8 Hours Of Heated Creativity Between Two Dedicated Citizens

Tony Dinh - (Definition) Bloody Video Prodigy



So I spent a little over 8 hours I believe, in Tony's room, working tirelessly on a video for our fellow peers. Or should I say, used-to-be-peers, well basically it's a graduation gift if I confused you, I'm sorry. We took some video of seniors around school and then we put together this nice little package, for all the Grad's to take with them to University. By package I mean, the video is the package and inside includes, Tony and my gratitude towards the students, funny moments, legacies, and so on..

I'm not going to lie, it was a very long day, and truly was work, and I guess you ask Tony and I why on earth we would want to spend so much time doing work. I would guess both of our answers would be the same, because we love to work with video and sound, and on top of that we're making something that our friends can take as a gift, that stars them and should hopefully keep the good memories vibrant to their imaginations as they enter a new season of life.

The last clip in the video is very meaningful and truly ties the entire video up, it's going to cause the girls to aww, which will be funny. But it's message is real, basically the actor (we'll call him) says that he didn't like the people in high school until grade 12, and once he gave them a chance and saw them for who they really were, he realized that they are all unique and amazing people. That's just how I felt when I came to Markville Secondary this year, I felt like everybody was the same, but I now know after meeting many awesome people. That they are all unique and sweet peeps, and I know they are all going places in life because they are very, very determined.

So, for now I can only give you words, but I'll post our collaborative effort after commencement, or perhaps on commencement day. Which is this upcoming Wednsday, June 24, 2009.



Until then, I will leave you with what I've written and shared! This is Tony and I's first collaboration and we plan to put more together.

- Nick Francis

WWII Video (Another Francis Original)

So.. Here's a video I made last semester for History: West and the World class, we were creating different pieces for a WWII exhibit, I decided to make a movie, naturally.

Now this video was not exactly my vision, but the response has been good on it, so I'm willing to share it with ya'll. I wrote the script in, well I wrote it quickly in the morning of a Saturday last fall. The message is as clear as I could make it with voluntary actors from school, in my basement standing against a wall. The setup was interesting actually, I wish I had taken a picture of it, a 20" TV in the corner connected to my camera. My tripod and camera with a sketchy directors chair, tape all over the ground where I had to make sure I kept my stuff on because my dad likes to move everything, it's bloody annoying. I had a couch at one end of the room where my actors sat, and then two 1000 watt construction lights beside me facing the wall.

I sat under the camera, with a little remote, I click record and then I stopped it, I repeated this more times than I can remember, and in between each record I would yell at the actors or get up and motivate/encourage them to get into character (which was just to be themselves but with passion..) I believe we did three shooting sessions to create this. I cut out a lot of clips, I mean a lot... The song is by Explosions in the Sky, it was the best choice for length and flow.

Oh and the TV had what the camera was recording in real time so that the actors could see where they were on the screen. It worked very well.

A big thanks to Dominick Dekauwe, Dana Kissondath, Gordy Leslie, Ryan Seager, Herman Singh, Sam Hutchinson, Mike Henry, and Stephen Dustan for being my willing actors! No thanks to Rachel Laird who told me she wanted to come to my basement dressed as a teacher and just be in the video alone in my basement with her and the camera.. She would have been awesome too though.

Apparently, Maxine Schmidt is smooth, this is something I cannot confirm at this point in time, but soon.

Please make sure you watch it to the end if you enjoy it!! It's not done at the picture!!

West and the World WWII from Nick Francis on Vimeo.

WWII Project for the WWII Exhibit in Mr. Melnyk's West and the World History class.



The picture near the end is not the END. It's just a moment of silence. The video continues shortly afterwards.



- Nick Francis