- Andrew Andreoli is a Montreal photographer and videographer.
- His most recent work, Montreal 360, is a tribute to the city, its most famous sites and spectacular details.
- We spoke with Andreoli about his work and the public reaction to the video.
- Visit MTLBlog for more headlines.
Andrew Andreoli has only been shooting video for the past five years, but you wouldn’t know that from his work. A talented filmmaker, Andreoli has been working tirelessly for the last four months on his latest short video, Montreal 360. Not even two days after posting it to his Facebook account, it is already garnering a lot of attention.
As it should.
The video is a breathtaking four-minute look at Montreal. According to Andreoli it is an “all-encompassing, aesthetically engaging tour of Montreal and all of its iconic hotspots and hidden gems.” But it’s so much more than that.
The video isn’t just a tourist’s journey through the city. It manages to be touching, heart-warming, and nostalgic; invoking pride and a certain “I live here” possessiveness.
Andreoli originally planned on creating a simple highlight reel of the city, but the more he filmed the more the video took on a life of its own. Montreal 360 features the usual suspects, but Andreoli also gives us a glimpse at a different city — one seen through the eyes of a true artist.
While it doesn’t take seeing our city through the lens of a camera to know that Montreal is in a league of her own, it sure does help.
And what better ode to Montreal than to have CHOM 97.7’s Terry Dimonte open and close the video.
But enough reading about the video, watch it below and see what Andreoli had to say about the project.
On his approach: “From the beginning of May to the beginning of August, I took to the streets. At first, I started going off memory: ‘Oh, I’d love to film the outside of the Notre-Dame Basilica.’ About a month in I exhausted what I thought was all of Montreal’s special innards, of course not realizing that Montreal is, in fact, inexhaustible, and never depleted of what it could potentially offer.”
“From mid-June till the beginning of August, I started doing a good amount of research on “hidden gems” in Montreal — architecture or otherwise. The best moments, though, were when little nuggets of gold would seemingly appear out of nowhere — maybe a place I passed a thousand times but never cared to notice or some small statue or artwork that had just been erected that I wasn’t aware of.”
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On his favourite moment: “Visiting the Mount Royal cross at night was perhaps my favorite moment. As the pathway to the cross (after the overlook) is unlit and absolutely pitch black, the 5-10 minute walk up to the cross feels like a religious pilgrimage of sorts, particularly when you approach it and begin to see its light shining through the trees. Moments like that instilled this sense of communication between my body and the city.”
On if he meant to make people cry: “I didn’t really know what the overall feel of the video would be; that was something I decided on when I started adding music and did the sound design. It seems to be bringing many tears to many eyes, so I guess I did my job right.”
On Getting CHOM 97.7’s Terry Dimonte To Take Part. “I had completed the video at the beginning of August, and after watching it for the millionth time I thought ‘Hey, there are quite a few icons in this video, but most of them are dead. It would be nice to get a living Montreal icon in here.’ My mind went directly to Terry — mainly because his voice was a hallmark of my morning rides to school when I was a little kid, and also because I had a great idea for a way to bookend the video with him. So I emailed Terry through CHOM’s page and he responded the next day, which was amazing. He said he would be honoured to be in the video… and the rest is Montreal film history!”
Andreoli hopes his video “purveys a sense of what makes Montreal so magical.” And that it absolutely does.
Follow Andrew Andreoli on Facebook or @andrewandreoli on Instagram
Visit his website to see more of his work.
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