Unexpected recognition: Painted Post man gets award years after filming music video

It was a simple act, almost an afterthought, and Charles Baldwin had no idea at the time it would change his life.

Baldwin, who grew up in Painted Post, always had a passion for photography and visual arts, so when a popular regional band performed several years ago, he taped the concert.

Last year, on a whim, Baldwin submitted a song from that video to an international competition, and promptly forgot about it — until he got word recently his entry was a medal winner.

And now Baldwin is basking in the glow of recognition he spent most of his life seeking.

"It validates my belief in myself," said Baldwin, 64. "Even though you don't get a lot of accolades or you aren't making any money, it encourages you to keep doing the good work."

An early start as a creator

Over the years, Baldwin has worked in many media — film, still photography, video, radio — but one thing he learned from every experience is he enjoyed exercising his creative instincts.

"In high school, I was in the audio-video department. We had a wonderful advisor and an amazing budget," Baldwin said. "I took courses at Corning Community College, and ended up doing broadcasting as a local radio announcer. I loved it."

Despite his early exposure to mass media, Baldwin ended up pursuing several different career paths all over the country, including hotel management, customer service and website design.

While he flourished in many of those pursuits, Baldwin said he never quite discovered his niche, nor clearly got the message "job well done" from anyone.

It left him with a familiar hollow feeling, one he traced to his childhood and a father who was a busy executive, who Baldwin said never had the time to acknowledge his son's accomplishments.

But during his various career moves, Baldwin never lost touch with his early interests, and continued to brush up on his technical skills.

"When I was in Jacksonville (Florida), I got hired freelance by ATT broadband to make TV commercials. I had learned editing in 1995,"Baldwin said. "I moved back to Corning in 2008 and enrolled in Empire State College. I got a degree and got hired as an IT consultant at Corning Inc."

Baldwin may not have been aware at the time, but his enduring interest in photography and video technology would eventually lead to the recognition he had always craved.

A forgotten entry, a surprise success

While working in various industries and honing his technical skills on the side, Baldwin also created his own website, luxoreum.com, to explore and promote his interest in photography and videography.

Baldwin was familiar with a regional band known as Dakota that achieved a fair amount of popularity in the late 1970s and early '80s.

When the band performed at a high school reunion party in 2013, Baldwin decided he wanted to record the performance.

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He didn't know until years later what a fateful decision it was.

"They did one piece, it was an amazingly beautiful piece of work," he said. "On a lark, I submitted it to the Global Music Awards. I completely forgot I submitted it."

Baldwin may have forgotten about his submission, but the Global Music Awards didn't.

The Los Angeles-based organization, which holds worldwide competitions in a variety of categories, recently sent Baldwin a letter to inform him his entry, "Leaves You Sitting There," was awarded a bronze medal for a music video.

It's a recognition that isn't handed out lightly and something Baldwin can be proud of, said Global Music Awards CEO and competition coordinator Carson Saflar.

"We do not take into account record sales, the size of fan base, or other popularity markers, in order to uplift new and underrepresented artists," Saflar said. "What we look for primarily is quality of craft, emotional communication, and innovation, amongst other category-based qualifiers.

"Each season has over a thousand participants and the music video category is one of our more popular," he said. "Mr. Baldwin’s project was selected amongst a large international cohort."

To watch the video, go to youtube.com/watch?v=xwpeXU5L6ZI.

Another video accolade

Baldwin shifted from a rock ballad to a completely different musical form — gospel — for his other award-winning video.

It started when Baldwin caught a performance of gospel music by keyboardist Bucky Geter, of Elmira.

Baldwin was enchanted, and wanted to talk to Geter, and ended up recording and producing a documentary about him entitled "A Wonderful Conversation With Bucky Geter."

"I sat for three hours with him. He was a gracious and wonderful human being," Baldwin said. "I met him at Monumental Baptist Church. I put cameras on him and we talked about music, religious gospel music."

Baldwin submitted the video to the Christian Online Film Festival, and it won a 'best documentary' award in July.

To view a trailer of Baldwin's documentary on Bucky Geter, go to youtube.com/watch?v=GDFcvZZk6ro.

Pursuing unfulfilled dreams

Despite his recent success and professional recognition, Baldwin has no plans to slow down.

If anything, he has the confidence to strive for even greater goals.

In addition to his technical expertise, Baldwin has learned through experience and extensive reading through the years how to better present and market himself and network with the right people.

He hopes that asset will help lead to other opportunities to put his creative talents to work.

"I still want to make a major motion picture," he said. "It's really important to have a group of collaborative people. I never really had that in my life.

"It's really important getting yourself out there," Baldwin added. "At some point, your work gets seen by somebody important."

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This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Painted Post man captures awards for 2 video productions