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Contents
14 HITTING NEW PEAKS
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Whistler Film Festival is making waves as a premiere boutique festival.
5 indie scene
16 PARTNERS IN CRIME TV comedy and stand-up star Brent Butt teams up with indie filmmaker Carl Bessai for the crime comedy No Clue, premiering at the Whistler Film Festival.
Production Update
7 Legal BrIEFS 9 profile
18 It’s my Party
10 Behind the scenes
Vancouver’s Sociable Films launch their first feature, Afterparty, at Whistler. The film was made cooperatively, with cast and crew sharing in the ownership of the production.
12 Beginnings
20 NO COPPING OUT
30 FINAL EDIT
The Saskatchewan-based team behind the indie feature Wolfcop won the inaugural Cinecoup Film Accelerator competition and are shooting in their home province, despite difficulties facing the local industry.
24 THE ROAD DOWN HERE Teach Grant’s first feature is a gritty tale set in Vancouver’s downtown East side. In a film diary, he describes taking his film Down Here from concept through to its Whistler Film Festival debut.
@reelwestmag Cover: BRent Butt in No Clue; Photo by Diyah Pera. Contents: BRent Butt and Amy Smart in No Clue; Photo by Diyah Pera. Reel West Magazine is a wholly owned enterprise of Reel West Productions Inc. It exists and is managed to provide publicity and advertising that supports the growth of the Western Canadian Motion Picture Industry. Executive publisher: Sandy P. Flanagan. Editor: Cheryl Binning. Publisher: Ron Harvey. Sales: Randy Holmes, Adam Caddell creative Director: Andrew von Rosen. art director: Lindsey Ataya. Photo Editor: Phillip Chin. Contributors: Nathan Caddell, Katja De Bock. Reel West Magazine is published six times per year. Subscriptions Canada/US $35.00 per year (plus $10.00 postage to USA). Reel West Digest, The Directory for Western Canada’s Film, Video and Television Industry, is published annually. Subscription $35.00 per year (plus $10.00 postage to US). Both Publications $60.00 (plus $10.00 postage to USA) Prices include GST. Copyright 2013 Reel West Productions Inc. Second Class Mail. Registration No. 0584002. ISSN 0831-5388. G.S.T. # R104445218. Reel West Productions Inc. Suite 114 – 42 Fawcett Road, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, V3K 6X9. Phone (604) 553-1335 Toll Free: 1-888-291-7335 Fax: (604) 451-7305 Email: info@reelwest.com URL: reelwest.com. Volume 28, Issue 6. Printed In Canada. To subscribe call 1-888-291-7335 or visit our website at reelwest.com. Reel West welcomes feedback from our readers, via email at editorial@reelwest.com. All correspondence must include your name, address, and Phone number.
Reel West November / December 2013
3
Production update
What’s coming. What’s shooting. What’s wrapped.
SETH ROGEN (pictured here in 50/50) is in his hometown of Vancouver shooting The Interview. Photo By Chris Helcermanas-Benge / c/o eOne Film
World of Warcraft Landing in B.C.
