This was an absolute treat of a project. I met the CEO of SF Heritage, an amazing and wise individual named Woody LaBounty, who offered me a role in their then-upcoming yearly fundraising gala. SF Heritage works to preserve historic districts, legacy businesses, and unique works of San Francisco architecture within the inevitable (and, arguably, crucial) change that visits it. He had come into the possession of some old film footage shot by a videographer named Zepporah Glass. It seemed as though she had plans to create a narrative short film implementing documentation of something incredible – the re-homing of century-old Victorian homes. In the 70s, there was a wave (thanks in large part to SF Heritage) to relocate historically and architecturally significant Victorian homes instead of simply tearing them down for commercial or greater residential development. Just check out the video above. It’s truly insane to behold, it looks like a surreal art piece.

Zepporah’s film never came together, fully, but she and her family submitted the footage to be digitized, then brought it to SF Heritage. I was lucky enough to end up with this incredible footage. By the time I met Woody an he got his hands on the footage, it’s best use-case, showing it off at their yearly fundraising Gala, was looking sort of thin: It was a packed show full of presentations, history, performances, and other videos. Still, he found a use for it (and me). With over an hour of footage to work with, I trimmed out the best ~15 minutes of building-moving-sequences, and cut them down into clips we could present on smaller screens during a pre-show event. Woody and I also determined information about these buildings, which we annotated onto the footage with graphics designed by me. The color correction and other digital post-processing was also in my hands. While fun, it came with an appropriate level of apprehension to do this nearly 50-year-old footage of what is, effectively, a lost art justice.

Ultimately, I’m really proud of this simple project, but more proud that I got to be involved with such an amazing, storied organization. The gala went off without a hitch, and I also assisted (a crew of friendly, dedicated, professional, union A/V folks who did 90% of work) in running the show from backstage. I rarely get to work in nonprofit content, so this was a breath of fresh air for me (not that I don’t love the sweet, fresh, rejuvenating air of advertising and commercial work!)