Effort, Inc

I’m very pleased to announce the release of a new DVD called Coming Home: the adventures of Spencer and Chris.  Comprised primarily of four short documentaries, shot and edited by Chris Gallaway and myself, the video collection represents a labor of love (Notice the $14.99 price tag.  Nobody is getting rich off of this project.) and our passion for sharing stories about our experiences on the water and in the outdoors.

Chris and I have worked together on several projects over the past five or six years, including his award winning Green Race Movie and my last production from Rapid Transit Video, which was entitled The Eddy Feeling.  Chris is always a pleasure to work with an he really pushes me to make my creative work better.  We tend to learn a lot working together and the Coming Home DVD was most definitely a learning experience.  And I don’t mean that sarcastically at all.  I only say that meaning that it has been enjoyable to produce this project and that I feel it is our best work so far.  Chris does all kinds of great work through his company, Horizonline Pictures, and I encourage you to check out his website.  He has this sort of inspiring style that makes you think he is only headed for great things.  When I listen to his video narration I can’t help but think he belongs on a show like This American Life.

Further, I am really pleased to be able to share these stories with the paddling community and to do it with purpose.  At first we honestly didn’t even plan to make these into a product that would be sold.  We both had some short film ideas in mind that we wanted to do for ourselves primarily, kind of as scrapbooks, collected memories of monumental journeys we took with our kayaks.  Thanks in part to our co-producers, Astral Buoyancy and Shred Ready, we were able to pool enough funds to pay for the DVD replication.

My primary contribution to the content of the DVD is a video entitled How to Go Surf Kayaking, which is second in a series of surf kayak films associated with INTERFERENCE, a surf kayak film my friend Joey Hall produced two years ago.  Over the past fifteen years I have been traveling around the world with a group of friends on surf kayak trips.  Without much direction we have documented these trips and I have tucked away footage and photos for years and years.  The title, How to go Surf Kayaking, is both sarcastic and sincere, meaning that it’s not an actual instructional video.  Rather, the title means that we as a group learned how to go surf kayaking, how to travel with kayaks, how to survive as tourists in other countries and how to have fun surfing together.  The production was, as I state in my narration, “for my friends,” merely as a scrapbook piece, but now we are going to be able to share it with the world.  And hopefully this video and the others on the Coming Home DVD will inspire people to go out and travel and find the fun and beauty we have found in the sport of kayaking.

Quickly, the other three films include Grand Canyon in Winter, North Shore: A guide to getting lost, and Coming Home: North Carolina.  All three of these were produced fully by Chris Gallaway with the exception of Coming Home, which I was a big part of in filming and planning.

“Coming Home” Trailer from Horizonline Pictures on Vimeo.

Proceeds from sales of the DVD, as well as funds raised at the video premiere, will benefit two non-profit organizations local to Asheville, NC.  We feel there is something we can all appreciate and gain from these groups and we aim to raise more awareness of both.  Our VOICE is a intervention and prevention agency in Buncome County NC that serves victims of sexual assault.  In short, they are a rape crisis center, and their services and purpose should not go unnoticed.  RiverLink is an organization which spearheads the economic and environmental revitalization of the French Broad River and its tributaries as a place to live, work and play.

There is an awful lot to say about the music in the soundtracks of these films, which I will dive into on some separate articles that may be found later at RapidTransitMusic.com

Thanks,
Spencer Cooke – Effort Inc.

Pertinent Links:
Our VOICE
RiverLink

These are all the fine folks who donated product to raise money for Our VOICE and RiverLink at the upcoming world premiere.
Diamond Brand Outdoors
Astral Buoyancy
Shred Ready
Immersion Research
Limones
Lola Salon
Clingman Cafe
Mike Byer Auto and Truck Repair
Outdoor Sports Marketing
Seal Line
Effort Inc
teamscum
12 Bones Smokehouse

Coming Home DVD link for purchases http://rapidtransitvideo.com/main/store/2011/04/23/coming-home-dvd-14-99/
Rapid Santa Holiday DVD Special http://rapidtransitvideo.com/main/store/2011/12/13/rapid-santa/