250: Ryan Travis Podcast

June 17, 2022

In today’s episode of the ‘Finding your Summit’ podcast, host Mark Pattison, former NFL Player, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, and Mountaineer who has climbed the Seven Summits, talks with guest Ryan Travis, the director, and the producer. He discusses the film/project they have done together called ‘Searching for the Summit”.

Listen to “EP 250 Ryan Travis: Producer of the Emmy Award winning film Searching for the Summit reflects on the road to success” on Spreaker.

Episode Highlights

  • 01:45 – Ryan says he has had the luck of having a couple good projects and winning a couple of these before, but it just takes a while to sink in to what that means for the project.
  • 03:40 – Mark inquires, “what was that journey?”
  • 07:07 – Ryan says that in the initial interview, they really got Mark’s whole story, and so at that point, it was easier to think about what this film is about.
  • 09:34 – Mark says that he was on the edge of not coming back home—and asks how they would have proceeded forward with the film if that had been the outcome.
  • 11:12 – Ryan mentions that one of the biggest turning points in the film was Mark having that near-death experience and not making the second peak.
  • 12:20 – Once Ryan saw they could capture—just from that small window when they were in Sun Valley, from a visual and story perspective—he knew he wanted to make it a longer piece.
  • 13:48 – Mark says that it’s never a good idea, especially from a professional organization like NFL 360, to give an amateur a camera who has no idea what they’re doing.
  • 15:43 – They had gotten Go Pros and a couple of other cameras and worked with Mark, and he did a great job.
  • 16:53 – Mark mentions that they were nominated in two categories; one, for Best Picture Short Documentary, and two, for Best Cinematography—which he was really proud of.
  • 19:10 – Mark inquires about the difference between a long feature and what they did—which they won a 30-minute film for Short Documentary.
  • 21:09 – Ryan says that getting any type of acknowledgement is just amazing.
  • 23:13 – When we go back at the end, we talk to your daughters again, and we talk to you at the end, and those things become bigger parts in the film, states Ryan.
  • 25:34 – Mark mentions that a lot of people are just assuming that’s it for him. However, what he keeps saying is that it’s not the end, it’s really the beginning.
  • 27:18 – It doesn’t always work out exactly how you want it to, but every once in a while, you step into the fear and magic happens, states Mark
  • 29:51 – Ryan states that it was so amazing to be recognized, especially for this project.
  • 31:10 – Mark says Ryan and the team have done a sensational job of pulling out the emotional heartstrings of what that was—between the music, the cinematography, the people talking, the actions, the interactions, etc.
  • 34:29 – If you want to see the movie, go check it out at https://www.markpattisonnfl.com

Three Key Points

  1. Collage image with mountainous background displaying Finding Your Summit logo, episode number and photos of both Mark Pattison and Ryan TravisMark states that when you’re at the top of the world, holding on for your life, the last thing you care about is pushing a button or changing out a battery. Your hands are so cold—and so all those things come into play.
  2. Ryan mentions the categories in which he has personally won for the other films that he has done; they won for Best Short Feature— which is the shorter category, so it’s like a six-minute documentary-type piece—which is a couple of years ago now. They also won a Long Feature, which is around 15 minutes. The other one they won was for is called Transmedia, which was a very cool project, which was five hours of TV going back over the last 100 years of the NFL—and so it was a Co-Production with NFL Films, and they spent a whole year doing it.
  3. One of the strongest points in the film is when Mark is talking about if he is going to continue to rise or not, and he is completely alone. When an audience sees that, all of a sudden that clicks. That was so powerful in the film. They kind of discovered when they were there and it played out very well.

Tweetable Quotes

I’ve always kind of been interested in Mount Everest and mountaineering, so that was a good thing for the project, and a reason why I was so interested to start with.” – Ryan Travis

It’s harder to make something like that sustain for a long time.” – Ryan Travis

Any film, you need to have your why somebody is doing it.” – Ryan Travis

We didn’t know exactly what was happening, but super excited that you got to the summit.” – Ryan Travis

We struggled with not being able to go to Nepal, which was so tough.”- Ryan Travis

Just to be nominated with everybody is such a huge accomplishment.” – Ryan Travis

My heart was absolutely pounding when our category—and I just didn’t think it was going to play that way.” – Mark Pattison

If you look at this movie, it’s about all the other stuff, that at the end of the day, really matters in life.” – Mark Pattison

It was the right team of people. It just seemed like the right project.” – Ryan Travis

The music makes all the difference in the world. It’s not too much, but it’s enough to get you emotional.” – Ryan Travis

 

Mark Pattison YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingYourSummitWithMarkPattison/featured

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