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he movie adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey isn’t the only high profile movie shooting in B.C. this winter. A film version of the popular sorcery video game World of Warcraft will begin filming in January. The Warner Bros. adventure fantasy film will be directed by Duncan Jones (Moon) and is penned by Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond). Shooting until the end of December is The Interview, starring Vancouver native Seth Rogen, as well as James Franco and Randall Park. The comedy is directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg and executive
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produced by Shawn Williamson and Dan Sterling and produced by James Weaver, Rogen, and Goldberg. The plot centers around two fictional journalists who go to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to interview the autocratic leader Kim Jong-un, but are in reality being sent by the C.I.A. to terminate the 29-year-old leader. The crew includes DOP Brandon Trost, production designer Jon Billington, production manager Daniel Clarke, production coordinator Jill McQueen, locations manager Terry MacKay and SPFX coordinator Jak Osmand. Another movie, If I Stay, based on
the book by Gayle Forman, shoots November and December. The story follows a girl who has an outof-body experience following a car accident which puts her in a coma and kills the rest of her family. The MGM film stars Chloe Moretz and Jamie Blackley, and is directed by RJ Cutler. The producers are Alison Greenspan and Denise Dinovi, the line producer is Brad Van Arragon, the DOP is John De Borman, the production designer is Brent Thomas, the production coordinator is Joey Setter and the locations manager is Michael Gazetas. A new TV series, The 100, has also arrived in town. The post-
apocalyptic drama series for the CW is set a century after the earth was destroyed and the only human survivors are those living on space stations. But then the leaders exile a group of young prisoners to Earth to test if the planet is habitable. The cast includes Eliza Taylor, Paige Turco, Thomas McDonell, Isaiah Washington, Marie Avgeropoulos, Eli Goree, Bob Morley, Chris Larkin, and Richard Harmon. The 100 is executive produced by Elizabeth Craft, Sarah Fain, Jason Rothenberg, and Les Morgenstein with Dean White as supervising producer. Other crew include DOP Philip Linzey, production designer Mathew Budgeon, production manager Scott Graham, production coordinator Shalia Edl, location manager Sheri Mayervitch and SPFX coordinator Wayne Szybunka. The series shoots through to the end of January 2014. The latest installment in the Nickelodeon A Fairly Odd movie series, titled A Fairly Odd Summer, recently wrapped production. The film stars Drake Bell as Timmy Turner, who has a set of fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda and a fairy god-brother Poof. Savage Holland directs with Butch Hartman and Scott McAboy as executive producers and Amy Sydorick as producer. The DOP is Thomas Harding, the production designer is Sandy Cochrane, the production manager is Michael Williams, the production coordinator is Deana Kittson, the locations manager is Phil Pacaud and the SPFX coordinator is Alex Burdett. n
Reel West November / December 2013
Indie Scene
The Long and Short of It: Whistler Film Festival Panel Explores Turning a Short into a Feature Paul Armstrong Producer
Down River’s DOP Larry Lynn frames a shot with Actor Colleen Rennison Photo By Dean Buscher
Down River Gets Distribution Deal
Indiecan Entertainment has acquired the Canadian distribution rights for Ben Ratner’s feature Down River, which screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Down River is written and directed by Ratner (Moving Malcolm) and produced by James Brown. The Executive Producer is Jack Ong. Down River is the emotionally stirring story of three young women teetering on the edge between creative breakthroughs and personal breakdowns, and their connection with the older woman they rely on for guidance, support and inspiration. “I am very excited that Indiecan will be releasing Down River,” said Indiecan’s Avi Federgreen in a statement. “Ben has done a masterful job with this sweet, passionate and memorable film. I am looking forward to sharing this wonderfully acted and executed film to Canadian audiences across the country.” Down River stars three Gemini award-winning actors Helen Shaver, Gabrielle Miller, Colleen Rennison and Jennifer Spence. Odyssey lenses Anatomy of Deception Odyssey Media recently shot Anatomy of Deception in Vancouver, a movie written by local screenwriter Roslyn Muir and directed by Brian Skiba. The script is the winning entry from Oddyssey’s 2012 Canadian screenplay competition. The thriller follows a woman on the rise to become a mayor until a video stalker engineers her fall from grace. The cast includes Natasha Hanstridge, Miranda Frigon, Lochlyn Munro and C. Thomas Howell. Reel West November / December 2013
“Winning the Odyssey Screenplay Challenge has been excitin — I don’t know of any other contests where winning can have such an affect on your career,” said Muir. “The past year has seen my script further developed and put into production. It’s a thrill to know the world will be seeing it soon on TV, and I have a produced credit to my name.” The movie is produced by Kirk Shaw with Devi Singh, Stan Spry and Eric Woods.
