You can hear the buzz before you feel it, there is an ambiance oozing out from under the sturdy wooden door. Conversation murmurs and soothing hip-hop beats combine to fill the space between the industrial brick walls, the frequency in the air is unmistakable. It’s been a while since I’ve attended an event, in fact, the last event I attended was my own birthday in January. On the weekend, Declan and I hosted an event to premiere the final episode of our Calendar Club series. Over the last three weeks, we have released an episode a week to the public across my Instagram, Facebook, and youtube channels. Calendar Club was physically and mentally a huge challenge for me, and the production of the documentary was no small feat for Declan either.
Calendar Club Premiere
A few days out from the final week of the calendar club challenge, I ran with Declan for the first time. Throughout that run, we covered many topics but often found ourselves coming back to talk about each of our creative processes, challenges, and inspirations. At that point in time, Dec’s workload had diminished which opened up more space for him to explore his videography. For me, there will be thousands of great photographers/videographers around the world but the ones that stand out are the best storytellers. I told Dec that his lessened workload was the perfect opportunity to start developing the craft of storytelling. The next day, I called him up and proposed the idea of documenting the last week of the calendar club challenge. Dec enthusiastically said ‘yes’ and we got going immediately. He would stay at my house, come to my appointments, dinners, runs, and everything else in between. The week was intensive for Dec as it was for me, it just looked a little different in our respective outputs. Fast forward three months… we have now finished all three episodes of the Calendar Club Documentary. I couldn’t be more proud of Dec and how he has risen to this creative challenge.
YOU CAN WATCH EPISODE THREE BELOW!
To celebrate his work, we hosted a premiere night whereby Dec put all three episodes into one full-length documentary. The event brought together the people that helped me throughout the month of April. From a running perspective, I was only ever able to run with 1-2 people at a time. If there weren’t restrictions, I wouldn’t have definitely been completing my marathons with a large group of people. This was the next best thing, bringing people together to eat pizza, drink herbal tea, and enjoy the film that Dec made.
Aside from the documentary, my heart was warm seeing ‘my people’ in the same room. It was special to see so many people in one space again and not something I took for granted. This is just the beginning for Dec and I, I’m excited to see what our future projects will look like.
I hope you had and have a great week.
Big Love,
JL
If you missed Calendar Club Episode 1 and 2, you can watch them here.
