THE CRAZY THINGS VIDEOGRAPHY CAN DO: Ever wonder what the crazy world of videography can do in your life? Heres a crazy story for you. Its a story of crazy coincidences and old and new faces and people that crazily all comes together in life. Im tagging the people involved so they can hear the story and hopefully be as amused as I am: I shot this video about 3 years ago on a balmy day at Ontario Pioneer Camp, which is a summer camp in Port Sydney Ontario. I went there as a camper and it was like this magical place. I came back as a councillor for many years and then finally I came back to shoot a documentary project on summer camp. While there I had an idea for a video. A little short film story about a game of capture the flag at camp. I had the whole idea in my head set to this Rambo soundtrack so I desperately tried to find time to film it while I was there. I had two one hour time slots of the camps busy schedule to pull some campers away and try filming this. I hoped it could one day be beneficial to the camp to show others about how cool camp is. I remember standing in front of a dining hall full of campers and asking who wants to be in a movie real quick. I need some actors for a capture the flag film. Pioneer camp being the way it is, full of adventurous and courageous young people, I managed to get quite a few volunteers on what would have been their precious rest hour. I quickly sized up the actors for the parts, and it was Mitchell with his ironically perfect batman t shirt that was good for the hero camper who finds his confidence and runs in the flag. We shot it in 2.5 hrs (an extra half hour was used to finish up Mitchells tree swinging shot). The actors all did what I asked them at break neck speed. It was very impressive. When it came together, we played it in the dining hall, it got a good response, and that was pretty much the end of it. I asked later if they used it for anything as a camp but didnt hear much about it. Maybe it slipped into the cracks of camp. Oh well, at least it was a good experience. Two years later, I film a documentary on Nic Paterson, a young man who broke his neck snowboarding. The whole experience of filming that has been amazing and continues to. I am learning more and more things about life being his friend and meeting more and more interesting people. One of them is Keith Jenkinson, who also broke his neck snowboarding in a similar accident. And I learned about him from my Mom who worked with his dad years ago. And I do remember his name and face, James M Jenkinson. He was a dentist and my mom was the receptionist where he worked. So I have recently started chumming with his son Keith talking about life over some beers, and Keith informs me that his Dad is now getting into acting. Imagine that, a dentist for so long and then persuing acting. Pretty neat if you ask me. So I talk to James about it and says to me one day Hey, I should introduce you to the acting agency Im under, they are looking for a person to shoot port folio films for their actors and I think you would be great. So nice to get a compliment about your work as an artist..cant deny that. So he does, and I send them some of my work. I almost dont include the capture the flag film but i do. Im starting to think its nothing more than a silly video and I shouldnt make a fool of myself, but gosh darn it I like it..so I send it. and the acting agency contacts me and very much wants to communicate with me. They praised my work, especially the flag video. And it was through that they were able to tell that I would be right for this job of shooting some short film scenes for their actors. So now I am in the process of starting this new job shooting short scenes with them. And the thought occurs to me, Im going to need an assistant to help me with boom mics and such. When looking for an assistant, its always good to pick someone who is lesser experienced than you so you always look better and can look down on them..Im just kidding. But I do find this is a nice opportunity to give someone whos interested a chance to learn and see if htey like it. I decided to contact mitchell not only to thank him for doing the video and see how hes doing (now three years later) but to ask if he wanted to be my assistant because I heard he is interesting in getting into this and what a neat coincidence that would be to share this story with him. After a nice reconnecting chat he lets me know that he would like to help and we are all set. So here I am tonight, after talking with him and having all this set up, thinking of htis neat story...if i didnt try to film that video, if i didnt film nics documentary and meet all these people through that, if i didnt send the video in that email cause i thought it was stupid..none of this would have happened. so i thought, i should tell the people im with this story as a fun diner conversation (I am currently visiting friends, one of whom is Heather who works at another camp called Camp Muskoka, who I connected with by sending a link to Nics documentary and she found out i was a camp person, and we got to know eachother that way. So here we are, and im tellin gthe story about this camp video. Im sure I havent shown them it, and halfway through describing the video, they say oh yes weve seen that. and her son Tenney then tells me they showed it at my school. Pioneer Camp played the video as a promotion for the parents recently! I had no idea. I thought the video faded to obscurity. And I was just telling this story to my new friends as a fun random anticdote. And again to think..if I didnt do that documentary, I wouldnt have posted it on a bracebridge facebook site and met heather, and I wouldnt have mentioned the video that they now tell me they already saw and I had no idea... I mean..of all the crazy coincidences in life. So moral of the story is..keep doing stuff..lol you never know where it will go. And just when you think no one cares about what you do, it may do more than you think. So go for it. I dont mean to blow smoke up my own behind, but all Im saying is theres a fun project that really paid off, and how doing art can end up having you make lifelong friends, connections and memories and learned lessons that are beyond what you could ever expect. I loooove videography! https://youtube/watch?v=oydqkXrWHHE vimeo/m/90712419
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 02:58:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015