A Journey To Sustainability

An adventure to Taiwan to some of the largest factories on the planet, to help The North Face tell their sustainability story for the first time to the general public.

I think I worked harder on this project than anything else in 2011, the road to sustainability is certainly complicated and hard to communicate. After working with TNF on an athlete level for the last 6 years it was an honor to go deep behind the scenes and learn about these important initiatives in this way. As always, thanks for checking it out! ~reo


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RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE; Part Two, The Dream Climb

Hey Vertical Carnival audience!!! First of all... Thanks a lot for tuning in to our little labor of love! Over a quarter of a million of you have watched a video here... pretty amazing!!!

After managing to climb the unclimbed north Dragons's Horn, we rested for a few days and then headed up for a new route on the steeper and more impressive South Dragon's Horn. Follow Lucho and I as we establish one of the Best Climbs of Our Lives!

Big Thanks to Tanoshi Lodge for feeding us and housing us during the adventure.

If you find our adventure compelling or entertaining, please donate even just a dollar in the name of our climb to Big City Mountaineers, so that urban teens can get the chance the get out on their first wilderness adventures! GO TO SUMMIT FOR SOMEONE TO DONATE!!!!

Special thanks to The North Face who is matching dollar for dollar the first 4000 we can raise for Big City Mountaineers, and Five Ten, Blue Water Ropes, Clif Bar, Backcountry.com, and Black Diamond for their additional support.

Hopefully you are inspired to get after an adventurous dream of your own creation. Much Love for the Journey!

Cedar. Read more...

EXCLUSIVE: Tested. Proven. : Behind the Lens in the Tetons PART 2!!

As promised here is part 2 of the 'Tested. Proven." series with some gnarly storm sequences, more cineflex aerial footage and some pure climbing/skiing action high in Grand Teton National Park. Tim Kemple aka "Kempy"leads us through this part of the production process. It's cool that he was part of the original Vertical Carnival expedition (and the creation of this blog) with Cedar and Myself to South America....and now gets to make a big cameo. As we like to say, the eye of the Kempy strikes again!! Thanks for checking it out and stay tuned for part 3 next monday. Cheers, ~reo

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EXCLUSIVE: Tested. Proven. : Behind the Lens in the Tetons

Part One of a Three Part Exclusive Series

This past Spring Camp 4 embarked on one of our biggest projects to date — documenting a ski mountaineering trip deep into the Tetons Range in Wyoming, in hopes of gathering enough high quality footage to produce a :30 television commercial for The North Face. Our goal was to be ‘light and fast’ but still capture the highest quality content possible.

This video is the first of a three part Behind the Scenes series that we’ve dubbed ‘tested. proven'. Jimmy Chin Tim Kemple and myself each respectively talk about the 3 part process of production, shoot and edit...part 2 on Monday!

Thanks for checking it out!! ~reo

You can view the finished commercial currently airing on national television here




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RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE, Part One: The Unclimbed Horn

Hey Vertical Carnivalites! Cedar Here! As you may or may not not I was just in Malaysia for October and had great climbing trip!

After a whirlwind three day travel sequence Lucho and I found ourselves on Tioman Island staring up at the mythical "Dragon's Horns." It was hard to believe that only one of the huge jungle spires had been climbed...until we started the approach...then it made more sense. But after some epic jungle bushwhacking which culminated with me being attacked by giant hummingbird sized wasps, we somehow managed to find our way to the base, and miraculously summited the unclimbed Dragon's Horn on our first full day on the island. The route "Tanoshi Buttress" was a classic 5.10x adventurefest!!! We topped out at night and endured a shiver bivy until about two a.m. when an an impending lightning storm encouraged us to rappel at night. I hope this short video captures some of the magic of our Experience.

We are raising money in the name of our climb for Big City Mountaineers, an awesome program that gets under resourced teens into the wilderness. Programs like these are close to mine and Lucho's hearts and we'd really appreciate even a couple dollars donated in our names.... find out more at SUMMIT FOR SOMEONE

Special Thanks to the folks at Tanoshi Lodge for making our stay a stylish one.

MAJOR PROPS to The North Face for matching the first four grand that Lucho and I can raise for Big City Mountaineers!

Also huge love to Five Ten, BlueWater Ropes, Clif Bar, BackCountry.com, and Black Diamond who helped to make this trip a reality!

We brought two cameras up the climb with us, a tm900 and a gh2, and I shot some of the timelapses with my 5dii. Hopefully you like my edit and original music. Read more...

