I wander about the stores and vendors attempting to find a little something to add to the Christmas season – something for someone special. It seems that the drizzle of the rain dampens the season as I struggle through endless offerings in search of the unique, the meaningful. More and more, for myself, I begin to realize that Christmas has become about cumulative experiences and how unconnected past events can be drawn together, like today’s pattering at the keyboard. And so it is Christmas. Several days in search of words until I sit down sifting through images…finding what I think is the right one, the unique, the meaningful but now, having had the “Aha” moment, it now includes the personal.
Often I take my ear to sound recordings, it’s Christmas this should work. However, a steady plod of virtual auditions has left me helpless until I stumble upon or perhaps reconnect experience, each offering an image, a tune, the sharing of experiences, unique, meaningful and personal. This is the introduction to a pipes of war Christmas about family and experience, soldiers and home. It is about events near to and during Christmas, the milestones and the ones we remember. It is about being a lucky man to love and be loved, a lucky man that gets to kiss your face.
To all who gather here our next few weeks will celebrate the season – remember them well and remember our milestones – they come but once in a lifetime but remain with us for all time. Happy and Merry Christmas to all.
A Great War Christmas postcard…”a lucky man that gets to kiss your face.”
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on Saturday, December 2nd, 2017 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Christmas Special.
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Paul has worked with the Paradigm Motion Picture Company since 2009 as producer, historian and research specialist. Paul first met Casey and Ian WIlliams of Paradigm in April 2007 at Ieper (Ypres), Belgium when ceremonies were being held for the re-dedication of the Vimy Memorial, France.
Paul's sensitivity to film was developed at an early age seeing his first films at RCAF Zweibrucken, Germany and Sardinia. Paul returned to Canada in 1967 and was captivated by David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai". Over time Paul became increasingly interested in storytelling, content development, character, direction, cinematography, narration and soundtracks.
At the University of Victoria, Paul studied and compared Japanese and Australian film and became interested in Australian film maker Peter Weir and his film "Gallipoli" (1981). Paul was inspired when he learned Weir visited the beaches, ridges and ravines of the peninsula. "Gallipoli", the film, led Paul on many journeys to sites of conflict in England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Malta, Hawaii, Gallipoli, North Macedonia and Salonika.
When Paul first watched documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, "The Civil War", Paul understood how his own experience and insight could be effective and perhaps influential in film-making. Combining his knowledge of Museums and Archives, exhibitions and idea strategies with his film interests was a natural progression.
Paul thinks like a film-maker. His passion for history and storytelling brings to Paradigm an eye (and ear) to the keen and sensitive interests of; content development, the understanding of successful and relational use of collections, imagery and voice. Like Paul's favorite actor, Peter O'Toole, Paul believes in the adage “To deepen not broaden.”
While on this path Paul always remembers his grandmother whose father did not return from the Great War and how his loss shaped her life and how her experience continues to guide him.
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