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Different strokes for different folks

Couple’s artistic disciplines are very different, which allows for creative co-operation and development

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Sometimes our artistic inclinations lay just beneath the surface, illusive in their anticipation for discovery, yet screaming to get out when no one seems to be listening. Then it happens; a panoramic view of who you really are and where you want to go comes full circle and the journey into the future has begun.

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This was the case with Melissa and Matt Connors, owners and operators of Trout Lake Marina and Cabins on Trout Lake just north of Sault Ste. Marie. The couple and their two sons, Jesse and Matt, are originally from Rhode Island and relocated here in 2004.

Melissa has always loved photography, compositing/composition and video, where Matt was inspired by acting and the stage. Early on in their marriage, work in their hometown of Cumberland R.I., was busy with their trucking business and raising the boys.

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Matt had always wanted to own a campground, so he searched for possibilities in Maine and New Hampshire. When he got a computer in 2003, the searches broadened elsewhere and into Canada.

“Ever since the boys were babies, Matt would trudge us through the woods and everywhere looking,” said Melissa in a recent interview at the marina.

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When they found the Trout Lake business, they decided the move in 2004 was the right one.

Choices were made in operating the business over time, especially after the boys moved on to post-secondary education. The couple moved on and eventually closed the restaurant but kept the marina and cabins in service.

This left more time to pursue artistic passions.

Even though their artistic disciplines are very different, there are many connections between the two that make a partnership seamless much of the time. This allows the couple work together on many projects, while creating and honing their skills separately or together.

The Connors have been invited, and they have accepted, international travel opportunities in order to promote their work. One such adventure took place in the summer of 2018 in the U.S.

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This very exciting opportunity evolved when an accomplished musician/production friend in the U.K. asked for their help on a project he had in the works.

They would be assisting their friend, Nick Jackson, who’s the son of Elayne and Don Jackson, long-standing and permanent residents on Trout Lake.

Nick was born in England, came back to Canada as a youngster with his family and lived on Trout Lake for most of his young life. At 16, he returned to England because he believed the education system there was more suitable to his needs. He holds dual citizenship.

His father, Don, is a 42-year career professor of political science at Algoma University, now retired. His mom a teacher, both supported his choices.

But Nick has created a very lucrative career in music/video production as well as performing in the U.K. His band IT, previously the Illegal Tender, performs internationally.

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The group is a melodic progressive rock group according to a music review.

Nick produces albums for The Fixx albums, which had hits in the 1980s with One Thing Leads to Another and The Sign of Fire.

“He went on tour with them last summer in the States and Nick asked us to do a video for the big screen behind the band, which ran as they performed. I did the source video, but not the music video and I think Nick had sourced that part out. But Matt was the star in it,” said Melissa.

This was for the group’s 2018 and 27-date The Beach Tour, which celebrated the 35th anniversary of their multi- platinum 1983 album, Reach the Beach. It started in Jackson, Calif.,and wrapped up in Derry, N.H.

Melissa shot the video at Trout Lake. It was about a guy who was dejected over a lost love and he had a letter from the girl. He was depicted wearing a rain slicker and drinking by the fire.

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Other shots showed him out on the lake fishing, so it was challenging for Melissa to get shots in less-than-favourable conditions. In addition to this, there was the pressure of getting the job done on a timeline.

“Matt was also working on a movie in town and Nick was telling me that we had to get the video done as The Fixx were ready to go on tour,” Melissa said. “It was a lot of pressure but well worth it.

“It was really exciting to see Matt on that big screen.”

Another international trip for Melissa was to the U.K. Nick Jackson flew her there and they did all the source pictures for the background for his album, We’re All In This Together, released in 2017.

Her name appears on the credits for the art work. According to a review in Dangerdog Music Reviews, We’re All In This Together is a “conceptual work that explores the themes of austerity, inequality and uncertain future for younger generations.”

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“Nick would look at the lyrics of the song and would have a vision in his head of what he wanted to portray,” Melissa said. “I’d give him different choices of the source pictures and he’d say how he wanted it done.

“He’d also tell her this looks good, but I would like this over here, so there was real collaboration between them, and it was exciting to work with the images and online production and compositing of the finished product with her photoshop app.”

Melissa did the booklet for the album. She uses Photoshop much of the time because she says she can do anything with this app.

Compositing is Melissa’s favourite part of the discipline and she says her talents come out when she can create unique and thought-provoking results by incorporating her images into the work of art that is evolving.

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She’s done movie posters, all the character posters, the book covers for screen writer/director Lee Chamber’s Canadian action film The Pineville Heist. He’s originally from Sault Ste. Marie and studied in the film program at Leeds Metropolitan University in the U.K.  He is a professor in the film program at Confederation College in Thunder Bay.

