In wanting to capture where he went, Ashburn resident Steve Carrie found his passion.
Years ago, the Scotland native started traveling around his homeland and occasionally to nearby countries, taking his camera with him. He wanted to record the fact he was at each place by photographing the buildings and scenery.
“In the end, what I try to do is capture what I like about a place,” said Carrie, a still photographer for about 20 years until his interest in photography turned to filmmaking.
“I don’t make anything out of this,” Carrie said about filmmaking, adding that he suspects he would not “enjoy it as much” if he worked in the film business.
CARRIE, who was born in Arbroath, Scotland, made his career in the technology field with filmmaking as his hobby. After high school, he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering while working as a software programmer for 13 years. He was laid off in 1993 and worked in technical support for a university in Edinburgh until 1996, when he took a job with UUNet UK, in Cambridge, England, a subsidiary of WorldCom.
Two years later, Carrie transferred to the United States to work for WorldCom in Ashburn. He first lived in Fairfax County for two years, then he and his wife of five years, Debra Carrie, moved to Ashburn in 2000.
Before the Carries made the move, they decided to take a weekend trip to New York as a break from packing. Carrie wanted to try using a video camera instead of his regular 35 mm camera.
“When we came home, I made a fun five-minute snippet,” Carrie said about cutting down the two hours worth of filming. “I don’t know what it was, but it was the creative part. It took hold of me.”
Carrie bought inexpensive camera equipment and started off with a few small projects. In the summer of 2001, he took a week off from work to film parts of the Shendandoah Valley from Harpers Ferry, W.Va. to Lexington.
“Where I live, I always try to find out the history,” Carrie said. He filmed scenes of the Shenandoah Valley and of himself talking about the valley’s history for a 40-minute home video. “It was my attempt to do a documentary, essentially,” he said.
A FEW MONTHS later in December, Carrie picked up a Loudoun County history book that he said inspired him to create his first serious video, “Loudoun County, Virginia, In Your Own Backyard,” which has since been cablecast on Adelphia Cable Channel 3.
Carrie spent four months filming some of the towns, villages and countryside of Loudoun County at different times of the day. Once he gathered the footage he needed, he used historical references to write the script for the video and combined a historical perspective with modern scenery from Sterling to Waterford.
“I would go into a place, show it as it is today and talk about the history,” Carrie said. “It’s the creative element. It’s taking scenes I shoot and putting them together into something people enjoy watching.”
The final 58-minute film begins with an introduction of Loudoun County, then summarizes the county’s history and gives a brief description of the county’s present- day problems. The film ends with clips of various places in the county and includes the less obvious attractions, such as the tucked away Keep Loudoun Beautiful Park between Leesburg and Ashburn.
“The video becomes a travelogue from place to place,” Carrie said.
Carrie sent his 63-minute final cut to Adelphia Cable, which in turn agreed to run the film in spring of this year as long as Carrie cut another five minutes from the film’s length.
“The first time you see it on TV, it’s great. I don’t think I ever get tired of seeing something I’ve done,” Carrie said.
CARRIE LOOKED for another project to work on and decided on filming the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail, which he uses regularly for walking and biking. In May, he contacted the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) for permission to film the trail and asked if the Park Authority wanted to be involved in the project.
“We’re delighted Steve Carrie shares our enthusiasm for the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park and that the video he has created conveys that feeling of discovery and excitement,” said Gary N. Fenton, executive director of the NVRPA.
Carrie interviewed staff members of the Park Authority and members of the Friends of the W&OD Trail and used historical materials for his second major film project, which took him six weeks to film. He donated the distribution rights of the film, which was released in September, to the Park Authority. The 58-minute film aired on television in Loudoun and Fairfax counties and in Herndon.
“Steve calls himself an amateur videographer, but his skills are professional,” said Paul McCray, park manager of the W&OD Trail. “He has a very artistic style when filming and editing. He knows what to look for.”
“The way he blends and tells the story is professional,” said Carol Ann Cohen, public information officer for the NVRPA. “I like the way he leads you from one part of the trail to the other. I like the way he intertwines history with the present. He uses a map to lead you through the history and the story of the trail.”
CURRENTLY, Carrie is filming five-minute clips of local organizations and hopes to film scenes from parks in Northern Virginia, along with less-known places in Scotland for an American audience. He plans to take a two-week trip there in 2003 for the project.
Carrie also is downloading the hundreds of slides he has kept from his travels on his Web site at www.spiffyproductions.com. The name Carrie uses for his films is Spiffy Productions, named after his 3-year-old cat Spiffy.