James's Banff Page



		James's Banff Page
	Ahhh.... Banff... One of the most fantastic, inspiring, and beautiful places I've ever been. In the fall of 1999, I had the opportunity to become a workstudy at the Banff Centre for the Arts - located in the heart of the great Canadian rocky mountains. I worked in a department called CEE (Creative Electronic Environment) and found myself surrounded by talented individuals who not only knew their stuff, but were always willing to take the time to teach, explain and inspire. I know I will always fondly recall the wonderful time I spent in this idealistic setting, and I'd like to share a story that describes my Banff Centre experience in a nutshell.
	When I first arrived, I was fresh from a job working in the news department at a TV station in the nearby city of Calgary. As one can imagine, working in a news environment can be quite hectic - fraught with deadlines, egos, and unpleasant duties such as reporting on crime. My first assignment at the Banff Centre was to edit a one hour documentary entitled "Double Vision". I was working with an experienced producer, but since we had no prior experience working together, we needed to establish trust. She had asked me to cut together several sequences, and one of them in particular didn't go together very well. I became frustrated very quickly - I was worried that I was making a bad impression, and that I didn't have what it took to work in long form documentary. I approached my supervisor with these concerns, and he came back with something along the lines of: "Whoa James ... Slow down. I think you're much to close to this. You've got lots of time left to finish the project ... Don't forget you're not working in news anymore. You need to get away from work and come back to it with a fresh perspective. Why don't you take the afternoon off and go for a walk or something?" I took his advice and decided to hike to the top of nearby Tunnel Mountain. As I approached the summit, I felt a need for extra privacy ... so I went off the trail and found a very magical spot which I would return to often during my time in Banff. The view was stunning. Far below I could see herds of elk grazing by the riverside, and I watched in awe as wind softly blew clouds across the peaks of the magnificent mountains nearby. I was overcome with a very cosmic feeling ... The illusion of the clouds moving over the peaks had made me feel as though I were a very small person on this planet which was turning. I suddenly realized that the problems I had putting together one little sequence in this documentary really didn't amount to much. I was humbled, and grounded. When I returned to work, the sequence that had troubled me so much before now came together fairly quickly, and to my surprise, rather easily. The project ended up finishing ahead of schedule, and the producer I worked with was very pleased with the outcome. About a year later, I came across a young photographer who was from the University of British Columbia. He was visiting the Banff Centre on a contract to create a 'virtual tour' for our web site. As such, he made a series of quick time VR's (special interactive quick time files). When he told me he wanted to do one on the top of a mountain, I told him about the fantastic viewpoint I had discovered. He said it sounded good, so we grabbed his gear and I took him to the top of Tunnel Mountain. It turned out rather well, and I'm happy to share it with the people who visit my page. Click and drag the mouse on the image to rotate. Press Shift and Ctl to zoom in and out.