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Chad Weber has been in the film industry for over 12 years. He has always had a passion for agriculture and values local farming. After moving to Longmont in 2019, he began connecting with local agricultural groups. He used his skills to boost local agriculture while also winning an award for his effort.
By connecting with other area farmers, Weber learned about the concept of agrivoltaics — a combination of agriculture and photovoltaics — that was being used at Jack’s Solar Garden.
The concept elevates solar panels high enough to allow plants to grow under the panels. The height of the panels also allows tractors to navigate under them to better manage the land.
Weber began volunteering at the solar farm by contributing a few time-lapse and short videos. Byron Kominek, owner of Jack’s Solar Garden, received a grant and wanted to create an explainer video on the concept of agrivoltaics. Weber agreed to the project.
“This short film has been viewed over 25k times on YouTube helping us to spread the word about our work in a clear, concise, and visually appealing way. I truly appreciated Chad’s eye for detail and am thankful we have this great piece of media to share with the world.” Kominek said.
Weber’s video has been accepted into seven film festivals to date, including the Green Screen Film Festival in Trinidad and Tobago and the Good Natured Film Fest in Oxford, United Kingdom.
He received an award from The Better Cities Film Festival that focused on concepts that make cities better and selects films in categories that include urban design, transportation, technology and innovation.
“What I like to do with documentary films is spread the voices of people and ideas that I think may not otherwise have a method to get their voice out, people I believe in and I think have good intentions and are trying to make a positive change,” Weber said. “I think it is cool to be able to use the skills I have with filmmaking to really spread the message.”
