Quiet Summer, Loud Fall
'Bang!' or possibly 'kersmack!' are usually the sounds of loud falls, but in this case it's more of a hum (of the 60 Hz variant) and clack (of the keys). After enjoying much of the summer off, I am now enjoying a recent surge in demand for my services. I cut/composited a short film for the NFB, edited three EPK videos, and onlined two films- one experimental art, the other a documentary- even did a little DVD authoring for a colleague's reel.
More free-time this past summer meant I got to polish up my After Effects skills, which are now sharp and ready for action. They had gotten a little rusty from series work, which of course focuses primarily on the art of storytelling (and the art of fixing mistakes); the motion graphics and compositing needs are sent out to specialists, who can afford to take hours on a single shot or short sequence. But as a freelance editor, I find that a lot of clients expect an editor to possess motion graphics skills as well, and I am pleased to say that now more than ever I bring that to the table, the EDITING TABLE! Actually it's more of a desk than a table, but you get the idea.
Catching Up: Past, Present and 2009
Computers love me, but I don't love them. I do my best to stay off the machines as much as possible when I'm not working. Therefore updates to my site are quite rare. Instead I prefer to occasionally rattle off a summary of activities since my last entry. This time I let nine months lapse without a post. For shame!
Since then, many projects have come through these hands:
- Viral video coinciding with an international grassroots campaign urging China to open a diplomatic dialogue with Tibet, leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in China
- 6-minute demo for a documentary being produced by the National Film Board of Canada
- Promotional video for the city of Powell River, BC
- Feature documentary, shot on Super 16mm, telling 'the legend of the dolphins' in an original, poetic narrative form
- Story-driven music video for the artist RUMI, shot on the RED One
- Short Biopic on visual artist David Pirrie
- Teaching at Tony Papa's film school in Powell River
This may seem like a lot of work, but I've had more down-time than usual, due of course to the recession. 2009 is definitely looking up though, and I'm getting excited about a number of projects on the horizon.
Reel Update 2008
I finally found time to update my reel, and I must say this is the first time I am satisfied with my demo. Including graphics and online, it took 2 days, and demonstrates some of my better editing. About 50% is also my own shooting, namely the green screen interview, car racing, prison and pawn shop scenes, Lama interview, outdoor recreation, night-driving montage, juggling, action sports and hip-hop events.
As any montage reel, it can only go so far to show my storytelling abilities, so I encourage anyone interested, to contact me for a DVD version which has entire scenes and more examples of work.
Special thanks to David Weicht of Switchstance Recordings (Germany) for providing the music.
Robson Arms
Hit TV show Robson Arms, now in it's 3rd season, hired me to edit a series of videos entitled, The Question, which I worked on during the last couple months of 2007. Cutting together cast and crew interviews, behind the scenes footage and scenes from upcoming shows, we really wanted to do something different, make them funny and upbeat. The theme of each video coincides with each week's new episode, and will be released concurrently.
The Question, produced by Jason James, is an Omni Film production for CTV.
Get Connected
As the saying goes, it's who you know in this biz, and once again my connections came through when I needed work. I got connected to the lifestyle television series "Get Connected" by my friend and colleague Andrea Wing, who is the Producer. The powers that be at Blink Media Works apparently liked my panache, and hired me to edit the series.
Update: just locked the first episode! 3 weeks and down to the wire, phew! It was a bumpy ride trying to get everything done: cutting the segments and developing a style for the show; getting held up waiting for graphics and music; gutting out chunks of the show, and replacing with stronger segments; writing, re-writing, re-shooting. And it's finally done. On to the next episodes...

