Top Posts of 2007

In 2007 I entered my final year of film school, took part in the Sasktel cell phone video competition, and went on a lengthy road trip to Mount Rushmore.  It was also the year that Editing Luke debuted.  

I was fairly new to sharing my videos online and was still just trying to find my own writing style, but in the 7 months of 2007 that Editing Luke existed my blog actually received over 8,000 hits. I worked hard to get them, but I also knew from the start that the success of my site was resting on how original and unique I could make it from what else was already out there.  In retrospect those first 7 months were all trial and error, but the concept of my online film journal seemed to stick.  Here were the most popular posts from my site in its first year:

1.  Buick to the Future: Episode One  

Originally posted June 15, 2007

This post shouldn't come as much of a surprise.  Buick to the Future was a campy comedy short that I came up with entirely because I wanted brand new content to promote my blog with.  It also became a big deal when for the first time I was able to share a new video with family and friends minutes after posting it.

2. Sad Little Snowman  

Originally posted December 16, 2007

Similarly to Buick, this post became popular when I sent out Christmas messages with this video linked to it.  I suppose you also can't underestimate the willingness of people to share a cheesy snowman video with each other around the holidays.

3. Dorm Xmas Tree  

Originally posted November 4, 2007

An entertaining time lapse concept made this post popular as I kicked off my ambitiously early dorm room Christmas.

4. Film Student?  

Originally posted June 5, 2007

One of the main reasons I wanted to start a blog in the first place was to share my film school experiences.  This post marked the beginning of my film school rants, and readers seemed to embrace my candid thoughts.  It was a good thing too, because there were a lot more on the way. 

Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota

Located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Crazy Horse Memorial is a work in progress that has been ongoing for decades. Located less than 20 miles from Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial is being funded by admissions without help from the federal government. If completed, it will be the largest sculpture in the world. This is what it looked like in April 2007.

This is how the finished monument is intended to look.

Samsung SC-D453 Video Camera

It was just after Christmas in 2005 that I decided to spring for a MiniDV camera. I'd been shooting several projects in film school on MiniDV and after collecting a small collection of tapes I thought I would benefit from having a DVcam of my own.

There was nothing complicated about my choice. I picked this little Samsung because it was compact, no bigger than my hand, and it seemed ideal for traveling with. Truthfully, I didn't feel I needed a major quality upgrade so much as I needed a format upgrade to output my video to the new MiniDV standard.  For home video sake and after carrying around my Sony handycam in LA and Vegas, it was nice to have something a lot lighter.

The weaknesses of this camera are a result of it's small size.  There aren't a lot of extra features, although it does have an impressive 900x digital zoom. As a casual camera for Internet vlogs or home video, you really don't need much more.  This was 2005 though, and cameras like the Flip HD (which I now own) have made the market for this type of shooting a lot more competitive. 

The first thing I did with this camera was a project titled, A Chill in the Air in January 2006. It opened a lot of doors for me, and was actually directly involved in my next camera upgrade that spring. To this day I still use this camera for casual shooting and experiments. I took with me to Vegas again, and use it mainly to capture home videos. It's still a sleek, unassuming, and easy to use little piece of equipment.