In recent months both Canon and Nikon have released DSLR cameras that also shoot video. Rumours had abounded for months, and frankly, I had been ambivalent about the advent of video capabilities in digital cameras… until I saw Vincent Laforet’s awesome ‘faux commercial’ — REVERIE — shot in a single weekend. It is fantastic. It fully rocks. Check it out here:

The story of how this video came to be is pretty cool. In a thumbnail, Vincent saw unmarked white boxes arrive in the USA Canon offices on a Friday afternoon, and after some digging, unearthed that they contained the brand new EOS 5D Mark II - with video capabilities. Top secret stuff. Ready for a huge press release the next week. Somehow he convinced Canon to lend him the stuff for the weekend, and in 40 hours, shot REVERIE. You can learn more on Vincent’s Blog, which is a great source of general photographic inspiration too. His recent surfing stuff with Jamie O’Brien is wicked.

It is also worth watching the behind-the-scenes footage from Reverie too.

Gotta admit, I am now totally stoked to get my hands wet in this new technology, and can not wait to get good Nikon glass in front of a digital recorder. (I am still waiting in the hope that a new D400 or D800 will feature full HD capabilities, as opposed to the current options on the D90.) The cinematic effects are that good camera lenses can provide — as opposed to the standard cheap video recorder lenses — are mindblowing: rack focus, bokeh, fisheye. All of a sudden anything is possible.

No Opportunity Wasted won several awards in the last year, including:

Gold Remi award at the 2008 Houston Film Festival

Intermedia Silver Globe at the 2008 World Media Festival in Hamburg, Germany

Hors Concours at the Banff World Television Festival

Writing is a bizarre occupation (or pastime, hobby, job, whatever.) Nearly all writers talk of the pain, the frustration, the terrifying fear of the blank page. And they also talk of the elation, the flow, the joy of creation. I suppose all true art must combine elements of both.

I recently spent a month at the Banff Centre (and right off the start, a huge shout out to the Center… what an awesome thing we have here in the Canadian Rockies, a place that takes in over 6000 artists a year from around the world and gives them the time and space to pursue their art. Wow. Very cool.) participating in a Mountain Writing Residency.

I certainly didn’t know what to expect. Other writers I talked to had raved about residencies, but coming from an engineering background as opposed to liberal arts, I was hopeful, as well as slightly skeptical.

Well the program was freaking great. Just having the opportunity to watch 5 other writers suffer as much as I did was a big help! We worked with three great editors (Marni Jackson, Tony Whitholm, and Jim Perrin) and discussed each other’s projects and work regularly. I had pitched a work of fiction, and doubt I could have ever gotten it up and off the ground as quickly without the help and encouragement.

I remember during the orientation one of the Banff Center employees reminding us there was a counseling service available if we needed to talk to someone. Are you joking me? What a laugh I though. But as I started out this entry by saying, writing is a cruel mistress. After almost two weeks of 8 am to midnight of writing, and feeling myself go nowhere, I was near breaking. (Didn’t call the service as my wife is a counselor, but dam, I could have!) And I think the same experience happened to each of the other five artists in the program, to varying degrees, during the month.

Some folks have asked me what I took away from the experience. Obviously there is lots, too much for a quick blog entry. But certainly an awareness that writing is tough. That is OK. Momentum counts. Keep the forward progress going whenever you can. And as Jim Perrin hammered into my head, ‘Anchor yer Ass’ (… in a chair, and keep writing.) God bless you Jim, my ass is anchored, even though the end of my current project is nowhere in sight yet!

And while we are talking about writing. And reading. Just finished Miriam Toew’s A Complicated Kindness - totally rocked. Loved it. Also read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime, which is a pretty astounding first person view of an autistic child. Certainly worth a read. Quick but good. And if you are trying to write, I would suggest peeking at Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life (gorgeous word crafting in there, and a intimate view of what it is like to write) and well as Stephen Kings On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft (surprisingly good.)