cars in canada

landing back in alberta for yet another shoot, i figure i'd better hurry up and post my last canadian project or run the risk of lapping myself. but first a word on edmonton: despite the self-deprecatory, classically canadian habit of locals to refer to their city as "deadmonton", i hereby rename it (shout out to uber-genius kristen) "golden threadmonton" because of the strangely diverse and interesting projects and people i've come across up here.

not to mention the proliferation of CASH, MONEY…. hmmm, what comes next?  oh, right, HO'S.

from hospitals to oil changes to teacher's unions to pharmacies, i've worked on a wide range of challenging projects.  there are obvious limitations to a regional market but one advantage is the freedom (and sometimes necessity) to wear multiple creative hats.   unlike what i'm used to down in the states, in Golden Threadmonton one doesn't have to be strictly a "____ ___" to shoot with "____" (fill in the blanks: "car guy" - "cars"; "performance guy" - "actors"; "comedy guy" - "funny scripts").

as one might suspect, this is quite refreshing.

what's also refreshing is the unassuming attitude of the many fascinating and intelligent people who've made their lives in the cold Albertan north.  from geneticists to music promoters to video artists to photographers, I've found an unexpected underground scene brimming with creativity, energy and possibility.

as proof, just look at this mural inside a local fast food restaurant - yogi bear with a 1960's playboy bunny?  what the…?!?!  what do they put in those burgers?

anyway, about a month ago i had the pleasure of collaborating with the hugely talented DP, chris walters, on a commercial for Integra Tires.

while the spot doesn't pretend to reinvent the formula for selling tires (es cuáles es), i'm proud of the work we were able to do.  i always feel that every project, regardless of its constraints, offers some area worthy of intense focus to excel at and learn from.  this time around, it was the chance to light and shoot large, curved mirrors: cars.

here's the final spot - the red-burst backgrounds a last-minute inspiration from shooting on (the completely useless) valentine's day.

alberta teacher's association

a few months back, i had the opportunity to experience a "not-freezing-your-ass-off" canadian summer.  it was beautiful with lush, colorful foliage, mild sunny days and the feeling that, for a moment at least, all could be right with the world.

pithy though my travel writing might be, i was there to work and the project (for the alberta's teacher association) was encompassing.  teaming up with my favorite canadian ex-pat DP, christopher walters (pictured here under extreme suspicion by the TSA), we populated an elementary school with adult students playing at being 3rd graders.  the agency's idea being that if schools don't pay attention to kids when they're kids, society will have to deal with much graver consequences when they're adults.

strapped for cash, we shot on the canon 5D and the result is pretty decent.  that said, the camera's handling of color still seems a bit sketchy and, as the files are already so highly compressed, there's not as much range in post to correct any chroma-shifts.  even so, my not-so-secret find of the year, emery wells of katabatic, did a great job grading the final piece.

though the day was grueling (a dozen actors playing children are not unlike a dozen children play acting), i felt the shoot came off well until i spied a doodle by one of the actors no doubt sketched during the many breaks for lighting or camera resets.  i think i'm the angry looking guy:

here's the final spot:

Ice Water Cometh: a truly inconsequential meditation on the history of ice water in hospitality

I've often wondered at the ubiquity of ice cold water in hospitality.  Certainly there are times when an ice cold beverage is the longed-for refreshment - after a sweaty day (or night) of hot labor or during those 2 months of brutally humid heat in the dead of a NYC summer - but mostly, ice water just makes my hands cold, my fillings hurt and my head ache. Surely many others have noticed the incongruity of being served a glass of ice water by a well-meaning server in the middle of winter.  The rule of thumb seemingly should be: "if you have to heat the room, don't ice the water."

Besides the discomfort of relative temperature extremes, there appears to be a health reason to avoid iced water as well.  Something about a shock to your system and a digestive inhibitor.

Pondering these deep questions while being served iced water in the middle of winter on a heated bus, I began to formulate a theory.  Like the great philosopher-scientists of old (Plato, Aristotle, Empedocles) who disdained experimental observation as coarse and unseemly in contrast to pure theoretical poppycock (aether, anyone?), I am content to propound an explanation based on zero historical fact or responsible research.  Even so, I've a hunch I'm right.

My theory is that somewhere in recent cultural memory, ice water symbolized luxury.  Today, ice water is virtually worthless but not long ago, before the advent of refrigeration, if I offered you ice water, what I was really saying was that I had laboriously harvested a big block of river ice in the winter and carefully kept it insulated in my cellar with straw and blankets so that, 6 months later, I could chip off a piece and put it in your drink.  Or, more precisely, I was saying I could afford to hire someone to do that.

In a warm climate, as Paul Theroux's Allie Fox tragically demonstrates in The Mosquito Coast (forget the movie, read the book), ice is nothing short of a miracle.  A truth I discovered empirically, if imperfectly, at the age of 8 when I had the foresight to secretly stash a winter snowball in the freezer to be used in the heat of summer as the neighborhood's only operational winter weapon against my unsuspecting sister, Star.  A most cunning and devious plan which I either did or did not get from Calvin & Hobbes which began syndication around the same time.  To this day, I don't know whether it was the months of building anticipation and excitement that over-adrenalized my arm or the strangely tender feelings I had developed for this hunk of anachronistic snow that perverted my aim but, either way, I missed.  As I looked on, dumbfounded, my sister calmly and carefully scooped up the scattered snowy remains quickly melting on the hot asphalt and returned fire.  She did not miss.  Needless to say, I was disappointed.

With this kind of labor in mind, a restaurant of yesteryear serving iced water in the summertime must've seemed impossibly lavish - an oasis in the desert.  Thus the unconscious shorthand employed by your waiter every time your glass is filled with clinking, freezing ice cubes.

But times change and, like many antiquated notions and ideas (the electoral college, landlines, television commercials), ice ain't what it used to be.  Perhaps, as we all tighten our belts in this age of the "new normal", it's time we leave ice on the side and slake our thirst with lukewarm tap from now on?