Your Cinema Needs You In Tokyo, Japan

The latest official selection on the spring film festival run for my documentary, Your Cinema Needs You was received this past weekend. The feature documentary about the Monarch Theatre, Canada's oldest surviving cinema, is off to Tokyo, Japan where it has been accepted as part of the Lift-Off series - a collaborative, international festival that takes place in various cities around the world. This edition in Tokyo was my first submission to this film festival series, but I'm excited to see how the film performs with a new international audience. 

More updates to come as Your Cinema Needs You continues its festival tour.

Another Round of Travel Shoots in New York City

This spring I was back in New York City to add to an already extensive collection of travel shoots around the five boroughs. Making this series particularly memorable was the timing of the solar eclipse and some ongoing discussions about my documentary "Your Cinema Needs You", which inspired me to search out the oldest surviving cinema remaining in NYC.

These latest shoots included new observation decks, popular filming locations, and hotels, but to an even larger extent, a lot more general street photography to round out some of the more specific shoots from past visits. The weather was incredible and I managed to cover a lot more ground than I had planned for which was all a bonus. Expect to see a lot more New York City highlights from this series in the months ahead. 

 

Festival Nomination: Art Film Spirit Awards

I'm happy to share that while I've been away on my recent travel shoots, "Your Cinema Needs You" picked up another festival nomination on its ongoing film festival world tour. The feature was nominated for Best Documentary at the Art Film Spirit Awards in partnership with Toronto Film Magazine last week, and as you'd imagine, I'm thrilled that the movie has been gaining momentum since this festival run kicked off last month.

Knowing I have a lot of creatives and aspiring filmmakers in my audience, however, I'd also like to share that I received 3 new festival rejections last week too. This isn't unusual. This is what this process looks like. In the same week as you're being grouped in with the "best of" you can simultaneously find that you're "not the right fit" somewhere else. 

I mention this, not only because I think it's good advice, but because I'm still living by the same lessons that I picked up when I was a film student. Making movies is hard. Celebrate your successes. And at the end of the day, trying to achieve something is still more fulfilling than not doing something because you're afraid to fail. I've failed a lot on this documentary, and by all accounts, it's going pretty well!

Thank you all for the ongoing support as the ride continues!

Finding the Oldest Cinema in New York City

Your Cinema Needs You has made it to NYC where I've been in ongoing discussions about further festival placements and screenings for the documentary this year. Fingers crossed. 

A few meetings aren't much of a storyline though, so I made my way to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to search out what is believed to be the oldest, surviving, purpose-built cinema remaining in all 5 boroughs of New York City.

This is the Alpine Cinema, originally the Loew's Alpine built in 1921.

The Alpine is a rare holdout in a city that has demolished some incredible structures. And, despite numerous older live theatre venues which have survived, there are but a few relics from the silent era of movies still standing in New York City today. 

It's one more thing that makes the documentary about the Monarch Theatre in Medicine Hat, Alberta special. The Monarch Theatre (built in 1911) has the oldest surviving New York City cinema beat by a full decade, and needless to say, New York had a bit of a leg up with hundreds and hundreds of cinemas built here over the last century.

It makes you realize that cinemas like the Alpine and the Monarch really are diamonds in the rough. Also, I've become a bit hooked on visiting them in person.

Official Selections & A Best Director Nomination

Today happens to be my birthday, and while this would be reason enough to celebrate on any other year, this birthday already feels different because some incredibly positive news about my documentary on the Monarch Theatre has started rolling in over the last few weeks. 

With the spring film festival season only just beginning, notifications of the very first official selections for "Your Cinema Needs You" started showing up in my inbox a couple weeks ago. Previews of the documentary this month brought the story about Canada's oldest surviving cinema to Lisbon, Los Angeles, Dresden, Stockholm, Chicago, and Berlin. If that wasn't enough, I just found out this week that, "Your Cinema Needs You" was shortlisted for two Best Documentary awards, and received a festival nomination for Best Director in the feature documentary category. My chances of winning are slim, but still, a pleasure to be nominated and all that jazz.

