The First Video of Many - Driving to Escalante - Camping with my Family

This is the first of many posts and videos. I'm currently editing down the footage I captured with my new Canon HV20 from my Family's trip to the Escalante Canyon System in Utah. The HV20 is a small consumer brand HD camera. I was shooting in 24p cinema mode but it has to be rendered to edit. I think I'll shoot in 30 frames from now on. I'm also having some issues with the audio. Tons of static whether I use the internal mic or the Sennheiser MKE 300 that I attached. I've been playing with some audio filters, but I'm still a bit new to the software. Hopefully I can take care these issues before my longer trip begins June 1st. Gotta make the shooting, editing, and posting workflow as streamlined as possible. If your interested in seeing more of Escalante, my brother has posted some of his photos along with a blog entry at www.activefreemedia.com, or you can use a direct link to the Flicker Set.

For those of you who don't know, I'm leaving my job and leaving LA for 6 months. The goal is to...reaquaint myself with my creative side. I came out to LA in 2002 with dreams of writing and directing movies. While I've done some limited writing, I've shot next to nothing. During the last 5 years, I worked on several feature films, at an agency and then inadvertantly transitioned to the video game industry for 2 years as a recruiter. While I enjoyed being around the creative process; supporting it is very different from leading the charge. I made the realization that I was no longer really a writer despite my occasional spurts, and I was in no way an aspiring director. You are what you do. I was a recruiter; and a good one at that. Ask me about 3D Modelers, Animators, Designers and Programmers, and I can talk your ear off. So I'll be turning this around by actually "doing".

These coming months I'll be updating my family, friends and whoever else tunes in with my various adventures. The first 6 months I'll primarily document my travels. Nothing fancy, but a good way to requaint myself with shooting video and editing. I'll be heading up the California coast and across the country, hiking, camping and visiting friends along the way. Additionally I'll be spending 3 weeks and 250 miles on the John Muir trail and hopefully a month and a half in Rwanda ( yet to be determined). After spending two months writing on the East Coast, I'll be returning to LA for another 6 months, where I'll be taking a crack at short form content for the web and hopefully having an inspired couple pieces of writing to shoot as a calling card for the agencies. Basically, I'll be living the bohemian lifestyle until the money runs out. I think the budget will last a year. Hopefully I'll figure out how to do some contract recruiting here and there and stretch that year a bit further. The eventual goal is to make a living on the creative side of the film industry. We'll see how much closer I am to that goal in a year.

As a disclaimer: For those of you you who think I'm nuts, you have no idea... and for those who know me from more professional settings, don't judge to harshly when the crazy eventually comes out. There's no place for self censorship on the road of life. I hope I can keep you entertained and make you a part of my life for awhile.

And for those of you wondering about my online handle Mutcluck. I'm a recruiter... I know the job market and don't want future prospects drying up after google turns up more crazy than a typical employer can handle.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship

MUTCLUCK