Professional Summary
Alan Parkes: Photographer and Movie Maker
PHOTOGRAPHY
I developed a strong interest in photography from a very early age as both my parents were keen amateur photographers in the UK. As a teenager I traveled New Zealand extensively and, using my newly acquired Yashica 35mm camera, I produced colour slide presentations (with maps, music and narration), to tell stories. My most ambitious project was called “Discovering New Zealand” and combined three discoveries: by the Maoris, by Captain Cook and by myself. It ran for an incredible three hours! No one seemed to mind though, as the brilliant colour was in stark contrast to the blurry black and white TV of the time and I used exciting and appropriate music plus sound effects to keep it moving at a good steady pace. The presentation was in much demand when I went to live in Australia, with some people even enjoying it more than once!
My skills in portrait photography continued to develop and I went professional working for a company that used mini portable studios operating in shopping malls. Later I added wedding photography and eventually owned my own portrait studio in Kaiapoi, North Canterbury. I did not continue operating this studio for long as I found having to run a business, a shop, and do portraiture all at the same time, affected the quality of my photography, although others disagreed. I did not usually enter competitions but, of the only two I did, I came first and runner-up.
Movie Making
I progressed into movie making in 1972 when, after I had studied several books on cinematography, I bought an Elmo C300 movie camera that had large 150 foot reels utilizing 16mm film which was later split into two, providing 300 feet in the Super 8 format. After several small movies, (which I showed on my Elmo ST8 sound projector, with 800 foot reels, that I still have) I later produced several larger projects. Among these were a 66 minute documentary called: ”Preparation for Divine Victory,” a short travelogue entitled: ”Glimpses Through the Long White Cloud” and a mystery/drama I named: “Shades of Fear.” The latter one even developed a small group of ‘cult followers’ who to this day still debate what it is really all about!
My marriage to Tina in 1975 slowed down my movie making (except for movies of the children growing up) until the advent of video. Returning from a brief spell in Australia I settled in Oamaru and hired a video camera to start with, then later bought my own Sony CCD Handycam and more recently a Panasonic Digital camera. Using a basic VCR to VCR editing system together with a simple sound mixer, and helped by my son Daniel, I produced several more movies. Notable among these were:“The LifeStyle of the Parkes Family” (a 90 minute comprehensive saga covering our family life up to that point in time); “Corrina‘s Reward” (a travelogue featuring my daughter’s end-of-year holiday as reward for her hard work at High School); then later on “The Wedding of Daniel and Itsuka” and “Corrina and Ash Got Married!”
Quite recently I produced my most ambitious work so far and, for the first time, utilized computer editing techniques. It is called: “In Search of Paradise!” and is a 59 minute adventure travelogue, all about the many exploits of a couple of Mexicans on their first visit to the South Island of New Zealand. Regretfully, I decided to break into this new editing method by using Microsoft Windows free “Move Maker” editing programme and this caused me many technical problems. I have now acquired, and have started learning, the semi-professional Adobe Premier 6.0. Editing System.
During this time my son Daniel was developing his own movie making skills, that he initially learnt from me. I was involved in producing, and assisted in the making of, movies that he directed, filmed and edited. Among these were: “Sydney!” and “From Parkesville to Townsville” - both adventure travelogues in Australia. Our most demanding project together would definitely have been the drama/travelogue: “45 Days - an Around the World Adventure!” - a 90 minute comedy/drama/adventure travelogue to the USA, UK, Japan and Australia. This movie involved a send-up of the movie: ”Back to the Future!” with me ‘starring’ as a “Doc Brown” type comic character. Daniel has since remastered this movie onto DVD.
I am very pleased to add that, since those early days of movie making together, Daniel has now progressed to the point of producing and directing his own, fully professionally made, mystery/drama that is a truly outstanding work of art and he has recently graduated from the Brighton Film School in Brighton, UK, where he made three more much acclaimed short movies. I recently arranged the premiere of these four movies at the Oamaru Movie World 3 theater hosted by the local mayor. Daniel has a great future ahead in the movie making industry and now has his own business in the UK. See his great web site at: parkesproductions.com
In summery I would like to add that the above may give you some idea of the extent that I love movie making, in all it’s many fields. Just before I married I had the opportunity of entering television as a trainee camera operator. I regret that I did not pursue that opening back then but the enthusiasm still remains and I am now involved with helping start our local regional television station, while I seek partners to assist me in setting up my very unique documentary making business: LifeStyle Video Productions.
Thank you for reading this personal summary of my photography and movie skills.