Silverton Film Trip

After another fantastic annual ghosthunt at the Elkhorn Lodge in October, I was asked to join a film crew of paranormal investigators and Colorado history fanatics (sounds like my kind of group!) on a week-long investigation and filming for the Grand Imperial Hotel in Silverton, Colorado.

Silverton, Colorado

The Grand Imperial was built in 1882 and is full of history. There are so many old west mining town stories surrounding it, and even an original bullet hole above the bar. It had never been investigated, but everyone who worked there was a firm believer with plenty of personal stories about the ghosts. To make things easier for our hunts, the hotel was completely closed off to all other guests for the week.

The full gang in front of the Grand Imperial

Once I got to the Grand I met the rest of the crew. Less than 10 of us with the whole place to ourselves! I was set to work on some B-roll of the active rooms, got some interviews, then at 10pm I ran the infrared camera for a 4 person investigation of the basement. Later we switched with the other group upstairs. Some very interesting things happened, but you'll have to wait to see the episode. We held two more investigations throughout our stay, and will likely return for more in the summer.

Filming in the hotel lobby

The Grand Imperial Hotel

We filmed at the town museum, the graveyard, and even a special stop at the rail yard for some footage of famous engine 315 and to interview the caretaker. Aside from filming interviews, our cameras were also occupied with historical reenactments, complete with full time-period costumes.

Engine 315 at the railyard

Durango and Rio Grande Railway

We were constantly busy filming and digging into history! Four members of our crew left a day early. Since they had experienced paranormal activity in their rooms two nights in a row, the remaining five of us all switched rooms in hopes of something good. Sadly we didn't hear anything.

Silverton cemetery

One highlight of the trip was going to the ghost town of Animas Forks for some stock footage. The structures are incredibly preserved for being in such a harsh climate. We also spent many hours wondering the Silverton graveyard in search of familiar names, and looking through some excellent history books.

Animas Forks

Inside one of the buildings

Second floor of the famous "bay window" house

The trip was late nights, early mornings, plenty of filming, lots of history, and tons of fun. The drive to Silverton and back was also amazing. The San Juan Mountains and Million Dollar Highway are beautiful, I don't have time to visit that corner of the state nearly as much as I'd like.

Ouray, Colorado

Million Dollar Highway

Another ghost town on the way

Mountain goats on Monarch Pass

Crested Butte Film Festival

"Third Bridge" made it into the Crested Butte Film Festival! Eric directed and I produced the project. Of course this called for a 5-day extended weekend trip to the mountains. As even more incentive, the festival was generous enough to pay for filmmaker housing, and provided us with VIP passes so every event and film was free. Our trip was Thursday-Monday, Sept 29-Oct 3. The fall colors were at their peak, and I ended up with nearly 10 Gigs of photos.

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/19143717

Sept 29
We headed through Buena Vista and over Cottonwood Pass, stopping for several photo ops on the way. Filmmaker accommodations were at the Nordic Inn, a homey little place in Mt Crested Butte, and one of the few we haven't stayed at before!

Lighting is key when shooting fall aspens

Mt. Crested Butte aglow at sunset

The sunset was spectacular as we drove down to Gunnison after checking in to the hotel. Caught the reception after the opening films at Western State, met a few people, and picked up our welcome bags and passes.

Rain curtains at sunset

Filmmaker SWAG bags!

Sept 30
Spent the morning driving down Kebler Pass and taking photos of the fall colors. Later headed up to Gothic (now I've seen it in every season!), and also tried for a few geocaches in town.

Shooting fall colors on Kebler Pass

Aspen Groves along Kebler

Eric at the base of a mining headframe

Nearing Gothic, colors at their peak!

Got back by 4pm for the Kickoff Party at Brick Oven Pizza. Headed over to the mountain theatre for the 5:30 showing of "Play Again" preceded by a short called "Scrapertown." Play Again was a documentary about taking technology addicted teens into the wilderness on their first outdoors experience.

Film Fest Reel

Kickoff party at Brick Oven Pizza

Unfortunately we didn't have time for another showing before heading to the Filmmakers party at Montanya Distillers. The festival was quite generous with free drink tickets at all the events. Finally met a few of the filmmakers there since most of the people at the gatherings were VIP sponsors. Jacob Siegel-Boettner of "With My Own Two Wheels" was present, Denver-based Phil Mirabito and Ross Smith with their films, and Charlotte Barrett and Sean Fallon of the feature "Virgin Alexander." Also a few film representatives here and there.

A portion of the Filmmaker party

Oct 1
At Noon we had our first showing of "Third Bridge" with the Shorts II program. Got great response from the audience during the Q&A, and the theatre started a little empty but filled up nicely in good time. Next we went to the 3pm showing of "From the Ground Up" and "Back to Life." The first was about 9/11 firefighter's widows and the organizations they started to honor their husbands. "Back to Life" was a documentary on a group of severely injured soldiers from Iraq going on a week long rafting trip down the Grand Canyon.

Our first Q&A after the noon showing

More Kebler Pass trips

After those showings we had just enough time to drive out for some sunset photos, and return for the 8pm "Third Bridge" showing. More of a crowd this time, including several filmmakers we knew. Again we got lots of good feedback and questions, the most popular of which always seems to be "how can I find the bridge?" Later headed over to the VIP Party at Dogwood Cocktail Cabin for more socializing with fellow filmmakers!

A favorite photo spot, yup same truck as previous post!

