There it was, the first real break from school since New Year's Day and you spent the Friday being solemn, the Saturday getting ready for Sunday, and Sunday was all church and not getting your new pants dirty and relatives and ham.
Yeah the eggs and chocolate bunnies were nice but they never fully offset having to sit through endless Bible movies on TV and remembering to say something nice about your aunts' hats.
On top of all that, the weather in Canada is notoriously iffy this time of year, so it seemed that despite everybody claiming it was Spring, you always had to wait at least one more week before trying out whatever "outside toys" you got at Christmas.
Somehow, the other major holidays come with options. You can have a traditional Christmas or spent it on a sunny beach somewhere. New Years, May 24, Canada Day, Labor Day, even Thanksgiving you can pretty much do what you like.
Easter just feels hemmed in, kinda one note and joyless.
Sort of like being stuck in a distant hotel room or working in Canadian television.
But it doesn't have to be that way anymore.
This week, Tom Guilmette, a Boston based sports cinematographer and DP who also blogs extensively about camera equipment and shooting techniques, tried out a Phantom High Speed Digital Cinema camera in his National Association of Broadcasters (comped I hope) Las Vegas hotel room. The results are inspiring.
We've all felt trapped by a holiday, at loose ends in a sterile hotel room or stymied by how you break out of an industry constricted by financing, content rules and disinterested networks.
Of course we all know that in those circumstances survival comes from making your own fun.
What follows is what Tom was able to create in a couple of hours in one small room. It's a lesson in how much previously unaffordable technology is now available to virtually anybody.
Anybody working in television knows that you can have a ton of great ideas but they don't amount to a hill of beans without perfect execution. And with cameras like the Phantom, a lot more becomes readily available.
One room. One camera. And almost instantly, four minutes of eye candy. The mind boggles at what Tom could've created with the addition of one willing cocktail waitress -- or better yet -- a writer with a narrative thread.
For all that I've written these past weeks about the Canadian television industry being over with, moments like this are reminders that for every closed door, the universe provides an open window. What you imagine can still be realized.
Think of the possibilities and -- Enjoy Your Sunday.
Locked in a Vegas Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.
For a taste of what Tom Guilmette was actually shooting in Las Vegas and more of what this amazing camera can do, check out the video here.
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