Often Awesome The Series is nominated for a couple awards in upcoming film festivals. The first for The Webby Awards where we are nominated in the Documentary: Series category. It’s really an honor for us to even be competing with the likes of PBS and The Sundance Channel. The Webby Awards takes place on May 21st, 2012. They event will be hosted by Patton Oswalt and will be streamed live in HD. Get more info here. Next up, Often Awesome is nominated for a Vimeo Award. We are nominated in the Series category. Vote for us here. The Vimeo Awards take place on June 7th, 2012. Often Awesome The Series can be viewed in it’s entirety here
This was a lot of fun to shoot and edit. I’ve never shot a music video like this before which was a great learning experience. We actually recorded the music live at the venue while we were shooting the video. The mix sounds beautiful. The concept behind it was to document/shoot a music video. We had 3 cameras all Canon 60Ds and spread out across the floor. We covered Tom really well. The hardest part of the shoot was covering the piano and vibraphone players. Each take was a different solo, so unless we were recording them during that take it was impossible to show them playing. The vibes were easier to cover but he chose to use different color mallets (or whatever you call those things) and sometimes with 2 or 4.
It was a challenge but something that I’m glad I had a chance to do. It has been a long time since I’ve worked on or shot a music video that I wanted to do. I love this song and so glad I could work with the former lead of Squirrel Nuts Zippers lead Tom Maxwell. He is a very cool and fun guy to work with. I’m also very fortunate to work and be friends with a couple of North Carolina’s best filmmakers, Blake Faucette and Nic Beery. Enjoy this poignant Christmas music!
Recorded live on November 26, 2011 at The Murphey School, Durham NC
Tom Maxwell – vocals, guitar
James Wallace – piano
Mark Simonsen – vibraphone
FJ Ventre – string bass
Evans Nicholson – drums
Engineered and mixed by Thom Canova
Filmed by Andy Coon, Blake Faucette and Nic Beery
Edited by Andy Coon
Originally I didn’t even know how to approach Tim about doing a web series on his battle with ALS. I had talked to a mutual friend of ours and he seemed to think Tim might be into doing it. As filmmakers, Andy and I are always looking for interesting stories to tell and Tim’s story certainly qualifies as interesting, actually amazing. When we first talked to Tim, he made it very clear that he wanted to leave behind a legacy and saw this as a very good opportunity to do so. So Tim was willing and we had the capability but I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into. First of all, he’s a friend and it’s going to be tough watching the battle he has ahead of him much less be filming said battle. Second, I can’t even watch Extreme Home Makeover without crying and now Andy and I have to shoot and edit some very heavy content. Last, I was really stressed out about doing this story justice. I think Tim’s story is probably one of the most important things we’ll ever do and I just want to be able to get it right. Having completed the first episode, I feel like we did a pretty good job (hopefully our audience will as well).
We’d like to thank Tim and Kaylan for the opportunity to work on this project. It has truly been inspiring to see the strength and the courage that they both have as they face these uncertain times in their lives. To know Tim is to love him. It’s no coincidence that Tim has an army of friends willing to help him through all this. He’s obviously done something right in his life. As amazing as Tim is, I’ll have to say that I’m very much in awe of Kaylan. Her love for Tim, her willingness to face these difficult times with him and her unselfish devotion to him really blows me away. I’m not sure you can say Tim’s lucky but he certainly hit the jackpot when he met Kaylan.
It is our hope that people will watch this series and have a new appreciation for the important things in life. Love, good friends and compassion for one another. It is our honor and privilege to be working on this series and not only is it Tim’s legacy, it is now our legacy as well.
Thanks so much for joining us on this adventure!
Andy Coon
Blake Faucette
For those wishing to donate to research on ALS, please visit here.
Here’s the original video that Andy Coon and myself shot a little over a year ago and Andy recently went back and shot the how to video. Check them out and ENJOY! Happy Holidays!
