To Oakland

Leaving the country is obviously a complicated thing. For this trip it was mostly emotionally complicated. Although three days delayed, it turned out that we hit the road at the exact perfect time. Of course.

As it also turns out I would also spend the next two days driving alone, in silence. I’ve now located the face plate to my stereo but it’s an amazing thing that I lost it in the first place. The silence left me alone with my thoughts.

I continually observed myself cycling through the hate, hurt and anger towards this person I blame for my woes. All of the expressions of this ugliness that I could think of would have done more harm to me than to them.

Suddenly, just before the California border, I started writing it into my script. It has become a pivotal part of the film and opened my eyes to the true strength of the entire story. After a few hours of refining things in my head as I drove, the tears stopped. The anger stopped. Maybe the hatred stopped but I’ve thought that before so the jury is still out on that one.

These feelings are part of the artist’s burden. Pain, sadness, anger, and love all feed our expressive selves. Not always, of course, but sometimes, in my observation, art is the way to release them. I was afraid that this shuddering sadness I had been carrying would dilute the opportunities ahead of me and cloud the instinct that I rely on so much as a filmmaker.

I arrived in Oakland with exactly enough time to settle in. Arriving where I am supposed to be has a certain certainty. I can gradually feel my feet again on the ground, and the excitement of what’s to come overflows from my fingertips.

Great minds talk about not identifying with emotions but rather letting them flow through you. Not resenting them but accepting them in order to move beyond them. I’m starting to feel that accepting them is the best way to truly let them go and eliminate their remnants. The creative force possibly exists for that purpose.

I hope this understanding can stick around, and perhaps even evolve further.

So my first day in Oakland created this

Motorcycle Tripper

One of my best friends took me on a ride up the Sea to Sky highway the other day on his BMW bike. His passion for bikes triggered the filmmaker in me to throw together this MicroFilm within a couple of hours.

Since he didn't know I was making it, the finished film surprised him. And since he is in sales, this has indirectly resulted in exponential interest in my MicroFilm projects.

A few days later, I got a call from Sarah. Sarah Tripper had a video on her website, but she thought it could be better.

So I turned this

Into this

1 hour to shoot 1 hour to edit 1 hour to upload.

I see a pattern forming. And I'm getting better at filming from the back of a motorcycle, although I did damage my microphone input on this one. It's always good to learn these lessons while still under warranty.

This Is East Van

My lone window is a lens that I realize is two directional.

Endless photographic opportunities present themselves to me and yet all the photos look the same. The light changes, and the movement changes, but the geometry is everywhere. Trains, trucks, cranes and noise.

Movement. It has to be captured on video to truly see the mechanics of it: the lateral patterns.

Then Robbie comes over after what feels like a lifetime apart. He's the oldest friend I have. We met in grade 2. Well, I delivered newspapers to his house before that but we only watched each other then, we never spoke.

Every train that passed my window is a story about his life as a longshoreman. It's a career path that almost killed him. He took me down to the Port side of the fence and I asked him more questions than I would include here. I'm not exactly certain why, but I put the footage together and this is the bit that it became:

I've entered it into the video component of This Is East Van along with a couple of stills.

The beautiful thing is how the comments from the posting are from my long lost friends who all know and remember Robbie. It warms me indescribably.

A Foxless Fox Hunt

Your production of the hunt is very well done and a wonderful gift! 

A lot of work has gone into the filming and to have edited it so well and quickly.   

I hope you enjoyed the day...the remarkable horses and hounds and so many wonderful and witty people!     

Thank you for including the blessing. 

Cheers (Tally ho!) Esther  

Out and about today and getting incredible feedback from our day at the hunt, and your video. The Fraser Valley Hunt Club fb page is buzzing, and someone from Key Property Management phoned the receptionist at The Local today and raved on for 15 - 20 minutes about this great video, and how great you are, and so on. Virginia Mills called and said she'd heard from several people about this great video (but does not have internet so has not seen it), and thanked us for coming. The publisher at the Local is agog, thrilled with the video and our photos and other coverage. Agog. How can I help you capitalize on this buzz? -Heather Jeal, Journalist
Was a great pleasure to meet Arwen.
We had never met before and she immediately came up to me to explain to her the lay of the land on camera as I walked through the grounds. 
I’ve attended the Fox Hunt for over 7 years now I believe, capturing pics for a local community newspapers. This is the first time I was able to just watch and enjoy. A real treat!
It’s such a great pleasure to be the official “Fox” of the event.
Much love to Virgina Mills, Esther North, and Kenan MacKenzie, I am truly honoured and grateful for your hospitality and kindness…
 
Thank you to Arwan for asking me to help host the documentary, a huge passion of mine, and for putting together this great video. 
She is available to help you with your video production so email her  at  arwen[at]gamutproductions.com
Hope you all like! Please post your feedback below! Share with your friends…
And hey, I made it out alive as the fox again this year… With two helping of Yorkshire pudding in my tummy!
It’s Always A Good Day on the Sunshine Coast!   Duane Burnett  : D

Eastside Pride

I've set up shop across the street from the JJ Bean roastery. I get a kick out of the image on the bag also being my address. Then I read the bag and realize we share the same mantra in our East Van pride, and I understand a little more clearly why I'm continually drawn here.