Aspens and afternoon storms

Oct 2
Eric and I were scheduled to participate in the Filmmaker Talks at Rumors Coffee at 10:45 am. Festival director Michael Brody lead the discussion, and the other filmmakers talking were Phil Mirabito, Charlotte Barrett, Sean Fallon. At noon we headed over to see the Shorts I Program, and at 3pm "If a Tree Falls" a documentary about the Earth Liberation Front. For the 6pm time slot we debated between "Marwencol" or "Virgin Alexander," but eventually went to the latter since we knew the filmmakers Charlotte and Sean fairly well by this time. A good choice since apparently "Marwencol" is on Netflix anyway! Finally on to the last event, the closing party, at The Lodge in Mt. Crested Butte.

Eric shares his two cents at the filmmaker talks

Oct 3
Still looking for more fall photo ops, I headed out just before sunrise to a nearby location to finish filling up my memory card.

First light hits Gothic Mountain

Sunrise in the valley

Deciding to take our time driving back, we stopped at many geocaches and ran into two other teams caching. We usually only run into other cachers during FTF (first to find) runs, but we met a couple from the Springs, then a team of 3 on a daytrip, and ran into the first pair again at another cache later. One of the more fun stops was a hike to some alpine lakes along Cottonwood Pass.

Fall Colors on the drive home

Annual Colorado Trip

August is time for the annual Colorado getaway! August 12-15 were spent in Crested Butte, and we went to Cripple Creek for the 16-19.

Started off the first full day by feeding butterflies at the RMBL lab in Gothic. After lunch my aunt Carol was kind enough to bring us on a 4wd trip. My original interest was in returning to Elko Park, which we visited 8 years ago and is probably what really fed my interest in ghost towns. Unfortunatly it's one of those years the snow wasn't planning to melt on some roads. Instead we headed up to the unforgettable Paradise Divide. Took a different route on the way back down, and visited an old truck I remembered.

old wagon trail ruts

Maroon Bells behind Cinnamon Mountain

Paradise Divide

Had a bit more paint last time

The next day we hiked up a short ways to Judd Falls for a geocache there. If you continue on this trail it eventually goes to Aspen. We've hiked this route many times on previous visits, at least to the first and second river crossings. We skipped the Meridian Lake hike given the weather, and instead geocached around town and enjoyed the farmers market.

The day after returning from Crested Butte, we left for my second favorite of the Colorado mountain towns: Cripple Creek and Victor! What's there that could be so interesting? Of course, abandoned mining structures galore!

Headed straight west from Colorado Springs on the historic and allegedly haunted Gold Camp Road. It follows an old railroad line, and Teddy Roosevelt once said the scenery of this route "bankrupts the English language"

Gold Camp Road

Some remains we found of the old railroad

The next morning we went on the CC&V open pit gold mine tour. They brought us right down into the pit where they were working, and even into the operators room at the crusher.

CC&V mine

Mining equipment at the bottom of the pit

Largest truck they own

Back in Cripple Creek we went on the railroad tour which was very informative but I wish it were longer. Later spent some time in Mt. Pisgah Cemetery, and even found Mabel Barbee Lee and her parents there. She wrote "Cripple Creek Days" which is what inspired us to re-visit the town. The best comparison is to a little house on the prairie book, but based in a Colorado mining town.

Mining headframe

There is an incredible number of mining structures still standing in Victor, almost all of which you can go right up to. The CC&V mining company has been doing a lot of work to preserve the buildings.

Ore House in Victor

The day after, we started with a hike up poverty gulch, then visited the Old Homestead, which was the upscale brothel in 1900. Went on a scenic drive that afternoon down Phantom Canyon. It was very narrow, but Shelf Road is said to be much worse. Checked out Florence then took a peek at the Royal Gorge in Canyon City before continuing north on the gold belt tour.

An original bridge in Phantom Canyon

At one point we accidentally turned west, and decided to stop for a cache happened to be heading towards. This brought us to an incredibly scenic canyon at sunset. The trail lead to a waterfall and little known swimming hole.

The secret swimming hole

The great thing about visiting Cripple Creek on weekdays in the lack of people, there's a vast population difference on the weekends. Casino towns also tend to have cheap food, and Bronco Billy's has the 49 cent breakfast. There was a bit of a wait but we got immediate service by sitting at the bar in the middle of the casino.

Eric donates a few dollars

Cheyenne Frontier Days

For the final part of my summer internship at Robin Bond Media, I was given the opportunity to shoot 3D video at Cheyenne Frontier Days with Mike Kalush, who was the DP on the California trip in March. Shooting right beside the pro photographers was pretty much a dream come true, and the ‘unrestricted access’ VIP passes were equally enjoyable!

Bronc Riding

Tie-Down Roping

Eric and I spent three days there, July 26-28. Apparently hotel rooms were too competitive during the event to stay longer. When we first got to the fairgrounds, Mike brought us to the press trailer and we went over the camera.

Tough Guys Wear Pink!

Mike rented two Panasonic AG-3DA1's, a 20grand 3D camera. Shooting in 3D is rather complicated, and it takes much longer to set up every shot. The other people there were Henry, who edits in the trailer, Mike’s daughter Kira, and her friend Perri who were both doing producer work.

From the Chutes - you can see the Pit on the other side, at the base of the fence

On our first day shooting the rodeo, I was with Perri and Mike on the chute side, in the press area right where the bulls and broncs are let out. For the second half i joined Eric in the Pit, where we stayed for the full rodeo the next day.

View from the Pit

The Pit is an underground press area just inside the arena. You can only leave at half time, and are otherwise stuck down there until it’s over for safety reasons. Our camera is stationed right next to the live feed one for the big screen.

Right by the Chutes

In the Pit with the 3D cam - yup there's a cowboy dress code!