At BCIT we produce a half-hour news program that airs on Shaw cable: BCIT Magazine, also referred to as "the Mag".
Unfortunately, I hit quite a few snags during the three week Mag rotation. On two separate shoots the cameras broke down!! Both times the colour chips came loose so that the camera would only register a yellow/green tone! What are the chances of that?!
Much to my dismay, I lost an entire story because of it. But thankfully on the other shoot, we got the most important elements before the breakdown. In the end, the shooter/editor and I managed to make a half-decent story out of it (phew). Both incidents were excellent exercises in patience and learning when to just roll with the punches....
The Abolition Coalition
My first assignment was breaking news. A shooter and I went to cover a press conference for the Abolition Coalition. The AC is a coalition of various women's groups who have joined forces to abolish the criminalization of prostitution for prostitutes, but are in favor of strong punishment for buyers of sex. The coalition was formed ahead of two Canadian court cases the group says will use the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to argue for the decriminalization of the sex trade. The decriminalization of prostitution is a common argument, so sex trade workers can do their work safely. But the Abolition Coalition maintains that prostitution itself is violence against women- we can not make violence safer; decriminalization does nothing for the equality of women.
From a story-telling perspective, press conferences can be tricky to shoot. You need a lot of cutaways to make something visually interesting out of a bunch of people sitting at a table talking...! To make my story better, I approached one of the members after the conference, Trisha Baptie, and asked if she would be interested in talking to us some more. Baptie is a former sex trade worker who is now speaking out against the trade. She also covered the Pickton trial as a "citizen correspondent" for Orato.com
Baptie was very generous with her time. She took me down to the area she used to work and spoke to us some more about how much the abolition of prostitution means to her. It was very interesting meeting such a passionate person who is proof that anyone can turn their lives around if they choose to.
Housing Homeless
In the Downtown Eastside there are several old hotels being converted into single occupancy residences for homeless and low-income community members. We visited the Pender Hotel, which had just started renovations that week (beginning of October). It is amazing the work that goes into a project like this...and for such an important cause.
This was the day of all days. We had countless technical struggles, from the sungun not working to the camera breaking down completely. Despite the challenges, many things fell into place that made the story...most importantly, Victoria Majeski. Majeski is a formerly homeless woman who came on camera to tell us how important housing like this is.
War Resister
This was the story where I finally felt like I had left my Mag curse behind (no broken down cameras!). I had a great shooter, Natalie Collins. She had never shot a press conference before, but she took direction extremely well... whatever I asked for she got, and she did it with a technically and artistically keen eye (insert sigh of relief here). I co-edited it with Greg Stoddart, who did a great job too. The story itself is very interesting (and by that, I mean intrinsically, not my version of the story per se!).
Rodney Watson is a US Iraq war deserter who has been given sanctuary in a church; he is the first American soldier to have this distinction in Canada. He's been safely behind the Downtown Eastside church walls since September, to avoid deportation and imprisonment in the US. Watson has been living in Canada for 3 years, and left the US to avoid a second stint to Iraq. Watson says he fulfilled his contract with the US army and fundamentally does not agree with the war. He cites the fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction found in the middle eastern country, and didn't agree with the racial hatred toward Iraqis. Since living in Canada, Watson has had a son, and is engaged to be married.
The First United Church has the backing of several denominations and churches in the Vancouver area and they are prepared to house him for as long as it takes.
The shooter and editor for Abolition Coalition was Tyler Stockli.
My shooter and editor for Housing Homeless was Kris Wosnesensky.
My shooter for War Resister was Natalie Collins, and I co-edited with Greg Stoddart.
