For some reason, a lot of people have been asking me lately about my former life as a filmmaker, so I thought I’d post one of my most successful films, CheckMating on YouTube for all to see.
About 15 years ago, I was riding a bus to work in Seattle, where I was living, and a little nugget of an idea came to me:
A woman who tests her dates by playing chess with them. CheckMating.
So simple. At the time, I was a filmmaker working at a motion picture laboratory. I had recently completed a half-hour 16mm nugget called Greenwich Meridian, which was a pretty standard first film: artsy, opaque and pretty much unwatchable. I was ready for a new challenge – to make a film people actually wanted to see.
CheckMating had a number of things going for it. It was short – half-hour films were hard to program at film festivals because they were too long to open for a feature film and too short to stand on their own. I pictured CheckMating with no words, just images and music, which would make it perfect for the international film festival circuit. And I was pretty sure that I could shoot it on 35mm film, and have it look amazing on the big screen.
So I budgeted the film out at $12,000 and started looking for deals. Although I wrote, produced, directed and edited CheckMating, my biggest skill as a filmmaker was always as a producer. I found a free camera, free short ends of 35mm stock, a free editing location. My peers at the motion picture lab where I worked were willing to slide my footage through as “test” footage and not charge me. I ended up bringing in the film for 15% of my budget, a mere $1,800 all in.
It was a one day shoot at a friend’s house. The actors were awesome, especially Amy DeBourget who carried the film. The crew was a dream. The musicians on the soundtrack were brilliant.
It was a charmed little production. I was super-pleased with the final product and I started entering it into film festivals. I had entered my previous film into 18 film festivals and gotten rejections from all of them. With CheckMating, I was accepted into the 19th festival I applied to. Perseverance paid off. I found out after coming back to work from my honeymoon in July of 1996 that I got into the Boston Film Festival. More acceptances poured in, and by the time the film was done on the circuit, it had played something like 60 festivals, events and showcases, and picked up a few awards along the way.
And this little film inadvertently led me to where I am today. As a filmmaker I was an early adopter of screening my films online. I just wanted people to see the film, and wasn’t snobbish about how that happened. While many filmmakers were pontificating about the beauty of film (and not video or digital), I wanted to open source the damn thing (although I’m not sure I knew what open source was at the time).
I got a distribution deal with a little start-up in Seattle called AtomFilms. They were a great group and I was their seventh acquisition. They did extremely well as a company, defining what online film distribution could look like, and sold my film to airlines to show in-flight, to websites seeking quality content and to TV stations around the world (international sales validated my choice to make the film silent). I was written up in the NY Times and the San Francisco Chronicle as a filmmaker willing to try new things. The film was a success. CheckMating even made money, given the minuscule budget I was working with.
That early embracing of the web, as well as an eventual job at AtomFilms as a web producer in charge of their online community of 1.8 million fans steered me onto a new path of doing web stuff instead of film stuff.
And then more recently AtomFilms was bought out by MTV and the rights to CheckMating reverted back to me. And so I have put it up on YouTube where it can be seen once again.
One of the biggest lessons of filmmaking that I draw on everyday is the ability to work with people as they are. Directing actors was perhaps my favourite part of making films. The collaboration, the creativity, the connections. Every actor is different and the key to being a successful director is knowing how to connect and communicate with each actor individually to elicit their best performance. Some actors like line-readings, some like deep philosophical discussions about the character’s motivations, some meditate, some pick fights to work themselves up. Working with each actor in the way most suitable for them is a skill I still draw on daily as a team-member, as a manager and as a contributor to an organization I believe in.
I hope you enjoy this glimpse of my filmmaking side. It’s good to have this film out there again…
Today was awesome. No other way to describe it. It is exhilarating to have the world come to Vancouver, and feel the great energy and vibe the city has going on.
I have been particularly excited about Stephen Colbert’s impending visit to Vancouver. My brother-in-law and friend, Eric is a writer on the show. Eric and I go way back, we were friends in high school, and traveled Europe together, and I’m married to his sister. Eric came with the crew here for the filming during the Olympics, and he was generous enough to let us into the VIP section this morning.
He was also the warmup act for the crowd to get them pumped before Colbert came out. It was exciting to watch him perform before a crowd of thousands in the city he went to high school in. Cool stuff.
The taping took place in the park literally across the street from my work. I asked a co-worker (whose meeting I skipped out on to go to the taping) to take a picture from our floor. Not sure how many people were there, but it must have been a few thousand by the time it started.