On my birthday last year (and for much of 2023) I was deep in post-production and I posted frequently about if this movie was ever going to be finished, if I was going to get the ending I'd been holding out for, if the premiere would actually happen, and if the Monarch Theatre would finally reopen. Honestly, it would've saved me so much stress if I could've predicted that any of this would've worked out quite so well. 

I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a lot more exciting stories to share this year, so let me just say thank you again! Thank you to everyone who was involved in making this, who supported this multi-year project, who contributed to it, who attended the screenings, etc. etc. It's so awesome to see this through so many fresh eyes and to even have to opportunity to share this experience with you. 

What a great day to have cake in the house lol.

Monarch Documentary: Spring Film Festival Run

A month has passed since "Your Cinema Needs You", my feature-length documentary about Canada's oldest surviving movie theatre, ended its 11-screening sold-out premiere run at Medicine Hat's historic Monarch Theatre. 

Since then, I've been relatively quiet about what's been happening behind the scenes, but with submissions stretching back to January, I'm happy to report that the spring film festival run officially kicked off this week with the first international previews of the documentary taking place in Portugal and Sweden. It seems the feedback was accurate. You don't have to know anything about the Monarch Theatre to recognize countless other cinemas in it, even if they happen to be on the other side of an ocean. 

As an added knock-on effect I've already received several requests from other independent cinemas & film societies across Canada interested in screening the film. It's all promising. Word is spreading and much of it outside of my involvement. 

Because this has been popping up in my inbox a lot too, once we actually get some lasting spring weather in Medicine Hat I think we'll look at potentially running a few more shows at the Monarch Theatre again (if it works within the film festival schedules / rules). That just seems like the place to celebrate this and further support the cinema. Long story short, this is going pretty well so far.

Clay Documentary Continues To Find New Eyes

One year ago today the documentary I directed Clay, Creativity & the Comeback premiered inside one of the historic factories showcased in the film (Medalta Potteries) and was then released to the public. Resulting in some amazing connections over the last twelve months, the project has now reached hundreds of thousands of people on various platforms across Canada. 


Clay, Creativity & the Comeback is the story of how the factories and abandoned ruins of a once booming industrial clay district were saved from demolition and renewed through the work of artists, volunteers, and a community with a vision. 

Shot in my hometown of Medicine Hat, Alberta this was a story that I felt echoed one of the challenges that communities across Canada are continually facing. How do you preserve heritage while also adapting historic sites for renewed purposes? What does that even look like? And who are the people that make these visions a reality?

Clay, Creativity & the Comeback is a documentary that captures the first hand stories of many of the individuals directly involved in this decades long transformation - a transformation that lead a collection of crumbling structures to not just be saved or restored, but to become a National Historic Site of Canada that would welcome artists from around the world.

The entire feature length documentary is FREE to watch and has been posted on Editing Luke. View Clay, Creativity & the Comeback here.  

The Framed Letter On My Wall

I have had this letter framed and hanging on my wall for ten years. Admittedly, there's been some moving around in that time so it hasn't always been the same wall, but the letter is dated July 7, 2006 - exactly ten years ago to the day that I'm writing this. I'll explain exactly what it is and who it's from, but allow me to provide a bit of context.

Ten years ago I was a film student at the University of Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan. At that point in my education I'd become a bit apathetic towards my production classes. With the added stress of feeling like I might not find meaningful work when all was said and done, I began looking for validation in the "real world". For me, I found this in film festivals.

In the months preceding the arrival of this letter I had participated in a handful of high-profile film festivals and competitions. I had a short film screen at the Youngcuts International Film Festival in Toronto. I beat out 280 other global entries and was officially selected to screen at Budi2006 (an international digital media festival) in Busan, South Korea. I also participated in a National Film Board of Canada competition where I was selected into the English Top 10. Following weeks of public voting I finished 2nd in the popular vote. 

All of these experiences in the span of a few months completely changed my outlook. I still felt I had a lot to prove, but getting some attention on the back of doing what I loved was hugely motivating. I remember doing a little bit of press, sharing stories for different publications relating to the festivals, and making lots of new contacts in the process. That was the point everything shifted. I wasn't just a film student after that, I'd become a film maker.

