A dramatic promotional film by Mountain Rescue England and Wales (MREW) hits touch screens today, showing real mountain rescue volunteers in action and bringing the reality of the work they do into the public eye.

In just six minutes of footage, the film shows search and rescue volunteers in a range of situations, emphasising their commitment, skills and expertise and their reliance on public support, understanding and donations.

Chairman of MREW, Mike France, said: “There’s been a demand for more images and film about mountain rescue for quite a while and the growth in social media means we should be able to spread the word about this film to thousands of people and make a really positive impact. 

"With links, connections and sharing online, we are offering people – already active supporters or not – a great chance to find out more about what we do and how we work.”

Former MREW Chairman, David Allan, was an early advocate of making a national film, partly arising from discussions with BAFTA reps at Princes’ Charities Forum meetings in London.  Taking that germ of an idea and creating a useful communication tool has taken many months of planning and development, but the completed film is now ready for launch in time for the Easter weekend.

“We knew that we needed to keep to a couple of strong but simple messages,” says Judy Whiteside, editor of Mountain Rescue Magazine who has led on the project. 

“We wanted to show real rescuers, reacting to a wide range of realistic situations and we wanted to emphasise that they are all volunteers by showing them being called away from work, family commitments and sleep!  That sounds quite simple but we also wanted to create something that people would want to watch and share and something that would have a fundraising as well as an educational impact.”

Dave Freeborn, the film’s producer and co-director, is not only a member and ex-team leader of Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) but a professional film and documentary maker. He put together the filming schedule and the network of partners to help capture the story.

“We filmed at more than 12 different locations with about ten different MR teams and partners,” says Dave.  “The schedule included a huge amount of negotiation and liaison with what seemed like hundreds of people through the seasons during 2014.  There was filming from a UAV (or drone) in Borrowdale in the Lake District, editing in underground rescue footage from the Mendips in Somerset, creating music and the voiceover and, in all, about 20 days of filming in all weathers – all to create just six minutes of dramatic footage.”

The drone in action in the Lake District

The music for the soundtrack composed specially for the film by Miles Hancock and the voiceover – recorded in both English and Welsh languages to reflect MREW membership – has been done by Matthew Gravelle, an actor who recently starred in Broadchurch on ITV.

“All the team members involved with the filming were incredibly enthusiastic and keen to make this work, despite already volunteering so much of their time to mountain rescue” says Dave.  “I hope it will prove well worth it and raise public awareness and money for mountain rescue.  But I also hope it will help us to explain the range of what we are trained to do, the skills and expertise that we have and how we might be able to use those skills to help in other situations too.”

“I think we’ve created something that will really reinforce the value of our volunteer service and also make it clear that we rely on public support,” says Judy Whiteside.  “That’s what we set out to do from the very beginning of the project and it is going to be exciting watching that message as it spreads online in the coming months.”

« Back