"Director of Technical Operations"

RG – Tell us about your background and how you became involved with Big Soul.

JK – I was working at a provincial correctional facility for adults when I started to see some of the kids that I had worked with previously at a youth center. They were graduating from being youth offenders to adult offenders. It was a little depressing seeing that and I decided to switch gears and went back to working with the youth. One of the things I was doing was showing them alternative routes to expressing themselves and finding other activities they could get involved with. I’ve come from a little bit of an acting background, my uncle was an actor and all my family is sort of creative. I always thought that I would try to go into that area but had never really thought about the other side of it.

I was at a media symposium in Saskatoon where I met Laura and Jennifer. They were talking about a new show they were doing, Project One Generation. They asked me if I wanted to join them on one of their shoots and do some PA work. So basically that’s where it started.

RG – You’ve obviously moved up from PA – you’re the DP now, right?

JK – Yea, I’ve taken a lot of steps on the road to being that and number one is learning from other operators that they’ve [Big Soul] used on subsequent shows. I understand photography, and that was a hobby of mine before. I understood how to compose shots and work with the light, and as far as taking that knowledge and transferring it to a moving medium, it wasn’t that much of a jump for me. I think I’m a technical guy so I understand the medium. It was a matter of learning how framing and camera movement relate to the story and details like that. I took some workshops and crash course film classes. There is a great workshop at the Summer Institute of Film and Television which is in Ottawa. While Laura and Jen were doing a Producer’s workshop, I was doing one on Camera and Lights. And it just kept building from there, especially with digital technology, which is something we were in at the very start, kind of on the ground level, with Final Cut Pro. It was one of the first systems to revolutionize independent productions. It democratized the way production was done.

RG – How would you describe your current role at Big Soul?

JK – We’re a really small company, we have three to four people here full time. That being as it is, we have to basically perform a multitude of roles. For me, my current title would be, according to this fancy card I have here, “Director of Technical Operations.” Now I could have about five of these cards and one could say “Editor” and one could say “Graphic Artist.” Basically everything in this office that has to deal with any of the gear, or the hardware, editing suite, cameras, and any of our graphics and promotional materials is pretty much what I’m in charge of.

RG – What’s been your most rewarding project to work on?

JK – Project One Generation! Anything that we do with kids basically. I can’t explain how awesome it is to see a kid on a dolly with another kid beside him pulling focus on a very complex move and these kids are like four feet tall. Some of them will maybe think its fun to do, and then there will be others who think, “Wow, I could really do this.” We try to show those kids that they can use this medium to share their voice and be heard. Also to know that in the entertainment industry, it’s not just the actors and the people you seen on the screen, there is a whole army of people behind the camera. When they see that teamwork, they can use that in other parts of their life as well.

RG – So I’ve asked Laura this and I’ve asked Judson this, and in fact this is a continuing theme from our Winter Edition: do you feel the quote-on-quote “Burden of Representation” being aboriginal yourself and being part of the media industry?

JK – I think there is a bit of a responsibility in just being part of this industry. Especially at Big Soul with the type of work we’ve done from the start. Showing kids that they have to be the ones to tell their stories and as a people as a whole, we’ve had basically 500 years of people writing our history for us. Now we’re taking that back. And we’re going to show the bad as well as the good.

RG – Lastly, as I ask everyone this question, where do you see yourself and Big Soul in five years?

JK – Five years. When would that be?

RG – That’s gonna be … uh, my math’s terrible. 2013. No, 2012.

JK – Okay, well I’ll be 40 years old. [Pause] Wow, I’m gonna be really old.

RG – [Laughs] That’s not old. That’s like the new 30.

JK – Well, let’s say that providing the Mayan prophecy of the end of times is not correct, Big Soul will be a bigger studio where we can continue to do the things we’re doing, but on a larger scale. Also, hopefully everyone will be driving hydrogen-powered vehicles. And hopefully they’ll still sound the same as a ’68 Mustang.