Frozen Lake

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I spent the first 16 years of my life living about a block away from this park, on the edge of Lake Minnetonka, in a small town/upper-middle class suburb named "Excelsior," about 25 minutes west of Minneapolis.

I don't remember a single December without at least a few inches of snow until 1998, when I came back from college for the first time to gray trees and bare, dead grass. These days, we're lucky if we get a few good snowstorms per year, and the accumulation, as often as not, melts within days.

Happy new year, friends. Video haiku was an important part of my 2006, and I'm very happy to have recorded the year, and to have shared it with you.

Iceland Air

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After several hours of waiting on the runway due to high winds, the de-icing vehicle finally came around and prepped us for takeoff from Reykjavik, in December of 2006.

Place Pigalle

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Waiting for someone (I forget who) on a streetcorner, after Michaël's birthday dinner, in Paris in October of 2006.

Winter Highway

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The first of probably several attempts to capture the bleak beauty of driving in winter, in Minnesota in December of 2006.

Tricky and potentially dangerous, driving a stick shift while attempting to steer and hold the camera at the same time, but I am a trained professional.

Paris Bus

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I've been shooting from the hip more and more lately, recording without looking too closely at my exact frame. This introduces an element of chance and a fluidity to the video that I enjoy. But let me know if it gets annoying.

Commuting through Montreuil, on the eastern edge of Paris, in December of 2006.

Playground

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The compression is pretty severe in this one, because there's so much going on, and so much detail.

Slightly longer than 2 minutes, because I couldn't find a part I was willing to cut.

Shot in the Tuileries, in Paris in November of 2006.

Camera Phones

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A lot of wine, plus nifty consumer electronics, equals a typical evening of socializing for young folks in Paris, in November of 2006.

Boucherie

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A rainy night on Rue Montorgueil, in Paris in December of 2006. Michaël makes an appearance; I was waiting for him but I didn't expect him to walk into the shot.

Café Nemours

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Spying on a neighboring table at one of my preferred cafés, near Palais Royal in Paris in November of 2006.

TV and Heroin

An excerpt from an interview with my good friend Hillel, presented in three acts, the chemical dependency element neatly framed by his experiences working in and living with television.

De Lorenzo would be proud, Hillel.

Other episodes in the Life After Film School series are here and here.

Filmed in Los Angeles in May of 2006. Eight minutes long, another flagrant violation of videohaiku self-imposed rule A.

Biking in Paris

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Navigating Place Rostand, in November of 2006.

This footage is a little bit rough, but I've been trying for months to capture a biker's view of Paris. Finally, I was in the right place, at the right time of day, and the pavement wasn't too bumpy. Cobblestones and video cameras don't get along...