Josh Hite and Flick Harrison mentored some volunteer photographers at the Vancouver Drawdown this past weekend – if you don’t know the event, it’s the first one ever, and the photos should explain it all.

There was a Chalk Drop at community centres around the city, and various free public drawing stations to draw dancers, paint with your bike (!) and draw on the sidewalk!

Join in next year!!!

Random Acts of Chalk

I’m mentoring photographers and shooting stills at the Vancouver Drawdown event this weekend with my main man Josh Hite! If you’re interested in learning to shoot photos and capture the moment, draw on the sidewalk with a bunch of cool artists, or draw live dancers, come on down!

I used to spend a lot of time doing behind-the-scenes documentaries on feature films.  Since I was working mostly for low-budget independents, the BTS stuff often dropped off the priority list – no one actually used the footage after I handed them the tapes.

But there’s a notable exception: Barry Levy’s The 40,000, which is a full-length documentary produced with footage I shot for his feature film Spook.  It’s about the 40,000 Canadians who served in Vietnam, either by being drafted for their dual citizenship (!) or by volunteering.  Spook is the dramatized version, and The 40,000 is the doc which illuminates the film.

I was fascinated while shooting, and now I’m transported back to that time by seeing the doc.  The real vietnam vet who narrates much of the doc has had his identity obscured to protect him.