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Press
“You are a remarkable talent and we are fortunate to benefit from your immerse knowledge.”
-Tamara Doolittle
“His understanding of the project needs and his ability to work with people is perhaps his greatest attributes. It was a pleasure working with a true professional!”
-Dennis Stretar
It wasn’t long after the Reservoir Road Fire started in the foothills west of Longmont yesterday that a veritable arsenal of personnel and equipment was brought to bear against it. A 15-year-old Longmont resident captured astounding video of the fire as it raged in the hills and the response by firefighters.
The blaze quickly prompted the evacuation of hundreds of homes within a four-mile radius of the fire. With hundreds of personnel and dozens of pieces of equipment performing the final stages of work on the Fourmile Canyon Fire to the south, the response to the new fire was rapid.
Video taken by Payton Peterson of PcProVideo documents the opening hours of the assault on the blaze. Water dropping helicopters are seen sucking up water from a nearby reservoir and then dropping it on the fire and returning for more. Slurry bombers make repeated passes trying to keep the fire at bay. All the while, smoke rises into the normally blue Colorado sky.
The footage is nothing short of outstanding and an incredible piece of work for young Peterson - watch the video below. For complete news coverage of the fire, please visit our main page.
Reservoir Road Fire, Loveland CO.
Comments
“Wow, This puts it in perspective as far as the hard work of those in the air. This young man did a great job putting it all together.”
-Marilyn Magee
“Payton's awesome, he did a great job putting this together!”
-Brigette-Longmont
Source: www.Examiner.com
Payton Peterson is a 15 year old audio visual and new media entrepreneur. The motto for his approach is "If I don't know how to do it, I will learn how to." In the midst of two Colorado wildfires, Peterson became part of a volunteer community using this approach to respond responsibly via new media. There are excellent posts with an analysis of how social media was used on Huffington Post and Wingineering.
What is fascinating about Peterson's video is that he set out to capture the "news", but his vision of video journalism is highly compelling and new. The visual world of the wildfire itself tells the story. Peterson captures the volunteer firefighters working as a team and how they accomplish a tough job. His use of time-elapse captures the nature of the Front Range and how a wildfire can consume it. The soundtrack and clips express a community coming together during a crisis. The editing is outstanding.
At 15, Peterson will only know the interconnected social web. He will only know the more lightweight digital editing and real-time tech that can mobilized quickly. With his talents, he will improve their use and their meaning to our society. Peterson states that he edited the video in 10 minutes in a response to questions for the Tweetingdonal's Dhidean blog. He uploaded the video on his YouTube channel then released it into the crisis response community following the #Lovelandfire hashtag on Twitter. I found it around 8 a.m. on the 13th after many fellow Colorado residents retweeted it. We all loved it.
It is interesting to compare Peterson's video with Colorado 9 News, as the television station's van appears in one of Peterson's clips. The two were there at the same time and the clips are also about equal in length. In contrast, Colorado 9 News has far more financial and media resources. 9 News uses the effective format that existed long before Peterson's era of nimble digital technologies: A live newscaster stands before the camera interpreting the event, a Firechief gives statistics, newscasters give commentary. It is an "expert interpreter" visual experience.
For the question at the heart of this post, place yourself in the shoes of a Loveland or Boulder resident. Which video above holds value beyond the "news"? Which video above helps you grasp the big picture and still represents your community?
For those of us that live in Colorado, it has been a week to drop everything and help in some way. Victims of the fire lost homes, part of their heritage. The firefighters are heroes for containing Boulder and working hard in Loveland. Both fires broke out in rugged, dry terrain. A beetle infestation left dead wood across the state, so containment of the wildfires is exponentially urgent. It has been a historic week, both in loss and also in the strength of response.
Payton Peterson's video is a reflection of the dynamics of the Front Range community and the terrain of the foothills. He represents a shift towards what a more connected future means, and his future is a bright one at that. His work is a testament to a highly engaged Millennial generation that deserves our attention and investment.
Source: www.visualchange.posterous.com
Times-Call Community Review
Payton Peterson
Age: 16
Years in St. Vrain Valley: 12
Occupation: Student at Silver Creek High School
You were the winner of Longmont’s Google video contest. How long did it take you to create your nearly three-minute video? It took me 12 hours of combined shooting and editing to produce the Google Fiber video. This was mostly due to the fact that we had to drive all over Longmont to get the shots we needed. When I edited it, I wanted it to be the best possible, so I spent much time looking at every detail. After all, it was a contest for an iPad, so it had to be great!
You founded your own company, PC Pro Video, in 2005 at age 10. How does a student run his own company? It has been a challenge to manage school, friends and business, but after a couple of years, I got used to the workflow and have since become more efficient. It was a challenge trying to get places and shoot things because of my age; but as I like to say, “Skill set and maturity matter more than age.” Since the start of PC Pro Video, I have been involved with The Longmont Channel, Colorado’s Most Wanted (Fox31), 9News, RPMasson Productions, Rocky Mountain Christian Church, RidgeviewTel, Red Pine Studios and Tiffen, as well as charity work for the OUR Center and other local charities. I have also filmed private clients’ weddings, promos, and school and sporting events. All in all, I have filmed, photographed, run sound, video or lighting for more than 150 productions.
How well is the company doing now? PC Pro Video has really taken off as of March last year (around the Google Fiber video). All the publicity from winning multiple contests has brought in a lot of clients, not only for video, but for other audio/visual services as well. Things just seem to be growing more busy and exciting! I can’t wait to see where this is headed!
Tell us about the work you did documenting the Reservoir Road Fire west of Loveland last year. Right after the Fourmile (Canyon) Fire, I promised myself that the next time there was breaking news in or around Longmont, I would go document it, mostly because I was tired of “re-tweeting” people’s info and media on Twitter and wanted to go get images and info that I could “tweet” to the world. So, on a Sunday, as I was driving back from mixing video at my church, I saw the Loveland fire on the horizon and immediately booked it home and grabbed my gear. After driving for a while and getting some shots of the fire along the way, I finally got there. I figured that by the time I got there, the news stations would be all set up and live; they were not. I ran up to a lake and set up my gear and did a few time-lapses. Then I went and filmed in places that they closed off right after I left — like 10 feet from the lake and 30 feet from the powerful helicopters (I got soaked!). While my video camera recorded video, I took pictures as well, which ended up in the Denver Post. After I got enough shots, I drove home and imported the video and photos to my Mac and whipped up an edit in about 10 minutes. Within 30 minutes, the video was on YouTube for the world to see and for me to “tweet” about — right as the news stations got their live footage up.
What are your career ambitions? At this point in life, I have not narrowed myself down to just one field but left my options open. I really just enjoy live video events and am considering becoming a video director, cameraman, crane operator or Steadicam operator. Right now, I am just going where my business takes me, whether that be into the video field or not.
3/26/11
9/12/10