Dec 23, 2022
Monarch Documentary Trailer on Chat News
Dec 21, 2022
Monarch Documentary: Teaser Trailer
Dec 15, 2022
2022 Instagram Travel Features @editingluke
As we roll into the yearly recaps for 2022, I was feeling like I hadn't done that much outside of work on a documentary all year - which granted, has been a lot. But when I dug up all of the "official reshares" on my travel content this year it was ... well, awesome lol ... New York, Berlin, Miami, Brussels, Dallas, Winnipeg, Seattle, Calgary, Paris, Los Angeles, Montreal, Victoria, Honolulu, Osaka, Edinburgh, Ottawa, and on and on.
I did a lot of experimenting in 2022 to get my work seen by travel partners while being very strategic about not just building a profile to be mined for content. It's a complicated trade-off, but it seems to be working. The variety of locations in these features is a solid achievement given how competitive this is - and for that, let me say thank you and express how grateful I am to have found eyes for what I share here and on the Editing Luke site.
Now the real question - where to next?
Dec 12, 2022
New Artwork in Medicine Hat Brewing Company
I want take a moment to shoutout Medicine Hat Brewing Company here in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Last week I had the pleasure of delivering a large order of custom canvases from my "Hometown Series" to be utilized in one of their new spaces.
While it never gets old to see your work appreciated, there's really nothing quite like when it's at home. I've always tried to be vocal and engaged in promoting my community to a wider audience, so anytime a local business goes out of their way to work with me I want to show them some love too - particularly when I'm also a frequent customer lol.
Thank you MH Brew Co. for the patronage and for another unique opportunity to see my work on display in my hometown. Let's do it again sometime.
Dec 8, 2022
Documentary Sneak Peek, Trailer Release Date
Dec 2, 2022
One Year Into Production on the Documentary
One year ago I announced that my new documentary about the Monarch Theatre had been greenlit - a largely unknown (outside of my hometown of Medicine Hat, Alberta) historic cinema with a really unique backstory.
No surprises, it's come to define a lot of my 2022.
Production updates, exploration, title reveals, behind the scenes, media releases, etc. It's been fun to share parts of this process (if for no other reason) because uncovering the history of a century old cinema, its origins and evolution, etc. lead me down a few rabbit holes that I needed help climbing out of (so to speak).
Oct 1, 2022
A Month of Travel Shoots Across Europe
For the month of September I was having the time of my life on what I can only describe as the most elaborate, continuous travel shoot I've completed to date. With shoots taking place across Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, and Scotland, there was no shortage of things to do, places to see, and experiences to capture. It was a wild month!
While content from these shoots won't really start to emerge until 2023, I did share a handful of highlights on the Editing Luke Instagram @editingluke as things were unfolding. Unlike most shoots were it feels relatively easy to sum up the adventure under a single banner or theme, I'm still reeling from just how varied and expansive this entire undertaking was. I'm going to need some time to be a bit more thought provoking - but, in short, it really was incredible.
Sep 30, 2022
Unpacking a Suitcase of Travel Shoot Souvenirs
While the experience was undeniably incredible, I'm currently feeling a bit overstimulated and numb from this last month of travel shoots around Europe. It really was the adventure of a lifetime. A lot of this content won't surface until 2023 now, but I'm enjoying rediscovering all of the random bits and pieces I've brought home as I unpack and reorganize.
Here are a few early highlights.
1. Kitschy French singles from a Parisian thrift shop.
2. Various pieces of the Berlin Wall.
3. A mini bar's worth of different Scotch from Scotland.
4. Belgian comicbook souvenirs - with an emphasis on finds from Tintin and Lucky Luke.
5. Retro inspired merch from Euro Disney's 30th anniversary - now known as Disneyland Paris.
6. A handcrafted "willy warmer" from Amsterdam ... for dressy occasions.
These were clearly all must haves in the moment lol.
Sep 1, 2022
Post-Production Extended on Monarch Documentary
In an alternate timeline I'd be celebrating the completion of "Your Cinema Needs You", my latest feature length documentary, this one about the Monarch Theatre in Medicine Hat, Alberta. In production since the beginning of 2022, the project entered post-production this summer and had originally been scheduled for completion by the end of August. Well, that didn't happen.
Overall, early reception to teasers, previews, and behind the scenes images from the documentary have all been well received throughout production and there's no question that a lot of progress on this story has been made over the last few months. While nothing has gone wrong per se, it just became clear in early assembly that there was a lot more material to go through and distill than was feasible within the existing timeline - particularly because as it turned out I'd amassed enough material from this 110+ year history to make a mini-series.The newly revised timeline will still see the documentary completed this year, but there's still a lot to do and a lot of uncertainty about what may actually happen to the Monarch Theatre in this time. Everyone is still being pretty hush-hush about what may "officially" happen to this old cinema. That said, as things continue to be refined and take shape I'm only getting more excited to reveal the incredible amount of effort that's gone into producing this story.
"Your Cinema Needs You" is going to be amazing! With any luck we'll be able to debut it at the Monarch Theatre upon its completion. Please stay tuned for further updates.
Aug 10, 2022
Title Reveal: Your Cinema Needs You
Jun 22, 2022
Buick to the Future Turns 15
Jun 12, 2022
Monarch Documentary Enters Post-Production
That's a wrap! After months of filming this is where it all comes together now. The Monarch documentary is officially in post-production with the release planned for late 2022.
Jun 9, 2022
How I Ended Up With the Eiffel Tower All to Myself
Upon reflecting on some of my most memorable travel shoots during a recent discussion, I was reminded that one of them was actually from a shoot during the height of the pandemic in 2020 that I still haven't published yet. This is the brief story of how I ended up with the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France all to myself for a moment.
