It’s the final countdown for an Alberni man who entered a contest to spend 80 days filming a documentary at Vancouver International Airport.
As of this writing, Port Alberni son Jaeger Mah’s entry has garnered 3,199 votes – more than 1,400 more than his nearest rival.
The other four contest finalists come from larger urban centres but they don’t have Alberni’s magic.
“I don’t know what it is, “ Mah said. “It must be something in Alberni’s water—our sockeye maybe.”
“No, really, I’ve supported the community and they’ve supported me in return.”
The contest winner will pocket $15,000 and spend 80 days living and shooting documentary films inside Vancouver International Airport (YVR).
With two days to go Mah feels a tinge of pressure but it’s good stress, he said.
“It motivates me to do an even better job of making my videos more engaging.”
Mah has spent the week envisioning how he will spend his 80 days.
He keeps a journal, in which he was already jotted down more than 100 documentary ideas.
And he’s made a logistical list that includes equipment needed, people to interview, and shot selection.
“I’m rolling out how the next 80 days will go before they even start,” Mah said.
While Mah has been thinking about work behind the camera he’s been spending time in front of it too.
In the past two weeks Mah has been a guest on CBC TV, CTV Canada AM, as well as XM Radio in the U.S.
The highlight for him was being a guest traffic announcer on Breakfast Television.
“They asked me to name some high traffic areas on the spot but I got two out of three questions wrong,” Mah said.
Contest voting closes on Friday and the winner will be announced in mid-August.
More community support could help with one of his documentaries.
“I want the people of Port Alberni to send me their good and bad YVR stories, or let me know if they worked at YVR back in the day,” Mah said.
“I want to see if I can find one Port Alberni angle.”
Mah’s e-mail is jaegermah@gmail.com.
reporter@albernivalleynews.com