Homer to Amsterdam

I was recently given the opportunity to voice a piece/performance for artist/filmmaker Pablo Pijnappel in Amsterdam's lovely Rijksacademie. It was awesome to reunite with old friends in old Amsterdam and be a part of the art world again. 8 years ago, Pablo and I studied Media Arts together in Amsterdam at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie of Art & Design.

The show was a photography installation of Pablo's images of Homer. It was surreal for my family to travel half way across the world only to be suddenly immersed in Homer all over again. Taken in a European context, Homer Alaska is totally alien -- beyond the end of the road for sure. I voiced a wonderful story that he had written, and then performed live readings of the story for the start of the open studios (of which another 50 artists were having concurrent gallery shows).

I heard a rumor that 10,000 people from all over Europe converge at the Rijksacademie over a period of 3 days for the open studios.

Video: Exploring the Chiswell Ridge

We just finished this video for the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G). It was our first project to incorporate HDV -- which quickly turned into "render hell" since we were mixing SD and super huge images/animations with the new video format. Our older machines were pushed beyond the system requirements for sure. As in 8 hour plus render periods on the timeline. Ouch! Time to move on to the next version of FCP.

The video was made to shown on wildlife cruises (on Kenai Fjords Tour boats), science conferences and general "outreach" situations.

Rebecca Sheir of Alaska Public Radio voiced the piece. Kammi Matson wrote the script and Miriam Elizondo labored hard as the finish editor and sound/music engineer. Great team work!

Rough Cuts: Picking fish from our nets

Just to be clear, these videos I'm posting about Bristol Bay are rough scenes from a documentary film that I am currently editing (amongst other projects). It's my intention to get my vision of Bristol Bay out into the public sphere so that others can see what I've seen. That said, these initial scenes are just a few out of many many many that need to be cut and distilled into a finished form.

In 2006, the commercial harvest of red salmon was 44.3 million fish. This was the 8th largest return of fish in the last 50 years of Alaskan statehood. The wild salmon runs of Bristol Bay are unique in that this is the last place in the world where this natural phenomena exists.

All kinds of people depend on this valuable, sustainable resource. Native communities have subsisted on this fish for 10,000 years. Commercial fishermen have been here for the last 150 years and that tradition continues today. All fishing is still done by hand in a season that lasts for only 3 weeks.

Every fish that lands in the net needs to be picked out of the net by hand. In 2006, that means 29 million individual fish were killed by human hands.

Think about that as you watch this video.

Rough Cuts: Bristol Bay

This past summer, I traveled to Bristol Bay (western Alaska) to begin gathering material for a new film project. My film is an exploration of the people who depend on wild Alaskan Red Salmon, and the major issues that threaten our salmon resources and salmon cultures (Native and Commercial)

Major thanks goes out to the fishermen who took this filmmaker aboard, the families of Bristol Bay who took me in, and the Rasmuson Foundation for giving me the initial funds to begin this project.

I have finally made the time to go through and begin to edit! I'll be posting rough scenes as I go along, so that this project can get out there and I can start hearing some feedback.

I'm using Blogger to handle the video because it's user friendly, but the streaming video isn't the nicest looking or sounding. Keep in mind that all of the footage was shot on HDV.

In this scene, we set our nets aboard the F/V Teal and wait for fish.

Contact Info

Kevin Co
ikevinco@gmail.com

907-399-2326

127 E. Bunnell St
Homer AK, 99603

The Gathering

The Gathering from Kevin Co on Vimeo.

Bristol Bay B-Roll Selects for the WWF

WWF Bristol Bay B-Roll Selects from Kevin Co on Vimeo.

Alright. Thanks for the patience guys. Best practices on viewing this will be to view it full-screen and HD by clicking on the scaling button on the bottom RH side of the player. If it begins to stutter (on an older computer), play it back in SD.

YRITWC Ruby Turbine B-Roll

YRITWC Ruby Turbine B-Roll from Kevin Co on Vimeo.