Not long after getting back from France in late 2020 I recapped the general experience of trying to follow through on a travel shoot that had been planned before the world started falling apart. I won't rehash all of that again, but you can read that original post here. The important detail is that I was in Paris and travel shooting in October 2020.
Not surprisingly, this was a weird time for a lot of reasons. Reservations for everything were more complicated, various rules were being modified weekly, and just a few days after I arrived in Paris a nightly curfew had been implemented across France's largest cities.
I purchased a timed admission to the Eiffel Tower before I arrived in France, as naturally, visiting one of the world's most recognizable landmarks is always a must for travel shoots. My ticket was for a midweek opening and I anticipated getting some early morning shots across the city. What I didn't plan on was a national curfew reducing the hours of every business, including pushing the opening of the Eiffel Tower to a time that was now a few hours later than my ticket.
I was already comfortable playing everything by ear at this point considering how complicated just getting to France had been. I showed up at the revised time with my original ticket, and this is where I stumbled into a random bit of good luck.
May 31, 2022
Rise Up YXH Hot Air Balloon Festival 2022
A few visual highlights from my weekend of shoots as the official photographer for the inaugural Rise Up YXH Hot Air Balloon Festival hosted in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
May 27, 2022
First Hot Air Balloon Ride Over Medicine Hat, Alberta
Last night's shoot from the air was a long standing bucket list experience checked off my list. I'm proud to share that the Rise Up Hot Air Balloon Festival in Medicine Hat has hired Editing Luke as their official photographer for this first of its kind event in Southeastern Alberta.
May 6, 2022
Southwest USA Travel Shoot 2022
May 1, 2022
Open Roads & Wide Open Spaces
Mar 29, 2022
Around the Hat: 10 Year Anniversary
It was 10 years ago today that I launched a series called Around the Hat (aka the Hometown Series) featuring scenes around Medicine Hat, Alberta. I couldn't have predicted how much would've have snowballed from this self motivated project, but from prints to production agreements to the hundreds of photo essays from around the world that eventually followed, a lot of that momentum started right here with this series.
Before the Editing Luke production company became a full-time operation I was looking for ways to create content to drive visitors to my website. I had an interest in exploration, history, and expanding my business to include photography in addition to the video production I had already been doing. Medicine Hat, my hometown, felt untapped in terms of people going behind closed doors to show off what was there. So I began to think about what it would be like to contextualize the local history into compelling plot points and to develop character out of a sense of place in a way that felt fresh, energetic, and above all, visual.
Coming from a filmmaking background and education, this was all a deliberate exercise to get my feet wet and build an audience through storytelling. My first photo essays featured the most obvious historic sites and attractions, like - Medalta Potteries, St. Pat's Church, and the Cypress Club (all posts that have now been updated since their first release).
To be clear, the history was really just a jumping off point. I wanted people to feel like they were exploring with me and still have context for what they were seeing along the way. When the initial posts attracted thousands of hits in a matter of days I knew I was onto something.
Over the years the series continued to refine itself with regular social media posts on Facebook and Instagram, and into more elaborate photo essays on this site that featured glimpses into places that most people weren't able to see or had largely forgotten about. Recently I highlighted the renovation happening inside the former Cecil Hotel and put together a recap of the former Riverside Waterslide. While larger photo series' and projects continued to follow this one, after a decade of growth the Around the Hat series alone has been responsible for millions of hits.
While the collection isn't complete and continues to expand and deviate, the lesson here has been all about approach. Sometimes a simple change of perspective makes the familiar seem completely new again - I just chose to share it as I was doing it.
Explore the complete Around the Hat series here.
Mar 10, 2022
Monarch Theatre Documentary in Production
Currently in its second month of principal photography, my latest documentary featuring the Monarch Theatre in Medicine Hat, Alberta has provided some really memorable experiences so far. With hours of interviews shot and a deep dive into every space, cubby, and rafter of this old theatre, I'm already certain that I've uncovered a few untold gems in the story of this cinema that have never been formally documented or contextualized before.
In addition to this being a story about one of the oldest surviving cinemas in all of Canada, what's been particularly interesting about the Monarch is how little material actually exists about it. Photographs, artifacts, records, etc. are few and far between so connecting the dots to go beyond the obvious has been a really involved, but fascinating undertaking.
While I'm saving a lot of the surprises for the finished documentary, I wanted to share a few of the production highlights up to this point:
- Interviews are still ongoing, but a few early highlights have come from acquiring stories from both a 101 year old with a unique connection to the theatre and a 94 year old who used to work at the Monarch as a teenager.
- In addition to the obvious task of documenting the Monarch, the cinematic side of the production has involved playing with various lighting rigs, gimbals, cameras, props, and even painting with projections throughout the cinema.
- As a result I'm certain I've now filmed and photographed more details inside the Monarch Theatre than anyone else in its 110+ year history.
- I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge how helpful the social media response has been, in addition to features in the local news, Toronto Star, etc. in helping to connect me with a wide array of people with memories about cinemas in this area.
- Numerous highlights have also come from uncovering clues through old paperwork, basement finds, and mapping out the history of the theatre. What's been so thrilling about this is that I know just the exploratory aspect of this documentary will be compelling to a lot of people who have likely never even heard of this place.
- Speaking to former employees has made me wish I'd have worked at a movie theatre as a teenager too lol.
- And finally, one of the absolute coolest things about shooting this documentary has been the unfettered access I've been given to the Monarch. While it was always going to feature this space, the ability to arrange and film every interview within the cinema, while also coordinating multiple ancillary shoots, has been practically ideal.
If you have any information or memories to share about the Monarch Theatre (or any of the former cinemas in the Medicine Hat area) please contact me via my business site here.