”Sistema Revolution”, the story of how New Brunswick adopted the Venezuelan miracle, and created profound social change through music, will be told across Canada on CBC television.
New Brunswick television production company Hemmings House Pictures is pleased to announce the screening, Sistema Revolution, across the country on CBC television, Saturday May 26th at noon in all time zones.
Sistema Revolution is a documentary about radical social change inspired by classical music. The film follows a group of directors from the internationally-acclaimed “New Brunswick Youth Orchestra” as they explore how Venezuela has developed the world’s leading social program that today exports more classical musicians than anywhere on the planet. (“Best Overall Pilot” at the Banff World Television Festival). The NBYO board of directors become inspired to roll out a similar music program in New Brunswick. Sistema New Brunswick is now in its third successful year and has inspired hundreds of children from all backgrounds to learn classical music daily and become strong global citizens.
Executive Producer and director Greg Hemmings is proud to be able to share this story. “This film truly documents a New Brunswick success story, the first Sistema-branded program in Canada. As a filmmaker I was very fortunate to film this story, one that began as an idea in the mind of one man, to reality, and in such a brief period of time. “
“What we saw in Venezuela compelled us to act” said Ken MacLeod, President of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra”. “Through music, the children transported us and themselves into a new dimension –where the barrio released its hold, where anything is possible, where the power of their own accomplishments was tangible. Just by learning to play music together. Who wouldn’t want that for all our children?”
This story has caught the attention of thought leaders across the country.
MeashaBrueggergosman, internationally acclaimed Soprano: “Music has tremendous power, both to shape us and to call us forward. Sistema New Brunswick provides children every opportunity to fulfill their potential by harnessing this power.”
Frank McKenna, Former Premier of New Brunswick: “Three years ago it was just a good idea. Today it is the beginning of a revolution…a story of change and hope for children who are often left out, and of vision and leadership from one of Canada’s smaller provinces.”
Mary Walsh, award winning actress, comedian and social activist: “I was so moved by Sistema and the approach to fighting poverty and creating beauty in the world.”
This week MCA from the Beastie Boys died. This week I watched the Bob Marley movie. This week I re-watched our documentary about Jack Kerouac. This week I have been thinking a lot about Legends. Hope you enjoy my post and my props to three of my heros. (You can watch our Kerouac documentary at the bottom of this blog, its an oldie, but still lots of fun to watch!)
Bob Marley died May 11th, 1981 at the age of 36. I was four years old. I just watched the new Kevin MacDonald film about Bob’s life and death. The film is called “Marley” and it was power.
The man lived a life of love and made music that makes my heart smile. Bob’s music is holy to me, and his message of unity and respect parallels my foundation. The one word that I use most in my personal life and business interactions is the word RESPECT. Living a life centered on respect and gratitude equals a blessed life. Bob was a freedom fighter without violence, he was a peaceful warrior and he has influenced me more than any other pop culture icon. I have seen his sons Ziggy, Damian and Stephen play different live shows in the past, I have also been fortunate enough to see the Wailers play as well, but I never had a chance to see Bob. Bob is ageless and will always be alive with us through his music and his message. Bob is legend.
Adam Yauch, also known as MCA from the Beastie Boys just died on Friday, May 4th at the age of 47. The Beastie Boys formed in 1979, I was two years old. I remember my brother Mark Hemmings bringing the License to Ill tape into my room in 1985 telling me that I had to hear this rap band that was made up of three white guys…something unheard of in the early days of hip hop. I remember the first B-Boys lyrics I heard, “I did it like this, I did it like that, I did it with a whiffle ball bat…” My best friend Mike and I would listen to that album non stop. Back in those days my ghetto blaster had a steady rotation of Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, and the Beasties. Adam has been a legend in my mind since the day I first heard that tape. What sort of legend will he be to kids who are too young now to have heard the Beastie Boys? When they are old enough to hear MCA rapping “Girls” are they going to think about him as a legend in an age far long passed by? I think that about Bob Marley, even though I was alive for the last four years of Bob’s life I wasn’t touched by his music until my twenties. By that time he was long gone, engraved into history as true legend. But when I see his family members, and his x-band mates play in the flesh I am reminded that Bob was with us not that long ago, and yes…he was just a guy. He was an amazing guy with vision, discipline and faith, and now he has inspired millions of people to live one love. Adam Yauch, like Bob Marley, is legend.