"JJ Bean's roastery is on Vancouver's Eastside. Our neighbours are artists, students, musicians and soccer fanatics - passionate people who love what they do. It's the kind of place that inspires us to focus on what we love, and to do it in our own style."

Funny, that's just what I was thinking...

Also relevant then is the upcoming Eastside Cuture Crawl which I was going to do an installation for in my studio but instead have decided to attend extensively Nov 18-20. The variety of mediums being worked in and the abundance of artist studios in my neighbourhood makes me so pleased I want to burst. It will be tricky to document without the taboo of photographing artwork, but I think an abstract video is in order. The Other Day On the Eastside will be posted here sometime in December.

The Other Day

Inspiration Strikes Strong and with a Thunder. But only where there is room for it.

Asking myself where the creative way forward is when I'm alone at the helm is a beautiful question to address. I'm not sure many people get such a blatant opportunity to examine their own process, style, and path.

I have been resistant to moving forward because of what it means I have to move away from. The past is such a beautiful memory, full of inspiration and great successes. Yet in the past there is no kindling for the fire that burns ahead- as I had once naively hoped.

And so somethingsomething studios is reborn. A studio of unrestrained creation. What I want most, and am most excited by, are the ideas that do not have to be condoned to be created. To create without the need to reach some professional standard or acceptance. Of course, the criticism has always been that this theory results in financial failure.

However, by restraining the productive time I have available, I force those projects that are less inspiring through the wringer. I have a spark that fuels my propulsion forward in a way that I haven't felt since before I was earning a living at this craft.

At the same time, some spectacular projects have fallen into my lap as a result of being present, aware, and open to them. As if by accident, I am now at the forefront of the Canadian studies being carried out by MAPS Canada and for the first time hold the rights to a project of great merit from the outset. I set out the other day with just myself and my SLR to see what would happen.

This is what happened

One day I will find a camera operator who enjoys me as much as I do them. One day I will again record proper audio for my interviews. One day I will see funding for a shoot BEFORE it happens. Until then, I am overjoyed at my half-assed attempt at pulling it off if for no other reason than to prove to myself that those things should not hold us back.

And so begins a new series titled "The Other Day in..." where these odd short videos that I whip together in mere moments shall find license.

And in this moment of writing a smile finds my face because as I write all of this to some future semblance of myself (because who else would care?), I also now know that you may be reading this Brownie, and I love you so truly that it makes me wish I had a post secondary education and could entertain you more with some literary wit. Hearing that you care enough to have read past posts leads me to want to do better in life so I can report great things from a solid, grounded place. Stay tuned.

Without

“When it looks as though you’ve lost everything, take a hard look around because you are in a unique position to learn something.” Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

To be without. To have not. Every moment is defined by need in the essential sense of the word. What is it that you have to have right now, and only now, or in the very immediate future? I need salt. I can live without pepper. I can’t live without fresh flowers.

Blossoms: beauty in a pure essence. For it’s own sake. Not attached to ego or expectation, but with a glimmering hope it may have a chance to become fruit and begin to rot. None of which was important to the first human that gazed amazed at it’s vivacious form and colour. I will spend my last dollar on flowers, and flowers are free.

Everyone has their requirements in life. I don’t require a can opener. I am doing just fine with my 1 knife. I can not collect too many mirrors or vases. Candles. Plants. Television-less yet online. Today none of these possessions can matter- they need to be expendable. Abandon-able. Unattached to me.

Without is not a sad place as one may assume. It is a place of plentiful potential that one must choose to be in in order to remain. It brings with it the fat belly of Buddha, and requires great discipline.

Rain paints the industrial east side in a reflection of the pewter cloud that’s trapped above. Days have begun to model themselves after the trains, trucks and ships loading and unloading. The low cloud cover has made me short sighted. Somehow in finding the world simplified by necessity I’ve opened up the potential of shining a light into the fog. My backpack is light. The way forward is clear. The answer needed to ignite the nitris is also the first rule in Italian racing: never look back.

Creatively bursting at the seams, creative bruises make me flinch. I’m building a whole new team from chapter 1, ground up. It’s a team of 1 to start. We can’t build on mud and broken windows so we’ll have to excavate. That’s extremely painful when you’ve come to like the garden you’ve planted and the crazy animals that were once friends. If we don’t start on level ground everything will keep falling down, so it stands to be extreme. I’ve already dug the hole.

The Other Day on the West Coast < It's a new dawn, a new day, a new life