The Promo Movie

History

The idea of capturing Winter Camp on film has been with us since at least 1986, when Roger Horn added a video camera to his equipment list. Those early efforts consisted primarily of a lot of poorly focused, jittery shots of incessant volleying. In short, they weren't very promising.
Despite these shortcomings, filming was conducted at Winter Camps X - XIV with a near-religious fervor. In the early 1990's a serious effort was made to gather that footage and make some sort of movie from it. For about a week, Steve Donohue's basement was converted to a not quite state-of-the-art recording studio, with multiple VCR's, several hundred dollars worth of stereo equipment, hundreds of CD's and casettes, and a battery-powered sound mixer that Doug Wilson's dad had picked up surplus somewhere.
The result of that effort was "The Winter Camp Promo Movie". A reasonably slick highlight reel of famous Winter Camp events (such as there were) linked with a variety of musical selections.
The movie was used as a promotion for Winter Camp several times before all known copies of the finished version disappeared, further proving that Steve Donohue is much better at collecting things than at saving them (if that makes any sense).
These pictures are taken from a version which appears to be the final movie from a video standpoint, but which is clearly not the final movie from an audio standpoint. Several of the musical selections are missing and the voiceover is not the final version. Of course, since all you're getting is pictures, that doesn't make much difference.
The images are presented in the same order they were presented in the original film. The original film purports to be a look back at the past and starts with the opening of the time capsule, which then leads to a study of the habits of this much earlier civilization. It focuses on sports and recreation, war and competition, eating habits and rituals, daily life and activities (service) and then some footage they just couldn't figure out (the burning chicken and competition puzzle building)

Click on the pictures to see them full-sized (some of them will still be a little blurry)

	Opening the time capsule
	4 square
	Jeff Rand playing Snow Soccer
	(Mark Bollman--> plays Cross Country Golf
	Kickball; that's Steve Donohue on the mound
	One of many volleyball images recorded at early Winter Camps
	Doctor Beast takes a tumble during the flapjack race.
	Human checkers on the lake; the balloons on their heads identify which side they're on
	Scott Fults (left) and Dave Milon mix it up during Mock Combat
	A Diplomacy board
	A big poker pot picture.
	Gruesome Snack
	(L to R) Doug Seman, Mark Bollman--> and Eddie Rose prepare Little Ozzie's Pizza
	The Caveman Dinner. The person right in front is John Howey. Standing in plaid on the left is Mike Osvath, he's talking to a partially obscured Brad Eakin, a back-turned Bill Harper, and big-haired Steve Donohue. Doug Wilson is behind Steve; next to Steve is Doug Seman (with his back turned). The rest I can't tell who they are.
	The Donohue brothers (Ron on the left) enjoy the Synchronized Lunch. On the movie, this one was set to "My Evil Twin" by They Might Be Giants. This might be the funniest unplanned thing ever filmed for Winter Camp.
	I guess we really liked this sequence
	Yep, we must've really liked it alright
	Geez, enough already. This is the footage that most folks think could win one of those funny home video contests
	John Howey's stomach shows off the ranger alarm.
	There's the rest of him
	Geoff Brown talks about the boot drying rack.
	Geoff prepares to toss a few errant gloves off the rack
	Doug Wilson cleans the candy machine.
	Doug Wilson is clearly in the foreground as the Beast smashes part of the walk-in refrigerators that were once in the Main Lodge
	The walls come tumbling down
	Insulating a cabin
	The original construction crew for the CHR Memorial Site
	The chicken isn't just burnt, it's on fire. If the Synchronized Lunch isn't the funniest thing ever filmed at Winter Camp, this probably is.
	Dr. Beast instructs the troops during the first ever Hell Night
	Apparently the Winter Campers are so evil that even Satan needs a list of their sins.
	Jeff Rand throws away food
	Doug Seman explains why his cakes (I think they were supposed to be cakes) turned out so poorly
	Competition Puzzle Building brings our movie to its exciting crescendo

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