The Backstory on "People We'll Meet on the Street"

   On November 15, 2010, my column on carlsbad.patch.com officially launched. Called People We'll Meet on the Street, I modeled this series of real-people snippits after a documentary project I edited in 2006 for director David W. Gibbons. That project, 14 Days in Great Britain, won critical, yet limited acclaim.

For me, 14 Days is an experience, not just a video documentary. It's thought-provoking and inspires a broad stroke view of the world from the mouthes of common every-day folk.

© 2005 Lighthouse/Hursey

Along with the video crew, Gibbons had two still photographers on location doing both studio and environmental portraits for what was to be a heavy-bound coffee table book. It's these environmental portraits done by LA photographer Dana Hursey that literally took my breath away when I first saw them. And today, they still do.

So when the opportunity came up to get onboard with the local patch.com bureau (an AOL venture), I presented this modified and localized concept of 14 Days to Carlsbad editor Deanne Goodman: Done as a weekly column; like Gibbons, I would simply go out on the town and talk to people. Like Hursey, I would (attempt) to take an awesome environmental portrait them.

Goodman agreed and the column is underway.

© 2010 dconder.llc

Now, it's easier to describe these stories in terms of what they are not rather than what they are: They are not news. There may be some local and timely insight from time-to-time, but this is opinion. Simple as that. Some will be commonplace, some will be extraordinary. That's life. Some will be posted on Patch. Some will not.

As new articles come online, whether it be through patch.com, other national media or my local desktop, I'll bounce them to this blog along with a little more backstory, if any. You can follow along here, or use this direct link to the column on Patch: People We'll Meet on the Street.

Unfortunately, Gibbons' 14 Days Project has been put on indefinite hiatus due to funding; and DVD copies of the documentary are all but extinct.

There are a few archival links still online that will give you a feel for what this endeavor was all about:

• trailer 1
• trailer 2
• trailer 3
• Slideshow w/original soundtrack by Anthony Boniface (recommended)

For more about 14 Days in Great Britain:
          http://www.steppinoutnewmexico.com/printout.php?articleid=341

To inquire about the 14 Days Project: info@davidgibbons.org
For more about patch.com: www.patch.com/about

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