June 21, 2009
Soundtrack:
Artist: Ziggy Marley
Album: Family Time
I am now going to start titling my blog entries with my journal writing “sound track”. Music in the air as I fly is the great seed that grows my madly scattered experiences into semi focused ramblings. Ziggy Marley just released an INCREDIBLE children’s album called Family Time. It is a fantastic album. You don’t need to be a kid to love this album; I can’t stop listening to it. There is a song called “Cry Cry Cry” which has lyrics that tells that sometimes Ziggy needs to go on long trips far away from his child…I can relate now. Travelling is part of my DNA, but wow I didn’t realize the emotion involved in having a baby and not being close to her. Baby Kaiya is the blessing of blessings truly a gift from the MOST HIGH!!! This blog post is in honor of her.
I am flying across “the pond” to London England now to go to the Royal Commonwealth Society’s Vision Awards for my film Papikatuk. Papikatuk is a film that came from the footage that Federica and I shot for our film called Melting Lands. It is now in the top 3 of a couple hundred film submissions, pretty amazing honor just to get this far. Oh, here is the press release that was in the Telegraph Journal:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Brunswick Filmmaker is finalist for Commonwealth Vision Award
Saint John, New Brunswick June 17, 2009
Saint John filmmaker Greg Hemmings, of Hemmings House Pictures, is one of three finalists for the prestigious 2009 Commonwealth Vision Award. Competition for the award was open to filmmakers up to age 35 from 53 Commonwealth countries. Hemmings was encouraged to enter the competition by then-Chairman of the New Brunswick Branch of The Royal Commonwealth Society, Gary Davis. “I have seen the quality of Greg’s work and I knew he would have a very good chance in this competition”, Davis said. Hemmings’ film made the first cut to 15 in 2008, and then was selected as one of the final three in May of this year.
The Commonwealth Vision Award is supported by investment banker Warburg Pincus, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Foundation, the British Council, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the BBC World Service. The winning film will be broadcast nationally in the United Kingdom on BBC Channel 4.
The competition celebrates a different theme every year. This year it is “Global Changes for the Next Generation”. Hemmings’ film, “Papikatuk” was shot in the arctic. The narrator, Papikatuk, is an 8 year old Inuit boy who travels with his grandfather, Lukasi, and he learns the traditional ways of living off the land. Lukasi is worried that the world is changing so fast. He is afraid that he may be “teaching his grandson the wrong things to survive in this changing world”.
The Royal Commonwealth Society is an international educational charity. Working to inspire and engage young people, the RCS promotes understanding of the modern Commonwealth. As an educator, it encourages young people to develop their skills, to realize their ambitions and, to engage with key challenges facing the international community. It also provides a platform for leading voices across politics, media, the arts, academia and business. The RCS has 11 branches and a national office in Canada. Gary Davis is national vice-chairman.
Greg Hemmings has been producing documentaries for over 10 years in many parts of the world. “It is a real honor to have one of my films honored at such a prestigious event. I am very excited to represent New Brunswick in London this week”. The winner will be announced on Wednesday June 24th at the Commonwealth Club in London, England. Academy Award Winning producer Lord David Putnam (Chariots of Fire) will be keynote speaker at the event.
-30-
Contact: Greg Hemmings
Telephone: 902-240-6785
Email: greg@hemmingshousepictures.com
www.hemmingshousepictures.com
So let’s rewind a bit. A week ago we flew back home from Banff. Jessica and my little lady Kaiya did amazing on the plane.
Kaiya celebrated her 4th week of life in Banff, quite an accomplishment for such a young little angel. We got home Saturday. Sunday morning the three of us hopped into the car to head to our new church…the beach!
We still go to the Vineyard church, but lately we have been getting our coffees and cruising to some of Nova Scotia’s best sandy beaches for our own time of prayer, meditation and thanksgiving. We are so thankful that we are here and healthy and alive. Anyway, this Sunday we went to a beach called Crystal Crescent Beach. This beach is actually a collection of three sandy beaches. We saw a huge whale, listened to the waves, said a prayer of thanks, and Jessica fed Kaiya. On a side note breast feeding is a crazy experience, Jess is doing so amazing, but what a fully life changing experience. The responsibility of always being able to feed a baby at any random part of the day or night can be taxing. Jess has had to change her whole life to accommodate this and I am so grateful for this.
We decided to take a walk and explore the other 2 beaches. Beautiful little hike over a small boardwalk. We finally got to the third beach. I said to Jess, “babe, there is a naked guy over there!”, she didn’t believe me, she thought it was just a guy in his bathing suit, but it wasn’t…wait there was another, and another! We were on a nude beach! Ha-ha, it was hilarious! We had no idea this place even existed! The nudists were really nice engaging us in small talk. We sat down on the beach, and laughed at the experiences Kaiya has had since she was born in the last 4 weeks.