A photo posted by Luke Fandrich (@editingluke) on Apr 21, 2016 at 6:49pm PDT

In retrospect this all seems crazier because of how limited the platforms for personal promotion were at the time. Facebook wasn't a big thing yet, Instagram didn't exist, and YouTube was just emerging as a place to post short videos. It wasn't until the following year that I even started Editing Luke. In a way it was a great learning experience, because having to apply and submit my work to festivals forced me to be even more critical just to get it seen in the first place. 

In the several months following these festivals things died down again, and in the summer of 2006 I was driving a forklift and counting the days before I went back to film school in the fall. Then out of the blue this letter came in the mail, forwarded by the university to my home in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It read:

Dear Luke,

On behalf of the Government of Saskatchewan, I am pleased to congratulate you on your recent success with your student film. 

Through your studies, you have demonstrated outstanding dedication and commitment to media production and studies. This is a significant and well-deserved honour, and you must feel a great sense of pride in seeing your work recognized in such a way. Saskatchewan has a vibrant, exceptionally active TV and film industry, and young achievers such as you will be among the leaders who help grow the industry to even greater heights. 

Once again, congratulations, and best wishes in all your future endeavours. 

Yours sincerely,

Lorne Calvert 

Premier 

Hand-signed and typed on the official letterhead of the Premier of Saskatchewan, it was pretty humbling for someone like myself who was just starting out to get a letter like that. I had received a lot of congratulations and messages surrounding those projects, but none had seemed this formal or succinct. The student film he was referring to was the short I had created for the National Film Board of Canada, and I guess someone picked up on the small bit of national attention I received following the competition. This was also around the same time that Corner Gas was thriving, so the industry in Saskatchewan was booming.

In the end, I've kept this letter on my wall because it felt symbolic from the moment I received it. Proof that you never know who might be paying attention, and validation that the rewards for pursuing your passions can not only be great, but unexpected in the best ways. 

I'm now running my own media production company in Alberta and have come a long way in the last decade. I've also been so fortunate to work on a number of incredible projects with some amazing people. The growth never stops. Curious to know more about what I'm up to now? Explore more here.

Medicine Hat Student Film Festival

Every year around this time I used to submit my film school projects to various film festivals that caught my attention.  Part of my student experience was about reaching out to different sources for validation and promotion.  It sounds needy, and that's because it was.  I wanted to know that I could find work in video after university, and film festivals proved to be the ideal testing grounds for developing my skills in self promotion.  As it turned out, that was the least of what I got.

The very first film festival I submitted my work to in 2005 was the Student Video Competition portion of the Medicine Hat Film Festival.  It was always a pretty small gathering with no more than 30 or so submissions, but it ended up becoming a testing ground for my work before submitting my projects to bigger student festivals.

I submitted my experimental short, Keys to Existence in the 2005 festival and ended up winning the popular vote for the Audience Choice Award and 2nd place in the video category from the jury vote (the other category was animation).  I still have the small plaques on my wall as a reminder of that competition and what it ultimately lead to. Keys went on to screen at Youngcuts International that year in Toronto, followed up by a digital media festival in South Korea in early 2006.  My success in my hometown festival is what I credit with opening the flood gates to the other venues that I avidly pursued in the few years that followed.

One of the other benefits of the Medicine Hat Film Festival came later in 2007, when Stream Media was one of the key sponsors for the fest.  After returning home to Medicine Hat after university in 2008, I contacted Stream about potential employment opportunities.  My involvement in the festival became my foot in the door, and after a brief interview I was offered a job working alongside a small team to help shoot and edit promotional videos for corporate clients.  It was an amazing opportunity, and the start of a business relationship that I still benefit from today.

I always tell people who ask about my start that I never had a very stable plan after film school, but I had hoped that the film festivals I participated in had helped me cast a big net.  I became really opportunistic, and I jumped at any opportunity that seemed even mildly related to the things I was interested in in the hopes that I could make them even more relevant.  I owe that mindset to the experiences I got from my participation in student film festivals.

The Student Video Competition in the MHFF hasn't run for years now, and it's simply due to lack of sponsorship and organization.  It's a big undertaking, and it does take a lot of work to drum up enough attention to get quality submissions.  It's a shame, because as a student who was just starting out it was a great experience.  Before YouTube, before I ever screened my work at venues outside of Canada, and before I found work as an editor, I shared my work at the MHFF.  

