I'll admit it. My video work is done more for passion than profit sometimes. On those occasions the sense of accomplishment I get from helping people and charities is all the enrichment I need.
These videos were made for The Friends of Tryon Creek to help promote the work they do and the great park which they help preserve.
This project has had its challenges: arranging interviews, occasional weather hazards (that's Portland), overall, this is the kind of video work I really enjoy. It allows me to fully use my documentary film-making and creative editing skills to tell captivativing concise stories.
Background and Research
This project required that I do a considerable amount of historical research.
This project required that I do a considerable amount of historical research.
The Friends of Tryon Creek provided me with some materials, but it wasn't the complete picture of the history that I needed to understand in order to construct a proper short film.
Thankfully, the executive director of The Friends was kind enough to get the remaining founders of the park together at a meeting, where I could then record their oral histories.
Of course, any proper documentarian will tell you that oral histories always need to be fact checked. This led me to search amongst the Multnomah County Library and Oregon Historical Society archives. It was there I had to track down newspaper accounts, as well as photos, dating back to the years 1969 and 1970 when the park was being planned and arranged.
(Although I discovered that the initial moves for making a park actually date back to 1963. But its local discussion dates as far back as the 1930s.)
Were some of these images unsuitable for video? Definitely. Ever try to make microfilm photos into something other than black smudges at 300X their size? that's where creative film making comes into play.
Why am I telling you all this?
Simply to make you understand that when I work on a historical video project, I don't believe in the conventional easy approach, the beautiful but empty strategy, or the, as one of my pals calls it, "happy clap" video.
Video credits
Narration by Lucile S. Beck, one of the founders of Tryon Creek Park.
Photos sourced from stock, the Oregonian archives at the Multnomah Library archives and The Oregon Historical Society Archives.
Photos sourced from stock, the Oregonian archives at the Multnomah Library archives and The Oregon Historical Society Archives.