I’ve always felt Pittsburgh punches above its weight class. It’s more of a big town than a small city — about the same population as Gilbert, Arizona.
But Pittsburgh has story, grit, and an absurd visual landscape. It can be a tough place to live, which brings an authenticity to the people. Nobody moves to Pittsburgh to “make it big” or ski 100 days of the year. Pittsburgh folk are, for the most part, grounded. Normal. Crusty. Hard working.
As a cameraman, it was such a joy to run around Pittsburgh and hunt for the perfect sightline. The “higgledy piggledy” of the hillsides, as described by one Polish Hill resident, is just so hard not to fall in love with. Gazing upon a village on a distant hillside scratches some deep evolutionary itch.
Capturing the hillsides, and the people that milled about on the streets within them, became the foundation of my little film career. I produced 21 episodes of my “Neighborhoods” web series. Since then, almost every opportunity that has come my way has been because somebody found the Neighborhoods videos on YouTube and sent me an email.
So it feels a bit like I’m shooting myself in the foot by leaving Pittsburgh. But as the saying goes, “Sometimes you need to shoot yourself in the foot to make better YouTube videos,” … or something like that.
I’m still too close to my time in Pittsburgh to have a clear perspective of what the past decade has meant to me, but this video is my first attempt at looking back.
This video was made in collaboration with PublicSource.
Dean Bog is a filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached through his website, DeanBogFilms.com or on Patreon, @Dean Bog.