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now and great films. You know winter is kicking off once the Whistler Film Festival comes around. Having attended every one of its 12 years, I have seen the Festival growing exponentially each year — just like a short film growing into a feature. And that’s a topic of discussion at the Festival’s ShortWork Lab ‘Shorts to Features’ panel, where B.C. filmmakers will talk about their plans to use a short film to launch a feature film project. One of those filmmakers, Victoria-based Jeremy Lutter, is looking to turn two of his shorts, Joanna Makes a Friend and Gord’s Brother both written by Ben Rollo, into long form. Joanna Makes a Friend, winner of the 2010 MPPIA Short Film Award, follows a lonely nine year old girl, Joanna, who builds herself a robot friend, only to learn the hard way that it takes more than VCR parts to make a solid friendship. And in Gord’s Brother, yet to be shot, a boy and his monster brother hit the road in a world that doesn’t understand them, looking for a place to call home. The script won the Harold Greenberg Fund’s Short to Feature program, with funding coming from the Fund, Movie Central, The Movie Network and CreativeBC. Why make a short first before a feature? “The advantage is that you get to try your ideas on the short and perfect them for the feature – you can see audience reactions, get a better sense of what is working, what can be improved and get great promotional material when pitching your feature,” says Lutter. “It’s such a competitive market out there – anything to help your project stand out”. The challenge of turning a short into a feature, adds Lutter, “is to expand the world your story lives in. A feature has a different pace than a short film yet allows the audience to get to know the characters more”.
Fellow ShortWork Lab panelist, Nimisha Mukerji, agrees. Her short, In the Deep, was one of the finalists in the 2013 Crazy8s Film Event, a yearly Vancouver short filmmaking competition in which the film community comes together to fund and support 6 short films. In the film, a father and his daughter drift apart after his wife died, but when the daughter suddenly appears at his doorstep with shattering news of her own, the two must find a way to move forward together. Although her feature is not directly based on In the Deep, Mukerji, best known as the director of acclaimed documentaries such as 65_RedRoses, figures it was a place to start. “I thought it would be a good way to prepare for my next feature project, which will be a drama,” she explains. In the feature, also about family relationships, an eighty-five year old women is about to embark on the final journey of her life, packing up her belongings in Kolkata and saying goodbye to the only friends and family she has ever known to join her son in Canada. As Mukerji explains it, “making a short helped hone my filmmaking skills since it’s all about story. I had 10 minutes to take people on a journey and become emotionally invested in the characters. If you can make a successful short it better prepares you for the challenge of making a feature”. Another Harold Greenberg Fund Short to Feature team on the panel are writer/director Marshall Axani and producer Diana Donaldson with their short Mina.Minerva, which explores the threatened relationship of two seventy-five year old identical twin sisters when one of them is convinced they’ve been betrayed. Playing the sisters will be actual identical twins Joyce Robbins and Jacqueline Robbins who worked with Axani and Donaldson on their most recently shot short film, Anxious Oswald Greene, winner of the Celluloid Social Club’s Hot Shot Shorts Contest. The feature version puts the sisters’ relationship into a larger conIndie Scene continued on page 29 5
CF
Creative Saskatchewan Launches
CHANDLER FOGDEN L
Doran Chandler
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Kyle Fogden
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Lori Massini
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Kim Roberts,
Of Counsel
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The government of Saskatchewan has launched a new agency to replace the province’s film tax credit program, which was shut down last year. Creative Saskatchewan has $5 million in funding to support arts initiatives, including film and TV, digital media, publishing, visual arts, music, crafts and performing arts. Operating as an agency of the crown, Creative Saskatchewan’s mission is to assist in marketing the works of all creative industries. Five grants are available within the fund, two of which are allocated to film, television and digital media initiatives. Approved projects can receive funding that covers 30 per
cent of production costs incurred in Saskatchewan. The other grants are the Creative Industries Production Grant, assisting non-screen-based projects; a Market & Export Development Grant; and a Market Travel Grant. Creative Saskatchewan’s board is headed by Mike MacNaughton. Other board members include: Jocelyne Wasacase-Merasty, Cory Furman, Valerie Creighton, Rick Peddle, and Jocelyne Kost. At press time, a CEO of the organization had not yet been named. Production values in Saskatchewan have dropped from more than $60 million to $15 million after the cancellation of the tax credit.