The camera guy was nice enough to take our camera and take some pictures of the crowd.
The set was great, and the backdrop was perfect. It was a glorious day here in Vancouver.
Our spot was amazing, and we had a great view of the whole thing. His guests were Michael Bublé and Bob Costas, who mounted a Moose used as a backdrop.
Many thanks to Eric for an unforgettable Olympic morning!
So the Olympics start tomorrow here in Vancouver. I gotta admit, if I had lived here when the vote took place to approve the olympic bid, I would have voted against it (we were living in LA at the time). I just wasn’t that into it.
Then I became complacent, I was resigned to the massive spending, and just hoped for the best.
But then in the last few months buildings started opening, the new SkyTrain line opened, the excitement started building and I became much more optimistic.
When I found out a couple of weeks back that the torch would pass right near our place, like four houses down at our nearest street corner from where we live on the flame’s way to opening ceremonies, my excitement increased.
Now, wandering around town, everything is ready. My work is across the street from Olympic Village and the Russian pavillion for the Sochi 2014 winter games. Our home is not far from the stadium where opening ceremonies take place. My life is right in the thick of things, and it’s pretty cool.
Because Vancity is a slang term for Vancouver, and I monitor what people blog and tweet about Vancity, I get to see where Apolo Ono is hanging out and how much he loves my hometown.
I’ll take pictures of the torch passing near my place tomorrow and take some photos from the Vancity head office roof and post them.
Ten years ago, my wife and I left a party to celebrate the rushing in of the year 2000 early so we could be alone together. It felt like a reflective, personal time and we wanted to spend it quietly.
At the time, we were living in Seattle, and I had completed a feature film several months earlier. By December 31st I knew I had not gotten into Sundance and was starting to grapple with questions about whether I would make it as a filmmaker. I was leaving my twenties behind, and sensed that major changes were coming.
I was filled with optimism about the changing of the millennium.
Now, ten years later, my life is very different: I moved deeper into web work, left filmmaking behind, moved to LA, did some extremely interesting work and met some amazing people, decided to move back home to Vancouver, had a son, and landed at Vancity where I found a new home for myself professionally.
Now, as we are about to enter the Twenty-Teens, my wife and I are once again in a reflective frame of mind, thinking about the last ten years and what our forties will have in store for us. We will spend a quiet New Year’s in our new home with our son, looking out from an entirely different vantage point.
And I’m thinking a lot about goals. When the next ten years have come and gone, what do I want to have accomplished? What will our life look like?
I’m not a long term planner. I believe in having a sense of what I want to do in the long run, having some good short term goals and letting the chips fall where they may. I never would have predicted where I would be at 39 when, ten years ago, we were watching the fireworks over Lake Union from our kitchen window, and yet I’m happy and satisfied with where I am. I don’t want to make some huge long-term plan, but it’s a good time to reset my thinking, validate my assumptions, and put some energy into where I’d like to be when I’m watching the fireworks ushering in 2020 and thinking about turning the big Five-Oh.
So this isn’t a post with any answers, or any deep thoughts, just a small piece of reflection on a process of making sure I’m on the right path. I’m still optimistic, but a little more cautious, a little more skeptical perhaps than I was at 29, but with a sense of real purpose and place now that I didn’t have then. So bring on 2010, and all that will follow. Thanks for reading, and joining me on this journey. It means a lot to me.
As I was getting ready for work this morning, I looked at my computer a little bleary-eyed and saw this tweet from Jeff Stephens. It was a nice way to start the day.
A few weeks back, Bank Technology News told me I had been named one of the top 10 innovators of 2009. I was humbled, kind of in disbelief, honoured and thrilled.
I have taken 2009 off from presenting at conferences, and it’s been a good decision. I’ve really enjoyed being able to focus on work and family here in Vancouver.
Social media is the new hot thing. It’s a great way for consumers to share their opinions and interact with leading brands. But how does social media fit in the B2B/B2C environment? Panelists will discuss how they use social media for their clients as well as their own businesses.
A couple of my fellow panelists are the same as my fellow panelists from last year (which is good thing).
I’m in a reflective mood today. Ten years ago today I finished shooting what would be my last film.
The Engagement Party is a full-length comedy about a young couple trying to maneuver through a disastrous engagement party their families have thrown for them. I wrote, co-produced, co-edited and directed the film. I raised the money, I worked hard to try and sell it to a distributor. I spent several years of my life working on it from the beginning of the creative process of screenwriting to the nuts and bolts business side of negotiating a deal.
