The Life and Times of John Campea

The day has come. For the past couple of years I have been driving a car that in all honesty should have died years ago. Everything... and I mean EVERYTHING has gone wrong with it. The brakes were shot, the transmission is screwed, the belts are worn, 2 of the doors won't open, 2 of the windows won't open, it overheats, the tires leak air, its got an oil leak, it slips out of gear... man I could go on and on.

The time had come. I finally was left with no choice but to go out and get myself another car. It hurt... cause I hate spending money, and I'm not loaded. But... out car shopping I went... and I ended up at my dads favorite dealer. And wouldn't you know it, I found the perfect car. It was cheap, in perfect condition, low KMs and only 4 years old. It's a Dark Blue 2002 Sunfire, and I was lucky to find it.

So I'm broke... but at least when I get in my car to go someplace... I know I'll arrive.

Posted by John Campea at 05:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The major UK magazine "Film Review" contacted me today to let me know that in their new issue coming out April 19th, they have a feature article on "The 20 Best Film Sites on the Internet", and that my site, "The Movie Blog", was on it. Yay!

They didn't tell where on the list we are (probably #20), but still, it's a great honor. I'll keep you posted as I find out more.

Posted by John Campea at 06:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Everything for my little documentary has been rolling right along. I've already got some wonderful people lined up to appear in the film, my travel plans are coming together, and now it looks like I've got most of my equipment too.

THe other day I purchased some video production lights that ended up costing me A LOT LESS than what I was anticipating. I got them from Henry's Camera in Ancaster at a fantastic price. So my lighting was all set up... now all I needed was a camera to shoot this thing with.

What I had heard and read from a TON of sources was that a primarily interview based documentary on a tight budget, the best camera to get was the Canon GL2. It's image quality is superb (or so they say) and it's list of manual controls are impressive. The problem was that I didn't have the $3400 (after taxes) to buy one, so I've been looking at less expensive cameras to do the job.

Well yesterday I noticed that a GL2 camera was up for auction on Ebay in Montreal. The feedback on the seller was PERFECT and the camera was hardly used at all. I put in a bid for less than half the price and I WON! (I'm so glad US bidders don't like buying from Canada!). The seller gave me a 14 day retun guarantee if I find anything but total perfection with the camera, so I feel pretty good about that. The camera should arrive in the next couple of days. YAY!!!

Posted by John Campea at 06:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hey there everyone. You may have noticed that my personal site (this one) has been offline for the last few days. This was as a result of me changing web servers with The Movie Blog. But, it appears that everything is up and running agin, including this site, so I'll start posting here again later tonight.

Posted by John Campea at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

i got to spend some time tonight with Documentary film maker Jay Cheel. Jay lives in St. Catharines and has been a guest on the Audio Edition before. Tonight we had him in to talk about his film "Obsessed and Scientific", a documentary about Time Travel (it's actually really good)

Afterwards I got to pick his brain about my upcoming project, and it was really beneficial for me. We talked about different cameras, camera formats, lighting, interview styles and a whole bunch more. It just made me even more excited about the film!

Posted by John Campea at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's 7am... and I haven't slept a wink all night I'm not sure what the problem is... maybe I'm just still wound up from the award. Whatever it is it needs to go away... if I don't get some serious sleep I'm giog to be sick. I can already feel something coming on. Grrrr... this sucks.

Posted by John Campea at 06:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I can hardly believe it. We actually won the "Podcast of the Year" award for the 2006 Weblog awards. They were handed out at the SXSW media conference in Texas this afternoon.

I'm so thrilled it almost defies words. I'm very happy. Heck... I may even have a DRINK tonight to celebrate!

Posted by John Campea at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Good news and bad news for me. The bad news is that my buddy Cam (the guy with me in the picture) is moving away out to Calgary. On the up side, he's asked me to go along with him for the drive and to hang out in Calgary for a little while... which I'm more than happy to do!