My Film That Never Was

Looking through old film school notes I came across this proposal I wrote dated February 7, 2007.  It was from my producing class where we had to come up with the idea for a film to pitch.  Not surprisingly, especially because I was working on Elliot at the time, I came up with the idea for a mockumentary centred around a film festival.  The idea clearly still needed some polishing, but there are a few gems in the premise that I'm still entertained by.  Have a look at what I submitted.   
  

Working Title:  Film Fest

Genre:  Comedy / Mockumentary

Length:  90 minute feature

Poster Line:  Now Accepting Submissions.      

Meets:  Best in Show meets Entourage

Concept:

Film Fest is a feature length mockumentary about a man named Charlie taking control of an elaborate and outlandish film festival, created by his dead Hollywood producing dad, just one year after its disastrous debut.  With the festival in shambles and a town full of irritated locals, Charlie picks up where his dad left off (with a documentary crew in tow) and works with an assembled team of mismatched experts to revamp Silver Springs, BC from the ruins of a failed fest, to a celebrity saturated,  respected and acclaimed celluloid circus.  For the sake of his father's legacy and his own ambition to make the festival work, Charlie must confront the death of his father head on as he uncovers the affects the festival has had on the town and the previous attendees.  Film Fest is an offbeat character piece about the best and worst aspects of pop culture and the entertainment industry, while paying homage to the people and drama, in the one place where everything comes to fruition; the film festival.

 

Story:

The Silver Springs Film Festival opened with much excitement, but failed due to the excessive and unbelievable upgrades made by Warner Garber, the founder.  Fast forward one year.

Warner Garber, while talking about his new festival upgrades for the 2^nd Silver Springs Fest, dies during an interview with a documentary film crew.  In his eighties, he was losing his mind, but to everyone else it seemed that he embodied the grand imagination of a true eccentric.  Charlie, Warner’s son, knew how passionate his dad was about the fest.  With no real direction of his own, he adopts his dad‘s position as head organizer of the festival, along with the team of assembled industry experts, the documentary crew and the shambles of the failed festival from a year earlier.

Charlie and his team quickly move out to Silver Springs, BC and set up camp.  Initially the town’s reception is cold based on the previous treatment by the festival organizers, but monetary persuasion and mingling gets things underway.  Charlie frequently confides in the camera in response to his indecision, especially when conflict with his team arises.  Meanwhile, the festival undergoes massive correction, altering Warner Garber’s original, but hilariously absurd, vision.  Zeppelins, wild animals, underwater theatre’s and such, are modified to preserve some of the insanity while adding much needed practicality.  Various comedic meetings and character clashes bring us to this point.

The following spring the festival is really coming together.  The small town of Silver Springs, BC, which is nestled along the Rockies, is undergoing upgrades (with the help of some of Warner Garber’s old rich friends, and the absurd blackmail the team has acquired about them).  Charlie is still at the helm and we see clips from news spots, commercials, celebrity endorsements, and the towns people reacting to the revamped fest.  There is initial doubt about the festivals reach, and comparative draw to other major venues, but soon the submissions, both big and small, start coming in and it seems the festival has real potential.  The unique festival concept, which teeters on the edge of being a pop culture amusement park, garners outside attention.   

For the last half of the film, the festival is officially in swing.  Charlie has done a remarkable job, but he underestimates the industry heavyweights and celebs as the town, almost instantly, becomes overrun by them.  This is where the mockumentary reaches it’s comedic climax as the numerous groups and their attached films premiere.  We are witness to celebrity reactions, critics feedback, over the top art flicks, studio head clashes, Warner Garber’s old friends returning to take some claim of the success, the townsfolk rising up, Charlie coming to terms with his father’s death and the modification of his dream, and a mishmash of regurgitated pop culture references by anyone and everyone in the small town.  The event takes a back seat here, and it’s all about the people at this point. 