The Denali Experiment

As promised here is the complete 15 edit: Free-ride skier Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and big mountain snowboarder Lucas Debari step out of their elements and make an attempt to climb, ski and snowboard Denali. Sage and Lucas get a helping hand from a huge cast of seasoned and professional climbers and ski mountaineers from the North Face Athlete Team, including Hilaree O’Neill, Conrad Anker, Ingrid Backstrom, Jim Zellers, Emilio Previtali and Giulia Monego, as the two embark on the hardest expedition of their lives.

Although I was still injured during this expedition, it was an honor to get a chance to tell the story and live vicariously through the footy during my recovery. With eight characters and lots of possible story-lines it was one the most challenging pieces I have worked on to date!

We are lucky to be able to share it this way, it's true 'experiment' for in terms of how how many people will have the attention span to watch the whole thing online :) Hopefully it does well, so we can keep it coming! Thanks for watching, ~renan



a CAMP 4 COLLECTIVE production
Director : Jimmy Chin
Cinematographers : Jimmy Chin, Matt Irving, Adam Clark
Editor: Renan Ozturk
Motion Graphics: Barry Thompson, Eric Bucy, Mary Blumen
Additional Media: Teton Gravity Research, Absinthe Films, Colby Coombs, Renan Ozturk
Color: Anson Fogel

music in order of appearance:

Philip Sheppard
Song: Night Vision
PhilipSheppard.com

Yppah
Song: Never Mess With Sunday
Myspace.com/Yppah

Sun Wukong Project
Song: Clear Puzzles in Mjet
TheSunWukong.com

Ammoncontact
Song: Like Waves Of The Sea
NinjaTune.net/Artist/Ammoncontact

Philip Sheppard
Song: The Valley
PhilipSheppard.com

The Damn Sons
Song: Who Wants More
DamnSons.com

CatacombKid
Song: Digital Cliffs
CatacombKid.com

CatacombKid
Song: Water
CatacombKid.com

Amon Tobin
Song: Bloodstone
AmonTobin.com

Ape School
My Intention (Yppah Remix Instrumental)
NinjaTune.net/Artist/Ape-School

Fink
Song: Yesterday Was Hard On All Of Us
FinkWorld.co.uk

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The North Face TV spot

Have you seen the new North Face commercial lately on TV? If not or don't have a TV (like me) here is the 30 sec spot that is now airing on prime time. It was written, produced, directed, shot and edited by Camp 4 Collective. Also a big thanks to Brain Farm Cinema for working with us on the cineflex aerial footy and BASSNECTAR for the music!

Although it was a only a 30 spot it was a pretty epic project with over 2TB of footage to work with. We are psyched to be able to utilize some of the out-takes in this behind the scenes piece. Considering this was the project that almost killed Jimmy Chin and myself last spring, it feels really good to have it finally have it all see the light of day!! warmest regards, ~reo
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The Denali Experiment

Hell All,

Sorry for the lack of posts, its been a crazy last few months on expedition in the Indian Himalaya and then directly back into full on editing mode on this wild Denali expedition edit. I promise I will catch you all up with the inside info on the Meru expedition as well as keep the posting a bit more regular :) For now please enjoy the teaser for THE DENALI EXPERIMENT. I will post the full 15 minute feature here next Monday! Thanks so much for watching, ~renan



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StoneNudes with Dean Fidelman

Dean, "Bullwinkle" Fidelman has been a fixture in the Yosemite climbing scene for nearly forty years.  Through his black and white photographs he has documented several generations of Yosemite Climbers.  From the StoneMasters to the RockMonkeys Dean has been there to photograph Yosemite history being made.  In 1999 Dean began work on his "StoneNudes" project, one of the most unique Art projects the Climbing Community has ever scene.  Since then Dean has traveled around the country and the world photographing real rock climbers (both male and female) bouldering naked.  Dean believes that both the rock and the human body are sculptures, and that we look both beautiful and natural climbing.
Pleas visit The Stone Nudes Website to learn more. 

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Meru Eleven

After 4 months of non-stop rehab, training & body work I'm stuffing base-camp duffles for an early morning departure to the himalaya with Jimmy Chin & Conrad Anker. Big thanks to everyone for the support along the way and the understanding during the decision making process. Hopefully we will be updating the Meru Eleven FB page along the way.... Sincerely, ~reo


A 19min short film detailing our 2008 attempt on the same objective...

