April 29, 2007

wonderful sadness







I'm in Dallas for the memorial service for my friend Tres. Needless to say, its been an emotional weekend. As I mentioned before, I did a video for the service, and true to form, I pushed myself right up to the deadline with only a couple hours sleep the last two nights. It was worth every minute.

The memorial was amazing. At least 150 people came, and as much as we tried to make it a party like Tres would have wanted, there was just too much of a sense of loss to avoid the sadness. As usual, it would hit me in unexpected and overwhelming waves and alternately disappear altogether. My friend Myron was the ringleader in putting it all together, and the way a core group of Tres' friends came together was awesome. It felt so polished and planned, when it truly wasn't. Everyone brought their own piece to the whole, and all the pieces just happened to fit together perfectly. The setting was an art gallery called the Dallas Contemporary (whos staff was wonderful). They happened to have a video exhibition currently on display, and they allowed us to commandeer their wall video projectors, so we had rooms filled with continuous slideshows of snapshots, Tres' professional photography, and my edited video; along with multiple tables and boards filled with photos and memorabilia. Many of us spoke, and all directly from the heart with personal anecdotes that spoke to who Tres was. The most unexpected (and most gratifying) result was the reaction of Tres' family. I think it was good for their soul to see the depth and vastness of emotion for Tres, and those rooms literally filled with photos made it clear how full of a life he led.

I've posted a copy of the video (link below). I'll be happy to send a dvd to any of his friends that would like one.
  • Tres Smith memorial video - small version

  • Tres Smith memorial video - larger version - allow for long download time
  • 5 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Awesome video collage, well done; I'm certain your friend is looking down on ALL his friends and loved ones and approving.

    Tim said...

    Excellent. Tres was lucky to have a friend like you to put your creative talents to a use that I'm sure comforted his friends and family.

    You got an emotional response from me and I was never fortunate to have meet Tres. My sympathies to yourself and Myron.

    Tim

    langolier said...

    nice, jon.

    Is there any way I can play it full screen?

    dad

    Unknown said...

    I believe the only way for you to play it fullscreen is to download it to your own desktop (you may need Quicktime Pro to be able to do that, but its only like 8bucks), then when you play the video off of your system, the upper menu bar gives you a "fill screen" option under "view"... I think! :)

    Anonymous said...

    Tres would have loved the Music!!

    His spirit and laugh resonant in your "wonderful sadness" -Thanks for that gift

    Fellow photographer and friend of Tres' from the 90's,
    Michelle Vaughn
    Dallas