The various filmmakers and celebrities that appear for the festival have delicate supporting roles.  Their characters really give shape to the festival, but none of them are around for too long to be of major consequence.  Charlie remains central, with reference to Warner’s contribution and the team which has made the festival possible.  In the conclusion, we see the chaos melt off of Silver Springs and Charlie personally (and perhaps seriously for the first time) revisit the death of his dad.  Charlie sits in a room with a view of the town behind him and is surrounded by the countless papers and sketches his father made.  In a spontaneous moment he rushes to the roof of the building and throws the papers off, which end up flying across the town.  We then see his team commenting that he’s lost his mind just like his father, and close on a group of townspeople sneering at Charlie as copies of the original festival idea shower the town.  Charlie is left feeling satisfied with his decision, while reflecting on the fact that were it not for his father’s over the top vision, he wouldn’t be where he is.

Characters:

             

Charlie Garber - A 35yr old struggling actor.  He’s ambitious, grounded; your typical nice guy.  Still he tends to find himself in the middle of other people’s mistakes.  Despite his rocky past, he shines and finds direction in pulling his father’s film festival together.

Warner Garber - He’s flaky and off his rocker, but as an elaborate dreamer and a former Hollywood producer heavyweight he has the makings of a true eccentric.  Sadly, he dies pretty quick, but lives on in old footage and his festival plans that are shown throughout the film.

Nancy Monroe - She’s a designer and conceptualist in her late twenties.  Charlie calls on her to help establish a theme for the festival, and her bubbly personality and high energy are infectious.  Nancy is also aware of the power she has over Charlie and the sexual tension between them.

Kenneth Heinsman - He’s a staunch 60yr old money man, and although he’s great at running numbers, his elitist homosexual attitude creates conflict.  He always dreamed of being a celebrity stylist, but has no skill in this area.  Still it hasn’t kept him from trying, and throwing in bad fashion advice wherever he can.

Emma Chang - A 40yr old publicist, Emma is intense, but wickedly efficient.  She has an incredible talent for getting people to open up and therefore, has a valuable repertoire of industry secrets.  Many of which are used to ‘encourage’ Warner Garber’s old rich friends to share some money.

Sam Murphy - A local of Silver Springs, he assists in acclimatizing the town to the fest.  He doesn’t really understand the industry jargon, and so is easily relatable to outsiders.  He puts his reputation on the line to insist that the fest is good news for the town.

Blake Allen - He’s Charlie’s assistant, and despite his good nature, he is often overwhelmed by the things Charlie neglects.  He is also on the frontline with Sam in dealing with the demands of the townspeople. 

Norton Gash -  He’s a virtually unknown director, but his film Abundance becomes a breakout success at the festival.  Gash is a nervous and jittery man, and the public attention causes him grief despite all the praise.  He turns to Charlie for solace.

Vivian Terracini -  She’s the rising star from Abundance and embodies the worst aspects of modern celebrity.

Adrian Ulrich - He’s the rising star from Abundance and embodies the best aspects of modern celebrity. 

Ed Fink - He was an old friend of Warner Garber’s, and owns his own production studio.  As a businessman, he’s come to the fest looking to acquire distribution rights and give some unknowns their big breaks.  

Intended Audience:  

Film Fest should have wide comedic appeal between men and women aged 14 to whatever.  The target is those who are educated or interested in pop culture and the entertainment industry.  

Tone & Style:

The tone of the film is light and snappy.  Things move relatively quickly between characters and events.  Everything is shot like a documentary, but there are contrasting moments.  For instance, when the festival starts and things are hectic, the documentary style can capture the manic pace well and put the audience right in the event.  At the same time, in serious moments or screenings, or conversations, the look can be focused and clean (fly on the wall even).  Overall, the look is to be vibrant, colourful, and polished.  It should complement the diversity and the energy that a festival represents and the over-the-top world of film and the characters within it.

Website & Promotion:

Possible ideas for the website include sticking with the whole mockumentary theme and promoting the film as though the festival is really taking place.  There will be bios of the numerous characters, additional clips from the documentary in production, and examples of Warner Garber’s original and over-the-top vision for the festival.  The site could also take the Corner Gas approach, and provide interactive access to the fake festival town of Silver Springs, BC.  Site involvement could even go as far as holding an online short film festival, where users could upload and share their work.  The entries would be treated as submissions to the Silver Springs Fest and viewers could vote on their favourites.  I think Film Fest lends itself to a wide amount of interactivity with its viewers, and the website would certainly reflect this.    

