Winter Wonderland (Patreon)

What? It was shot on December 21st, trust!

Really not a whole lot of pics again. We all had things to do, the shoot was somewhat hectic. No time for pics. Not even thumbnail photos!

I learned about this kind of rental A-frame house about a year ago. Just saw a random ad on VK, simple as that. Maybe a week after I asked the girls if they'd be down to shoot in one and Carnelian surprised me with 'Oh, I've vacationed in one of these recently'.

My idea was to make this the last video of 2026, a kind of cosy but somehow grandiose sendoff for the year. The star of the show was supposed to be the huge glass wall, of course. Lots of balloons, three girls. A masspop. Can't go wrong with something like this.

Unfortunately, shooting around a glass wall in complete darkness turned out to be harder than I thought. Quite a bit had to be cut because I'm clearly reflected in the glass. Completely my fault: I decided to buy a mat light for overhead rigging instead of new jeans (old ones ripped because of all the crawling around on my knees to get the right shots). My other pants are light grey. I also wore a white shirt. Are you holding your head thinking how stupid I am yet?

One other issue was that I couldn't get the most impressive wide shots I wanted because all of our lighting equipment was on the second floor of the house. I actually fell from there, or rather slid down the narrow staircase on my butt nearly breaking my neck. Good times.

The worst vibe killer was the weather, of course. I wanted snow, lots of it. Alas, the treacherous climate change made it a very warm weekend, removing any trace of snow from the premises. That's why the outside shots feel so dark and perhaps even spooky: with no snow to reflect things end up looking gloomier than they should. 

So there it is. A video that is what I wanted on paper but not how I wanted it. It's good enough, you could say. And that ironically makes it the best closer for 2026. I wanted the year to be bombastic, full of crazy ideas done immaculately for the looner community to truly know that we are the best ever, no contest. But the difficulties that come with such ambitious projects made my dreams into something... well, 'good enough'. 

The skies next morning were a luminescent grey, casting soft, almost imperceptible shadows on the pedestrians scuttling about below. Snow. A final gut punch.

The moment I started working with the material I knew there wasn't enough B-roll to cover the edits. I was in physical pain before, now every cut I had to make was like a cut to my very soul. Good enough. Good enough is what I can aim for. It's all I can do.

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The next day I dressed as warm as I could and took a local train to Duderhof Heights. It's like a very big hill next to St. Petersburg. I thought I'd grab some extra footage there. What foolishness! While the landscape was impressive the trees were nothing like the fluffy spruce of Karelia. 

While the hill is a tourist attraction it has very little amenities and no lights. I was completely alone, in pitch dark, only with the moon and an Aputure™ MC Pro® to guide my way through the narrow path. To most people this situation would have been absolutely terrifying but I felt strangely calm. For the first time this year my mental state matched my real place in the world. I was completely and utterly alone. And it felt comfortable. Maybe a bit numbing. Must have been the cold.

To tell you the truth I felt a lot more nervous and out of place when I finally descended the hill back into the village. That place is full of contrasts: a dilapidated bar is across the road from some rich person's fancy house, complete with a huge fence and a moiai head that shared that feeling of not belonging at all. 

"Do you know when the next train will be?" - I ask the woman smoking next to the station. She has that trademark solemn Russian look. Can't quite tell if she's grieving for a recently passed relative or pondering her New Years grocery list.

"About an hour" - she answers curtly. I nod and step away as a car full of guys looking a little too joyful to be driving a motor vehicle pulls up. I make way trying not to look too weird with my tripod and camera. What would be worse, getting robbed here, on the hill or by the cops thinking I'm a foreign spy? 

The moment of anxiety does not last long and just a minute later I am terrifying my friends on Discord with grainy pics of my little adventure. The ride back is uneventful, unless you count me finding out there's a local station fifteen minutes away from my apartment, on foot. 

I should do this more often.

https://disk.yandex.ru/d/45JyKKYGukEvdQ

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Happy New Year, everyone. Have yourself a little adventure too. With less wandering around pitch black hills and more balloons. Hug an anime woman printed on one. That's what it's all about.

The cut footage in the folder has no subs but I'll replace the file with subbed soon! Sorry, our Subtitle master was completely drained after doing the main vid.