Mary and I don’t have a fireplace but we do have a yule log.  For those of you from outside the US, a yule log is a DVD or videotape of a fireplace with burning logs.  They play for about an hour and you can listen to an audio track of the actual logs burning or, if you have the DVD, you can usually choose to listen to a music track.  Our yule log also has two viewing options:  The wide shot or the medium shot.  We tend to prefer the medium shot but the wide shot has its moments.  Some nights we like to flip between the two.

Now, here’s the interesting thing:  At the end of our yule log DVD, there are credits.  That’s right, credits.  “How could this be?” I wondered.  “Is there’s more to shooting a fireplace than I imagined?”  And who are these people?  Do they only shoot yule logs?  Are they in a yule log union?

And so, because I had nothing else to do while our offices were closed for the holidays, I began to explore – or maybe investigate is a better word – the credits of my yule log.

Let’s start with the director.  My yule log has a director and his name is Rob Waymen.  Though he does not appear in IMDb, with a little Googling I discovered that he is actually a successful commercial photographer who has shot everyone from Wynton Marsalis to Paris Hilton.  Here is one of Rob’s non-yule log photographs that I liked very much.

According to the credits, Rob shot my yule log in the lovely MacLean House of the Sunnybrook Estates in Toronto, Ontario.  (Yes, apparently even yule logs are shot in Canada these days.)  With more research, I learned that the MacLean House is a popular wedding and corporate event space and that profits from its use go to funding medical research.  So my yule log was, at least indirectly, healing the sick which made me feel even warmer about watching it.

But the hardest credits to get my mind around were the two (yes, two) producer credits of my yule log:  Gordon Gibson and Brad Rogers.  I mean, I only had one producer on Small Potatoes.  What exactly were both Gordon and Brad doing?  Now, it did occur to me that producing any video involving real fire probably comes with it’s own set of challenges:  Extra insurance, visits from the fire marshal, fire extinguishers, etc.  But two producers, really?

Well, I researched Gordon and Brad, and here is what I discovered.  They are both successful music producers and they have worked together on a number of audio releases over the years including, “Gentle World: Celtic Reverie.”

This made me feel a little better because, after all, music is very complicated and often does require multiple producers to deal with clearing all the various rights.  I suspect clearing Christmas songs is particularly tiresome and my yule log does feature a number of Christmas songs.

So, outside of throwing back quarts of rum-infused low-fat eggnog with Mary, that pretty much covers what I did over my Christmas break.  All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable two weeks.  I hope that you, my gentle readers, had an equally restful and happy holiday.  I wish all of you, including the Mayans, a joyous and prosperous 2013!