A Beautiful World…Saskatoon!

by Norm Fisher on November 17, 2009

This short video from Tourism Saskatoon is a wonderful reminder of some of the things that make Saskatoon such a wonderful place to live. Saskatoon really does shine, doesn’t it?

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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Nate H. November 17, 2009 at 9:18 pm

My GF pointed out that they completely ignored 8 months of the year (you know, winter).

2 Norm Fisher November 17, 2009 at 9:26 pm

:)

Not our strongest selling point for sure. There was about 15 seconds of winter coverage but it was short enough that a good blink could have caused you to miss it.

How was L.A.?

3 Klaus November 18, 2009 at 8:47 am

That song is gut wrenching terrible.
Yeah, and they missed winter.
Very nice looking video though.
Wonder what it cost.

4 Jason November 18, 2009 at 11:09 am

You mean something like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYs7AP8UPic

5 Jesse G November 18, 2009 at 10:13 pm

I noticed the lack of ‘winter hedoublehockeysticks’ as well…they show the snow, they show some people, but jackets open, all sunny, smiles, no fog breath…

The production of the video looks pretty decent though.

6 Norm Fisher November 19, 2009 at 7:55 am

Lol. I’m thinking that featuring a blizzard in a Saskatoon promotional video would be much like showing a hurricane in an “experience Florida” promo. Sure, our winters have their hellish moments, but the sun shines, people skate, ski, and have lots of fun outdoors all year.

7 Jason November 19, 2009 at 9:50 am

They should have ended the video with a clip of your dog running away for miles and miles, under one of the sunsets we had the past few days…

8 guy_in_regina November 19, 2009 at 1:08 pm

Saskatoon is a great city. Enjoy!

9 Norm Fisher November 19, 2009 at 3:07 pm

Great to see some new names and some old ones too. Nice to see you Jesse and guy_in_regina!

10 Jeff November 19, 2009 at 6:57 pm

I held off posting my comments a few days ago, not slam the video, because at least someone took the time to do one, but I really think that song stinks, and for the most part, besides omitting most of winter, Saskatoon looks like it’s about golf, race cars, and gambling. I love this city, but watching that video almost made me want to leave.

11 Bookrat November 20, 2009 at 10:53 am

I actually did not mind the song itself — neither the music nor the lyrics. It is, as the inestimable Paul McCartney would have called it, ‘another silly love song’… and what’s wrong with that, I’d like to know? :-)

Having a song like this used in the promotion of the city, however, does seem… odd.

I wholeheartedly agree with Jeff’s comments; the video gives a completely distorted view of life in Saskatoon – a very commercial, mercantile, fast-paced, hectic sort of feel to it that does not jibe well with my feeling about why people DO love Saskatoon — namely, the small-town less frenetic feel you get from the people, and from folks who believe (on the whole) more in substance than image and hype and appearances. This video is *all* image and hype.

My single largest issue with it, however, was the editing. I subjected myself to watching it again just so I could count them; in a 3:26 minute video (206 seconds), there were one hundred and twenty four scene cuts! If you cut out the last lingering shots of the city from a chopper, you have about 120 cuts in the first 180 seconds, or about 1.5 seconds per image. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I really found the constant jump-cuts to be maddening to the point of distraction, and a major part of what added to the rushed, frantic feel of the whole piece.

In general, not a good selling piece for the city, IMHO.

(captcha: inept 21. Is the robot making a comment on the skill and age of the people who made this? :-)

12 Jesse G November 20, 2009 at 4:04 pm

Thanks Norm, I’m still kicking around. :)

13 Ginger November 20, 2009 at 6:40 pm

Not wanting to be negative I didn’t comment earlier, but I wasn’t a huge fan. I don’t like the music though the production is great.

Also, I agree with other comments that it is a false representation of what is truly great about Saskatoon. As a newcomer to the province and the city it is the “indie” kind of aspect that I love about Saskatoon. There are great locally owned businesses and restaurants, all kinds of festivals in the summers, farmer’s market, fairs, etc. Live music is great here. This is one of my favourite cities I’ve lived in and it has so much to do with how down to earth the people are. I love that a small, local restaurant is just as likely to be packed on a Friday night as some inane chain.

14 Alex November 26, 2009 at 2:02 pm

I have to say, I do miss my second home city from time to time ;)

If I could have afforded a better future, I would have stayed.

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