The closest to a legend I have ever been able to step into is the life of those close to Jack Kerouac. Jack created legend via his words and his inspired adventures. Despite a sad and troubled soul, Jack’s writings inspired millions of people to live free. I know I am not alone when I say that the book “On the Road” was foundational in my trajectory. My good friend and folk singer/songwriter Brent Mason and I travelled to Lowell Massachusetts, Jack’s birth place, to film a documentary for CBC called “Grave Concerns.” We visited Jack’s home where he was born, the school and library where he built his love for words, the diner he ate at and the pub he drank his liquids, and ultimately we ended up at Jack’s grave to pay our respects. Here is a link to a Postcard I wrote for the Telegraph Journal about going to Jack’s birth home.
One of the most significant interviews we had was with Jack’s good friend and bodyguard Billy Koumantzelis. Billy invited us into his living room and told us all the stories of Jack, as if we had known him for years. Billy in fact is featured on a spoken word CD called “On the Lowell Beat: My Times with Jack Kerouac”. The CD is a compilation of Billy’s memories of Jack. (You can get this CD HERE.)
Why did I write this post? I think it’s because I ponder often the question -what makes legend? Is it our work? Is it our actions? Our Love? Legend is a heightened attractiveness of relationships. Legend is created by the telling, sharing and perpetuation stories. Stories are music, art, words, dance, sport…film!
Brent and I had the honour to see the actual manuscript that Jack Kerouac wrote for On the Road. That string of taped-together 8.5”X 11” type paper is truly the most legendary and influential collection of words that I have ever witnessed. We made a film about it. Hope you enjoy! Please share this film, we made it quite a few years ago now, but that’s what building legend is all about. Being able to participate in the perpetuation of Kerouac’s legacy of Kerouac is one small sliver of Brent and my legend.
What the what! Why is the Hogg family spray-painting Xs all over my beloved Acamac house façade! …Wait a minute…this feels like the work of none other than…
“COWBOY X!”
“Gasp!” gasps the crowd in unison…
The Hogg Family "bombs" my house in Acamac with the letter X
Do you remember Cowboy X? He was the lone rebel who crisscrossed the mid west with a branding iron in the shape of an X, and with that X-shaped branding iron he made his mark, the mark of an X on anything, everything, and anyone within branding reach!
NARRATOR
In the early days of the West, the peaceful town of Sniddler’s Gulch was threatened by one of the meanest desparados of all time, Cowboy X, a man who left his mark everywhere!
CITIZEN
“Its Cowboy X!”
COWBOY X
“Letter X! Letter X! Yipee!!!”
Cowboy X left X’s everywhere – on the houses, on the streets, in the schoolhouse, X’s on the horses, X’s on the town hall, even on the good citizens of Sniddler’s Gulch themselves!
COWBOY X (in the distance)
“X! X! Yipeeee!”
Cowboy X Rides off, leaving a trail of X’s
The citizens finally decided that Cowboy X had to be stopped.
MAN 1
“Throw him in jail!”
Man 2
“Run him out of town!”
Little Boy (crowd dies down)
“Wait, what if we just ASK Cowboy X to please stop marking up our town with X’s?”
Man 3
“The kid’s got an idea!”
Man 4
“It’s so crazy it might work.”
Woman
“Here comes Cowboy X now”
Cowboy X
“X! Woohoo! X! Yiiiiiipee — X!”
(Cowboy X screeches his horse to a halt and stamps an X on the boy’s hat.)
Little Boy
“Cowboy X, would you please stop marking X’s all over our town?”
Cowboy X
“Why, sure ah’ll stop! (laughs)”
Town
“Aaaaahhhhh!”
“Cowboy X”
“ From now on, ah’ll be known as Cowboy O! (horse neighs) Yiiiipeeeee!!!”
(Rides off, leaving O’s all over the place.)
NARRATOR
“And the citizens of Sniddler’s Gultch lived happily ever, because they really weren’t very smart!”
Yes Cowboy X is the same Cowboy X from Sesame Street circa 1982. “Man I remember Cowboy X like it was yesterday, dang that was 30 dog gone years ago!” I think to myself as I take a shwolley of cloudy tequila, in that Arizona / New Mexico / Southern California sort of way.
So why the blast to the past? And why are Mary, Jim and Pam Hogg spray painting on my house?