X (2006)

Presented with the challenge of shooting (and manipulating) an experimental short on film, X was the result of a few late nights spent scratching my reel and coloring individual frames with a red sharpie.  I can't say I had much of a plan during the process, but it was fun.  This experimental film class also resulted in some of my other random edits like, The Other Time Machine and from 84.

What made this project stand out was that we each presented our films at the Sask Film Pool in downtown Regina at the aptly titled, Terrible Film Festival - a regular event each semester for those taking the avant-garde class. It was a pretty casual affair where some films played on a loop, others were screened traditionally, some in make shift tents, and some overlapping each other.  The entire exercise was really about playing with film, not just from behind the camera, but actually working with it, splicing it, and in some cases, tearing it apart. I remember my friend Tyler actually tried burning a piece of his film and it sounded like cooking bacon when it played through the projector.

I kicked things off with my film on a loop, and a last minute decision to use a mirror to reflect the projection around the room.  My entire idea really centred around 'X marks the spot' because I figured so many of the films would be just as busy and nonsensical as mine, but at least mine would have a red X throughout to give you some place to look. It kind of worked.

At the very least the evening was something out of the ordinary, and it created a more lasting memory for a project that would have otherwise just stayed packed away.  Our professor, Gerald Saul captured highlights from the evening and gave each of us a DVD of our short films.  

Looking back at it now, this was one of those stereotypically ideal film school situations that I'm glad we were forced to take part in.  And I couldn't forget it if I wanted to, as that mirror I was using ended up broken in the back seat of Tyler's car and stayed there for my remaining few semesters in university.  See my experimental film below.

Z99 Commercial Contest

What would you do if you were challenged to make a commercial for a local radio station?  My friend Tyler Cyrenne heard about Z99's commercial video contest (open to all residents of Saskatchewan) and went to work to create his entry, Life Would Be Weird.  He's now made the semi-finals and could really use your votes to help him get some attention.

No sign up or log in is required, simply click HERE to watch his video and give him 5 stars.  The finalists will be determined based on the votes they receive and reviews by a panel of judges.  I'll be sure to keep you posted on the results as the Z99 contest continues.  Thanks in advance for all of your help!

Editing Luke in 2010

Another 12 months down and it looks like 2010 is going to be the year to beat!  There was so much to be thankful for in 2010 that it puts my optimism of previous years into an entirely different perspective - who knew you could pack this much awesome into a single year?

Not that I want to seem overtly in-your-face about my positivity, but I feel I'm due as this year I finally saw the tides change and the rewards flood in since film school wrapped in 2008.  If that last half of 2008 was about just recovering from student life, and 2009 was about stabalizing myself, than 2010 was clearly about launching myself forward - and what a launch it's been so far!

Here are a few of the key moments that made my 2010 a year to remember:

January 3, 2010 - I kicked off the year by launching a brand new portfolio site that categorized and showcased my entire video history.  The site, Editing Luke: The Portfolio was essentially a business card for those who wanted to know about me and my work.  Here was the first look.

January 2010 - I officially became the Web Media Content Creator for Weddingstar Inc. and cemented my role as in-house photographer and videographer for all of the original media content we produce.

February 11, 2010 - My combined online video views surpassed 500,000.

March 2010 - Six months after returning from a cross-country road trip to California, I finally completed and began debuting all of the edits that I'd created for a personal travel project titled, Indio Outio.  You can see the first edit of the series below.

March 9, 2010 - After making the semi-finals in 2009 with my short The Geology Student, voting began in the Yobi.tv Filmmaking Contest with me in the Top 40.  The campaigning began.

April 9, 2010 - In what was one of the most surprising moments of the year, I had been asked in February if I was interested in going on a business trip to act as videographer.  The destination: Singapore!  Here's what I wrote on the day we left.

May 11, 2010 - Throughout the remainder of April I debuted some of the personal footage I shot in Singapore.  Here was the complete post of edits that went live when all was said and done. 

May 30, 2010 - Weeks and weeks of voting and eliminations in the Yobi.tv Filmmaking Contest came to a conclusion when I took 2nd place, beating out 38 other filmmakers after making it to the final round.  In addition to a nice cash prize, the contest resulted in over 170,000 video views for my short the Geology Student. 

May 31, 2010 - The Editing Luke blog celebrated 3 years.

