If there is any question than let me crush the debate by saying, yes, this blog is very important to me. It's not just the feedback, the interesting people from around the world visiting, the scrapbook like posts, or the occasional festival/screening offers - no, my greatest motivation from all of this has been the personal guilt. Why haven't you made a new short, why don't you write more often, why don't you take more risks? A day rarely goes by that I don't check in, or that I don't think about trying harder to improve something on this site. The redesigns, evolving content, and numerous projects are clear proof. It's a bit compulsive, but it's also what I always hoped this effort would be. It's a reason to keep pushing myself. It's embarrassing how I get lost in my own posts sometimes, but Editing Luke is a consuming venture that I can't help but love.
Reliving my own experiences through my own words/my frustrations/my successes has to be one of the coolest things - the blog is just a journal, and yet the fact that anyone can read it somehow makes it feel more real, even important.
September 13, 2008.I know the answers I want to hear, and reminders of one's own passion and perseverance seem to require review from time to time. I'm still growing and trying to find a path, while at the same time I think my pursuit might be easier if I were to focus on making and promoting a single series of work instead of this grab bag of variety. One way or another I'd like to introduce new faces to the mix. It's tough to balance, but it is what it is. Like I said at the start of this post, I can sit at this monitor for a long period of time; Long enough to re-edit, review, renew, but more likely, to continue searching for what I'm looking for and challenge myself again.
March 31, 2009. Somehow I've become an adult, somehow I've done things that I wouldn't have imagined I would have by now, and unsurprisingly there's still so much I look forward to doing with the bits of experience I've acquired. I don't think my checklist will ever be complete. Were it not for the sense that our time is fleeting, would any of us really feel pressured to push ourselves harder?
March 21, 2008. I've learned to trust myself and believe in myself, and whether I'm in school or not, I finally understand that I'm beyond what it is to be a film student. Regardless of what anyone else may think, I'm a filmmaker, degree or not.
April 1, 2009.I don't suppose Regina will ever really be as different or as personally revealing as my imagination says it should be. Instead, it'll always remind me of change and the choices that ultimately resulted in the path I'm on - It was a living scrapbook that I was a part of for a few years.
August 25, 2008.I'm just another dreamer, another guy with some hope, Just a man on a leash, tugged by someone elses rope. But from here things look fine, with camera in hand, I'll shoot what I'll see, I'll edit and I'll land.
May 31, 2007. (My first post in its entirety) So Luke's Emporium of Senseless Insanity and Wonder is no more, and here instead is Editing Luke; a blog about filmmaking, movie ideas, projects, goals and so on in the realm of a student filmmaker named Luke and his production pseudonym fandrix. It's been on my mind to do this for sometime, and I've had this blog sitting idle, ready to replace the other, for a few months. Keeping an online journal is work, but ultimately, i think it'll be a good way to focus my ideas in terms of thinking about what I'm doing as a professional career. I use 'student' filmmaker a lot (which i still am), but i feel it's time to start thinking of myself as a filmmaker (or video/media maker if you want to get technical). Whether you read this is clearly up to you, but i hope to use this as an outlet to motivate myself and bounce ideas around. I welcome any and all comments as things get underway (in fact i encourage and love comments), and hope you find some interest in my ramblings. Thanks for checking out the new space.
July 8, 2009.Thanks for helping to make this what it is and what it will continue to become.
After leaving film school this simple phrase is most likely uttered by all aspiring filmmakers - "I'm looking for film work". As expected, it's easier said than done. Finding a job isn't exactly the problem, but finding quality, inspired, and motivating work (in any field) is a constant challenge.
Now to be clear, I feel quite lucky. My first job out of university last year was with Stream Media Inc. I'm currently still working as an editor and videographer with them on a contract basis, but since things have slowed down since the beginning of the year, that work alone doesn't pay the bills anymore. For a more steady income I took a job as a creative copywriter last month for a national wedding website. The job, while not immediately related, may be more valuable than expected as it looks like I'll be in charge of creating original video content for the site in the coming weeks - still it's not exactly what I saw myself doing. And throughout all this, I've maintained doing small video projects for extra income - promo vids, wedding vids, or even submitting my personal work to contests and festivals. So what's the problem you ask?
Well, it's not so much a problem as it's my post-uni coming of age. The idea of being in a single job for decades scares me to death - and at the same time, those lucrative film jobs aren't falling in my lap like I might of expected they would back in first year. While there's plenty of ways to infuse my creativity into the business world for the sake of making money, what I long for is the chance to do it in the creative world for the sake of making an impact. I'm not even referring to big budget Hollywood films or TV, I just mean something that I can feel passionate about.
Part of the challenge is my location, and on that front I feel like I've exceeded my expectations. The fact that I've been making money doing things that are related at all still surprises me. A bigger city is definitely part of the plan though - Calgary or Vancouver most likely. At the same time I wonder about things taking off with my current jobs. It's not out of the question that I'd stay in little Medicine Hat, Alberta if it meant making decent money and still being able to pursue my personal projects. It's not an easy road I'm on, but I guess I was always kidding myself when I thought it might be. These challenges and experiences are clearly worth something, and at least I can hope that they'll push me to try new things. As all my former jobs have done, there's plenty of stories to draw on for material. I guess it's about finding ways to connect your own reality to what it is you want to ultimately achieve - pinpointing how the things you do now will help you out later. Maybe that's the answer. Every student eventually has to face the reality that parts of work are simply about completing tasks, and others are about personal satisfaction. There's clearly a balance of positives and negatives to be worked out. For me, I'll just continue to chalk everything up to experience and hope that my own persistence leads me to new challenges, creative outlets, and more fulfilling opportunities. I think no matter what place I end up in, I'll always be telling myself that I'm still looking for more film work.
Project:Buick to the Future - Episode 3 Shot: July 2007 Location: Cinema 6 Drive-In (Outside Regina, SK) Revisited: June 2009
Tyler (or Doc in BTTF) revisited this location for me. You'll notice the Cinema 6 sign was used for several of the posters for Buick to the Future, and the this dirt road divided the open field and drive-in background that both appeared in the short. It was a crazy hot day when we shot out here, and the most noticeable difference is that all the grass looks considerably shorter than when we were out there. There was also an old steel frame in front of the Cinema 6 sign that we used in some of our earlier photos. The drive-in appears to be a storage lot now, it was already closed down when we shot there. Not much has changed here, but the fact that I have makes it seem so remarkably new again.
