I've had it in my mind for some time to create something special with all of the footage I shot on the road in 2009. Of that footage, my favorite scenes include those that I shot at Salvation Mountain near Niland, California. My friend Dave and I had spent the day exploring the areas around the Salton Sea and capped it all off with a trip out to Leonard Knight's epic art project in the middle of nowhere.
Last month Dave passed away and this ultimately brought all of the memories from our road trips flooding back. I started reviewing the footage I shot and began to find some inspiration. There's a story in that footage and a short film there that I now feel compelled to create. Part documentary, part poetic experiment, I'm already visualizing what a rewarding and challenging edit this will be for me. It's a way for me to honor my memories with Dave, to emphasize what our experience at Salvation Mountain was like, to reflect on my views of life and death, and to really address my own emotions and frustrations with losing such a close friend.
My goal is to keep this project under five minutes in length, which will really help me to condense and further define my thoughts about this entire experience. While I've just begun outlining exactly what I plan on doing, I'm feeling ambitious and charged to really create something special and personal that I could see myself submitting to short film festivals. This already feels different from any of the other videos I've ever created or worked on, but I think it also plays on my strengths as an editor and the archival video work that I've done in the past.
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| Salvation Mountain near Niland, California. |
2 comments :
Luke, i'm really excited to see what you come up with. I always enjoy viewing your edits and this will be an especially important one to see I think for all of us who loved Dave. Best of luck buddy, I look forward to it!
I look forward to your edit too! I know how much Dave loved the Indio area and enjoyed his trips down there with you so much. I'm so glad you two had that opportunity to do those two roadtrips together. I had never even heard of Salvation Mountain until Dave told me that you and he had visited there and he told me
I really must visit too. It really is the middle of nowhere but we have visited several times now and always stop when we have the opportunity to show our guests. It will always make me feel close to Dave when I visit there now. Thanks Luke.
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