27 Jul Congratulations Dennis Burns

Fifteen or so years ago, I randomly met a cinematographer at NAB from Hawaii. I didn’t even know he was from Hawaii when we first struck up a conversation about cameras and data. He asked if I knew much about hard drives and setting up edit bays… and that is exactly what I was at NAB that year to research. Once I mentioned that I would be visiting family in Hawaii over the summer, we exchanged business cards and that was my first meeting with Dennis Burns.

Come to find out that Dennis owned one of the largest production companies in Hawaii: Pacific Focus and Visitor Video. They did much of the high end production and studio work for the agencies and clients in Hawaii and I was excited to finally meet someone from Hawaii to talk shop with. Dennis and I continued to chat on and off about the edit suite he needed to build out and I gave him some suggestions based on the system I was building for Motion Theory and I basically consulted with him to purchase a very similar system. When I came home that summer, I installed it for him and that was my first job in the video industry in Hawaii.

Tonight was bitter-sweet because it was the “Martini” shot for 1013 Intergrated (formerly Pacific Focus). The Martini shot on a production is the last shot of the entire project before it’s wrapped… so tonight was a big retirement celebration and grand finale of Dennis Burns and 1013 Intergrated. It was fun to see so many of the production leaders and legends come out to celebrate with Dennis tonight. I saw faces I haven’t seen in 10+ years. It was awesome to reminisce and hear old stories from others who were much more a part of the business than I was… and it was rad to see photos from Dennis’ entire career, lining the walls of the studio.

I am extremely blessed to be part of a unique generation of crossover talent that are as comfortable in large production scenarios as we are in run and gun one-man-band cinematic shoots. I feels little daunting to try and carry on a torch lit by such amazing local talent, but all we can do it work hard everyday and keep increasing the level of our own production.

Thank you Dennis, Pacific Focus, Visitor Video and 1013 Intergrated for all you’ve done for the Hawaii creative industry.