From how to do a barrel roll in a plane to skiing without a ski hill to writing and performing a song — Westlock native Stephen Robinson has learned it all over the last year.
In 2015 the 23-year-old established 52 Skillz, a YouTube series where he documents his efforts to learn a new skill each and every week. Eighty-some weeks later, it’s still going strong, and he now has the chance to take the series even further thanks to a $10,000 grant from Telus.
“This grant is part of moving 52 Skillz forward, kind of to the next level,” Robinson said.
“Most of these skills I’ve been able to pull off with a very limited budget, just kind of doing it myself. Now getting this grant has allowed us to take 52 Skillz as something I do in my backyard to something where I can hire people with professional experience.”
Robinson was selected from 15 finalists in Alberta to make a pilot web series through Storyhive, a Telus program designed to empower Canadian filmmakers. He now has the opportunity to compete for a $50,000 grant to produce the full web series.
Storyhive’s senior manager Jonas Woost said Robinson’s style of filmmaking isn’t what they’re normally accustomed to, but they see talent in the young man.
“From what we’ve seen he’s not a typical filmmaker. He’s had this successful YouTube show and he is a filmmaker, maybe not coming out of the traditional route,” said Woost.
“He’s been doing stuff already, he’s been able to engage an audience and now he wants to bring it to the next level. I’m really excited about this one … with the money and production level, we’re really curious to see what he can do.”
The grant, Robinson said, is just the beginning of his plan to turn 52 Skillz into something much bigger.
“This is more of an opportunity to create high-quality videos for YouTube,” he said.
“On the other end, this video that we’re going to make is going to be made in a way that we can take it and pitch it to TV networks and say, ‘Hey, this is what we could do with $10,000 and this is the TV-esque format that we would out this on.’”
As the creator of the series, Robinson has been able to put his videos together using self-taught filming and editing techniques, but has recently brought his older brother Lindsay on board.
“My videos look good and they look like a YouTube video, which isn’t a bad thing, but when we come in and say we want to bring this on TV, we need someone who knows what they’re doing,” he said.
Lindsay, who’s been a freelance camera operator and director, said he’s enjoyed joining forces with his brother.
“I have a more of a handle on the technical side of things, as far as video production. I have experience working on music videos and TV shows, that sort of thing,” Lindsay said.
“With this kind of project we can combine our talents into something different.”
A recent University of Alberta graduate with a major in psychology, Robinson came up with the idea for the series, partly out of boredom and party out of a need to learn.
He began telling all his friends about the project, and the rest was history.
“Part of it, I think some from that I was spending a lot of time as a student at U of A, but also working a part-time job and I felt like I didn’t have any time to develop myself outside of work and school,” he said.
“One way I found that I typically operated the best was having some sort of force, typically social force, holding me accountable to get stuff done.
“I told absolutely everyone so it created a system of accountability for me to actually go out and take action on all the stuff I wanted to do.”
From there a year came and went, but Robinson wouldn’t quit.
“I kind of got into a habit of living with a crazy lifestyle, so I couldn’t really stop,” he said.
For the moment, he’s continuing the weekly series, through which he recently learned his 81st skill.
“The skill is going to be how to make beer, so it’s actually been a month-and-a-half long process,” he said.
“The beer came to fruition last night and myself and a while bunch of friends enjoyed it and it turned out super.”
As for the future, Robinson has big ambitions for the series.
“What I have in the works right now is I’m currently organizing the foundations of a book, talking about my experience and how people can learn new stuff … a TV show,” he said.
“I don’t know if any of this stuff is going to come to fruition, but the great thing about what I’m doing is I’m enjoying it.”
