🏕 Camp Chronicles - Base Camp Recap // Issue #16

Hey Everyone,

Cristina here, writing from my LA abode :)

For the past year and a half (wow that was fast), we’ve been hosting events bringing together inspiring creatives with the mission to shape a better internet. Getting to curate a community of such diversely-minded, yet like-hearted individuals has been incredibly fulfilling, and none of it would be possible without you guys!

Last week, we spent 5 days in Upstate New York with another incredible group of filmmakers, animators, photographers, and entrepreneurs. It was awesome to see so many new AND familiar faces come together to kick off the summer. This Base Camp provided us with the space to learn from each other in new ways and challenge our creativity collectively.

A massive thank you to Patreon & Notion for helping bring this vision to life and fueling our journey to create a more meaningful internet.

This newsletter edition is a long, heartfelt update. Read our event recap, thoughts, and wins from the community down below!

Base Camp: Catskills — Sustainable Creativity 🏕🎥

After hosting several one-off retreats for the past two years, Max, Chris, Simon, and I realized that having a central intention to unify the community would make our experiences together so much more purposeful.

So, through Base Camp: Catskills, we kicked off a new season of themes. This event’s theme was: Sustainable Creativity.

• What does that mean: We've all faced moments of creative exhaustion or burnout. To me, sustaining your creativity means going forward in the face of challenges and having frameworks in place for you to feel healthily productive.

• How did this theme influence the week: Most of the workshops creators hosted had some connection to our overarching theme. It allowed everyone to share their own interpretation of this concept - from Zach (@Schyguyy) breaking down his editing flow to Gracie Koh (@gkohfilms) narrating her daily work routine.

A Backstory On Our Relationship With Patreon ✨
For years, Simon, Chris, Max, and I have held a deep admiration for Patreon and its founder, Jack Conte — a true artist at heart. We feel so closely aligned with Patreon's mission to empower all kinds of creators to live sustainably, and are thrilled to announce our new partnership with them for the rest of 2024! They’ll be fueling our upcoming retreats and some exciting new projects we'll announce soon :)

Workshop Highlight: Pursuing your dreams takes a certain level of delusional optimism and vision. Some of the most visionary storytellers (Walt Disney, Hayao Miyazaki, etc) thoroughly mapped out their worlds before their stories were ever told. Inspired by Patreon’s mission, we prompted campers to mind-map their “dream futures,” discuss the challenges they’re currently facing, and see where we could all help each other take the next step.

A Huge Thank You To Notion 🤎
We’ve been lucky enough to have Notion’s support for roughly nine months and couldn’t be more grateful. Getting to understand more of Notion’s community-centered ethos and goals for the creator economy through the wonderful reps we’ve worked with (shoutout Danielle and Lexi!!) has been so inspiring.

Workshop Highlight: As creatives and entrepreneurs, we each have very distinct workflows that work for us and our needs. But, there are always bits of inspiration we can take from seeing other people’s processes. For our workshop with Notion, we had five campers showcase the different ways they organize their professional projects, personal mind dumps, and lifestyle plans.

We were so glad to have Danielle Ito, Notion’s Influencer Marketing Lead, come out to Catskills for part of the week, join us for creative activities, and help answer any q’s!

Moments of Fun:
Outside of all the workshops, Catskills’ amazing weather allowed us to have a lot of room for fun and exploration - from meditation & morning runs to waterfall excursions. (This was the first Camp event I’d gone to where it wasn’t cold, raining, or snowing haha - thank you Mother Nature 🙏)

Check out our website for a full visual recap of the week: Base Camp: Catskills Recap.

Watch Justin Stvly’s (aka Myles Blue, aka the coolest guy ever) short film of the event here.

Community Updates: Recent Creations 🎞✨

Below are just a few recent highlights from creators in the Camp ecosystem!

Multimedia

• Baron Ryan (@AmericanBaron): If you haven’t gotten the chance to meet Baron in person, he’s probably given you an existential crisis on your For-You page once or twice (in the best way possible). Baron is an amazing writer, creative, and friend we met earlier this year at Base Camp: Redwoods. He recently just launched a collection of short stories titled “A Comedy of Nobodies” !!

• Gracie Koh (@gkohfilms): is an incredible designer, director filmmaker, and dancer we met at Base Camp: Catskills. She truly does it all. Gracie recently uploaded a series of “moving postcards” to Instagram titled, “I’m tired of social media”, touching on the dichotomies of being an artist online. (I’m serious when I say that my jaw dropped when I saw this)

• Khalil DaTerra (@khalildaterra): Follow along Khalil’s journey to building his startup Bemor! Based in NYC and working out of Verci, he’s starting to document his process daily as a founder + creative.

Film + Long-Form

• Basement Boys (@basementboysproductions): These three guys are truly some of the purest, most inspiring storytellers I’ve ever seen. After years in the making, they’ve each started releasing their own original film series on YouTube! Follow along on their journeys:

  • Cameron Clayton: “Running Away”

  • Aaron Clemons: “Isn’t That What Your 20s Are For?”

  • Tanner Ray: “Connecting The Dots”

• Brooke Cormier (@brookecormier): I had the privilege of meeting Brooke at Creator Camp 2.0. Amidst all the nerves I felt during my first event, her gentle, open-hearted spirit instantly made me feel at ease. Her latest YouTube video reflects that same pure heart I briefly got to know. Brooke shares her most vulnerable struggles as an artist in: “Dealing with Failures as an Artist.”

Music

• Austin Geller (@gellermusic): Geller’s recently finished touring with Chet Porter and is about to release new music soon! Listen to the latest track he just dropped a few weeks ago: “say something” — really good for an introspective night-in.

• Clint (@itsclintt): is another super-talented musician in our community getting ready for more music and performances soon! One of the most infectiously kind and charismatic people I’ve gotten to meet along this crazy journey. Stream his latest song: “SHELTER”

Crossover Event

• A Multiverse Moment: Colleen Yu teamed up with William Doan, Janna Mae, Audrey Ember, AND Chris Will-Tan to host a Lets.Ripple event in San Francisco this past weekend!!

Creator On The Rise 🔥🏔

There are so many amazing creators on the rise right now, but Andrew Paul is one we stumbled upon a few months ago and haven’t stopped watching since. It was the video above (uploaded on Dec 22, 2023) that first caught our attention.

The cinematography, writing style, music choices, and lessons portrayed in his films are incredible - giving vulnerable perspectives on his creative journey. I particularly enjoyed how much Andrew broke the fourth wall in his latest film, “do what makes you feel most alive.” 

Thank you for inspiring us to create authentically and dream bigger! I couldn’t recommend his channel more.

Some Fun Rabbit Holes

Deep Dive into the #YouTubeNewWave

Creator Camp’s 10 Principles

Our Plan To Change The Internet Forever

Thank you for letting us be a part of your story, for inspiring me daily, and for believing in the magic being created here. See you very soon :)

With love,

Cristina & the CC Team