Well it goes right back to my impressionable days when I lived on the East Side of the Surf City. I was five years old. I just watched the cowboy X animated short on Sesame Street and I WAS STOKED!!! I went into my dad’s workshop in the basement of 97 Bob Accord Drive and grabbed a bottle of spray paint, fastened my Velcro New Balance sneaks and my Montreal Expos baseball hat, cruised outside and started tagging my neighborhood! I painted Xs on the driveway, on the curb, on the big green metal box that covers a neighborhood’s electrical gack…I painted the letter X wherever I could!
“Oh well whadowehaaaa-ve here son? Is that a 28 ft. Prowler camper trailer? I reckon it’s a big ole Cow that needs-a-brandin’!”
I said out loud to myself as I spit my chewin’ gum on the ground pretendin’ it was tobbaccie.
I saw Pam Hogg across the street on her driveway learning how to ride her bike. I immediately ran over to Pam and told her that my name was cowboy X and I just finished a world tour branding everything in sight with the letter X. She didn’t believe me.
“Pam, I can prove it to you…follow me!” I grabbed her arm and encouraged her to walk to the back of her house. I pulled out the can of black spray paint and said with full conviction, “Only a real cowboy would know how to brand a house!”. And brand a house I did. I sprayed a big ole’ letter “X” on the yellow vinyl siding of Pam’s house.
I got grounded.
The cool thing was though that my punishment was that I was not allowed to go anywhere else on the street accept my driveway and Pam’s driveway. I kind never really went anywhere else anyway so I felt it was a pretty awesome punishment. Thanks mom and dad for being so nice to your graffiti terrorist son!
So it was my momma’s birthday a few weeks ago. Pam and her parents Jim and Mary joined about 40 other of my mom’s friends to my house in Acamac. As soon as I saw them, my brother Mark and I reminded them of this story and Mark took the photo. I believe now that justice has been served in the Wild West…the Wild West Saint John.
WARNING: There are a lot of early nineties video references here!
Mark Twain penned the quote “Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.” Dang! Now that’s motivating! This quote popped into my life back in the days when I would travel coast to coast seeing live bands like Phish, String Cheese, the Dead and Keller Williams. You would see that quote everywhere on bumper stickers, T-shirts, Posters…hey, lets just check out this great “Eyes if the World” cover by Keller Williams…looks like theres lots of dancin’ folks at the Gathering of The Vibes who aren’t scared….
As I researched this quote I saw this awesome video of a dude who awkwardly dances in countries all around the world spreading the same message, this video is fantastic!
Why am I blogging about this quote? Well let’s face it, I’m a dork…I always have been and always will be. In high school when most people were getting drunk or stoned, my buddies and I were building tree houses, camping or raising money to get us to the next Boy Scout jamboree. My friends and I were never in the world of the “cool kids” but I gotta tell you, we had an adventurous life that was the foundation of who we are all today. Sure we found ourselves in trouble a few times breaking in and spray painting the old General Hospital, lighting an ice chunk on fire under the bridge in Alma and sending it to sea a-blazin’, or spraying synthetic “fart spray” in Jumbo Video…fart spray purchased at the ole “It Store”…remember that place? I remember the It Store as well as A&A Records in Market Square where a large cut out of Bart Simpson stood at the entrance with a shirt on him that said “Eat My Shorts”…which back then was pretty edgy for television…maybe Family Guy should do a spoof on how bad ass we used to think the Simpsons were…I’m going to tweet Seth tonight.
My self-proclaimed dorkiness takes me back to grade 7, Lorne Junior High…my first dance. I went to elementary with most of the kids in my new Junior High, and I know for a fact that we didn’t take any pop-dance classes at M. Gerald Teed elementary school…the closest thing to learning how to dance was Mrs. Labortay’s square dance class. I hated that class because back in those days (1985-1989) teachers had the choice to teach their homeroom class either gym, soccer, or flippin’ square dancing! Are you kidding me? So all the kids who ended up being sports stars in junior and senior high came from the other homeroom class who learned how to play soccer, baseball, and track. Me? No sports, just square dancing. You would think that there would be a batch of square heads coming out of my class, well I guess that is what I am getting at. Now that I live in a world of Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” I am very conscious about the critical paths that are set for adults with the opportunities given to them in elementary school.
All this is to take us to the first dance at Lorne Junior High, and to pick up on my thought of “where did all the skilled dancers come from if all we ever learned was the Hokey Pokey? I walked into the gym; Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing” was playing.