It’s funny the course life takes. Looking back, I can see how making The Engagement Party led me on the journey I am now on.
I became disenchanted with filmmaking after producing that film. It was heartbreaking pouring so much of myself into a project that fizzled out. It fizzled out because of the competitive nature of the business, because of the lack of household name talent, because of the digital format, and, in the end, because it wasn’t all that good (believe me, it wasn’t). Film is such a precarious business, and I became frustrated with having to prove myself repeatedly.
The Engagement Party was a very early digital feature and experimenting on new digital formats and taking on a pioneer role opened up opportunities for me that led me deeper into new media, emerging technologies and the web, and onto my current career path. I would not be where I am if it wasn’t for that film.
I was a mediocre filmmaker, but I’m a great producer. I’m good at bringing people together, getting them on the same page, inspiring them and getting them focused and all rowing in the same direction. My talents as a producer continue to serve me exceedingly well. And I love taking the entrepreneurial attitude and approach, which is a prerequisite for being a filmmaker, and applying it inside an organization I care about. Being an intrapreneur.
I wonder what I would have thought if you had told me then that ten years later I would be working at a financial institution. I probably would have been disappointed. And yet I love my job. I look forward to coming into work every day, and relish in the challenges, successes and occasional failures. I am a very lucky person to have what I have, and to have had all the experiences that brought me to this point.
Including making a digital feature film in Seattle in April of 1999 called The Engagement Party.
PS: I just realized that I have the words Director and Engagement in my title, so it’s not all that different really.
When I started working at Vancity in September of 2005 I was brand new to the financial services industry. My previous job was working at a telecom, and in my time there I never really learned much about that industry. From the beginning at Vancity I wanted to learn about credit unions and FIs so I could be more useful to the company and craft a more relevant business plan for what the web could do for the company.
So I began looking for good websites and online publications to teach me a thing or two about banking. One of those was the enewsletter, GonzoBanker, which gave me great insights into the industry, full of humour and street smarts. Their writers get to the heart of the issue, and certain posts have become classics – like Steve Williams’ brilliant Y Bank With Us? and Tripp Johnson’s Web 2.0: It’s Not Just for Customers Anymore (which mentions my blog). I have always appreciated that they don’t take themselves too seriously, but have good, informed opinions about the industry.
So I was incredibly honoured when they named me GonzoBanker of the Month for March. As someone who is new to this industry, recognition like this is both inspiring and humbling.
Thanks a ton to the entire GonzoBanker team, and especially Diana Ferguson!
It started in Arizona. At Net.Finance in April of 2007. I pitched myself as a speaker after attending the conference the previous year and finding it immensely valuable. I presented on ChangeEverything.ca, why Vancity launched it, and what made it successful. I adapted it from an internal presentation explaining what it was to our executives.
At that conference the unbelievably nice Ted Josephson tapped me on the shoulder on our way into a vendor dinner and told me that I was officially “on the circuit.” I laughed it off, not totally sure what he meant. In the ensuing year and a half, I presented at 15 conferences and events across North America, focused on marketing, banking, online or corporate social responsibility.
It is unfortunate that my last scheduled conference in this run, The Finance 2.0 Summit, was cancelled, falling victim to the lack of budgets among FI marketing professionals. But with this cancellation, I now make a clean break from my two years of speaking.
I have to admit, my wife, Amy, found it very odd that I travelled more working for a local credit union than I ever had before. But she was extremely supportive.
As were my boss and colleagues, even though I’m sure some of them wondered how the hell I got to go to so many conferences, even though our budgets to attend them were fixed. Speaking was my way to learn a ton and connect with peers from all over.
And now that experience is behind me. With enhanced responsibilities at Vancity, and a desire to be around more for my team and my wife and son, I have decided to take at least the year of 2009 away from the conference scene.
In 2007 and 2008 I had the great privilege of speaking at numerous financial and marketing conferences across North America. In the process I met some amazing people, engaged in transformative discussions and learned from top-notch thought leaders. It has been a rewarding and humbling adventure.
In 2009, I feel very excited about all the things happening at Vancity, and will focus on my work here in Vancouver. As a result, I will not be accepting speaking engagements for the duration of the year.
The hardest part of this whole thing is that I likely won’t see my good friends whom I only get to see in person at these conferences. You know who you are, and I have no doubt we’ll keep in touch via our blogs and other networks through which we’re umbilically attached.
What does this mean to you? Mostly that it’ll be at least a year until I drone on and on about where I’m speaking next, what my scores were and how many LinkedIn connections I added. No biggie…