June 10, 2010 - After 10 years of having my license, and 10 years of driving the infamous Buick (5 years of which I owned her) I finally had the means to upgrade.  Say it with me, Jaaaaguar. Dream come true! Here was my Requiem for a Buick.

July 1, 2010 - To continue with the upgrades I traded a basement (one of the final shackles of my student life) for a spacious downtown apartment.  This was the move. 

July 14, 2010 - I was contacted by a publishing company in Singapore who had seen the posts I'd written accompanying my Singapore edits.  They wanted to use one of my posts for their English textbooks. Read more about it here.

July 27, 2010 - In what was one of my favorite video shoots of the year, I went to Calgary to film behind-the-scenes of a Weddingstar magazine photo shoot.  The edits debuted with the launch of the new magazine in December.

August 20, 2010 - One of the biggest milestones of my year, the combined views of my online videos finally surpassed the once seemingly unattainable 1,000,000.

September 2, 2010 - Inspired by the 2009 trip, my friend Dave and I decided to do another California road trip.  This time we'd extend the journey to 12 days and take an alternate route home, heading up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco.  Here's what I wrote before leaving.  


October 2, 2010 - After our whirlwind trip of the Western USA had wrapped I took the thousands of photographs that I'd shot and edited them down into a glossy bound photo book. You can view the entire book online for free. 

From Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam, Palm Springs, Joshua Tree, Hollywood, Long Beach, the Salton Sea, Los Angeles, the Pacific Coast Highway, San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, Reno and through the Rocky Mountains - there was a lot to see and share.  Photo collections have continued to pop up on Editing Luke throughout these last months of 2010.  You can see samples by viewing the Road Trip 2010 tag. 

October 21, 2010 - With a summer of contract edits complete with Stream Media, we all received some good news.

November 13, 2010 - My friend Tyler visited for the weekend and we retraced our steps from We Two Kings, the holiday short we shot in 2009.

November 18, 2010 - I was contacted by the University of Regina regarding some photo collages I had created and posted on YouTube.  They featured them on the brand new U of R blog. This was followed up several weeks later with a feature of We Two Kings in December.

November 23, 2010 - The Editing Luke blog reached 100,000 views.  Since May 31, 2007 this blog had been viewed in 150 countries in over 6700 cities around the world.

December 16, 2010 - With my loft finally settled and completely furnished, I went all out to deck the halls for the holidays.

December 20, 2010 - This marked the 3rd time in 2010 that one of my shorts made it into the preliminary voting rounds of the Yobi.tv Film Contest, despite the fact that I hadn't promoted any new projects there since my 2nd place win.

December 22, 2010 - Without a new Christmas edit this year, I opted to remix a time lapse I made while in the dorms at film school - Dorm Xmas Tree Remix.

December 31, 2010 - My year will close out with a final automatic payment that will see my first student loan from film school completely repaid.  I still have some work to do in paying down the remaining student debt, but the symbolism of ending the year this way can't go unnoticed.  I'll be starting 2011 with my best foot forward.

Like I said, 2010 is going to be the year to beat.

Nudged Into Semi-Finals Once More

This is just a quick update regarding the news I've received from Yobi Film.  My short, Give it Time has been voted into the preliminary round of the semi-finals for the 2nd time this year without me promoting it.  The very same thing also happened this summer with my project, The Gizmo Tree.

After winning 2nd place in the film making competition back in the spring, these updates from the latest season of Yobi simply reaffirm that people are clicking around to view my videos (which is awesome!).  I haven't even updated my profile on the site since the end of season 2, but it's because I'm waiting to produce something larger and all-new before heading back into the contest.

Neither Give it Time or the Gizmo Tree have been voted through to the semi-finals this year after making the preliminary round, but it's a cool feeling to know that others have helped to put them there in the first place. Thank you to those who have done so! 

New videos are on the roster for 2011. 

A Chill in the Air

Shot in 2006, I made this short for a National Film Board of Canada contest by mixing footage of WWI soldiers with stark winter imagery. The focus was on creating a symbolic representation of the recovery, healing, and scares left by war. However, to approach the subject in a less traditional form,

I opted to create this video poem. To read more on this project, the results of the contest, and the story behind it click here.