Most of the girls were in a circle together and the boys either hung out on the bench or made circles of their own. Except my buddies Matt and Jay. These boys had no issues wondering into the middle of the gym and penetrating a circle of giggling girls impressed at their forthrightness. I watched and studied as Matt and Jay slapped high fives, did the arm worm AND the worm you do on the floor, back spins and crazy scissor jumps, flips and twirls that actually looks quite choreographed. Yeah, I was impressed. I have never had any social anxieties, I was a well-liked kid and I wanted to always try new things. So when Salt n’ Peppa’s “Push it” came on, I told my boys that “I’m goin’ in!”
My lanky legs and perfectly brushed hair complimented well my neon green Sun Ice windbreaker and neon pink green and yellow Oakley sunglasses (…at night, thanks Corey Hart).
So I manage to elbow my way through the gaggle of girls to see Matt and Jay on the ground, one arm on the floor, the other up in the air palm fisting with a look on their faces as if they were saying “yeeeeeeeeah!!!” in a freeze frame sort of facial way. “How the heck do they know how to do the “Push It”? They even have the pelvic thrusts exactly how I would see it on Video Hits…oh where are you now Samantha Taylor? I LOVED YOU!!!”
So picture, like I said earlier, a GAGGLE of girls with crimped hair and New Kids on the Block T-Shirts (whoa, they are still together!) and big hooped ear rings…yeah you get the picture as long as you were born before 1982. All girls in a circle, and Matt and Jay getting all the praise and attention of the chickitas…”what do I have to loose?” I said to myself. I jumped in. I jumped way in! I watched how they were doing the pelvic thrust, and I did it, and I did the worm (both arm and belly ones) and I even pulled out the moonwalk. I was IN LIKE FLYNN! The cool kids played baseball, wore jogging pants with socks that went pretty much up to their knees…and they knew how to dance to pop songs. Still to this day I don’t know where they learned their moves in grade seven, in an era with no internet at home, and no Youtube! Suffice it to say I thought I was now a cool kid, hey I stepped out and tore that floor a new…um, anyway…I killed in, or so I thought. The night ended, I went over to Matt and Jay and slapped their palms, Jay said “This night was Rad”. Matt Replied “Tubular”. I followed with “9-1-1’s a Joke Boy-eeeee” and made a symbol like clock on my chest doing the best Flava Flav impression. I think they weren’t listening to Public Enemy at that time, as they had no idea what I was referencing. Nonetheless I felt pretty awesome.
The next day came, and word came down loud and clear that my dancing sucked. The whole school was talking about it. The only thing that seemed to impress when I asked my lifelong friend Jenny was my worm.” Greg your Push It was weak, your big sneakers have too much grip to do the moon walk right, but I guess your worm was ok.” “Thanks Jenny!”, I buried my crushed dreams of dance under a smile excitement that maybe I will be a good break-dancer instead. “If I worked on my worm…I could even go to Sobey’s and get an extra big cardboard box to practice on…which I did.
You know what happened at the next dance? I didn’t take the plunge and walk away from my boys at the bench, I didn’t penetrate the gaggle circle, nor did I try the Push-It, the Moonwalk, or even the Worm. Instead I decided to put off dancing for the rest of my school career. I ended up never liking dancing, well until I started going to live concerts and music festivals where you were safe in a sea of other people who were dancing like no one was watching, which was the truth. Yeah I found my way again with the Grateful Dead Shuffle, the hippy 360 twirl, and Hula Hoopin’. But it took until my mid twenties to realize that my body needs to move baby! Music is my life, and if it makes me move I gots to move!
Lessons Learned:
1) Don’t believe the hype (Thanks Public Enemy)
2) But believe in yourself (Thanks Lenny Kravitz)
3) And Dance Muther Fu*ker Dance! (Thanks Violent Femmes)
So why all this blogginess about my Junior High insecurities and the long-term effects of how it led me to be a hippy hula hooper? Well it goes back to my original blog post about my trip to Colombia for my beautiful friend Adriana’s wedding and the mockumentary web series that I experimented with and had insecurities about releasing. After much debate with great critics, I decided to release my unfinished work. Why? Well if you read the previous blogs you would realize that my hard drive got stolen and the only version of this 3 part web series is what you are about to watch. The sound mix is actually HORRIBLE in this episode, it does kind of pain me to show it, but hey “Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; and screen unfinished video experiments that document you bustin’ your ass off dancing pool side at your friends wedding”.
This completes my little three-part blog about believing in your creative outputs in all stages and forms. And also having the balls to stand naked in front of a world of critics, haters, supporters and lovers!
