The Selective Videotographer

Boring video now. Boring yes, but it will act as an understatement for the previous claims I've been making. About how my collection of videos/movies/photos is so massive and so improperly organized that in order to pump them all out to the waiting throng of admirers and fellow bloggers, we must be prepared to sit thru the dull productions, just as often as we sit thru the lesser dull.

And this will be a dull one, make no mistake about it. The only excuse I have for the boring footage that follows is that the time period being captured was shortly after I'd purchased the first of my video cameras; thereby making everything in front of me an artistic visual opportunity that needed to be captured. Yes, this included people painting doors or mowing lawns.

Even today, I still enjoy the sense of knowing that whatever I may be shooting on any given day will soon become a golden, frozen moment in time; to be studied and discussed at length in the future. Because, as we all know, (repeat after me)... "what was once THE NOW will soon be THE VERY LONG AGO". And so it is with this lame production below. It's just that I probably should have been a little more selective during the 'very long ago' part for the moments worthy of looking back on in the 'now' part. Perhaps I could have left the recording equipment at home on this particular day without regretting it too much in the years to come.

Reverse Scenario

Very much related to our last posting on this bloggerama stage (same cast; same camera) is this reverse scenario of the British Invasion of 1979 that we present here. Four years had passed since that romp thru the streets of Vancouver and now it was my turn to visit good buddy Jon down on HIS farm in the wilderness of southwest England.

Bodmin, Cornwall was the spot he'd chosen to endure the yearly struggle of existence, and by gum, I was keen to see for myself the peaceful green pastures and quiet small town setting that he'd been claiming it was.

There had been a small but not insignificant change in Jon's circumstances since those freewheeling days of his Canadian visit. My girlfriend Sandy and I were pleased to be introduced to an enchanting new member of the family; a cute toddler wot they'd named for identification purposes: Rebecca Louise. Both my camera and I insisted on capturing her at every opportunity; such were her elegant charms. In fact, I had to edit out many more scenes of her than I've included in order to keep this flick under 10 minutes. In any event, it all happened with gusto and glamour twenty five years ago in the far away youthful spring of 1983.



Trivia/coincidence note: Ain't it funny? On the very same day that I am saluting this tattered and yellowed page from my personal history book, Mr. Bartholomew Woods is over there on his own little blog saluting the same thing... HIS first visit to England! Which took place two years prior to mine. Both our visits included a stop inside the same two level home in Cornwall seen on my video - and in the photographs that accompany his story.

Offending Footage Expunged

It's still a little too early to celebrate the official 30th anniversary of this event (so comically captured here on super 8 film). But not MUCH too early. If I don't upload this video onto Bloggerville now, it'll probably slip my mind in 6 months when the proper date pops up next Spring.

The event I refer to is the 'Grand Return To Canada' series of films featuring our dear departed high school friend Jonny (and his newish wife Maureen) back in 1979 after he'd dun spent the previous 8 years on the lamb living the British life over there in Cornwall, UK.

Our trans-Atlantic communication since 1971 had been almost exclusively via the spoken word on cassette tapes, so I must admit I found it a bewildering experience at first to chat with him face to face again. But this was also one of the highlights of my first 30 years on the planet, no doubt partly due to that 'celebrity' impression the talkie tapes had created.

As is evident in the footage provided below, fellow Tupperoonian, Bill would often join us for a day trip during the two week period, which included a boat cruise to Victoria, an evening at Playland, a stroll thru Queen Elizabeth Park and dining at the finest cafes in town. And for those viewers that might remember an ultra boring 25 minute section of film that was shot by both Jon and me (and then spliced together) going up (and then down) Grouse Mountain on the Skyride - you'll be pleased to learn that the offending footage has been expunged.

Billy Watching The Sky

I should probably plan these videos out a bit better. Maybe pick a theme or a topic and then stick with it completely before moving on to the next one. For the most part, this latest video (actually it's super 8 film) covers a two week period in June 1979 when good buddy Jonny came flying across from England for a look/see with his wife Maureen. But sure enough, as we watch the final product here, we find that a number of unrelated scenes from other time periods have polluted the presentation; including scenes we've already had to suffer thru at earlier points on this blog. Wassup with that?

There's a lot more footage of street hockey in the parking lot of the Ferry terminal if you're interested, but that would require a full blog post of its own someday and trust me, it can get old pretty fast. A small taste of the action is all you really need and it's all I've supplied here. There was also a full production of Billy meeting the British tourists at the airport upon their arrival, but again, it's dull to the max and only a small portion of that is included here. Gives you the jist of it anyway.

The mystery girl near the end is Heather. Watch for a car with an upside down license plate. Try and spot the old fashioned police cruiser from a bygone era. This collection of snippets is the work of at least four different people operating the camera. Bill, Jon, Maureen and myself. Chris was only pretending to shoot film during his little scene. What a kidder.

The Immediate Results Of Video Tape

And now for something totally unexpected. A short experiment in video taping from the year 1983 with the actual matching audio elements included. At the time, it wasn't important to me exactly what was being recorded on camera (and microphone). It was more the thrill of receiving those results IMMEDIATELY that caught my fancy. No processing at the Kodak plant in North Vancouver would ever be required again.

In my new found enthusiasm, I suppose a critical eye for 'quality input' was less than what it should have been. This early entry (below) in my now massive homemade video tape library, is a good example of how new electronic toys can lead to pointless overuse and to the creation of painfully unfunny moments that seem to last forever.