Genealogical Artifact

I remember as it were yesterday when my dad took me to the store to electronics, and asked, will this camera work for the movie you are intending to make? I could not believed that finally I was getting a video camera. I was laughing alone picturing the magical things I would do with my little new gadget. By that time I knew almost nothing about cameras, I just had the idea of filming, directing, acting and writing. Although, technology was not my strong area, I needed that gadget so bad, and my family was providing it. Happiness was a small word to describe my real feelings in that exact moment in my life.  

The camera that my father bought was a Canon ES75 and it will use 8mm to record on tape. I was fourteen years old, and it was almost ending my first year in high school. My friends and I had the idea about making a horror film due to the popular films, Scream and, I know what you did last summer. Those films were exiting and entertaining, I really wanted to do something like that, and according to me something much better!  Before having my camera, I borrow one of the three cameras available for the whole school. It was almost impossible to get one. Now, I had my own camera, and I felt that making a film was a reality instead of a teenage dream. Because my idea of making a film was so popular in my class, I made all my class to act on the movie, even my teacher and the principal were part of this film.  It took me a year to shot and then edited the whole film.

Post-production was a pain, rapidly my camera became an old gadget and with 8mm there was no way to export images to a computer, at least nothing that I knew. I had to edit everything with VCR system; I really don’t remember how did do it, all the slow motion scenes (were far too many), also the insertion of the music, and other details. I cursed my camera, and at the end of the process I loved it again.

I was regularly carrying my “Canon,” it accompanied me on my trips with my friends to the beach and other places, mostly in every single year until I graduated. I have tapes of long and deep conversations, some silly moments with friends, and many shots of my first love.

During high school, I shot the horror film called “Almost Real,” a romantic comedy “Six Grades of Separation” that was fairly an excuse to kiss a bunch of girls (I was also part of the cast). My friends and I also recorded a yearbook in a documentary style, the main goal was to create a catharsis of nostalgia while watching us saying good wishes and expectations for the years to come-we totally succeed, even the bad boy in the class was wiping his tears away. My camera was a faithful asset that makes my high school experience unforgettable. I have countless tapes, full of secrets, laughs, tears, confessions, and many memorable moments that are a proof that what I had lived during my teenage journey was real. My camera is not only a way to record my history, but it is a legacy in itself. I still have that “Canon,” I didn’t have the heart to sell it… it is priceless for me anyway. 

Artist Statement:

With this chronological artifact I felt very connected to my teenage times, in which I had so much time hung out with my friends. Through my selection of my artifact portrait how I found my way to keep those fond memories to myself and also a way to get to introduce myself to my class during high school. By that time cameras were neither cheap nor popular in Chile, and the fact that my dad invest on that camera due to my interest on film was a great demonstration of care for myself.  Even though I got many experience with this artifact, I felt that 500ish words to describe this was a little short, I might have taken some more time to make some more specific details maybe about my experience with the camera. With my writing style I’m trying to give a quick picture to the reader about the value of this object that got old pretty fast. Although the fact that by the first year the camera was not the ultimate gadget, I still wanted to kept because it became part of my journey on my high school life, and I felt that changing this, it would draw another cycle that was not ready to close, at least until I graduated from school.