During the pandemic, I started a show called My Backyard Classroom. It's short environmental videos recorded from my mom's backyard and neighborhood. I'll be uploading it soon to my YT channel. This series was shot partly on my iPhone and partly on a Canon EOS-M, which was another one of my projects. This camera is a project in itself. That will be another show. Stay tuned for that.
I have always been interested in adventure videos/movies. No, not the Indiana Jones type of flic. The Touching the Void, Free Solo, and Dogtown and Z-boys type of flic.
Bacpakr comes from when I forfeited my AOL email address after I left my job in TV news. At the time, my only email address. Since I was going to be backpacking on the other side of the world, I wanted a way to stay in touch with family and friends.
I set up a new email address however, the correct spelling for backpacker was taken along with many other incorrect versions. Bacpakr is what I came up with. I no longer use it as an email address, though. I had planned on making a video of my trip to Australia and New Zealand, and maybe one day, I will. That is why my production company/YouTube channel ended up with that name.
When I was younger, I would make little videos with this Fisher Price video camera, which I think belonged to my sister, Jill. I would give the videos a title and always come up with some kind of name for the production of the video, like 3 Sisters Films, Rainy Dayz Pictures, and Parachute Pants Productions. That continued when I started editing with my first computer. The new iMac, which unfortunately spent most of its life in the box as I had just changed careers and was moving every 3-6 months. In hindsight, a laptop would have been a better purchase.
It was sometime a bit after that I decided to use Bacpakr exclusively. Originally, I was posting everything on Pathfinder's FB page. https://www.facebook.com/pathfinderpanama
I started to think that maybe that was a bit confusing as Pathfinder is an experiential learning company that focuses on team building and social and emotional learning in action. In contrast, Bacpakr is a video production. I felt that they both needed their own space.
I have edited videos before. However, they were only seen by friends or family members. I didn't think of making videos as a source of income. I never thought of making movies. I never wanted to go to Hollywood or New York. I worked for a news company, which I didn't want to do however, an opportunity came up, and I went for it. I didn't like it; I had a feeling going into it that I wasn't going to like it.
I studied communication arts in college, and the program was pretty heavily weighted in news. The title of my degree is Radio, Television, and Film. We didn't do radio, which is a shame because I think I would have liked that. We only watched films in the film classes. And television was news. There were two sections in the department, and they both taught news. One section should have handled the news production classes, and the other should have focused more on film and documentaries. When I graduated, the one clear thing was that I did NOT want to work in the news. And that's where I ended up.
It's crazy how that happens. If you went to college, did you enjoy what you studied? Do you work in the field that you studied? How do you like it? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading till the end. Peace!
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