Lamenting Winters Past

I’m told some people look back on their high school years with a tragic degree of fondness. They look at their present and they predict their future, but neither shine as their sanitized memories of those proverbial glory days.

I am not one of those people. In fact, I look back at those four years and marvel that I escaped alive. I’m not fond of that younger self who walked the halls of Rocky high from ‘94 to ‘98. He was an aloof blackguard who masked his blazing insecurities by furrowing his brow and affecting a wisdom beyond his years. I hated nearly everything about high school -- the cruel and fickle social ladder, the rigid learning structure, not to mention the drama -- but a handful of moments have endured my brief adulthood with some affection intact. Performing Shakespeare. Storming onto Almquist Field. Mr. Milton’s College English Class.

These memories have returned to me recently as I made an unexpected left hand turn on my career track. A few months back I had decided to return to school by taking a television production practicum at St. Ambrose University. In a deliciously twisted irony the day I enrolled in the class, the gem of the Quad City television stations offered me a job. So I joined KWQC’s floor crew, still intending to use SAU to get hands-on experience in the aspects of production not readily available to me at KWQC. Well, a few months later, the idea of paying to learn things I circle around on a daily basis seems rather ridiculous. Persistence and initiative will get me exactly what I need at KWQC; if I get really lucky I might even get paid for it.

Still, I knew the opportunity to learn what I wanted to learn at KWQC would be somewhat limited by what KWQC needed me to learn. While I’m willing to accept those restraints, I know how restless I can get when things aren’t moving quite as quickly as I might like. So I knew it was essential for me to find something to offset my impatience as I waited for a spot to open at the station. Thanks to Steve Jobs, I didn’t have to look very hard for a solution.

Those who’ve known me since those “glory days” at RIHS know I’ve always been a closeted A/V geek. With two VCRs patched together I would spend entire weekends cutting and re-cutting the infamous “Hero’s Complex” movie trailer when I should have been reading Pride and Prejudice or studying Algebra. I ended up quite the wizard with this painstaking and imprecise method of editing, but it really had no practical application as far as a resume goes. In fact, the best thing this talent ever got me was a weekend with Caroline Walker and Erica Muller, two of my most enduring high school crushes, when I directed and edited a short film for their French class. And while every high school boy lives to spend a weekend in the presence of such beautiful girls, the reward was fleeting and the promise of a future dinner went unfulfilled.

Well, in the nearly ten years since I cut my films on a home-made tape-to-tape contraption, editing has come a long way. With a relatively small investment, people can write, shoot, and edit their own films in the comfort of their own homes. I made just such an investment this week as I took my SAU tuition and put it towards an iMac with Final Cut Pro. Like its name infers, Final Cut is professional software that is used by everyone from the KWQC promotions department to feature director David Fincher. While their computer systems easily put my new iMac to shame, the software is no different. When I get my computer tomorrow, I’ll be cutting home videos the same way Fincher is cutting his next film.

And what better way to learn the ins and outs of this new software than fulfilling a promise I’ve been making for the past decade.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I’m not one of those people who laments my teen years; the farther that era is from me the better. That being said, if I miss anything from those days it is those weekends in the winter when I accompanied a covey of fearless and daring friends as we braved harsh winds and bitter cold to turn an innocent, Midwestern tradition into a startling cataclysm of fearlessness and foolishness. Those who know what I’m referring to are already smiling. Those who don’t, let me clue you in.

I’m talking about sledding.

I could try and sell this idea to those of you with the WTF looks on your faces, but I’m not going to bother. You’re not my audience here. I’m writing to the dirty dozen who layered up every Saturday and Sunday there was snow on the ground to slide and crash and flip for no other reason than to laugh and cry at the videos we took. I’m writing to let them know that their epic highlight reel is coming.

Immediately after hitting the confirm button for my iMac I raided my closet for the eleven VHS tapes with “Sledding Video” emblazoned on them. That’s right. Eleven. We’re talking nearly a day’s worth of footage of a handful of high school kids crashing into trees, assaulting each other with sleds, and occasionally breaking collar bones. I’ve spent the week between order and delivery of my iMac watching those videos for the first time in seven years, logging timecode for each and every classic wreck and collision. I’ve only got one word: Priceless.

For the past ten years I’ve been talking about finally compiling an ultimate highlight reel of those four years of insanity, but I’ve yet to come through. Well, with my new set-up, not only will I have the ability to finally put together this dream project (That’s right! Dream project!), I’ll be able to do it in a way I could never have imagined when I was punching buttons on my VCR ten years ago. I’m picturing Zach Vroman (still the Sledding Syndicate’s number one fan) geeking out when he finally gets his eyes on the finished project and I can’t wait to get started (less than 24 hours now). This highlight film is going to bring down the house at his next family reunion. In fact, this post is basically to tease the three or four alumni who are on my MySpace page (Laurie, I count you as Zach’s proxy).

I do want to keep the expectations (as far as time goes) realistic, though. I’m learning a new program (actually four when you count the graphics, sound, and DVD programs that came with Final Cut), and those who know me know I won’t put anything out for public consumption that I don’t feel is up to my irrationally rigid standards. So, I’m making Christmas my deadline for the DVD (with bonus features and the like (Power Rangers, anyone?)). That gives me six months to go completely batshit on this thing.

But don’t worry. I’m not going to make the fans wait that long to get an idea of what’s in store.

My hope (and this is a very sincere hope) is that I can have a small preview cut before I descend on Chi-town for my Cubs double-header at the end of June. After years of broken promises, I hope to put something concrete in Zach’s hand to show him this time I’m not bullshitting. I don’t know if this is feasible; if FCP has a brutal learning curve I may be S.O.L. on my deadline. Still, I’m going to try.

But what I’m digging almost as much as the project itself is that MySpace currently offers 100MB for its users to host video. So, whether I make my deadline or not, in the next couple months I’ll have the preview on my MySpace page for alumni as well as the uninitiated to enjoy. Plus, you guys can keep me honest. If the 4th of July comes and goes with no new developments, drop me a note and remind me of my oath.

Until then, boys and girls, I bid you adieu. It’s time to start cutting.