It's All a Work in Progress

After reviewing my earlier site previews and some of my latest home video footage from the Canada Day long weekend, I took an evening to create this.  Part recap, mission statement, and blog preview, I wanted to reflect on how Editing Luke has continued to evolve as a personal project.  I've never felt more committed to the belief, especially in regards to my videography, that it really is all a work in progress. 

Jaguar Print Ad Edit

This was the latest video I created for Jeeves and the Jaguar.  It's a mashup of the random Jaguar ads that I'd come across and saved to share on my new site.  With the folder continually growing I thought it was probably worth while sharing some of these prints using the same style that I did for my earlier Road Trip slideshows.  Check it out!

Backyard Bubbles

At a family gathering over the weekend we enjoyed the summer weather with a bonfire and some spontaneous bubble blowing.  Sometimes it doesn't take much to capture everyone's attention, and with bubbles floating all over the yard it was hard not to take part.  With a few editing tweaks I threw this clip together with the home video footage I shot on my Flip Cam.

Jeeves and the Jaguar Promo

With my new site, Jeeves and the Jaguar launched earlier this month I had wanted to create a promo to drum up some attention for it.  Earlier this weekend I finally got around to it, and I couldn't be happier with the result.  Check out the teaser below and be sure to visit the new site here.

Vintage Inspired Photo Shoot

As I mentioned in my previous post about creating these Weddingstar photo shoot videos, they've proven to be great tests of just what a small creative team can accomplish on a small budget.  These photos shoots are completed in the course of a day, which includes all the setup, photography, and video work.  Of course, the video editing and additional photography for singling out the products takes a bit more time.

Still, creating these promos is as much a test of versatility as it is anything else.  With limited space and time these shoots are rather intensive when it comes to capturing as much variety as possible.  We constantly adjust our lighting, play with the setups, trade out various products, and experiment with layouts that will work in both print and web based formats.  It's actually a lot of fun.

Sparkle Inspired Photo Shoot

Recently at Weddingstar, where I work as the in house web media editor, we've taken to creating themed table setups to photograph for ad campaigns.  As part of this, I've shot some footage of these small setups to highlight the products we used as part of the theme.  

I'm actually rather fortunate during these shoots as I get to focus specifically on the photography and video, while it's one of the talented graphic designers that comes up with the theme and staging.  It's impressive what can be accomplished with such a small creative team, not to mention, that projects like this are allowing us to put more of our skill sets to use (not just individually, but as a company).

Last Day of Film School

At the end of April in 2008 I closed the chapter on my student life.  With an empty dorm room, the last of my things piled into my Buick, and one last look back at the University of Regina campus, it was over.  There was no telling what the future had in store at that point.  All I knew for certain was that it was time for something new.

April 16, 2010

It had clouded over, but both Stephanie and I agreed that we had to make the most of our final day in Singapore.  From our hotel we could see the water, and with our afternoon free we decided to find our way to the shore.  We'd spent a week on this island in Southeast Asia, and now we just wanted to put our feet in the South China Sea.

Miles of lush greenery hugged the coastline and we soon found ourselves walking amongst fresh flowers and tall, wiry trees.  You could feel the cool breeze rolling in as the sky foreshadowed the coming rain, but the shifting weather seemed to only enhance the walk we were on.  In some ways it was just another park, and yet that day I was keen to believe that I'd never seen anything quite like it.        

We reached the edge of the beach and walked to the waters edge.  You could see that there was a small shelf to stand on as the waves rolled in, but this was no place to swim.  Through the water you could see how the beach sloped dramatically into the ocean and disappeared into blackness.  Hundreds of cargo ships lined the horizon, and in some ways it was a bit foreboding. In retrospect it's probably what makes the moment standout in my head.

Like a couple of kids testing the temperature of a swimming pool, we cautiously took a few steps.  Then a few more.  My sandals sunk down in the soft sand and in an instant the waves were crashing and swirling around my feet.   

Taking deliberate steps and curling my toes in the cold water, it was one of the few times on the entire trip that I felt completely in the moment. So this is what it feels like to stand in the South China Sea.

A bit further down the beach we spotted a yellow lighthouse tower with a spiral staircase leading up to a round platform.  It was one of the few places in Singapore that we'd actually come across graffiti of any kind (the country is notoriously well groomed).  We browsed the English and Asian characters scrawled and carved haphazardly on the bright yellow facade, and it rang true that no matter where you are in the world, some insults are clearly favorites for everyone.  

That was when it began to rain.

 

We left the tower and headed for a nearby concrete pier to get a better vantage of the beach we had just walked.  The sprinkling rain soon became heavy drops, and as we approached the empty pier a roar of thunder announced the arrival of showers.

There was no avoiding the onslaught, and yet it didn't seem to matter.  Another epic crack of thunder boomed overhead and then echoed off of the open water around us.  As we noticed others scrambling from the beach, Stephanie and I quickly became soaked from head to toe, lost in our own make-shift adventure.  

Here we were in Singapore, on a business trip no less, and yet we'd been able to take time to just appreciate where we were - to let loose, to experience a wealth of new things, and to cap it off with something as simple and gratifying as this. The doorman at our hotel cracked a big smile upon our return, with no explanation about the weather required.  We still apologized for dripping.  

It was a rainy afternoon on the coast of Singapore.  April 16, 2010.

Waterworld Universal Studios Singapore Edit

Realizing that I hadn't edited anything just for the joy of it lately, I decided to revisit some of the footage that I shot at Universal Studios Singapore last year.  The Waterworld show in particular, offered a lot of variety for a fast paced and energetic edit.
  

The travel footage I shoot in general is always a great editing standby.  After a few months, or a full year in this case, I've forgotten most of what I shot which gives me a fresh outlook to try something new.  There's nothing that complicated about this edit, but I'm sure it's a lot more entertaining to watch than any of the other Waterworld videos that are just straightforward home videos.  If YouTube has proven anything, it's that it's all about the highlights.

Flip Cam Test - Jaguar XJ8 Winter Drive

An experiment, a Flip camera demo, a glamour shot of my Jaguar - this edit is all of those things.  I'm starting to feel energized about the idea of producing a more ambitious, stylized, narrative short film.  Meaning that a years worth of work could easily go into a single project and allow me to draw on the variety of creative and technical experiences that I've had in just the last several years.

What I did here with this winter drive test was actually play with the way I could mount my Flip Ultra HD to various points on my car. This included the dash, along the edge of my wheel well, and to the front of the grill.

I decided to cut together a short edit from this footage just because I was impressed with how well some of it turned out.  I see a lot of potential in mixing both the lightweight and maneuverable benefits of my Flip cam with the more cinematic and rich footage of my HDR-FX1 in an upcoming future project.  

For now, I find it encouraging just to see what I can do using my own resources.  Tests like these are really just ways to find inspiration and push myself to tackle even more ambitious and creative shooting techniques that just weren't possible for the low budget indie filmmaker 5 years ago.  I love the idea of merging a professional look with the spirit of an amateur shoot.