As a screen writer, Chambers’s work has won him many accolades which include his crime thriller The Pineville Heist, is a 2016  film he was able to bring to the big screen.

Originally a screenplay directed and co-written by Chambers and Todd Gordon and then a book penned by Chambers himself, he rejigged The Pineville Heist into film form.

Melissa’s name was in the credits in the ‘other crew’ listings as a graphic poster designer for the film. Matt was to have played the role of the sheriff in the film but due to conflicting union issues, he was unable to.

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Another short film Chambers directed was Copenhagen Road, released this year, which starred Matt along with Diana Cofini in a thriller short. His character was Craig, a mechanic who agrees to help a desperate young woman with a flat tire, played by Cofini. This action brings out his dark and shady past.

Melissa did the posters for this venture as well. She took pics of Matt while others were sent to her and Chambers did all the text work on the posters except the title art work.

Melissa has also done about a dozen production stills in movies that are filming in town. She goes onsite while they are filming and sits as close to the director of production (DOP) as possible while taking still photos as they perform.

These images are used for promotional purposes and she has even done some with the actor Laurence Fishburne of Apocalypse Now, The Matrix and CSI fame. She did the green screen gallery shots for the movie Standoff, released in 2016.

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Matt was a stand-in and Melissa was credited with the stills photographer for Standoff.

Her latest acquisition is a Mavic 2 Pro drone with a 21-mega pixel camera that she got before Christmas. She just loves because it gives a whole new prospective to things. Now that it is nicer weather, she really wants to get out flying it.

Although she had to get a license to operate the device it was all was well worth it because of the opportunities the technology can offer a video photographer. There are rules of operation as well as many areas that are off limits to drones.

Had she had the drone, which is a remotely controlled flying robot for the videos she and Matt had done for the Fixx tour. Melissa wishes she had the drone then because they were both out on the lake in a boat and it would have been so much more advanced filming.

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She used her camera instead and it was all still very exciting.

As far as her photography goes, she likes to do a bit of everything including portrait but being sort of a loner she likes to get her camera out, do sunrises on Trout Lake.

Anything that looks good she likes to take pictures of. This brings to mind her trip to Ireland to see their son Jesse who is in medical school at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. They visited some of the big cathedrals there as well amazing churches with such beautiful architecture.

He will be doing a month-long elective at Sault Area Hospital this summer. The couple’s older son, Matt, just got out of the U.S. military and lives and works in Rhode Island.

So, there has been ample opportunity for Melissa to get around with her video and camera. There’s a lot of new movies coming out this summer so she’s available to do the art work for them should her talents be requested.

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“I kind of want to get into more video because Nick Jackson was pushing me that way. He’s coming out with a new CD album and there’s going to be more art work needed. I may be going back to England.”

In fact, Melissa had received a video message the other night from Nick that he’s looking to have her go back over in September. She was there the last time in 2015 for about 10 days, and she remembers the crew working long and hard at it.

“This is what I love doing and at the time then we went in and did some video. All the characters that Nick wanted in his CD were in his studio just outside of London. Then we went to Liverpool where we found the row houses where Ringo Starr grew up.”

This was the main backdrop for the album cover We’re All In This Together, and they found the one doorway to the house where Ringo grew up that was all autographed by fans. She got a photo of herself beside that door.

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“We were on Madryn, Powis and Rhiwlas Streets. Ringo Starr was born in the house on Madryn Street.”

Melissa did all the layouts, the booklet which consisted of about two dozen pages, the cover and all the compositing of the imagery. Many others were also involved in the process of bringing the video to completion, but it took her a year for her part to pull it all together for the album’s release in March 2017.

An image in the booklet for Down the Hatch, depicts the Thames across from the British parliament and at the time of shooting was full of boats. She had to completely “rebuild” the bridge to eliminate the boats. Then she took her photos of Matt and Jesse her son and placed them in the image.

It took a long time and was a very complicated and time-consuming process, but the results are stunning. Simply put, compositing is the combining of visual images from separate sources into a single image. This is Melissa’s passion.

“I never say no, if anyone asks me to do something, I say I will try.”

As far as Matt’s prospective on her work goes, it’s quite simple.

“The first thing I do when I get on a movie set is that I’ll ask a producer if they have a stills photographer. Then I mention a great one I know, and I give them her webpage.

“Boom, she’s on set, I can’t get rid of her,”

Contact Information.

Melissa3339@gmail.com

www.melissaconnorsphotography.zenfolio.com

705 777 2382

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4551809

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