Prologue
About Me
Greetings,
My name is Nicholas Venecia and I am a filmmaker and an engineer.
My love for filmmaking started when I was 9 years old. I was going through cabinets and boxes that contained old family photos when I discovered a peculiar black case hidden from plain sight. Inside this case was a device that looked like a camera but not like one I had ever seen before.
Cam-Cord-What?
One week and a "new" camcorder later, my friends and I recreated scenes from all of our favorite movies. The only limitation to our creativity was the 30-minute recording limit of each tape. After I exhausted my inventory of unused tapes, I knew it was time to dig into the archives of home videos. I was specifically instructed to stay away from them but I was desperate. It was all fun and games until I was caught and my parents found out I recorded over their wedding tape. The details that followed are too graphic to describe.
The future is...?
I knew I needed a digital camcorder but I just couldn't afford one, and since my GoFundMe didn't take off, I began earning money by helping my grandfather at his spice business. After weeks of saving, I purchased my very first digital camcorder. I even customized it with a fake mustache to give it personality. Unfortunately, our relationship didn't last very long because I lost the battery and charger not realizing I could buy new ones. "It's not you, it's me".
Blurry means Professional
I believed that "blurry backgrounds" would truly define me as a cinematographer (obviously this ended up not being the case) so I saved money and purchased my first interchangeable lens camera. I was astonished by the quality of images produced by this camera giving me the opportunity to finally experience bokeh! Unfortunately, my relationship with this camera was no different from the last. After introducing my camera to the ground, our relationship came to an immediate end.
The JOURNEY Begins
The next camera I bought was a downgrade from the previous camera I owned, but it was also a blessing in disguise. The limitations of the camera sparked creativity in many forms. I learned to how to problem-solve to make the impossible possible, how to re-adjust instead of giving up, and how to let go of something that wasn't working. The newer camera taught me how to be a filmmaker and I am grateful for it.
"The original version of Knock Knock..." continue reading in Chapter 1.
