I woke up this morning to find a Groupon in my inbox for the new six week DSLR film course I will be teaching at Pull Focus Film School this fall with my name listed as the instructor (I will also be teaching some of the three-hour crash courses). While I was informed that this Groupon was coming, I didn’t know the School would be linking to my website!

So anyhow, for anyone who followed that link to my website, I thought I would say hello! and tell you a little about my background.

My projects are primarily run-and-gun style documentaries and I have been shooting these with video DSLRs since they became available over three years ago. The camera I own is the 5D Mark2, but I have also shot with the 7D and 60D. At their core, DSLRs are more or less the same, so teaching one is the same as teaching the next. I have done several DSLR projects but my notable DSLR films include Surviving In The Cracks, and The Spirit of Nihonmachi. I shot my most recent film, Cue The Muse, on the Canon C300, a large sensor cinema camera which is in some ways very similar to shooting DSLR. I’m pretty DIY on my own films and multi skilled; in addition to shooting I also record audio, direct, produce and edit. I have proved to be fairly successful at this – I did much of the end-to-end work for Cue The Muse, which was made for CBC, and met all of the strict quality requirements that are necessary for broadcast television.

For films other than my own I am also frequently hired to shoot with DSLR and regular video cameras and have done so for a number of documentaries in Uganda, Germany, Canada, and the US.

I am very excited to be teaching (I love teaching) at Pull Focus Film School. I love that they are a non-profit and encourage students to make films that have a social aspect to them. This is in line with projects that I like to do as well, in fact I have a couple of projects on the go now. So go back to the Groupon deal now and sign up! It’s a screaming deal. Classes start soon.

I realize that my posts are coming very infrequently as of the last year. But I’ve been busy!! This is a good problem to have and as the fall approaches and my schedule slows a bit I hope to write more. But for now, may I present the fruit of a whole lot of labour [...]

Here is a fun piece that was recently released by the client on Youtube. Last May, as I was ramping up production on The Spirit of Nihonmachi, author and friend David Goodfellow pitched an idea to me to make a video trailer for the release of his new audiobook, Raven Bramblebutt and The Feral Children. [...]

I was browsing Vimeo the other day and stumbled across Arsy-Versy (director Miro Remo), a delightful short I saw at Hot Docs 2010, and wrote about in this post. It’s now available to watch in its entirety on Vimeo. Check it out!

It’s not often I pull out the ol’ DSLR to take STILLS these days. Usually it’s only for a film or some artsy photo production, especially now that I have my new X100 around my neck wherever I go. I do have an outstanding view from my apartment, don’t I?

I am pleased to announce that Surviving In The Cracks has been selected for the 2012 program at the ReFrame Film Festival in Peterborough, Ontario. ReFrame has featured exceptional documentaries such as Burma VJ and Wasteland. A little more about the festival: “ReFrame celebrates the latest works created by film and video makers from our [...]

My iPhone told me it was 31 West Hastings but I didn’t know it wasn’t until Carrall that East turns into West. So I parked in front of the Balmoral and walked. I must be kidding myself if I think I’ll ever be able to tell it like it really is in the Downtown Eastside. [...]

Dispossession will be opening a ‘solo’ show in the Lobby Gallery of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia on Tuesday, November 15. I will be there for the opening (4-6pm, food and drink will be served) to give a brief, informal artist talk and to chat about the next [...]

From the 2010 vault: Here’s a fun little piece that spawned from what was (and probably still is) the most stressful four days of my film career. Check out the musical talent that answered the call in less than 24 hours… and we had to turn away a few too! We drove all over the [...]

I am pleased to announce that the DVD and VOD (rental) of my documentary Surviving In The Cracks are finally available. It’s been two years since I wrapped shooting on this project. It’s seen the big screen a couple of times and gone through some tweaking but it has finally reached this point. I envisioned [...]