"WHEN I learn to do something, I want to use it."
John Speers is talking about making short films - digital shorts - at Silver Harbour Seniors' Activity Centre. He could as easily be talking about his career in electronics or his approach to coaching at the North Vancouver Lawn Bowling Club. Bottom line: Mastering new skills and applying them creatively is very good for the health of seniors.
Speers graduated from North Vancouver high school and went into the Canadian Air Force to train as an electronics technician. A job on the Distant Early Warning Line in the Canadian Arctic gave Speers his first experience with film work and, 40 years later, was the subject of his first digital film.
As the projectionist for movies that cycled through the DEW Line stations, Speers endured the jeers and taunts of his colleagues when the film stock broke. This occurred frequently as the movies had been well used by the time they made it to the Far North but when an entire reel - half an hour - of one movie was omitted, no one noticed.
In 1973, Speers and his bride Nancy MacLeod settled in Lynn Valley, where he was raised, and started their family. Speers worked as a biomedical electronics technician, first at Shaughnessy Hospital and then, from 1992 until he retired in 2004, at Lions Gate Hospital.
Speers joined the North Vancouver Lawn Bowling Club in 1999. A soccer and softball coach while his children were growing up, coaching the lawn bowlers was a natural step for him.
"I enjoy coaching at the club level," he says. "When people learn to improve their skills, they can play better. They enjoy the game more and they'll encourage other people to come into the sport."
Fellow bowler Shirley Lytle persuaded Speers to join the Digital Storytelling Project group at Silver Harbour. That was five years and 10 films ago.
Guided by professional filmmakers, seniors conceive a story and write a script. Using digital technology, they record and edit visual and audio tracks, add special effects and music, edit again and yet again until the moment comes to write "The End."
For some Digital Storytelling Project participants, this is the first time they've worked with computers, not to mention sophisticated programs like iMovie and Final Cut Pro. For others, it's the first time they've explored their creativity.
With the creation of each digital short film, and with every one thereafter, participating seniors learn and master new skills, develop their creative talents and forge new relationships.
Coach Speers' comments about the sport of lawn bowling are equally appropriate in digital storytelling and in all activities that blend technical proficiency with artistic expression. "When people learn to improve their skills, they can play better. They enjoy the game more and they'll encourage other people to come into the sport," he says.
Engagement, creativity and proficiency is exactly what the Digital Storytelling program is all about. Silver Harbour is one of five Lower Mainland community centres participating in the Arts and Health Project: Healthy Aging Through the Arts, a series of community arts projects that demonstrate the positive effect of creativity on the health and well-being of seniors.
"I've always been a tech person and that was my interest when I started," Speers recalls.
As his technical proficiency increased with each film, so did Speers' interest in blending artistic expression with technology.
Speers' latest film tells the story of his first venture into electronics. "In those days, I was always fiddling around with old radios, an expert at taking things apart," he says. "The first thing I built was a crystal radio set."
Speers was about 13, redheaded and plaid-shirted, and a huge fan of Red Robinson's rock 'n' roll radio show, Teen Canteen, when he built that crystal set.
"Here comes our hero now," the story begins.
What happens next? Find out at Digital Shorts 2012, a presentation of the Digital Storytellers of Silver Harbour on Tuesday, June 5 at 3 p.m. at the centre.
For more information about the presentation and the program, call Silver Harbour at 604-980-2474.
In the meantime, digital short films from previous years, including Speers' DEW Line film, can be viewed on the YouTube channel Silverharbourstories.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. Contact her at 778-279-2275 or email her at [email protected].
