In 1998, Manassas resident Victor Rook left his high-tech job in Vienna as a computer consultant to work with birds, bugs, and plants. For two years, he trudged through the dirt, spying on spiders and waiting for flowers to bloom. And how does Rook describe this messy, tedious transition?

"I'm living the good life," he beamed.

The good life these days consists less of getting down and dirty with nature and more on promoting his award-winning documentary "Beyond the Garden Gate." Rook decided he'd rather battle giant spider webs than gridlock, so he took his talents out of the tech world and into his back yard. The result is a 40-minute time-lapsed documentary showing a year in the life of a garden. Everything from hungry hummingbirds to blooming irises was captured for his film, and after more than 800 hours of work, "Beyond the Garden Gate" has hit the market.

"One of the main reasons for producing this was to allow gardeners and everyone else to enjoy a garden the way it should be enjoyed," explained Rook. "I decided to do a year in the life of a garden because I saw how fleeting nature and life is. I saw how quickly the seasons changed. And it's also about looking beyond the obvious."

Though he still works with Web design, Rook decided to leave the Vienna consulting firm because, "I felt limited and wanted to do things on my own." So in the spring of 1998, he began videotaping the 2.75 acres of plants and animal life behind the cottage he lived in. For the next two years, through winter 1999, Rook caught more than 300 species of flowers, plants and creatures on film.

On most mornings, Rook would wake at 5:30 a.m., set up his camera according to what he wanted to film that day, and leave it to tape anywhere from four to 10 hours at a time.

Of course, some days weren't as easy as others. For the non-time-lapsed shots, he often spent hours following insects and animals with his hand camera. He found out that late July is a bad time to be in a garden at night because spiders are then fast at work weaving large, intricate webs, which he stumbled into. He also discovered that while he could act as director of his film, he couldn't act as director of nature.

"The thing I learned is you can't tell nature what to do. It opens when it wants to," he said, noting his experience with watching irises bloom. It took him six tries at three hours each to finally catch the finicky flowers opening.

Rook not only wrangled with nature, but also with keeping the content entertaining.

"I was really challenged because I kept thinking, 'How am I going to keep everyone interested for an hour?'"

To help in doing that, he added scenes with animals and utilized a floating camera to create the illusion of movement. He also incorporated nine songs (some) from Emmy-nominated composer, Matt Ender, which Rook describes as "mini-vignettes" that accompany the footage.

After viewing what he'd filmed and editing it, Rook began marketing the video on the Internet and in garden centers in January. And though he has been successful so far, he doesn't measure success by how much money the video brings in.

"For about 15 years I'd wanted to produce a video that was of interest to me that could be marketed. But if it couldn't, that's OK. It would still be something of interest," he said.

Apparently, Rook wasn't the only one interested in the video. Last week, it won a Telly award - the non-broadcast film and video production's version of the Emmy.

"I think it's kind of like those 'hope' things where you go 'Well, it doesn't hurt to try.' When I mailed it off (for nominations), I said 'good luck', and didn't worry about it," he said. "I am honored to receive this award...and hope that this will help others to recognize the unseen beauty of a garden as it unfolded in front of me during the filming of this unique project."

"I think (the award) will be beneficial because hopefully it will get garden centers to recognize (the video) and put it in stores," he said. "Sometimes you need the extra professional award for people to come out and see it."

But whether or not that actually happens, he said he is satisifed just getting the video completed.

"This was a big labor of love for me," he explained, "and I really have to stress the labor as much as the love. I know I gave up a lot of weekends... a lot of time doing it. But as far as criticism and people saying no, it's not going to bother me. I've created this for other people to enjoy."

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