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MINI DAWGZ_THE MOVIE_TENSLEEP_2011

I had the pleasure of spending a week in Ten Sleep Wyoming with young up and coming climber Stefan Lavender.  He brought his two mini-dogs Wentworth, and Nemo, and I brought along my pug Gus.  I also brought along the new GH2 camera and the Noktor ƒ0.95 Lens to test them out.  Still love the 5d, but I like the GH2 a lot too.  As usual, the music is mine... if you like this song,  it's on my new Album, available exclusively from Vertical Carnival!  

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On Assignment

My favorite of the 3 pieces we produced for the May National Geographic cover story about Yosemite climbing. It seemed so serendipitous to be 'on assignment' in a place that we all cut out teeth as adventurers (and then ended up becoming the namesake of our collective!) As always, thanks for tuning in! ~reo

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Yosemite Falls High-Line

We shot this piece for National Geographic last spring. Its always good to hang with the monkeys in the Valley!! Best, ~reo

Yosemite Falls High-Line from Camp 4 Collective on Vimeo.

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Ten Sleep Summer

Here is a great video shot and edited by John Dickey for Black Diamond, that captures my two week trip to Ten Sleep Canyon, one of the best summer sport climbing destinations in the country!!! 

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The Tooth Traverse

This piece is comprised of some of the attempts Zack Smith , Freddie Wilkinson and myself have put into the 'Tooth Traverse' of the Ruth Gorge, AK.

There has been a log going on surrounding our adventures: The 1st attempt was heavily embarked upon only days after the memorial for the deaths of our close friends vimeo.com/​5065432, the 2nd attempt ended with helping with body recoveries of other climbers in the gorge and the just before our proposed launch day this past spring I almost died in a skiing accident.

Beyond the allure of enchaining one of the most iconic [& untrodden] skylines in NA the Tooth Traverse has come to represent so much more than that to us. With my healing going well and the inspiration (and angst) greater than ever we are planning another attempt in the NEAR future.

I see the eventual story breaching some pretty heavy topics involved in alpine climbing: sponsored vs. non-sponsored expeditions, dealing with death and the effect tackling dangerous objectives has on friends/family.

At any rate here is a little window into our work in progress. ~reo
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Living The Dream 2

A standard day in the life of the recovery from a few broken vertebrae and a skull fracture. Even though I'm not technically cleared for psychical therapy yet, the time has finally come for some soul therapy. Besides my standard 5d shooting style it was cool to test out the POV.HD cam. It was fun to experiment with a fresh roll of duct tape, a bit of stiff steel wire and some thin pieces of PVC :)

cheers, ~reo

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Towers of the Ennedi-festival cut

Super psyched to finally share the festival cut of the "Towers of the Ennedi" adventure to Chad. In the past most festival edits are usually locked away for select screenings but in the last year it seems like there has been a huge paradigm shift of the major festival directors and we are able to post such edits for free online without it effecting the big screen showings. This is pretty much the same cut as most of you may have seen but with ~10 new art animations added in! Thanks for checking it out. ~reo

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The Nepal Diaries_Part Two

Here is Part two of the Nepal Diaries!!! WOOHOO!!  Love Cedar! Read more...

Burning the Brace

Happy to report that after 3 months on lock down inside a c-collar healing fractured c2/c7 vertebrae the beast comes off! ~reo

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Two Shorts From My Winter in Nepal

So While I was in Nepal this winter I did a bunch of shooting.... Here are two of the pieces to come out of that trip!!!  One profiles the legendary alpinist Pete Athans, and is available thanks to the north face as a sneak peek, only on vertical carnival!!!  The Emily and Matt piece features a bunch of music from the new album .... so if you like it... buy the album!  Cheers!!!  Cedar.

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Alex Honnold_The Neverending Ticklist

Hey Guys, Cedar here!! Check out this Alex Honnold profile piece I cut for Black Diamond.  I shot this last summer during the same week that "Squamish in a Day" and the infamous "Boogie til you Poop" videos were shot!! Cheers, Cedar.

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Lhoste Dispatch #5!

Thanks for following these dispatches from the high himalaya. I know Hennie and the guys put their full on heart and soul into these so enjoy this final epic post! ~reo



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Shed Some Light, My New Album!!!

 So, after a year of tweaking in my humble home studio I have put together a new album.  The last three years and three albums has been a huge learning process with lots of setbacks, breakthroughs and moments of pure joy.  I'm proud of this album... it's far and away my best work.  All the songs are completely original from the Vocals to the Guitar to the beats to random Mbira licks and Synth embellishments.  This is truly a labor of lover and has been my most cherished creative outlet of late...so I  really hope you guys like it!  The Album features 20 songs and is optimized for  itunes.  To everyone who bought one of my last two albums... thanks a lot... if you liked that you'll love this...Cheers!!!  You can Buy it right HERE>

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Telluride Film Festival!

