The Hamilton 24 2012

It has been a crazy few weeks since my last post, and between moving in to our new place and shooting, Katie and I have had our hands full! The best thing to do is probably work back from the more recent events, starting with The Hamilton 24 that happened this past weekend.

The Hamilton 24 started out as a 24 hour film festival, but quickly evolved into an entire arts festival…too quickly in fact! Originally, the purpose of the event was to give filmmakers several criteria for a film, and then give them 24 hours to conceive, write, shoot, edit and submit a 5-minute film. Over the years they added more elements to the festival and the screening turned into a week-long display of film, fashion, food, music, dance and many other forms of expression that had to be designed or conceived within a 24 hour period.

In 2011, the festival was so massive, that the organizers realized they needed to scale things back and gear up to be properly prepared for 2013. Luckily for us, the one element they decided to keep for the festival in 2012 was the film challenge!

The film you’re about to watch was literally conceived from nothing, then written, shot, edited and submitted in less than 24 hours. I can’t thank my amazing team enough for all of the effort that went into pulling this off. A big thank you goes out to Create Media for co-producing this and hosting our workspace for those insane 24 hours.

Please enjoy The Stone:

The Stone – 2nd Place – Hamilton 24 from Christoph Benfey on Vimeo.

For this submission, we received second place at the screening. The first place film was about a family who didn’t want their son anymore so they told him he was a wizard and had to go to wizard school forever. We’re really looking forward to next year’s festival!

In other news, another All Day Apparel – Skate Sessions video dropped a couple weeks ago, this time featuring Mike Crook. If you haven’t watched it yet, be sure to check it out!

All Day Apparel – Skate Sessions w/ Mike Crook from Christoph Benfey on Vimeo.

In the coming weeks, check back for updates with some exciting projects I’m working on right now, including a shoot with a Scion FR-S, A Music Video for a hip-hop artist from Toronto (who must remain nameless until launch!), a really cool commercial for Hamilton’s Urbanicity magazine, to name a few!

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to subscribe so you get notifications when cool new stuff happens around here!

All Day Apparel – Skate Sessions w/ Z Roy

I’m currently working on 6 video installments for All Day Apparel featuring skateboarders. The first one to drop went live on Karmalooptv.com today and it features Z Roy skating and talking a little bit about what fashion means to him. You can also watch it on my vimeo page. Stay tuned for the next one featuring Mike Crook!

In keeping with the Fashion Theme, another video I worked on with Chris Wardle dropped today for Shop Girls in Queen West. This was the third installment in a series of videos we did to promote the uniqueness of the in-store experience at their shop. It’s a super rad little place with awesome clothing for women, if you’re shopping for summer in Toronto you have to pop in and let the girls take you on a shopping experience like no other! Check the video out below.

I’ve been swamped lately so I’m sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I’ve got lots of exciting stuff coming up over the course of the next few weeks so stay tuned and I’ll try my best to keep the content flowing in!

CBMK with Phil & Z Roy

It was through skateboarding that I first got into still photography, so I was stoked when I got a call from Phil asking if I wanted to go shoot with him at CBMK last week. Z Roy came along as well and we pretty much had the whole park to ourselves for the night. I haven’t been to this park in about 4 years, but not much has changed, and it’s still one of my favourite winter spots in the GTA.

Phil McKnight with a large Ollie to Fakie

Z Roy with an Ollie from the Upper Flat into the Mini-Half

Z Roy with...I guess a Nosegrind up, 5-0 down?

Phil with a lofty switch kickflip

B-Roll Weapon of Choice...$5 from an antique store and it has a hot shoe!

Z Roy again, with the 50mm instead of the 15mm

My favourite photo from the night, cropped square so it's Instagram-ready 😉

I also decided to warm up the motor drive and try out a couple sequences. Z Roy’s finished up a bit sketchy, as every other attempt I’d had to duck under his board flying out of the mini-half…so I was a little uneasy…but I assure you it was a land.

You already know.

Sometimes 1 frame just isn't enough.

...or one angle...

It felt really good to get back to my roots and shoot some quality skateboarding with old friends, I’m really looking forward to skating street in the coming months!

All Day – Phil McKnight

Reunited with my good friend Phil McKnight for a shoot on Tuesday for All Day Apparel. Z Roy was down for the count with a busted up ankle but was in good spirits nonetheless.