A High School, A Book & A Decade

This shoot just turned 10 years old. 

Back in 2015, I was invited back to my former high school to explore and photograph. Medicine Hat High School would soon be undergoing a modernization upgrade that would see a significant part of the old high school demolished. 

This was one of those projects that I took on out of my own curiosity and connection to the place, but the shoot turned lucrative when it became the basis for my photo book, "MHHS As It Was" in 2017. Not only did we sell over 1000 copies in pre-sale that year, but I was then hired to shoot the architectural images of the modernized high school in 2018. 

It just goes to show that some of those "free" shoots can pay dividends if you see the potential in owning the work in the long term. It also has me thinking I'm overdue to give that photo book thing another crack at some point lol. 

Good memories.

University of Regina Film School

A few snapshots from a fresh exploration of my former film school (during a recent reunion this summer) at the University of Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan.

A Film School Reunion in Saskatchewan

This last week I was soaking up the nostalgia on a film school reunion tour around Saskatchewan with some of my closest friends. While we've all been back over the years, I don't think we've all been back at the same time since we were actually students.

With so many of us living out of province now, this Saskatchewan trip became the perfect excuse for us to all travel back to Saskatoon and Regina to hangout, reminisce, and go back to some of our old stomping grounds. I can't quite remember the last time I've consumed this much beer in a single week lol.

Amazingly everything always seems to fall back into place when revisiting old friends. The trip coincidentally lined up with move-in week at the University of Regina, which immediately triggered so many great memories of my years living in the dorms there.

If there was any more glaring reminder of just how much has changed since my days as a film student, my feature-length documentary was also playing at the 2024 Regina International Film Festival just days before I made it back. With the trip finalized long before I even knew the doc would pick up the 'official selection' here, it was another serendipitous bit of timing.

These moments always seem too few and far between, but what a great week. I'm glad we're still making memories all these years later.

16mm Revere Model 48 Film Projector

Aside from being nice to look at, the initial reason I purchased this 1952 16mm Revere silent film projector was because of some of the 16mm reels I shot while in film school. Even though most of the work we shot was digital, we did play around with various film stocks to get a feel for the medium, and it hit me one day that I had no way to watch these past projects.

Still in excellent working condition, admittedly this Revere Model 48 film projector does not get switched on often, but because it's a beautiful piece of vintage equipment I do display it proudly. These 16mm projectors can be acquired relatively cheaply today, but they are expensive to ship because of their weight and bulb replacements can be tricky to come by. As we move further away from analog photography, vintage projectors like this one will only become more interesting.    

 

Buick to the Future Turns 15

It was a summer of late nights, 80's flicks, and early online ambitions. It was a time when Buick still made sedans and a pun was enough to inspire a series. It is perhaps some of the most profound student film work I ever produced about a car that could reach, not 88, but 8 mph. 

Please raise a glass in honor of the 15th anniversary of "Buick to the Future" and the project that first drew visitors to a brand new, rinky-dink website called Editing Luke back in 2007.

This post is a feature from the Editing Luke instagram @editingluke.

Heritage Hall at SAIT in Calgary, Alberta

Built between 1921 to 1922, Heritage Hall at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Calgary, Alberta is a prime example of Collegiate Gothic architecture and the province's early development and expansion in post-secondary education. Originally known as the Provincial Institute of Technology Building, the school was established to help retrain World War I veterans and provide specialized technical training for Alberta's growing industries. Today, Heritage Hall is the central structure on the SAIT campus and a National Historic Site of Canada.