This past weekend a number of our films graced the the big screen at the amazing Telluride Mountain Film Festival.  Situated deep in the mountain of Colorado this festival is one of the most recognized on the planet for bringing stories of postive change for the planet to thier audience.  It is always a big energy boost to attend and a huge honor to have our expedition stories screen in the same group as films that tackle huge political, social and environmental issues.  The TNF line-up of films included COLD (Forge Motion Pictures), TOWERS OF THE ENNEDI (Camp 4 Colective), DOWN OUT AND UNDER (Sender Films) and ON ASSIGNMENT (Camp 4 Collective). 

As an athlete and filmmaker there is nothing more exciting (and scary!) than to be able to premier your work in front of a packed theatre of liked minded people hungry to absorb the adventure.  Being able to see peoples reaction in real time and answer question on stage is one the most powerful ways I can imagine to share stories.  For me, this realization of the power of film really stemmed from this particular festival in 2009 when Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and myself premiered SAMSARA and it took the Charlie Fowler Climbing film award.

I'm so proud to report that the TNF film hightlighting the historic ascent of G2, which is a very real and visceral depiction of what it is like to undergoe climbing a 8000M peak in winter won the Charlie Fowler Climbing Film award.  Furthermore our film "Towers of the Ennedi" recieved a honorable mention in this catagory and was also nominated for the cinematograpy award.  Athough I'm not much of a competive person it is always a bit nerve racking to attend the award ceremony and see how your peers, mentors and audieneces judge your art of storytelling.  In the end it is all about all those special intactions you have throughout with event with the amazing people that inpsire you to take action to keep sharing & creating positive change for the planet!   Thanks for reading and hope to see you all at the next T-Ride Mtn Film Fest :)   Cheers,  ~renan Read more...

Lhoste Dispatch #4

The team gets some pow turns :)
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Lhoste dispatch #3

The boys in nepal are getting really close to the final push!

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Lhoste Dispatch #2

Hennie is a bit of gaper when it comes to this big mountain stuff, but he’s already been up to above Camp 2 with the crew on an acclimatizing mission and seem to be holding up well. Check out his second dispatch sent via the satellite connection, really impressive stuff! ~reo

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Lhoste Dispatch #1

Hennie, our South African friend and Camp 4 Collective colleague is on his first trip to the Himalaya documenting a quest to ski a new 8000 meter ski descent on Lhoste in Khumbu region. He is primarily a resort/park skier so this trip with seasoned TNF expedition athletes is going to blow his mind, burn out his lungs and push his creativity to the next level! I had fun contributing art & working with Marty Blumen an animator in New Zealand on the intro animation, the red line is the LINE! Check it out, fresh from the sat modem at 18K ft! cheers, ~reo


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BlueWater Anthem

Hey there V.C. viewers!!! Hope all is well and you are squeezing some adventure out of life! As most of you know by now Renan had a terrible skiing accident. He cracked open his head pretty good and broke his neck in a couple places. But, by nothing short of a miracle he is neither paralyzed nor dead. A few months from now he'll be out of the neck brace and back to filming and climbing. So everyone think good thoughts and in the mean time, enjoy this short Anthem piece I cut for BlueWater Ropes. Read more...

'Towers of the Ennedi' behind the scenes

Our crazy first year as a production team ended with a wild adventure to document the first ever climbing in the remote Ennedi desert of Chad, Africa. After 4 days/800km following a GPS coordinate on a roadless wasteland we found ourselves among thousands of beautiful unclimbed towers.

Tim​, Jimmy and I all have a lot of experience in expedition storytelling from the high himalaya to the jungles of Borneo but this trip redefined 'remote' for all of us. We were so psyched to collectively push our gear and creativity with our athlete friends at TNF.

Besides the knife fights with the locals and a few lenses lost to the sand things went pretty smooth. We were able to run our entire work flow without a generator using goalzero solar and battery setups. It was also our first time shooting the motion time-lapse setup on the kessler pocket dolly which was the secret weapon in so many ways.

A director's cut of the final film "Towers of the Ennedi" will screen at 5point ​at the end of April before the full premier at Mountain Film ​at the end of May!

