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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Dreaming, working at VSAA

Alumnus tells how persistence got him to amazing places, doing amazing things

By , Columbian Education Reporter
Published:
6 Photos
Vancouver School of Arts and Academics graduate Cole Hansell returned Tuesday to the school with the Uncage the Soul film production team he interned with the past two summers.
Vancouver School of Arts and Academics graduate Cole Hansell returned Tuesday to the school with the Uncage the Soul film production team he interned with the past two summers. He worked on "Requiem of Ice," a short film about a Mount Hood ice cave. Photo Gallery

o Uncage the Soul Video Production

o Watch “Requiem of Ice.”

o Watch Uncage the Soul’s latest production, about a World War II veteran who returned to Normandy, France, to fly-fish after 69 years.

Cole Hansell learned it pays to be persistent.

That persistence opened doors for him to work with mentors he admired, strap expensive video equipment onto his back, carry it up Mount Hood in Oregon and help shoot a stunning short film about an ice cave on the mountain.

Hansell referred to the project as “the most wild and complex video I’ve ever been a part of. Getting all of the video equipment from an office in Portland inside of a dripping wet and frozen cave on the side of a mountain is just about as hard as it sounds, but the adventures had and the footage compiled are pretty spectacular.”

Four years ago, determined to learn to shoot time-lapse photography, the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics student had figured out what equipment and knowledge he needed to make it happen.

o Uncage the Soul Video Production

o Watch "Requiem of Ice."

o Watch Uncage the Soul's latest production, about a World War II veteran who returned to Normandy, France, to fly-fish after 69 years.

During his junior year, Hansell and his dad built a camera dolly for a school project. Then, because he admired the time-lapse photography work of Uncage the Soul Video Production, a creative company in Portland, he started emailing the company’s representatives in his senior year. Could he hang out with them to learn time-lapse photography techniques?

Hansell continued sending emails, but he didn’t get a reply. That didn’t stop him. Jim Jeffers, his moving image arts teacher, encouraged him to be persistent.

After many months of sending emails, Hansell finally received an invitation to visit the Uncage the Soul studio. The owners and executive producers, John Waller and Ben Canales, were so impressed by his persistence, talent and attitude that they invited him to be a summer intern in 2013. He worked for them again this summer.

Hansell, now 20 and a 2013 graduate of VSAA, shared the stage Tuesday with his mentors, Waller, 38, and Canales, 32. They know something about persistence and chasing a dream, too.

“There’s a lot to be said for pursuing your ideas,” Waller told the student body at a school showcase Tuesday. “Probably 95 percent of ideas never happen, or someday else does it.”

In 2005, Waller saw a photo of an ice cave on Mount Hood. He was struck with the image and wanted to make a film about it, but he didn’t. Oregon Public Broadcasting beat him to it.

In 2013, Waller saw another picture of the same ice cave. “Oregon Field Guide” had produced a documentary about it. Almost a decade after Waller saw that first ice cave photo, he, Canales and their crew trekked to Mount Hood five times and spent a year making their own documentary, “Requiem of Ice.” The short film was released online Nov. 18. Waller and Canales plan to enter it in several film competitions.

Hansell is a sophomore pre-med student at the University of Washington. Although he changed his career path, he still works on film projects to keep himself sane, he said.

After speaking at the school assembly Tuesday, Hansell visited his old stomping ground: the advanced moving image arts class of his former teacher, Jeffers. Waller and Canales joined him in answering students’ questions about being professional filmmakers.

“Don’t hold back,” Hansell told the students. “Find your mentor, someone you really look up to.”

“Why did it take me a decade to follow through on my idea?” Waller asked the VSAA students.

Perhaps he needed to gain experience before he tackled such a difficult project, he said.

“If I had made my video in 2005 when I was just getting into video, it would have been garbage.”

Then he challenged the students: “What is your idea? What inspired it? What is holding you back?”

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Columbian Education Reporter