New York City 2017

August 9, 2017
by Stephanie Pellett
1 min read
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This was my third summer visiting one of my best friends Katie in NYC, and it was just as amazing as ever. These trips are always one of the highlights of my year, not only because it’s great to spend time laughing and talking for hours with one of my favourite people, but also because there’s something so special about New York City. The food, the energy, the light at sunset, the views, the parks: everything feels special, even the ordinary things.

Last year I made a video of my trip and I wanted to do the same this time, but I was also tired and didn’t relish the thought of carrying my camera around everywhere and all the editing afterwards. So, inspired by this travel video, I turned to my trusty 1 Second Everyday app and used my phone camera instead. I loved this method and would definitely use it to document future trips, though I might try the Cameo app next time, since I love how Christine’s videos turn out as well.

PS. See my NYC 2016 video here.

Summer 2.0

September 11, 2014
by Stephanie Pellett
2 min read
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The seasons have changed for me, here in Busan. The weather got cooler overnight, though we’ve still had days like today that were blazing hot and sunny. But whenever it starts cooling down, it instantly feels like fall and brings up all kinds of nostalgia and feelings and memories. I love the fall, but this year it’s been feeling like life is going by really quickly and that the seasons of my life are happening faster than ever. I’m sure this is not going to change anytime soon, which is why I’m so glad I decided to try and document my year here in Korea through videos. Over the past month, I didn’t shoot as much and as a result a lot of things are missing from this video. Even so, I’m so happy that even a few of the great memories I have got preserved this way.

I’ve been experiencing so much in the past 6 months since I arrived in Korea – so many ups and downs, but mostly ups. The second half of summer had a different feeling from the first – more growing and thinking was going on, lots of dinners out and beach days and my solo adventure in Japan. Life was busy in August, but we still managed to enjoy our summer evenings, celebrating often with picnics and wine. I saw a ton of gorgeous sunsets and a few sunrises, went kayaking and surfing, learned some acro yoga, read some good books, and soaked up as much of the summer as I could. It was such a great one.

The video this time is short and sometimes wobbly but always sweet.

Summer 2014

July 9, 2014
by Stephanie Pellett
2 min read
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It’s hard to explain how happy I am that I decided to do this video project again (the last time was in 2012) for my year in Korea. It makes me happy at almost every stage of the process: while filming funny snippets of life and my friends, while listening to music and auditioning it in my head, while editing together the videos and laughing all over again at some of the moments I captured, and of course, while beaming as I watch the finished product. It makes me so happy to know that I’m documenting my life in a way that I find beautiful and funny, and I know that I’ll be so excited to look back on these videos and remember what life looked and felt like in 2014, in Korea.

It’s starting to feel more okay knowing that I won’t be able to capture everything, and that my video is sometimes shaky. I’m doing this project for myself, and for my friends, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s perfectly imperfect! One of my favourite quotes is “I want to feel my life while I’m in it”, and making these videos, every step of the way, reminds me to pay attention and appreciate all the beauty and fun and humour I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by.

So here’s part one of summertime in Korea (May to early July), just in case you’re curious as to what my life looks like here. I had too much footage already to make just one summer video, so there will be another (yay!), probably in a few months’ time. I’m roughly dividing these by season because it’s a less stressful, more fun way for me to produce them (as opposed to every month). In the last few months we spent a lot of time outside, on rooftops and on the beach, on beautiful islands and on boats and on coastal trails. We found a trampoline, we did a lot of tumbling on the sand, we explored temples, we went to a music festival, and we climbed a dormant volcano. Even though some of the moments might have not been perfect or ideal at the time, looking back on this video I only feel blessed and grateful.

Spring 2014

May 21, 2014
by Stephanie Pellett
2 min read
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In 2012, I took on one of my favourite projects ever: filming my life, piecing it together and putting it to music. The videos are often shaky, sometimes blurry, and as my mom always liked to point out to me, probably only interesting to myself and my friends. Despite all that, those videos are so incredibly special to me. They take me back to a wonderful time in my life, make me feel both happy and nostalgic, and will forever preserve the feelings of that year. For someone who loves documenting her life, they are imperfectly perfect.

Right after I got to Korea, I was talking to my friend Dylan about how wonderful 2012 was for me. After our conversation, as I was trying to think about what had made that year so great, I realized that the very act of documenting it had probably made all the difference. My life in Montreal was totally wonderful all 4 years I lived there, and the summers were always filled with the kind of wonderful magic that I captured on film in 2012. But filming it meant I was always looking for that magic and appreciating it as it was happening. Editing the videos always made me laugh and feel grateful for all those moments all over again.

So in light of that realization, I decided to do it again for my year in Korea.

Inevitably, I’ll miss moments and won’t be able to capture it all. Inevitably, the videos will be shaky and blurry and probably only interesting to myself and my friends. But also inevitably: they’ll make me laugh, they’ll remind me of the beauty and love I’m always surrounded by, and they’ll be my favourite kind of time capsule.

Here’s the Springtime of my year in Korea, early March to late May. I’m sharing it here just in case you’re curious about what my time here so far has looked like. If you don’t feel like watching it, I can summarize it by saying: I’ve made some awesome friends here, the cherry blossoms were beautiful, I went to Tokyo and Seoul, we ate good food, and we went to the beach a lot. I feel nothing but grateful.