Film Front Online

KOREA BOUND

FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS!

Saint John, NB, May 25, 2004 - It’s the biggest, most rockin’ summer road trip ever.

 

When Greater Saint John high school students Eddie Bowes, Martin Davidson and Sean Grady pack their bags after school ends this summer, it’ll be for a climate and culture that’s quite foreign to them. They’ll be headed to a city about an hour south of Seoul, South Korea for an intensive, ten day long learning experience in film and video production, on someone else’s dime.  

 

Photo, L - R, Grady, Davidson and Bowes beneath an Uptown portrait of Louis B. Mayer, long-time Saint John resident and one of the two M's in Hollywood's MGM Studios, of which he was a founding partner.  

 

That someone else is actually several people, chief among them, seasoned international traveler Mark Hemmings of Mark Hemmings Photography, who will lead the charge, guiding and teaching this exclusive club of only three young Canadians, who will join a group of about 140 students from around the world at Dong-Ah Broadcasting College.

 

Choosing the three students was not difficult for Hemmings.

 

“All three have worked with me or HIT! Media as production assistants on projects,” he says, “and all three talk about making this their life’s work.”

 

The students, and Hemmings, depart on July 24. Upon arrival in Korea, the students will join the other students from around the world, and begin taking classes in video and audio editing, lighting, sound editing, and more. Emphasis will not only be on the technical, but the artistic nature of their work, and they’ll accomplish their work while immersed in the ancient Asian culture, visiting historic locations and spending a day with a local family. 

 

Heady stuff when you haven’t ever traveled to distant, exotic places. 

 

Bowes (left), a St. Malachy's High aspiring editor who plays electric guitar for the local group Smoking Cannons, is pumped at the prospect of it, saying, “This trip’ll be intense because I really haven’t traveled that much and we’ll be in a completely different place with completely different people!”

 

Davidson (right), a fellow musician and Saint John High student who writes music and wants to score big budget Hollywood films for a living, nods his head in agreement, “I have a music studio at home with computers and stuff, so this trip will be a defining moment for me because it’ll tell me whether I want to pursue film production or the music side of things for a living.”

 

Grady (bottom left), the Rothesay High, self-effacing guy of this easy-going trio whose heart is set on writing and directing, offers his dry, sly take on the journey, quipping “I’m a movie geek who works in a video store and has a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of movies. To me, this trip will be nice for learning about their economy and technology, and to see whether I can make it through without looking like an idiot.”  

  

Hemmings smiles as he thinks and talks about the young men, watching them take a step toward their futures.

 

"Each day, they’ll shoot themselves as they go about their daily lives in Korea. It'll be an A and B camera arrangement all the time, and we'll spend the summer editing, and have a large scale public showing in the Fall. We'll let everyone know when that is."

 

And we’ll be waiting.

 

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