The Black Invitational Basketball Tournament was a gift Bryan Darrell left to the black communities of Nova Scotia. Bryan took some time to tell me about the first year “Tournament” was held and the reason he started it.
How did you spend your Canada Day weekend?
We were on the Commons in Halifax Nova Scotia working with a great crew shooting the Canada Day concert. Big shout outs to Chuck Calder at 45 North Broadcast Group, Sean Senechal from Cafe Media Solutions, Danny Leadley from Cameraman.ca and Ian Barker for coming together and providing great coverage of the concert.
We are under way. Research of the fourty plus year history of the Black Invitational Basketball Tournament in Nova Scotia has begun. I’ll be posting regularly with quotes from interviews, found footage and updates about the project “TOURNAMENT”. Here is a quick clip from tournament veteran Jaysen Bundy from my talk with him the other day. Thanks to everyone who has responded to me so far.
If you were involved in, went to cheer someone on, refereed in, volunteered at, DJ’ed, BBQ’ed, witnessed your best friend get dunked on or have some great pics or video get back at me.
My family and I just got back from Alberta on Tuesday. Although we didn’t end up with as much time as maybe we would have liked to travel we were able to get to Waterton Lakes National Park. We had visited the park a year ago. At that time the sun was shining, the snow was almost melted and it was very bright and warm. This year, the road heading up the mountains was closed, the air was cool and there was a haze of clouds and blowing snow over the mountain peaks. I was able to grab just a a few photos from down below.
We are about to head into Easter long weekend and some of you may be colouring eggs for the kids. If by chance you need to colour correct some of your video footage this weekend here’s someone that can help you with that.
I just came across Phil Strahl’s twitter feed. He is the Senior Colourist at Red Bull’s Media House and everyday he tweets helpful hints about common colourist problems. You can follow him on @philstrahl.
Today’s #ColorGrading tip: A quick day-for-night can be done by decreasing gamma, a subtle(!) blue tinge and a dark/black solid for the sky.
There are some stories that I think should be told and some histories that should be recorded and archived. That is what led me to begin “Breaking Ice”, The Birth of a Canadian Surf Culture. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to dig into a project like that. Freelancing, teaching, and raising a young family takes up an incredible amount of time. Anyone who has ever made a documentary knows the work and care that needs to go into the process to make something that does your subject justice.
Well, here I go again. I’ve started the process of researching the over 40 year history of the Black Invitational Basketball Tournament in Halifax. This is a daunting task but I believe that this story should be told. I’m asking anyone out there that has information, contacts, or has played, coached, organized, refereed, volunteered and even spectators to let me know if you are interested in talking with me over a coffee.
I’d like to build a series of video short stories as teasers in hopes to eventually find funding to help this project come to life. I look forward to hearing from all of you.
Did you know that we can stream your event live? Give us a call if you have an AGM, graduation or any other special occasion. Big or small, one camera or four. It doesn’t matter. We can make sure that your event is covered, captured and streamed live to your entire audience wherever in the world they may be.
I like to make sure if someone has done great work for me, that I let them know. So today I spent some time setting up a testimonial for the crew at Lotta Digital. That’s the team that put this website together. True professionals in every sense of the word. Generous with their time and knowledge, detail oriented and quick to respond whenever I had a question. The whole HLF team couldn’t be any happier.
Testimonials are a great add on to any company website. Video testimonials are even better. Seeing someone who is completely satisfied talking about their experience working with a fantastic company speaks to your audience. It reassures them you’re the right choice. If you’ve done great work and clients would like to recognize you for that, give us a call. We’ll bring the lights, camera, microphones and even a teleprompter if needed.
We just wrapped up the Advanced TV Doc workshop at King’s College on Friday. The class had a packed screening along with an in depth Q&A about process, the do’s and don’ts and advice for the next group of hopeful documentarians to pass through the university doors. I am extremely proud of all of them for what they accomplished. I am also sad to see them go.
With a little time off over the weekend I went back to revisit my final documentary project at Vancouver Film School from 2005. It’s a short doc called “Bleeding Blue Walls” that I co-created with Rosan Sashida Duffour. It’s a historical piece about the history of Canada’s oldest blues bar The Yale. My favourite part is still the narration by the late, great Jack Velker. Enjoy the watch!
