Filmmaking has been a passion of mine equal-to-or-greater-than climbing. I prefer to shoot Super 8 film over digital for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is a “home” connection I feel to the medium. Harkens back to childhood and those things I remember about the film camera my Dad had. The projection screen, the projector, and the shows I used to put on using the film projector and the slide projector. Later I would play around with multiple VCRs chained together, figuring out how to mash-edit generation over generation on tape, the quality of each new dubbed over version a little bit grainier and fuzzy than the one before. Video cassette recorders took hold and consumer video cameras (VHS-C, 8mm, and beta!) became more affordable. Even editing became more-and-more achievable – with a little bit of inventiveness. But the roots of film never vanished for me. And when I rediscovered the JC Penny Sanyo Super 8 camera from my childhood days, and found some un-shot black and white super 8 film, and shot a test roll of some trains in Tulsa sometime in 2001, I was reconnected. I recall the train footage not turning out that great but it didn’t matter.
I say all of this to make a point about coming full-circle back to what you “know” and back to what you have connections to. Regardless of money, and time, and really even regardless of reason, there are those passions inherent to us that we shouldn’t let go of – and in essence – can’t let go of. But these are the things that makes our selves our self.
So I say, keep shooting film. Keep climbing. Keep writing. Keep doing art. Keep pursuing your goals, who you are and whatever it is that you contribute. Go for it.
Art On the Mother Road from Aaron Gibson on Vimeo.