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Backstory

If you reading this, you’re probably curious, what’s this backstory all about. Perhaps you already know me, and wonder why on earth is Ollie starting a blog?

Well, allow me to share a bit of context. It starts with…

A Difficult Time In My Life

I work within the visual effects business, and have a diverse experience in computer graphics, photography and film. (Feel free to click the reviloVFX link top right to check out my portfolio site).

Truth has it, while I’ve been very fortunate to have had very fulfilling experiences due to my chosen profession, in recent times things have been quite challenging, particularly more so since covid times.

Over recent years, I have faced several hardships not only professionally, but also personally. These took their toll and in turn created a classic burnout scenario that dulled my enjoyment of being a creative and any excitement about my interests. I was no longer in a mindset where I was feeling inspired, nor able to inspire others.

Unfortunately, this only manifested in part, a bigger negative experience – The end of my marriage in October 2024. I was lost.

That was, until two valuable influences emerged in the space of a few months!

A New Creative Outlet

The first influence happened in February 2025, when I decided I needed to try and open some new creative doors as a means to find any some form of inspiration again and a much needed distraction.

I purchased myself a DJI Mini Pro 4, (a sub $1000 250gram drone), to get into the sky and explore creating imagery from above. Given I love both photography and cinematography – I felt this might be a good creative outlet. Also, the technology of these drones had now progressed to a point where I could produce very high quality works, but without it needing to be anything more than a hobby, given the low investment.

As soon as I started flying, I felt sparks of inspiration again. I really enjoyed once more exploring cinematic ideas, colour, editing and sound all in a low impact way.

Typically, my other areas of expertise like CGI simply can’t provide this without huge commitment and effort. One can easily spend weeks to just produce mere seconds of content.

After a few test flights, and getting a solid imaging pipeline figured out, I set out to make my first cinematic short. It was still midst of winter, and the scenery where I lived was pretty awesome given a recent snowfall. After just a week I had shot, edited, grading my first proper cinematic short – A Winter’s Moment.

Upon release, I saw how my viewers seemed to really appreciate the film too. That made me feel connected once more. The film itself was an emotional experience for me, since this was the first time, in a long time, I felt a creative spark. I was still processing a lot of grief too. These feelings show up in the tone and approach of this film, creating what is still now to me, quite a moving piece.

On the upside, creating the film brought a lot of relief too, so I wanted to continue. I proceeded to take this new outlet with me on a long overdue trip back to NZ. I really enjoyed my time there, and during that time I shot my second film – Northern Exposure – Aotearoa.

A New Direction

Producing these films was a great outlet, but my reality was that my daily life really had not changed in any meaningful way at this point. Then the second influence occurred.

Around the time I was travelling to NZ, I was fortunate to be connected to a person that was going through a journey of their own. They were amidst leaving NZ to live in Canada, moving on to follow their passion. That journey was accompanied with a focus on their health and good discipline, as ingredients to building a new life here.

Naturally, this resonated with me as something I should be doing for myself in some way too.

Over a period of about a month hosting their time in Vancouver , I took inspiration and I really worked to also strip some of my own bad habits, eat with consideration, exercise daily and take the opportunity to get out together to show what Canada has to offer, which at the time was snow! It was actually the mountains that got me through covid times, but due to a medical condition I had missed recent seasons. With that condition somewhat under control, I was ready to get back onto the slopes, and had a ski buddy to do that with. It was great therapy again!

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Other highlights for me of our time adventuring together was a day trip to Hale Creek, and local spot only accessible to off-road vehicles. It was an great opportunity also to reconnect with a friend and in the process, and make another quick film!

Even some more low key adventures surprised me, like how even a simple drive up the coast late on a week night to see the northern lights, become a enjoyable creative astrophotography session!

A New Path

As the weeks drew on, and this person was preparing to move on to their next chapter in Alberta, I really began to feel concern. I feared that I would simply slip back into my old ways. That the pursuit of adventure would die out. That my creative expression would also fade. Now was the time to really commit to the changes I had made so far, and ask myself – what was my next chapter? What does my version of such a journey look like? I drew inspiration from what had brought me joy over prior months, and came up with a plan for what I could scale into until I found my fulfilment, or maybe even a new lifestyle.

From everything up until this point, I enjoyed finding capturing locations, and the creative rewards that could bring. I wanted to film and photograph, rather than being at a computer for the entire creative process. I wanted to continue the experience of my growing appreciation of the wilderness and mountains here in BC , and the good they have brought me in recent times of my life. With my vision returning, I was presented with an idea of a new path.

My thought was to embark on a bigger wilderness adventure, ranging many weeks or even longer, camera and drone in hand.

I would aim to travel areas of the west coast of North America, experiencing everything this land has to offer.The area often is largely unaffected by modern man, expansive, rich with wildlife, and cultures that are connected to the earth and the life within.

A New Blog

So here you are, on a new blog I’ve created for exactly for the purpose. The opportunity to share with others the process of preparation of the adventures that will follow. There will be lots of learning, journaling and content around anything related to my plan. This blog will be my space were I can share with your stories of my experiences, people and wildlife I’ll met on the way.

How big my adventure ultimately will become is yet to be determined, as will if I’m any good at keeping up with a blog! My path will probably change over time again as well. Perhaps I find my equilibrium just somewhere along the way. That’s going to be my discovery, but I’ll share it all right here if you wish to follow along ↓

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