To Adriana:
I hope this has been an interesting wedding video experience for you! It was such an honor to be at your wedding and thanks for letting Tidby and I film ourselves being goofs for this. I love you guys!
In Colombia Postcards part 1 I rambled on and on about my desire to release fun experiments in video, even if the production quality isn’t up to my standards. My angle on it still is that if it’s a good story, then share it. I feel it is worse if you have high gloss and no story. The postcards from Colombia were literally made up on the spot and in the edit suite with a bottle of wine and a smile for the love I have for my dear friend Adrianna whose wedding I was there to celebrate.
Beautiful Adrianna and a sunburnt "Grey Hemmins"
I used the Nikon D-90 with its audio limitations and rolling shutter issues to shoot this 3-part mini web experiment. I want people to be inspired to make movies, even if all they have is a smart phone or a flip camera. These days we all have access to free video editing software, what a great way to tell stories.
Mike McDonald, Derek Riedle, Lauchlan and I were in Venice Beach last week filming for our CBC documentary “Save the Paramount” (yes that’s a working title). While we were there we screened my film Sistema Revolution at a beautiful theater in Santa Monica. The people there were so engaged, the Q&A lasted close to 40 minutes inside the theater and in the lobby…it was rad. Yet another great lesson, out little regional stories from New Brunswick Canada can and will engage audiences all around the world, even in the cinema central of Los Angeles.
One of the ladies in the audience approached me after the screening and asked if I could speak at her high school class the next day, of course I said yes…how rad is that. The next day comes and I have some business to take care of during the class, plus I needed to get in the water for a SUP session at that was my window of opportunity. I end up sending Lauchlan and Mikey to inspire the class with stories of Sistema and the Paramount Theater projects.
Lauchlan started the presentation with “How many of you want to make movies?”, all of the hands rise into the air. “How many of you actually go out and shoot movies?”. Hardly any hands rise up. “How many of you have an iPhone or a smartphone with a video camera in it?” All of the hands go up again. “Then why aren’t you making movies? You have all the tools in your pocket…remember it’s all about story!”
Lauchlan has it right, story first, production value second.
As Lock and Mikey are rocking the high school class I end up getting chased by dolphins, which I was convinced were actually sharks. Yes I freaked myself out to the point where I wiped out right on top of a flippin’ dolphin, no shizzah, true story.
"Is that a shark behind me?
"I still think thats a shark fin, I may as wel bail"
"I just landed on top of a dolphin, it wasn't a shark, but I still landed on a dolphin"
At the bottom of this post is my part two of the Postcards from Colombia. Let me know if you want to see the last episode, despite the fact that my hard drive got stolen before I had the chance to do a proper sound edit and colour correction…”wait a minute Hemmings”, I say to myself in 3rd person POV, “It’s all about story Ma-Fa-Ah”, Mike McDonald (a.k.a Mig MagDonnel) would and could respond with “C’mon Grey Hemmins!” as he flicks the tender part of my ear lobe making it red and painful like frostbite.
That being said, my man and Fredericton filmmaker Tim Rayne without knowing it really challenged me in the comments section of the “Part One” blog post. Tim had great insight on creativity when it comes to trust, sharing, and the difference between creativity and art as a finished product. Hey, why don’t I do the ole’ cut and paste and let you check out the Rayne’s reigning rain of perspective, Thanks Tim for this brother…
“Like you, I value trust, honesty, and loyalty among my friends above all. There are two areas I want to discuss from your article.
1. The issue of sharing creative content.
2. Dealing with criticism.
1. In an age of social media we have blurred the lines between the personal and the professional. It is my opinion that we need to have healthy distinctions between these two things in order to have a healthy perspective on what is YOURS and what is THEIRS (public). Therefore, intimacy is only shared with those who deserve your passion, which is creativity. Creativity is the window to the soul and is very special so passion projects should only be shared to those who would appreciate it. Not everything should go online…it’s not about whether it is good or bad….it is about who deserves to see it. I think in the age of online content you have to protect your intellectual property to a point. The intellectual property is your business Greg. You have many friends, like me, who would gladly share creative energy and ideas with you but not everyone deserves that closeness. I know that for me I am very selective with whom I share my creative process with. Your friends can appreciate anything you do, but people who don’t know you will not understand passion projects necessarily. My art is for everyone, my creativity is for me.