Thanks for checking out this tid-bit. Cheers from the c-collar ~reo

Music:
Ki:Theory
"Step Outside"

Computer Vs Banjo
"Give Up On Ghosts"

Random Rab
"For My Corpse" Read more...

Towers of the Ennedi - The North Face sneak peak of the film festival edit!!

This is an exclusive preview presented by The North Face of the film festival edit that will be showing at the 5point film festival and Telluride Mountain Film. If you have the ability to make these festivals I highly encourage it! Meeting the filmmakers, the big-screen viewing experience and the variety of amazing adventure film subjects are not to be missed.

At any rate, make sure you have solid 12 minutes to sit down and enjoy this cut of the Chad story. Thanks for taking the time to check it out, lots of love has gone into this edit so far. Cheers, ~reo

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A Close Call

Hey all Vertical Carnival followers out there. Just a quick update on some recent catastrophic events. Although we really love taking on every project all the time and going full-steam 24/7, sometimes the powers that be overwhelmingly tell us to slow down.

In my case it all came to a halt last week in Jackson, Wy during a C4C/TGR collaboration that was supposed to follow big mountain riders into the Grand Teton National Park. During a pre-production shoot at the JH resort to capture b-roll on mellow terrain I caught an edge with to much speed just above a cliff band. What would have been a normal little fall turned into full on nightmare. My arms pinwheeled in the air fighting for life before the inevitable impact into the rock. During the unconscious lapse that followed my good friend Jimmy Chin 1st responded, playing a major role in saving my life. As I came back to consciousness I was still in the process of being extracted on a sled through the tight tree terrain below Rock Springs buttress by the highly skilled JH Ski Patrol. I shivered uncontrollably and was only able to see intermittently through the fogged oxygen mask and wallops of snow falling from the tight trees. The toll of injuries included a massive depressed skull fracture, collapsed lunge and 2 broken vertebrae. Any one of these could have easily killed, paralyzed or caused permanent brain damage. Luckily the emergency craniotomy and other surgeries were successful. The road to recovery will be slow but the recovery will also be a full one. So, besides just being thankful to be alive I'd also like to thank all of friends and supporters for the love and kindness during the painful start to this healing process. I will still continue to follow my dreams of adventure and creativity in the mountains but will do my best to pay attention to when the universe is telling me to slow down and not take anything for granted. ~reo Read more...

Cuba Chapter5_The Cock Fight

This is the last of the Cuba series, thanks for following this tropical "vacation" adventure. Although there are a few hurdles for US travelers to go to Cuba once you arrive the culture is welcoming and the climbing is world-class at all grades. Highly recommended in all ways! ~reo
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Cuba Chapter 4_The Life of Leo

A story about one of the dedicated Cuban cranksters of vinales. ~reo

Cuba Chapter_4_The Life of Leo from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

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Chad Expedition Teaser

I've been putting in a lot of time lately working on a ~14min festival piece based on the Chad adventure to the Ennedi dessert. There will be a sneak peak at 5point Film Festival and a hopefully a premier of the finished version at Telluride Mtn Film later in the spring. Here is the teaser so far. Enjoy! ~reo

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Cuba Chapter 3_The Competition

Another installment of the Cuba series. Thanks for following! ~reo

Cuba Chapter 3_The Competition from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

music recorded on location

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Cuba Chapter 2_Enter Vinales

Psyched to share the next chapter of the Cuba installments...this is first glimpse of the climbing! As always, thanks for checking it! ~reo

Cuba Chapter 2_Enter Vinales from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

Music Recorded On Location

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Nepal 2011_Namaste_K.C.C.

I know, I know, Vertical Carnival has been a barren content free wasteland for the last month and a half, that's because Renan and I have been busy shooting on bigger projects, but good times are here again. Renan will be kicking down some beautiful Cuba Dispatches, and I have a little Nugglet for you guys that captures my month spent Volunteering for the Khumbu Climbing School. To find out more about the school CLICK HERE. On another note Renan and I are honored to have recieved the "Urby" from Urban Climber magazine for "Best Blog" We think that's pretty Baller! NAMASTE!!! love Cedar.
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Cuba Chapter 1_Havana City Bustle

CUBA CHAPTER 1_Havana City Bustle from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

music recorded on location

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Cuba Chapter .5_Getting There

A little precursor to a new adventure in Cuba-->A few weeks off the grid climbing and checking out the culture with no phone or internet.

1 5d, 1 pair of climbing shoes and a pair of flip flops...here we go!

~reo

MUSIC: Diagram Collective

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