Stephen Blanquie

We asked Stephen Blanquie, a recent graduate of the FilmConnection in Portland, OR to share what he is doing now that his lessons in the studio are over.

(For the studio) I’m putting together for the web, for a company they have a lot of interview footage from their prior shoots with these clients, I’m piecing together these web-shorts on what the studio has done for them and what it’s like working with them. I’m also touching up titles with After Effects so I have that coming together in the studio through the footage. From filming my friend, we have this footage I’ve been working on since fall… My friend works for this company called Liter in California where he’s been tearing up around Portland on his fixed-gear bike so I’ve been following him with my (camera) and super eight.. So now we’re wrapping up and trying to get a few lastminute tricks. I’ll be putting together an edit for them kind of like a ‘welcome to the team’ clip for their company so I’m excited about that. Other than that I’m constantly filming skateboard edits and for my video I’m put out right now I’m kind of working on this montage. I’m just working for my production company, Folk Life and keep putting out footage for that… I am putting together this film about a skateboarder, his name is Duncan he rides for a local shop. We’ve been going out as much as we can, going out at night, doing a lot of night missions.”

“I definitely gained a lot of experience in editing software and had studio time where I’ve been able to tag along on shoots as a PA a grip and even film some of the projects and it’s been a great experience.

(At the start of the program) It was kind of a stretch for both of us we were trying to feel each other out, trying to figure out what made us tick. There was definitely a build-up of trust that happen with us, at first it was just I was coming doing grip work, by that I mean just getting a feel for where things were, they had just moved studios so there was a lot of work for switching over from standard definition to HD, they had this massive amount of DV tapes that need to be sorted through and organized… So I did some dirty work for about 3 1/2 more months, I will say it was my chance to get a feel for the studio to shadow Lisa (mentor) on edits and started small was far as editing goes. She had me label clips by what kind of shoot they were, whether it was nighttime or daytime or a long-shot a close-up yada yada yada. She just started small then by the end of my film program externship I was able to take my experience and feeling that there was a lot for me to learn.”