2. Creative feedback is crucial for professional and personal growth. However, I have learned to be confident in myself. So, at the end of the day I take suggestions and criticism that I believe contributes to my end goal and live with it…good or bad. Also, always take a few hours or days to reflect on the criticism…don’t react to it. I love when people challenge me because it causes me to really evaluate my own perspective. We all react emotionally, we are artists and that is in our nature. If you feel hurt, it’s not because of what they said; it is how you take it that. It’s personal growth.”
Yeah Tim!!! Thanks for that man. When re-reading my first blog post you can feel my insecurity in my defense! Brilliant.
“Where are you headed to?”, asked the lifeless customs agent at Toronto Pearson. “Los Angeles, I am screening one of my films and am producing a documentary, here are my papers from the CBC to back my claims!”. The agent looked very uninterested and under her breath said something like “hrunnehndnne njwdj”. She mumbled some more and waves her hand in a “get outta here would ya?” sort of way. I look over at the other custom terminal and see Mike McDonald with his 1930’s salt n’ pepper hat laughing and carrying on with his agent. His agent was enchanted. I heard his custom agent say “So your in the TV Business! Well what do ya know, I was the first paratrooper to drop into Granada, and that landed me a spot on a History Channel show…have you seen it?”. Mike responded with a laugh and a high five, they were pretty much best friends at this point. Maybe its Mikes tattoos, maybe it’s his skull ring, or maybe it’s that brown leather suit case that enchants…
Mike and his killer hat
I look the other way and Lauchlan is getting the rubber glove treatment at his customs agent. We just got the Canon C-300 last night from our friends at EquiFilm, this camera is a piece of art, the body alone costs more than 20 thousand dollars, and it is a sweet ride! The “sick of being kind” American customs agent waved two fingers at me and motioned me to come over, looked like Lauchlan was in trouble. “What seems to be the matter?” I ask. “Where’s your Carnet?”. I look at her with deer in the headlight eyes…I literally say the word DANG. “Dang Ma’am, I completely forgot to get a Carnet fro this one piece of gear.” A Carnet is a piece of paper certifying that you own a piece of equipment going into the US and that you are not going to sell it whilst in the land of the free.
The sweet ass C-300
The prowling and self entitled customs agent says to me, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere with that camera without a Carnet. Go to the secondary screening room.” I smile and say thanks. I see Mike leave the customs areas and proceed through security without us, he thought we were ahead of him. I called Mike to tell him that Lauchlan needs to get the “N’th” degree, but Mikey’s phone was dead. I walk into the rubber glove area with Lauchlan, the thick necked interrogator yells at me telling me that I should not be back there, it’s Lauchlan they want, and Lauchlan only. “Can I stay in case Lauchlan has issues?”, “GET OUT!”. “ummmm, ok! Peace be with you kind sir.”
Meanwhile Mike gets to the gate thinking that Lauchlan and I are waiting for him on the plane, his phone is dead, how would he know any different. I pull out my phone to try Mike once again and three “thick necks” come running over to me with hands on weapons and very important looks on their faces, “PUT THAT CELL PHONE DOWN!”. I responded once again with my clever “ummmm, ok!” and then proceed to the Air Canada pre security baggage counter.
Meanwhile Mike finds a plug, he gets down on his knees, under a payphone, plugs in his cell, and continues to say a prayer “God, get the boyz on this plane…amen”. The announcer comes on the speaker “Last call for Toronto to LAX, board now or forever hold your peace.” Mike is now tethered to his trickle charge socket pod and now he can’t get onto the plane. His Samsung Galaxy needs time to charge up before he can send me a text, which he did saying “Hemmins…talk to me? Where you at boyeee? I’m not getting on this plane without you boyz!” Take note that Mike has dropped the letter “G” from my last name.
I now have the Air Canada gals engaged to help me out. They now know that Lauchlan is on the outside and needs to find a place to ditch our new, and very expensive Canon C-300. They get into gear. I call Lauchlan on his cell phone and tell him to go immediately to the Air Canada counter to get help. He does, but help was nowhere to be found. The Air Canada ladies on my end were angels, the Air Canada lady on lauchlan’s end was working for the dark side. For some reason she would not help Lauchlan, when I asked Lauchlan to ask her to call my Air Canada angels she refused. She used some sort of beurocratic cop-out saying that she wasn’t allowed to talk on the phone…say what? I am talking to Lock in one ear and talking to my Air Canada angels in person, “Looks like your colleague does not want to help my friend, is there anything you can do?” I bat my lashes.
