Parliament Hill Christmas Lights in Ottawa

A few visual highlights of the Christmas projections on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario.

Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Ontario

This year a friend invited me to the Shopify Christmas party hosted at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Ontario. As far as posh settings are concerned, it's difficult to beat a National Historic Site, a building that once housed the Canadian parliament following the Centre Block fire in 1916, and a museum filled with dinosaurs and various fossils.

Adventures in Ontario and Quebec

For a little over a week I've been off travel shooting with my friend Tyler around Ontario and Quebec. Tyler, a friend since film school, recently moved into a new place in downtown Ottawa and so I jumped at the chance to fly out and do a little early Christmas celebrating.

We had talked about doing a trip together for years, but things just never lined up. So with the opportunity finally presenting itself we decided to kick everything up a notch with plans to explore Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.

A few highlights included an epic Christmas party at the Museum of Nature in Ottawa, rooms at iconic hotels like the Royal York in Toronto and Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, a private stadium tour in Montreal, a quest to find the best poutine across Quebec, a journey involving planes, trains, and automobiles, and even a Christmas dinner at the top of the CN Tower.

As far as classic Canadian visuals are concerned this trip really had it all. In addition, it was awesome to create new stories and memories with a friend I've known for so long. New photo sets from this adventure will begin debuting on Editing Luke in just a matter of days - of course, it'll take months for all of it to be released (as is always the case). Stay tuned! 

Ottawa (2000)

A video postcard of Ottawa, Ontario that I shot in August 2000.

Ontario Postcards (2000)

One of the greatest editing exercises I've ever done actually happened before I even knew I wanted to be an editor. In fact, it happened before I even had editing software on the computer. As you should have guessed by the title of this post, these edits were my Ontario Postcards that I shot in 2000.

It was the summer. I was 16 and had saved up just over $1200 to purchase my very first digital camcorder - I'd never wanted anything so bad. My friends were buying cars, but for me it was the camera. At the end of August I was leaving on a vacation with my family to Ontario. We were heading to Ottawa, Toronto, and Niagara Falls to be exact. This proved the perfect opportunity to shoot some fresh footage.

So what was the editing exercise? Well, I had made up my mind before hand that I wanted to shoot some polished looking videos of the locations we'd be traveling to. Without the software, and without the patience to try and edit on the VCR anymore, I decided that I'd create these videos in-camera. In-camera means exactly what it sounds like - shooting using only the camera effects, creating your edit as you go.

I picked out my music before hand, but I still can only imagine what I was like to travel with. Because I was shooting in-camera, I had my discman with me and I'd play the selected song while I shot to match up my cuts. This was the case for Ottawa, Toronto, and Niagara Falls. If you can imagine keeping a song on pause while touring, keeping in mind what you last shot and how it connects to the new location, all the while ensuring that you're still synced up to your video footage so that the rhythm is intact - that was the routine. The very idea of it seems ridiculous now with cheap and free software for video editing so easy to find and use. The digital revolution has changed everything, and it's crazy to think of what a different world it was 9 years ago.

*Me filming at the War Memorial in Ottawa. You can see my discman in hand as I set up my shot. Not surprisingly, almost all the photos from this trip with me in them look like this.

When I got back from vacation school started up right away. Having made myself familiar in the communication technology department, I was able to use their dubbing equipment and added my music to my in-camera videos. All these years later, the edits are still exactly the same. I didn't shoot any additional footage because of my chronological in-camera project for one thing, but I don't think I could bring myself to change them even if I could. The experience of shooting this way not only proved valuable as I developed my own video skills, but it was truly one of those early tests that really allowed me to prove to myself how much I wanted to do this. That history and energy still motivates me in the things I approach today.

I remember in early 2003 in my very first production class in film school one of the assignments was an in-camera edit. Upon this announcement I showed my friend Ward my Ontario videos, explaining how they were made, and sure enough the project felt like a breeze in comparison. Ward starred in my film school in-camera project, Mean Mr. Mustard is Homeless.

Today, the only real difference in my Ontario Postcards is the addition of the titles, postcard border, and a clip of a WWI soldier in my Ottawa video with the war memorial. The music and cuts are otherwise exactly the same.

In addition to these edits, I put together a short clip of the only home video footage I shot while in Ontario. After we left Ottawa, Toronto, and Niagara Falls we went to stay with some family and went sailing on their boat through the Trent-Severn Waterway. Traveling through the locks was certainly an experience for this prairie kid. Until right now - this footage has never been used or even watched since it was shot in 2000 (I'd forgetten that it even existed).

All this said, these edits remain my earliest work that I still screen as they were originally cut and presented. Most of my work has had a cosmetic update or been put into context for this blog - these edits were already YouTube ready before YouTube even existed. I remain extremely proud of what I accomplished from a technical point of view, and it's work like this that now makes it so clear why my focus became directed towards editing. See for yourself the result of my early filmmaking challenge.

Ottawa (2000)


Toronto (2000)


Niagara Falls (2000)


Trent-Severn Waterway (2000) UNSEEN FOOTAGE

In-Camera Ontario Edits

These are the three original in-camera edits I made back in the summer of 2000 while on a family vacation.  We visited Ottawa, Toronto, and Niagara Falls, and I shot these videos entirely on the go, timing my shots them while listening to the songs I picked out on my discman.  Only the graphics and music were added in post.

Dusting Off Video Postcards

So there isn't a good way to post a full length travelog on here, and even if there was I doubt many would stick around to watch it. I was thinking I'd like to share videos on this new blog though, and so the video postcards I've made over the years seemed like a relevant edition regarding my last post. I began to organize these postcards in 2006 by looking at all the vacation footage I had (although some had already been completed by then). I thought that it would be nice to show people the places I've been by just featuring a few of the highlights.

Putting the postcards together essentially became a self-motivated editing assignment. The goal here, unlike the travelogs, was to just show the destinations as opposed to a diary of the trip. Each video is only a few minutes long put to music and is framed like a postcard to emphasize the visuals, but I think the spirit of the longer films that inspired them is still there.   

Video Postcard: Ottawa
(Filmed 2000 / re-Edited 2003)
MUSIC: Return to Innocence - Enigma
 
Video Postcard: Toronto 
(Filmed 2000 / Edited 2000) 
MUSIC: Run On - Moby  
Video Postcard: Niagara Falls 
(Filmed 2000 / Edited 2000) 
MUSIC: Beyond the Invisible - Enigma  
Video Postcard: Disneyland 
(Filmed 2004 / Edited 2007)  
Video Postcard: Hollywood 
(Filmed 2004 / Edited 2008) 
MUSIC: California - Rogue Wave  
Video Postcard: California Adventure
(Filmed 2004 / Edited 2008)
MUSIC: Love Today - Mika  
Video Postcard: Las Vegas 
(Filmed 2005 / Edited 2007)  
Video Postcard: South Dakota 
(Filmed 2007 / Edited 2007) 
MUSIC: Going Up the Country - Canned Heat