This is a recap of my time in Austin combining a ridiculous interview I did for the Austin Chronicle and various shots I took of my neighborhood in East Austin the last few years I lived there.
Not a trip in the conventional sense but most definitely a trip.
I lived in Austin for six years. Coming from small towns, I was curious to see what all of this big city livin' was all about. I think I'm one of the few musicians to move to Austin to quit playing live music. For the first time in my life I found myself in a culture that valued creativity and expression. I was so overwhelmed with this environment that all I could do was kick back and absorb.
I first came up with the idea for this video after I shot a little bit of the Willie Nelson statue unveiling. I didn't have enough footage to post anything as a standalone because my battery kept dying. From there I decided to shoot a quick montage of various things about the city I enjoyed.
I was trying to find out how best to capture Austin in a video. I was so accustomed to only having a few hours to a few days to shoot in any given location that having over a year felt a little daunting. I decided to use this time to show what was the constant of Austin: change.
I started roughly two dozen time lapses during my last year and a half in town. Safe to say only four or five panned out. The most import of which was the Hope Gallery graffiti park. I took pictures of that park twice a week over the course of 17 months at various angles. The one that ended up working was only a 6-7 month time lapse that I thought of at (relatively) the last minute.
All in all, being able to thinking about my shots a little more was a terrific exercise in putting a video together. As I mentioned before, I'm used to having a limited amount of time in the places a I visit. In those moments, I shoot for what I see and have only a basic understand of what I want to do. Those videos come together once I stop shooting and just sit down with the footage. With Chill Country, I gave myself the opportunity to look over my shots and focus on how I wanted things to connect. At times I had the time I shoot certain shots multiple times on different days and pick the best fit. Truly a luxury I hadn't experienced before.
The music in Chill country is the song The Grand performed by A Giant Dog from their album House. Click here to access their site.