ALL WORK AT NOT WORKING MAKES VIC, UM, WORKING HARD .. OR SOMETHING

I have never used this space to talk much about my business or my work, this is more a space to opine (and opine and opine and opine) about my personal life but let's be honest, work and personal often intersects, these days more than in the past, I think. So let's take a dip into Vic's pool of working/not working/gigs old and new.

I recommend floaties .. and a dive mask .. and a full wet suit .. and a dry suit .. and sonar ... and a spear gun ... ok just dip your feet in the pool, you don't need all your toes anyways

PART ONE
A couple of years ago I made a decision to change my career path .. yeh right, editing live event videos at home in your underpants is a career ... I was making a decent living editing these videos but the business changed; I was working harder to make the same amount of money as once I did; when you work on a flat rate basis, that means you are no longer making a profit

Beyond that, I really wasn't satisfied doing that work, I'd been in that aspect of the business for a long time and although I could throw a tub full of philosophical ramblings in here, I had become bored. Couple that with the fact my profit margin was diminishing, it was time for a change

I'm quite lucky that I have a wife who is beautiful and intelligent and employed and incredibly dedicated to her work and I am equally thankful that she is rewarded for that. And I am speechless when this beautiful smart dedicated woman says stuff like "You need to stop doing that, you aren't happy, take some time, explore something new"

Yeh I know, I don't understand why she's with me either

So I decided to do two things: Move away from live event videos and get back to promotional videos which have always been my interest in this business. I also wanted to pursue the other side of the video world, the fictional side.

I also wanted to do more camera work, I've worked primarily as a writer and editor for about 25 years and I have these things in my closet with lenses and they keep crying for me to take them out to play ...

Over the past year or so I've done a couple of promo videos and made a few "creative" videos that I've entered into various film festivals with varying results. I enjoyed both endeavours but finding the commercial work has not been easy, could be something about living in one of the busiest production markets in North America. And also a city where they churn out graduates of video production courses like Tim Hortons makes donuts. And like Tim Hortons these eager grinning grads go cheap, way too cheap

That means, there's a lot of competition in this town

Making the film fest videos was fun but I found if there wasn't an actually film challenge, some kind of brief, I couldn't motivate myself. And there hasn't been an interesting challenge in a while

So I've decided to refocus my efforts; I seem to have this degree in Promotions, I almost mistook it for toilet paper but hey, maybe it has some value; I've begun my own campaign to promote myself on the commercial end of things.

One of the tools I'm employing is a website that I've designed. I am not actually advertising her but if interested check this out and tell me what you think. Opinions welcome, as long as said opinion Oh wow Vic that is the greatest thing ever and since I will never again view that level of magnificence, please gouge out my eyes ...

Or whatever you feel

I have problems loading the site on Safari, other browsers seem ok, let me know how it works

PART TWO

So, although I'm still in the video business, I've tried to expand my horizons as well. I've always said that if I have an interest or a passion, something I've carried for years, and if I get an opportunity to purse it, I would.

One of my longtime passions is dogs. I've never professionally worked with dogs but it's something I've long time thought about. There are many many businesses here in Toronto that provide dog services and a huge client base.

I call that an opportunity and I could no longer ignore it

For the past few months I've been working as a dog walker for a company called Dogtown. This is not dogwalking as I've seen it; either leash walking dogs on the streets or taking them to public dog parks. This company owns their own "park", a fenced in private lot dowtown My job is to collect the dogs, take them to the park and play with them for an hour...

Yeh, for me that's torture

And of course I have my own personal assistant, Miss Terra. She may not like sharing the back of the Subaru with up to 10 dogs but she thinks this private dog part thing is pretty cool

Here's a little video; please not all footage and pics shot with an iPod Touch