RIESTER

Early in the summer of 2010, a call went out across the globe for people to film their day on July 24 and submit the footage via YouTube to be included in what was promoted as an experiment. The film was produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald.

The goal was to assemble the footage into a full length documentary time capsule of a day in the life of the world. The filmmakers received over 80,000 entries from 192 countries with over 10,000 hours of footage.

The footage was edited into a 90-minute film called “Life in a Day.” It premiered last night in two venues: to a live audience at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and to anyone on the planet with access to YouTube.

When I first came across this project in June of 2010 I was inspired to participate after watching the short introductory films of the director and producers talking of their vision and setting the stage for content based on four questions: What do you love? What makes you laugh? What do you fear? What is in your pockets?

From the deep and philosophical questions of life to the simple mundane, I was curious and felt inspired to contribute. I nearly forgot about it until the morning of July 24th 2010 when I woke up abruptly at 4:00 AM – “today is the day.”

Having no idea what I would be inspired to shoot that day, I jumped up on the roof of my house in Arizona in the predawn hour with my Canon 5D and my digital audio recorder to capture time lapse footage of the sunrise while recording whatever thoughts or ideas would come along the way.

The day turned into a rather quiet, serene and contemplative day spent pointing the camera to the sky. All day I watched clouds shifting and building and spoke to the recorder as I began to sink into a rather profound connection to the thousands of other people around the world doing the same thing I was doing.

This was one of the gifts of the day. There was something deeply moving in knowing that there were tens of thousands of us out in the world experiencing something different, but sharing a single intent to capture the spirit of this day as it unfolded.

As the storm clouds grew into late afternoon, it was apparent that we were in for our first good monsoon storm. I headed to one of my favorite spots, Lookout Mountain in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. It proved to be one of the most dramatic sunsets I have ever experienced, complete with distant storm cells, divine cloud breaks that let sun rays travel in all directions and an open horizon line at the end that exploded in the rich colors that Arizona sunsets are famous for. I knew I had captured something truly beautiful for the film.

I submitted the footage via YouTube and then waited. Slowly over the course of a few weeks, they started posting the raw footage in an archive library on the “Life in a Day” YouTube Channel.

It was fascinating to see this archive in its uncut state. You could get a feel instantly of what might come from the movie. Eventually I was contacted by the producers and asked to send in HD master files of a few of the clips, including the sunset time lapse. I signed the release waivers and was thrilled to be accepted into the final cut stage.

As it turns out, the sunset did not make the final cut of the film. It may sound cliché to say that it really didn’t matter if my footage made it in the film or not, but everything leading up to the screening was truly the reward including—the profound feeling of being connected to humanity on the day of filming, to breaking through the fear of sharing and publicly posting my personal thoughts on love and fear.

The moments of anticipation leading up to the screening and the subsequent support of my Facebook circle of friends who were supportive, proud and excited for me. WOW. This social media evolution is truly something.

National Geographic and YouTube will launch the film theatrically on July 24, 2011, one year from the date of filming.

It turned out to be an incredibly touching film that captures an abundance of ordinary and extraordinary moments all across the globe. It is a film about our connection to everyone else on the planet on a relatively simple day in time. There is something for people to connect with there and if you can see it someday – make time to connect and check it out.

The crowning moment of the entire “Life in a Day” filming adventure. Watch in full screen mode if possible:

Visit the “Life in a Day” YouTube channel for more video clips: http://www.youtube.com/lifeinaday