It had been seven years, and Elisha Schaff tried to remember everything she learned in film school.
She must have recalled the right stuff because when it was all said and done and the music video she, a photographer from 108 Mile Ranch, directed was completed, it turned out an award-winner.
Operating on no budget, Schaff shot, lit, produced, edited and co-wrote the official video for This Life, by Dan Bremnes, a Christian music artist from Salmon Arm.
This Life was officially released in November 2012. In November 2013, it was named music video of the year by the Gospel Music Association of Canada.
Schaff admits she was basically just grateful to Bremnes, a friend she first met when he played at the Cariboo Christian Life Fellowship in 108 Mile Ranch, for giving her the opportunity to put it together – a dream she has had for years. They weren't thinking about winning any awards.
Not to say the news wasn't exciting when Bremnes called to deliver it. (Schaff was driving home from doing maternity photos for Bremnes and his wife.)
“I wasn't even mentally prepared to win or lose. He said, 'Hey, you're now an award-winning music video director'. I was like, 'Shut the front door. Shut the front door'!
“I think I said it like six times.”
Bremnes also won male vocalist of the year.
They were up against well-financed and established competition, she explains. Schaff says she believes the quality of the song, the good storyline and quality acting – not necessarily the video's production value – was what won it for them.
Easily recognizable in the video – which has more than 12,500 hits on YouTube – is Birch Avenue in 100 Mile House.
The actors in it are locals, as well.
Miranda Pettit plays a young woman struggling with bulimia. Matthew Smith plays a husband tortured by the death of his family. A third storyline featured Sunrise Ford owner Leon Chretien playing a workaholic, but it didn't make the final cut because of time constraints.
(Fun fact: While Pettit could make herself cry, Smith couldn't. RUB A535 was applied under his eyes to generate tears, something the emotional scene required.)
Schaff says the group received a ton of community support when they shot parts of it in 100 Mile House in April 2012. When she told members of her church and other local people and business owners what was going on, they all thought it was cool. On the day of the shoot, in the pouring rain, she estimates about 50 extras were ready and waiting.
“It was amazing. It probably opened up the audience a bit more shooting in a small town.
"The rural area is kind of nice. I love our little street. I wish we shot a movie here because it's so adorable.”
They shot different parts of the video over a six month period. The band plays in a warehouse that belongs to Schaff's father in Williams Lake. They also did some reshoots in Red Deer. The whole process, start to finish, took about six months.
Schaff went to film school at Capilano University in North Vancouver. After graduating, she worked in the film industry in Vancouver for a couple years until the writer's strike in 2008.
She moved back to the 100 Mile House area before heading north to Fort St. John. That's where, in 2009, “needing a creative outlet,” she bought a Nikon camera and started taking photos. It's what she does professionally now. Ironically, she almost failed photography class in film school.
“I sucked. We were shooting 35-mm, too. You couldn't see you sucked right away because you had to get it developed.”
Next up for Schaff, moving picture-wise, is developing a series of five-minute YouTube videos based on Grimm's Fairy Tales. Again, she'll be working with local actors in the area.
“I'm doing Red Riding Hood first, then doing some of the ones that are lesser known. It probably sounds ridiculous to a lot of people who don't understand there's actually money to be made on YouTube.”
She planned on shooting the first one out near Spring Lake on Dec. 9. She's not in any rush to get the videos posted online, however, expecting to "maybe" have the first one done in the spring.
“I want it to look good.”
