Imagine you only had one shot. Just one opportunity to capture history.
That's the ultimate responsibility facing Brisbane filmmaker Joe Carter this May.
His job is to capture 62-year-old Australian Ken Hutt launching from the summit of Mount Everest and paragliding down from the top of the world.
"There's no way that if I miss that shot that I can ask him to go back and do it again," Carter said.
It's a feat that's only been achieved by four people.
If Hutt manages to do it, he'll become the oldest.
He'll also be the oldest Australian man to ever reach the summit of Everest, and Carter is determined to capture every moment of the death-defying expedition.
"Maybe if I was filming BMX or skateboarding or something I could ask him to do it all again, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him and definitely the pressure is on me to get that shot.
"I'm going to be there, I'll be ready don't worry … I'll have the camera set up and I'll be ready for anything."
Tomorrow, Carter, Hutt and his expedition team depart Sydney for Nepal.
Hutt's been preparing for the mission for years but Carter, who is head of Queensland University of Technology's film and screen degree, had just weeks.
"I had this crazy phone call about seven weeks ago, I was actually on ABC News Breakfast talking about another film of mine … and during the program, they saw me on there," Carter said.
"And I get this phone call just after the show saying: 'Hey, we're going to Everest, do you want to come with us and make a film?'
"And I kind of thought it was a joke at first … but then I thought, wow, what an opportunity and of course, I said yes."
The film is a research project as part of his PhD submission about extreme sports films.
'My preparations have been really extreme'
Not only do Hutt and two Sherpas, who are joining him for the final stages of the expedition to the summit, have to climb and survive on their way to the top, but then they'll have to capture the moment he launches.
Carter will only venture as high as Everest base camp, at an altitude of 5,354 metres — for some perspective, Brisbane's Mount Coot-Tha is 287 metres above sea level.
"My preparations have been really extreme, because it's so compressed … so every day I've been on Mount Coot-Tha, going up and down, trying to get as many laps in as possible."
He said from a filmmaking point of view there are three main challenges.
"Firstly, everything has to be carried into base camp so I have to go with lots of lightweight options," he said.
"Secondly, there's no place to plug in your recharging systems at base camp so I have to carry solar panels with me."
"Thirdly, camera batteries and laptop batteries don't like the cold … so we've been very fortunate we've had some support from some brands, who have supplied us with some new prototype batteries, which are designed to work in sort of minus-40 conditions, which we'll experience on Everest."
Once the expedition team arrives at base camp, Carter will then have roughly six weeks with the Sherpas to train them in how to use the camera equipment.
"Because I'm not an accredited climber to go through the icefall, I can't go beyond base camp."
"I'll be training them on the cameras that we're taking and Ken will be wearing some cameras, including a 360-degree camera, which will get a full surround image, which we can then work with later in post-production."
"Not only see all the amazing scenery, but also hear the sounds from the highest place on the planet.
'There are no old, bold mountaineers'
One in seven people who attempt to climb Mount Everest don't survive.
Ken also plans to jump off it, then paraglide in the harshest of conditions.
"I'm not up there to kill myself, that's going to do no-one any good whatsoever," Hutt told Carter in an interview.
"We have a term in mountaineering: 'There are old mountaineers, and there are bold mountaineers, but there are no old, bold mountaineers.'
"I conform to that, that I need to be smart about it. And if there is a risk, and a real risk, to my safety, then I need to stay on the positive side of that risk and not step over the line.
Hutt admits the weather and the prospect of altitude sickness remain unknowns in their planning, but he says he's hopeful both those factors could be managed.
"The main thing that I'd be concerned about is as we get higher, and we'll start thinking about flying a paraglider higher than 8,000 meters, is the condition I'm going to be in physically," he said.
"I hear stories about what can happen to people at those altitudes, the tiredness, mind wandering, you know the lack of oxygen, the lack of good decision-making and that is probably my main issue on this, the lack of good decision-making.
"Flying a paraglider is something that doesn't come naturally, you really need to be assessing the conditions at the time to make it safe.
"I'm not going to have any other experienced pilots up there with me … so all those decisions will be mine and mine alone and the consequences of those decisions will be mine and mine alone."
Carter said that's where his biggest concern factors in.
"The biggest challenge about training the Sherpas and Ken is that when you're suffering, when you're close to the summit of Everest, you are literally clinging to life you are at the edge of where human existence is possible and the idea of pausing, and maybe taking a glove off and reaching into your jacket and getting a camera out is at that moment, the last thing any of those people want to do.
"It's painful, and it's difficult, and it's possibly even slowing you down, but it's so important, because if they don't do that, if they don't take those shots, then we're not going to have them.
"So I have to be really sure that the way that they operate, that equipment is efficient, and doesn't impede them on their ascent or affect their safety in any way.
"But also have to make sure they do it and they don't come back and say: 'It was too cold … We couldn't do it.'
"The only thing I can do is to make it as easy as possible … [so that] operating this camera is not difficult, it should just be literally we push one button, the camera starts recording."
Not the first
If everything goes to plan, Hutt will hike to the top of Earth's highest point and launch off, paragliding down the mountain face.
He won't be the first to do it, but he will be the first to do it legally.
In 2011, Nepali men Sanobabu Sunuwar and Lakpa Tshiri Sherpa glided from the summit without a permit, landing at an airstrip in Namche before the Army started to chase after them for their illegal expedition.
But fame found the pair, who went on to be named National Geographic Adventurers of the Year for their efforts.
Sunuwar is now the head of the Nepalese Paragliding Association and ironically the only man who can grant Hutt the legal permit to paraglide off the Everest summit.
"It's going to be an honour to meet him because he's kind of a hero to many people," Hutt said.
"And he's very much in support of this expedition."
That's because it's all for a good cause – helping eradicate polio.
"I'm up there to raise money for polio and get the attention the cause deserves," Hutt said.
Carter hopes turning the expedition into a feature film will also help spread awareness.
"If everything goes really well, I'm hoping will not only be a great human story and an incredible adventure film but also help to finally get that ball rolling to push us over the line and eradicate polio once and for all," he said.