Kaiya has:
1. Experience birth “from the inside”
2. Kicked it back in the ole jaundice tanning bed for a few days
3. Hung out at the Economy Shoe Shop in Halifax
4. Had a late night back deck party hangin with a bunch of ma and pa’s friends
5. Went on major hikes
6. Flew to Banff
7. Went to a dance bar
8. Went to a nude beach
9. Travelled to Moncton for Awards event
10. Travelled to Saint John for a party in her honor
The last two points are the next part of my little blog post. The next day after our visit to the nude beach / church I had to drive to Saint John for the day, 4 hours each way. I went to pitch our services to a pretty significant client. We are hoping we can get the gig. I missed Kaiya so much I had to drive right back. The next day the three of us drive to Moncton because I was honored with the nomination for the New Brunswick Earnst and Young entrepreneur of the year award! We were VERY late, when we arrived to the Delta I walked through the doors and they just called my name to go up and accept my nomination certificate. Most of the HHP crew and my dad drove down from Saint John to be there in support as well! It is always touching to have such stellar support. Oh by the way we must welcome our latest members to the Hemmings House Pictures team!
1. My brother Mark Hemmings! (Yia Yia!)
2. Andrew “Beans” Embury (Hells yeah!)
3. Jenny McLean (Boo-ya!)
4. Greg Knudson (put your hands in tha air!)
5. Nicky Nuts Leblanc (wave em like you just don’t care!)
Jess and I drove back to Hali that night, we brought Lauchlan with us, he was heading down to New York with one of our fav ladies / actress extraordinaire Suzanne Hawkins. After a week end in New York City, Lock will be joining Beans and David Alston from Radian 6 to film and deliver a Radian 6 presentation that we all hope is going to seriously kick ass. Check out Radian 6 online at www.radian6.com they are leading the social media revolution, we are honored to be partnered with them to help produce for their video explorations and experiments in the new media playground.
While those cats are in Boston, Andrew MacCormack is in Montana filming for the Discovery Channel series that we are hoping to co-produce with my ole friend Trevor from the UK. If you go back in this blog to last summer when I was in Chicago and I met a guy named Trevor who worked for BBC, then I met him again in Washington at Realscreen, well this is the same guy. We sent Andrew down to New Mexico a few weeks ago to start filming this very cool show with them. The show is about a team of guys who build incredible homes out of garbage…wild! Andrew will be rockin it for a few weeks, when I go to London next week I hope to meet with Trevor again, hopefully over a pint in the East End!
I spent one day at the office on Thursday, I feel like I am neglecting our kickin’ office space at Power Post this summer, but I guess being busy is a good thing right? Thursday night we packed the car and headed back to the Delta in Moncton. The next morning I had an all day meeting with other New Brunswick producers and Film New Brunswick about the state of the industry. It was a production discussion. We don’t know where the future is, one thing we do know though is new media is now an integral component to the survival of content producers. After the sessions, Jess, Kaiya and I stopped off at Mark Savoie’s Postman studio, man Mark is doing great over there. Real fantastic spot, you should check out his new lighting!!! Great ambiance!
After a very quick visit we cranked the tunes, Kaiya pooped herself, we changed her, then drove south to Surf City Saint John for our 4:30 pm release party / screening of Airplane Journals! I can’t believe that we have almost seen the end of this project! We are so close! We had a great turn out at our new office, the new office is amazing! It’s huge and super cool. Great environment to work in, I look forward to when I move back to hang there, we have a kitchen, beer fridge, and balcony, everything you need in an office! It was very cool to see Airplane Journals again, we really have as a company gone a long way in a few years, in the film you see me start Hemmings House Pictures as one guy, to a much bigger and busier company. We now we have 7 full time employees plus a few other part timers and interns! Coach Dave from Vision Coaching has so much to do with the growth and success of our company, many props Dave and Vision!!! If you are in business and want to stretch, I highly encourage you to contact the coaches at Vision, great results! The adventure of growing and molding and stretching!
Diversion…there is an Indian family in the seats next to me as I write this blog post on the plane, they have a newborn, man I am changed! I need to get back home as fast as possible! I have 2 heart melting ladies awaiting me after this trip…
After a very successful night at Hemmings House world headquarters Jess, Kaiya and I headed back to nanny and grampy Hemmings’ place for a drink on the back deck (a place of good memories and peace!) and had an early night. The next day Jess and I looked at a new house and property up on Highland Road (I am in love with this house); it butts against my other piece of property which is the cliff face waterfront piece that runs up the Saint John River from Reversing Falls. I WILL turn that land into something one of these days!
We then my folks had a party for Kaiya at their place, lots of family friends, beers and cheers! Welcoming a new life can be overwhelming but it is so good to see the love of everyone and see the magic that babies have on adults! Kaiya has probably been in the hands of over a hundred people already, I don’t think that I am exaggerating! The next morning we made a father’s day breakfast that was HUGE and tasty then hit the road back to Halifax. We put in a lot of kms this week! Jess dropped me off 4 hours later at the Halifax airport where I met Gary Davis at the Maple Leaf Lounge to get ready for our red eye flight to England for a few days of meetings, explorations, and awards celebrations! ENERGY!!! I NEED SOME MORE!!!
This is a picture of me...yes I am going bald.
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