should be part of a grip documentary. ;)

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All these rock documentaries will flip back and forth between England and the US on things like the Blues, Punk, etc. I look at David Horne and the Brits as being very instrumental in the development of the sport. Even if there was audio of David voiced over different things going on from the past would be good if it was not possible for him to appear on video in an interview.

Randy Strossen, through the Captains of Crush grippers, was a huge influence on getting people's attention to "grip". Despite what some say about him, he is an important piece of the puzzle.

Sounds like quite a project, kudos to you for putting in the energy to make something happen.

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Whatever you do Rex, make sure David Horne is mentioned every step of the way. There are a lot of guys out there now to thank, but Horne was into this stuff and sending out information since around the time you and I were born, if not before. He was one of the first guys to hold grip competitions and the guy to bring the 2HP, one of grip's only real standardized devices, to life.

I'd be sure to get a list of old time strongmen and feat-doers like Thomas Inch, Bruce White, Don Larkin, The Atom, Slim, Pat Povilaitis, Dennis Rodgers, etc. And perhaps even footage of them if you can get your hands on some that isn't copyrighted.

Bending is, in itself a very large and unique part of grip. It deserves a good portion of time to itself.

Also, check your PM box.

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Very intresting this would really give a push to the sport that it needs I think.

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Yeah, right now the budget does not permit much travel for the camera guy. But an audio interview with Horne could definitely work, and I agree is deserved. I just want to make sure the sound quality of the interview is above CB radio quality.

-Rex

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Yeah, right now the budget does not permit much travel for the camera guy. But an audio interview with Horne could definitely work, and I agree is deserved. I just want to make sure the sound quality of the interview is above CB radio quality.

-Rex

There must be someone that lives somewhere next to Horne that could video him and follow whatever format is suggested.... maybe?

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of course you will do interviews with Mr. Sorin, but will you also go into a little bit of strongman like Magnus being one of the guys to close the #4 and Mark Felix being the world record holder for the rolling thunder?

i'd definitely want to buy one of the documentaries though when it's done.

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I'd say it would not be complete without Horne or Larkin. An interview with Horne isn't just deserved, it would be essential. Larkin would lead you on to quite a bit about who originated many of the modern feats if Horne couldn't. Both of these guys have a great perspective on history.

Slim Farman, Dennis Rodgers, John Brookfield, and Richard Sorin are "must-have" guys I would say. Wade Gillingham and Strossen also good. Jedd Johnson.

Kevin Fulton was holding contests in the US before anyone.

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I'd say it would not be complete without Horne or Larkin. An interview with Horne isn't just deserved, it would be essential. Larkin would lead you on to quite a bit about who originated many of the modern feats if Horne couldn't. Both of these guys have a great perspective on history.

Slim Farman, Dennis Rodgers, John Brookfield, and Richard Sorin are "must-have" guys I would say. Wade Gillingham and Strossen also good. Jedd Johnson.

Kevin Fulton was holding contests in the US before anyone.

Very good points.

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That will be awesome :bow I'm looking forward to watching that documentary. Hopefully it will be available on DVD? I want to know more about the past of the sport and I'd like to see some interviews with #4-closers as well. :rock

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I think the gripboard top videos section pointed out by members probably has some good videos. I can send you the source videos I am sure.

PM me although some will need permission from the people who performed the feats I am sure.

I think the first Mash Monster cert video is significant too.

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Sounds great!!!

Not that my videos are that special, but if you want any of them, let me know.

I believe I still have the original dvd source stored for each one of them:

http://www.youtube.com/mvogels

Cheers!

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It does sound good.

You could do worse than ask David to look at the script - having written much on the subject I'm sure that he could offer very useful suggestions as to how to put things together, especially the historical information. And Joe Roark would be my default go-to fact checker for any historical stuff, depending on the level of detail you wished to go into.

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Some stuff only needs mentioning in passing. We've youtube to big ourselves up with not a 7 hour everyone gets a mention video.

It's well worth thinking that some people outside the sport need to see this and they don't need to know all the names. Think Powerunlimited not some magnum opus.

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Great news Rex! A lot of great info here. One historic feat I'd like to see in the documentary is Chris Rice pinching two 45s, the fact that he was able to train for and accomplish such a feat for the very first time at his age is amazing to me-especially because he has been a strength athlete for so many years and you'd think he'd be starting to decline in strength. He should be on the cover of MILO, in my opinion.

A mention of all who have promoted their grip contests for years would be good also.

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It does sound good.

You could do worse than ask David to look at the script - having written much on the subject I'm sure that he could offer very useful suggestions as to how to put things together, especially the historical information. And Joe Roark would be my default go-to fact checker for any historical stuff, depending on the level of detail you wished to go into.

Eddy and I discussed hiring a scriptwriter to really make the narration flow smoothly with the videos and images on screen. It would be great to have either David or Joe look things over to check the accuracy of the claims.

We do not plan for the documentary to be longer than one hour, and so we will have to unfortunately leave out many names and feats that are deserving of attention. One way we can maximize content is to have those who are interviewed mention certain people in their interview. Thus, while there won't be twenty people being interviewed, there will certainly be twenty big names mentioned.

-Rex

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Great news!! that there will be a documentary, this will only promote the gripsport more and more!! I will try to edit a new video end of this week, maybe you can use something... I think because of youtube the gripsport is booming right now!! This is just the beginning man!! I bet you in 10 years it will be very big with bigger competitions etcetera...

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I'd contact David Webster, if possible, and go to Joe Roark's ironhistory.com, some fantastic historians there, could probably give you a ton of references. Maybe Randy Strossen could help you, too, he had that great pic of Bill Pearl tearing a license plate on the cover of Milo way back.

Personally I remember my dad having impromptu grip contests with some of the guys that worked for him when . Bending gutter spikes, crushing the old steel beer cans into a mini accordion, folding bottle caps, stuff like that. Grip's been here a long time.

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I don't live too far from David and I've got some decent audio equipment, so if he agrees maybe I could get something from him.

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I don't live too far from David and I've got some decent audio equipment, so if he agrees maybe I could get something from him.

That would be great!

-Rex

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Man I am so exited about this... you'll have to let everyone know when this is finished. I would buy this think in a heartbeat. :D

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Not a single video or image has been sent to gripvids@gmail.com

I need your help on this project guys. We're going to film for material, but having some historical material would be nice too.

-Rex

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