Meanwhile, Mikey is working the boarding desk, “how long can I hold up this plane?” The nice lady responds, “Are you really using those words….hold up a place? C’mon!….just screwin with ya…” Mike responds saying that he will not board the plane until his brothers arrive, at the end of the day I am sure he would get on without us, that is what I would have wanted.
Lauchlan is getting nowhere with Air Canada woman who has obviously had a bad day. I get on the phone with him and say “RUN!!!!!” I told him to run to the luggage store that actually has lockers that you can store stuff in. I had to ask 5 people before I found out that this service existed. You would think that the customs agent who was bullying Lauchlan would have enough class to at least tell him that he could store his gear at a place like this within the airport. Lauchlan gets to the storage, takes out our lenses and our media knowing full well that I had our backup camera the Canon 5D with me as my carry on.
I am now in a line up that is 4 feet of molasses, yes very hard to wade through. I hear the final boarding call for LAX. I call Lauchlan and ask him if he thinks I should stay with him or go. He told me to go because we are screening our films in Santa Monica tomorrow morning, one of us has to be there to represent. So I go forth, bad feeling in my stomach that Lock won’t make it. I slowly go through security. I take my shoes and belt off. The X-ray scanner didn’t like my adjustable wrench. The customs guy started to grill me about the wrench, I promptly said “Hey, I really don’t care about my wrench, please, you keep it, the longer we talk about it the less chance I have of making my flight. He kept my wrench. It’s no large than the length of my thumb, but I guess in a culture of fear we need to surrender any bright and shiny objects that have adjustable features on them.
I run, I run I run, I sweat, I pant, speaking of my pant they are half way down my legs, my belt is around my neck, my computer case is wide open and I lost myself in flight. The hallway turned into the tarmac and I took flight and floated above the clouds racing at hyper speed through the solar system. Mike come running out into the hallway at 120 frames a second, full slow motion, he looked like he was right out of Baraka. In slow and deep pitch voice he yells, “C-A—M—ON!!!!!!!! They are closing the DOOOOOOOOOOOOORS!” I ran and leapt into Mike’s embrace…actually I didn’t do that, but I did run up to the counter and threaded my belt as I came for a landing.
Lauchlan sends a text to our sound engineer Tim, who also used to be a minister of the Saint John Vineyard, which is the church that I attend when I can. He writes “Tim, say a prayer for me, I’m having customs troubles and I think I’m gonna miss my flight”. Meanwhile Mike and I get onto the plane after remarking to the nice Air Canada crew and staff about how unkind the US customs officers were and how they were probably bullies when they were little. Mike and I grab a seat, I am sweating rivers. I pick up my phone and send Jessica my wife a text saying “babes, say a prayer that Lauchlan makes it”. Mike is texting Derek Riedle who is already in LA waiting for us. “Derek, Lauchlan aint gonna make it, Hemmings just got on plane, but we have no camera operator…start reading up!”
Mike and I are calmly freaking ion our seats, the plane doors have shut…Lock is on his own now and we now do not have a C-300 to shoot with. The Air Canada steward comes over and says that he thinks there is a 10% chance of Lauchlan making it.
Lauchlan runs back to customs and gets to the front of the Nexus line. He shows his bag tags, but he actually had my tags, not his. So to get his bags off the plane (this is because he has now been told that he won’t be making the flight) they have to delay the flight and loo for his bags. BUT this extra time gives Lauchlan the time to run and see if he can make it on time. As the Air Canada folks look for Lock’s bags he makes it through security and to the closed gates. The gatekeepers where expecting him and gave him a round of applause. They open the plane door, call down to cancel the bag search, and let him on the plane.
He comes, completely devoid of oxygen, running down the airplane aisle with his wave locks bouncing up and down like the boys on the beach on Chariots of Fire, only less relaxed. Mike and I jump up like giddy little girls and SCREAM!!! “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” High fived were had, tears were sheds, and Praise and Thanks to the Most High was proclaimed!
R.I.P Biggie…..
Lessons learned.
To let your brain work a million miles a second in moments of crises, you must stay calm and laugh at the insanity. It’s the “triple C” as Mike McDonald says – Calm, Cool, Collected. It will always see you through. And don’t forget to say thanks when a prayer is answered. LA, we are now ready…
Me reading the Telegraph Journal article in the mountains outside Bogota
I have an idea about creativity that does not always fit in alignment with the standards of creative based business. I marvel at people’s creativity on a daily bases. When you work in a creative business, you always want to put your best foot forward and showcase only the best work. I do certainly agree with that sentiment, but I also believe that we should never suppress creative expression out of the fear the fear of external judgments. Those of us who run creative businesses in creative industries should be concerned about production value and quality of content. But every once in a while in the spirit of authentic creative energy we need to showcase the raw product.
