7.21.2006

cast and crew and tigers, oh my!

Had the cast/crew screening last night in my friends LP and KS's ridiculous basement theatre. (Ridonkulous is more like it.) Brian had a conflict with his load-in time at The Attic -- I was sad we couldn't work it out since I waited for him to come back to town to have it.

It wasn't the first time people had seen it -- we are on the third version. (The AFF has the first which makes me nervous.)

But this was the first chance we got to see it on something more akin to a movie theatre screen, less computer monitor-y. The car crash didn't come through as well as it had on Matt's Mac, so some people didn't get it until the second viewing. And the Starbucks scene is confusing for various reasons.

Things to work on.

It was fairly mortifying, especially the Q & A after it, but so nice to watch people watch it for the first time. That sounds creepy. You know what I mean -- where they laugh, where they don't, what they feel and what they don't. Still these are my friends. Strangers will be harder.

7.16.2006

in the still of the program guide

In your application to the film festival you have to include a wanky bio (don't ask) and a still from the movie for the catalogue, whether you get accepted or not.

Here's the one I chose from the hundreds Megan, Alicia and I took. (Megan gets the credit for this one.)


7.15.2006

the 30-day challenge

I considered that this could be an over-detailed making-of.

But instead here are some facts in short paragraph form.

I wanted to do four things with this film:

1. Write, direct, make and submit a film to the Atlantic Film Festival (deadline June 30 2006) in one month.

2. Write something for Brian Borcherdt, who was supposed to star in my other first film that fell apart.

3. Due to Brian's day job as an ultra-dope busy travelling musician living in Toronto, it had to be something a) small b) that could be done in two days which is about as much free time as he would ever have c) in the smallest amount of locations possible d) for dirt

4. And finally I wanted to deal somehow with an infatuation I've been caught in for the past year. I was trying to write about it but it never worked. Somehow this became The Untitled Brian Borcherdt Project. Now known as i said the loud part quiet and the quiet part loud (almost known as A la folie but I just couldn't be that pretentious).

We shot on June 25 and 26. June 25 was a perpeutal rainstorm but thankfully we were inside at the Moed Gallery, in Scott Munn's studio. June 26 we shot on Yale Street -- a couple weeks later a meth lab blew up there -- with one scene outside the TD bank on Quinpool.

It was funded entirely by me on a rent pay (which effectively made the rest of the summer very lean financially). The long-awaited cheque for a ridiculous well-paying assignment I did in March showed up the week before, which helped cover half the costs, which were around $800 total.

My crew was made of dedicated people with way more experience than me. Dan Stewart, my DP, is a professional sound recordist by day. He did an amazing job -- every shot in my head made it to the screen. Assistant director Megan Wennberg is a friend, neighbour and colleague and she kept us moving. Alicia Kennedy is my former roommate, future lawyer and the best PA/driver you could want. And my life coach and original boss at The Coast, Stephanie Domet, kept us so well-fed it inspired her to create her own movie catering company, Sweet Cheeks.

Picture editor Matt Charlton and sound editor John Mullane are longtime colleagues and friends with knowledge they don't often get to utilize in this manner, and they handily pulled it all together. John's band In-Flight Safety generously provided an instrumental of their track "The World Won't" which scores the bulk of the film.

The rest of the cast is rounded out by everyone's favourite singer Jill Barber, my co-worker Mike Fleury and my friend, colleague and neighbour Chuck Teed. You can spot Megan and my old friend Sarah Marsh walking by Brian on Quinpool.

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