Chicago Blizzard 2011: The Movie
By Sean Stillmaker in Miscellaneous on Feb 5, 2011 5:30PM
Snowpocalypse has the fundamentals of a Hollywood blockbuster, but we know truth is always stranger than fiction. Instead of bringing outsiders to tell our story local videographer Steven Vargas has set out on a different approach to encapsulate Chicago’s third worst blizzard.
Vargas took some time out of the editing room to talk with Chicagoist about the progress he’s been making.
“It’s barely my project, it’s the people who’ll decide,” Vargas said.
The movie is unique from its collaborative compilation. Vargas is seeking out anyone who has videos or pictures of blizzaster to post them as responses to the YouTube page. You can also interact on the Facebook page, too. Then a voting contest will be held for the best clips and the ones making the cut will be added into the documentary.
“The idea for this came to me sort of like the blizzard, out of nowhere,” Vargas said.
A proponent of social media with the tools, skills and motivation, Vargas knew he had to document history in the making. He quickly wrote the script announcing the project and set out to film at 5 a.m. Tuesday in his Edgewater neighborhood.
He was walking around by himself holding and talking into the camera. He didn’t have enough time to memorize the script so he broke it into parts doing numerous takes at some points. “It must have looked really weird,” he said.
He wrapped the announcement video at 7 a.m. and had the video posted on YouTube by noon, just as the storm started settling in. None of his roommates had any idea of what he was doing, and probably still don’t, Vargas said. But the rush has been unbelievable where he’s had barely any time to sleep. “The pressure was on, you know how it is with five hour energy drinks and Red Bulls,” he said.
Vargas, 39, is splitting this editing workload with his freelance videography jobs and the restaurant he works at in the Trump Tower. He’s originally from Miami and came to Chicago in 2002 where he experienced snow for the first time in his life. “I would go outside and just stare at snow,” he said. He’s since gotten used to it and shrugs off the brutal winters to his friends and family back home.
Taking a break Vargas went outside for a walk. He went up to a guy digging out his car on Broadway. They started joking about snowmageddon and the guy told Vargas everything that’s been happening to him. “That’s the jist of the documentary,” Vargas said.