I was in Colombia for a wedding with my good pal Tidby. Tidby and I go way back, we went to Film school at Niagara College in 1996 for a few years, we were in business for a few years together, and we have travelled the globe together. We were recently in Colombia for a wedding for a good friend of ours named Adrianna Montoya. Of course we brought some form of camera with us, and as is typical, we filmed ridiculous segments of our adventures. I had my Nikon D90 DSLR camera that produces decent video, but the audio is horrible. But because it was there, I wanted to use it. So I started filming our adventure. Sure it was raw it… was hand held, and the sound sucked…but we were having fun. I made up a storyline that Tidby and I were actually in Colombia for business and we found out about a wedding and we decided to crash it.
When we got back to Canada I decided to edit the footage together into three small episodes for the web. I asked my good voice-man Shawn Jolemore to narrate the videos and I had a great ole laugh. You know what…it was just fun to put together a story from random video clips, it was funny to make up a storyline in the edit suite, it was fantastic just being creative for the sake of being creative.
I shared the videos with my team at Hemmings House. The episodes caused great debate. My brother Mark thought they were great, and that means a lot…I love it when I can impress my older brother with a bit of humor that I developed based on his inoculating me with Monty Python and Kids in the Hall growing up. But Mark was the only one who liked my little episodes in the Colombian jungle sierras. Some folks said that I shouldn’t share them because the production quality was so bad, others thought my story line was lame, one person thought my acting was the pits, and one suggested that clients should never see this as it is so sub par that it would hurt the solid ole Hemmings House brand.
I took everyone’s comments and feedback seriously and with great thanks. I rely on my team to always keep me accountable, and always be honest…and that’s what I love about them all. That being said I feel like I let my creative mojo get hurt…only just a bit though…ha ha. I felt like it should be ok for me as a professional filmmaker to be able to experiment with stream of conscious ideas, experiment with poor footage, just jam out…but I didn’t. I shelved it! I stopped tweaking the videos, I decided not to finish the sound edit, I decided to wrap my little creative firework into an explosion-resistant fire blanket and bury it at the bottom of the Reversing Falls Rapids. Sadly after a trip from Halifax to New Brunswick our house got robbed and my hard drive with the original project media was stolen, DOH! It was not meant to be!!! “It’s all good Hemmings!” I said to myself out loud after giving my statement to the police officer. “At the very least it was fun to sit in front of your Avid and edit shizzah together with no plan, no client, no expectations…good practice ole boy, great effort!”
The other day I was going through the Hemmings House Vimeo Channel and I found some older edits of my three episodes. Despite the poor audio, no sound mix, bad camera work and awkward acting; I took the protective password off the first of three episodes. LIBERATION! I am going to share the first episode of my web mini series called “The Postcards”. The vision as I put these together would be to film other mocumentary web episodes at locations around the world while we are shooting real productions for other clients or broadcasters. It would be a show about a bunch of creative production people and the bizarre adventures they would find themselves in. Maybe it can still happen.
Hey if you like this episode, or if you think it is a colossal waste of time, but you still want to see more (kind of like a car accident type of thing) then let me know in the comments, share this blog with others, post it on your Facebook…if people want to see more I will take the passwords of others! I have A LOT of old creative attempts that I want to share. Hey if you want to see our polished stuff, turn on the TV, go to the Hemmings House website…but lets start sharing our sketches as a creative community, polished and rough alike. This is kind of the movement we are creating with #Storyglass – authentic creativity.
My lessons learned here are the following:
Always ask and listen to your trusted friends about your creative popcorn kernels, make rational decisions based on them along with your own gut instinct.
Never let good honest feedback tear out your passion. Take it or leave it, you need to be strong to create and tear down, you need to be strong to create and get kicked down, you need to be strong to create and stand up. How do you stay strong? You practice with all of your might be doing it over and over and over again, keep trying and experimenting.
Never loose confidence in what you have created; we are creative beings with not only a desire, but a NEED TO PRODUCE creative out-pouring.
Be authentic and be real with creativity and creations, share share share…discuss, learn, grow.
Check it out! “The Postcards” Episode one – A work not in progress…
In this episode, lifetime best frienemies Titters and Hemmington bicker their way to a wedding in Colombia.