On the way we're going to stop in Saskatoon so I can say "hi" to some people... I'm pretty excited about that (and yes Ms. Jack, I'll stop off in Regina for a coffee too!). I've never really spent any substantial time in Calgary, so I'm looking forward to it. By "substantial" I mean a week or 2 at the most... then I'll just fly back to Hamilton. It should be a really fun trip. The drive is actually really beautiful.

I'll also take the opportunity to do some advanced scouting for my documentary which will start shooting in May. Also, it seems my dad has an old University buddy of his living out in Calgary that he's asked me to stop in and visit. That should be fun!

There is a slightly hard part to all this though. You see, I had a couple of friends (they're married) once when I lived out in Saskatoon. The couple now live in Calgary. To make a long story short the two of them and I had a massive parting of the ways. It was ugly. It's an odd thing... I miss them so much... and yet I'm insanely angry at them both at the same time (as they are with me).

I actually still keep a "Simpsons characiture" portrait of myself, The Guy and another friend of ours that we had done of ourselves at some street festival sitting beside my desk to this day (I'm the one on the left). I don't know why I keep it up there... but I do.

So yeah, I do miss them... but they had 5 kids (yeah that's right... FIVE). Five of the most amazing kids you'd ever want to meet. For years I got to be a pretty big part of their lives (I even babysat them as the 5th was being born). For years I saw them every Christmas... and I can honestly tell you I loved those kids with every fiber of my being... and I can't even begin to tell you how much I miss THEM.

It's funny... to this day there probably isn't a burning building that I wouldn't run into if I thought they (the couple) were stuck inside, and yet, I just can't bring myself to call or talk to them. Some people would say (and rightfully so) "Forgive and forget". But there are some things that some people can't just "get over". And my anger is just a little too deep to let slide. I know that sounds shallow... but it is nonetheless the way it is. Who knows, perhaps someday I'll be able to get over it, and perhaps they will too... but not today.

So anyway... the way this all ties into Calgary. I think I'm getting paranoid because I'm already having this fear of bumping into them while I'm in Calgary (which is totally stupid since Calgary is a HUGE city with about a million people in it). Still... whenever I step outside the door I'll probably be looking over my shoulder. Aren't insecurities fun!

Posted by John Campea at 01:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As most of you know, the internet "Blog" world has their own version of the Oscars known as "The Bloggies" (The Annual Weblog Awards). And this year, The Audio Edition was actually nominated for "Podcast of the Year".

For those of you who don't know, in simple terms a podcast is an audio show on the internet instead of on the radio. I was totally thrilled with the nomination. As a matter of fact, we were the only Canadian podcast to be nominated. Well, on Monday we find out if we actually won anything or not. I'm nervous.

In reality we have ZERO chance of winning. You see, one of the other podcasts nominated with TWIT (This Week In Tech) hosted by Leo Laport... they have MILLIONS of listeners so they basically have it locked up. However... and I don't know why... but recently I've had a weird sence of optimism. Maybe we DO have an outside chance of winning. Who knows... stranger things have happened. If we do win... I think my head will explode. All that's left to do now is just sit and wait... sit and wait... sit and wait. I'll keep you updated.

Posted by John Campea at 05:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Big news for me and my little documentary project. TONY CAMPOLO HAS AGREED TO BE IN THE FILM!!! I'm so happy about this I could spit (that really is a dumb saying). I'll be going to his office at Eastern University in St. Davids PA in the beginning of June. I'm totally stoked.

So why am I so excited about getting Campolo involved? Well, a story of his pretty much inspired the whole idea for the film. In the story a military recruiter asks a man if he'd be able to pull the lever and drop the bombs from a plane once the order came. The man (being a Christain) replied: "I don't know. When I'm in the situation I'll just do whatever I think Jesus would do". The Army recruiter shot back loudly: "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Everyone knows Jesus wouldn't drop bombs on people!!!" And yet the majority of the Christian Right support war. Interesting dichotomy. Thus the documentary I'm doing.

Anyway, we're off to a much better start than I anticipated... here's hoping the rest goes as smoothly.

Posted by John Campea at 10:44 PM | Permalink