Some The Archive Rewind projects begin with an idea.
This one began with a folder full of old video files, photographs, and the realization that, somehow, I had documented Ashley Tisdale twice during the summer of 2009.
More than 17 years later, those files became our latest long-form The Archive Rewind video.
Following Ashley Tisdale Through Summer 2009 goes back to two appearances from Ashley’s Guilty Pleasure era: a daytime event at The Grove in Los Angeles and a later appearance at The Americana at Brand.
But putting the video together became almost as interesting as rediscovering the footage itself.
Going Back to 2009
In 2009, I wasn’t thinking about creating an archive that people might watch decades later.
I was running Disney Channel Fans, Ashley was still my favorite Disney star, and between The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and High School Musical, she remained one of the people we covered heavily.
Newer Disney stars like Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez were rapidly becoming just as important to the site, but Ashley was different for me.
The Grove appearance was one I wanted to attend personally.
DCF getting original photos and video out of it was almost a bonus.
By the time of the second appearance at The Americana, those priorities had started to shift. I still wanted to see Ashley, obviously, but documenting these events for the site was becoming a bigger part of what I was doing.
Looking back, that change became one of the quiet themes running underneath The Archive Rewind video.
I was gradually going from fan carrying a camera to someone deliberately documenting these events.
I didn’t really realize it at the time.
Building a Video From What Survived
One of the rules we’ve been developing with The Archive Rewind is simple:
Don’t pretend we shot a modern documentary in 2009.
There weren’t multiple cameras, drone shots, professionally recorded interviews or endless B-roll.
I had my Fuji camera. I had a BlackBerry that produced a limited number of supplemental photos. And I had whatever I happened to think was worth recording at the time.
That’s it.
So rather than trying to disguise those limitations, the finished video embraces them.
We went through the surviving footage and photographs and tried to reconstruct the experience from what was actually there. Voiceover is used sparingly. Text helps provide context. Most importantly, the original footage gets room to breathe.
That is really what The Archive Rewind is supposed to be.
Not recreating 2009.
Showing you 2009.
The Soundcheck I Wasn’t Expecting
One of my favorite memories from The Grove happened before the event had really even started.
This was one of my earlier trips into Los Angeles by myself. I was living with my parents in Temecula at the time, so going to a free event meant making the drive, getting there as early as possible and then waiting.
The line wrapped behind the stage and around the corner.
Then I heard something.
Ashley was doing a soundcheck.
I hadn’t expected to see her until the actual event. A family waiting near me agreed to hold my place while I went to investigate, and suddenly, only a short time after arriving, I was seeing Ashley Tisdale in person for the first time.
For somebody who arrived expecting to spend most of the day waiting, that was an amazing little surprise.
And because I had the camera with me, part of it survived.
A Few Things That Didn’t Make the Final Cut
Long-form doesn’t mean everything makes it in.
A few details were fun but didn’t really need precious screen time.
Ashley was smaller than I expected. This was still early in my years of going to celebrity events, so I hadn’t yet learned how different someone’s physical presence can seem compared with television. Years later, by the time I encountered people like Sabrina Carpenter, I knew better than to have any expectations. ?
The crowd changed depending on where you stood. Close to the stage, I remember mostly dedicated fans who had been willing to wait. The audience skewed heavily toward tween and teenage girls, with some younger boys and parents mixed in. There were very few guys my age. Farther back, The Grove’s ordinary shoppers could stop and watch without having spent their day waiting for the event.
I wasn’t there primarily as “press.” At least not for The Grove. Ashley was still my favorite, and I wanted to be there. If I had to put numbers on it today, I’d probably call The Grove roughly 60 percent personal and 40 percent coverage. The Americana was closer to the reverse.
That distinction might seem insignificant, but looking back through the archive, it tells part of the larger DCF story.
The camera gradually stopped being something I happened to bring with me.
Documenting what I saw was becoming the reason to bring it.
And Yes, I Ended Up in an Ashley Tisdale Video
Here’s perhaps the strangest artifact from the day.
Ashley filmed material for the “Masquerade” video at The Grove.
And I’m in it.
Look around the 0:42 mark for a guy in a blue shirt.
Yep.
That’s me.
It is the sort of completely random connection you don’t appreciate until many years later, when you’re digging through hard drives trying to reconstruct what happened that day.
Why We’re Putting This Online Now
That’s ultimately the point of The Archive Rewind.
A lot of this material was originally created for a completely different Internet. Some appeared on DCF. Some sat on drives. Some of it I hadn’t seriously looked at in years.
Taken individually, a shaky clip or an old digital photograph might not seem especially important.
Put the pieces back together, though, and they become a record of a particular moment.
Ashley was promoting Guilty Pleasure. Disney Channel fandom was changing. DCF was changing. And without really intending to, I was learning how to document a scene that would eventually disappear.
Seventeen years later, I’m glad I carried the camera.
And I’m even happier that the footage survived.
Watch Following Ashley Tisdale Through Summer 2009 on The Archive Rewind:
There is plenty more sitting in the archive.
We’re finally rewinding it.