Joy! A Short Film of a Seven Year Old's Winter Summit Hike and Scramble

If I were to roughly breakdown my videos into two types, entertainment and educational, it’s these “entertainment” videos that I find the most compelling through the production process. That isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy making the “educational” videos, it is just that the process of producing an educational video is very different than an entertainment video.

An educational video is a very “left-brained” activity. It is preplanned. I decide on a topic, write out a script - trying to balance the need to be concise with the need for doing justice to the nuance of the topic, and put together a shot list that matches the points I intend to make. The editing process, similarly, becomes somewhat mechanical, underscored by the need to match the shot to the intended voice over.

The entertainment videos are not at all preplanned. Sure, the outing I’m filming has a plan, but the video work has to be dependent upon the experiences of the outing. I don’t know what the mood of the adventure will be. Will we struggle? Will we talk a lot, or just little? What will the family take away from the trip once it is done? What am I feeling once it is over? And, then, music makes the mood, so the search for the right tone and beat comes next. Then, I have to match the footage to the beat along with the ebbs and flows of the energy in the music.

Of the two, the short films set to music and without instruction actually take longer to make. So much of it is a reaction to the trip vibe, the music’s delivery, the footage available, that there aren’t really any shortcuts.

And that is actually, perhaps not coincidentally, a great deal of what I like about being in the outdoors. I like the intellectual activity of making a trip plan designed to maximize the potential of achieving our objective. But, mostly, I like feeling the changes in conditions or energy level or mental focus throughout the day and, thus, making adjustments to what we are doing based on the actual experience, not necessarily the plan. Sure, the plan guides, but it can never dictate because I never have enough information to make a perfect plan from the comfort of my home office.

This need for adaptability, for me, is what puts me more in tune with nature. I have to listen to what the environment is telling me, contextualize it within how I (or my family) is feeling, and respond. And, so, it becomes a conversation, with both nature and I having something to contribute to the dialogue. Here in lies communion, then.

Communion is defined as “the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.” (Oxford English Dictionary) Well, it’s hard to be more intimate than wrestling with the internal demons of self-doubt and the counter-balancing desire to press forward. It’s hard to be more intimate than the physical experience of environment and its effect on our bodies and minds.

And like most intimate relationships, they can cause great sorrow and great joy, the experiences can peak. Maybe that’s why Connor can stand on the top of a spike of sandstone and feel such as a sense of both accomplishment and awe all at the same time.

The educational videos give something, clearly, back to the outdoors community; I get a lot out of attempting to be some sort of help. That’s why I do them. But maybe these entertainment videos are of some small help, too, just in a very different way?