Odds drummer PAT STEWARD and frontman CRAIG NORTHEY during a performance for an episode of The Neighbors Dog Photo By MIchael Raine
The Neighbors Dog Continues to Howl
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Saskatoon’s Plan9films have launched the fourth season of their musical documentary series The Neighbors Dog, showcasing Canadian musical artists. The new season premiered on City Saskatchewan in October. Featuring in-depth interviews and intimate house concert performances, each hour long episode of delves into the story of the music, the performers, and the house concert subculture. Season 4 includes concerts with: Rah Rah, Hannah Georgas, Daniel Romano, Grapes of Wrath, Odds and Yukon Blonde. The series is produced by Saskatoon’s Darryl Kesslar and John Mills of plan9films. Episodes will be available for national online viewing at www.citytv.com/saskatchewan Reel West November / December 2013
Legal Briefs
Sleeping With the Elephant: Finding Creative Ways to Work with Americans Kim Roberts Entertainment Lawyer
W Eh-Okay teams up with TVO
Vancouver-based producer Eh-Okay Entertainment and New York’s Wonderful Kid Company have entered into a development deal with TVOKids for the new CG-animated preschool series Chip and Coco’s Adventures. The series follows the mystery-solving missions of two crafty kittens, Chip and Coco, who help young members of their community solve simple behaviorbased dilemmas by cracking the code for success. Noelle Wright (Doc McStuffins, Land Before Time, Finley the Fire Engine) is the series writer and Jason Netter (She-Zow, Wolverine and The X-Men) is executive Producer. Chip and Coco’s Adventures was conceived by Wonderful Kid Co.’s Daniel Smith. The series provides kids with the the tools and skills needed to be kind, considerate and responsible, increasing confidence and leading to success in school and life. “I’ve grown up with TVO and have long-admired their programming choices. So I am extremely pleased to be working on our first series with them,” said EhOkay producer Heather Puttock. Eh-Okay is currently in development on the animated series Wyrd House and has just completed two live-action family movies for CTV/Hallmark: Pete’s Christmas, starring Molly Parker, Zachary Gordon and Bruce Dern; and The Hunters, starring Victor Garber, Robbie Amell and Alexa Vega. Reel West November / December 2013
ith the success of series like The Tudors and Flashpoint, Americans in the entertainment industry are beginning to understand that Canada is more than a back lot with tax credits. As a result, coproduction with Canada is currently the flavour of the month in Los Angeles. For years, American networks have shied away from doing anything more than service work in Canada because it just seemed too complicated. With the limitations placed on Canadian content—that copyright & final decision-making authority had to rest with the Canadian company and that the writer or director had to be a Canuck – it just wasn’t worth the effort. With the recent financial downturn, it’s finally made financial sense for US broadcasters and producers to figure out the rules governing Canadian content and to find creative ways to work with or around these rules. One of the most successful models has been the structure used to finance The Tudors. Showtime had originally developed this project for its network. Coincidentally and fortunately, the writer creating The Tudors was British. A Canadian producer (Peace Arch) convinced Showtime that it could save a lot of money by structuring the series as a co-production between Canada and Ireland, with Showtime providing a license fee along with BBC and CBC. In so doing, Showtime got the benefit of a high-quality series with fantastic production values (provided by Irish locations) at a very modest license fee. Although Showtime had less control over the project and gave up the benefits that go along with copyright, including international distribution rights, these disadvantages were far outweighed by the reduction in cost. The approach used with The Tudors has been difficult to replicate as that series dealt with historical figures who had equal appeal for Europeans and North Americans and the creator
was known to the US broadcaster but was not American. It has been more difficult to find common ground with contemporary subjects as tastes are so different between the continents. If the creator of a series is American, most treaties rule out the possibility of co-production in any event. One alternative available in Canada is a coventure under CRTC regulations (the subject of a previous column written by Doran Chandler). This allows US & Canadian producers to work together on a series and still qualify for CanCon. It allows a lot of flexibility as copyright can remain with the US partner and producer credits can be given to Americans as long as the series is produced primarily in Canada and the production has a Canadian director or writer and second highest lead. At least 50% of the financing has to come from Canada which is not a high number to hit if there is broadcaster support in Canada. Although there are a few series like Defying Gravity that have been produced as co-ventures, they are still small in number. The explanation may be that top up money for broadcast licenses from the Canadian Media Fund is not available for co-ventures. If co-productions and co-ventures don’t make sense for a series, co-financing seems to be a model that’s working. Series can be produced as Canadian content but financed in part with licenses from US broadcasters. Canadian producers have been more adept recently in finding content like Rookie Blue that works for markets on both sides of the border. And with only two cooks in the kitchen, it’s easier to find creative consensus than co-productions with European countries where sensibilities can be very different. There’s no question that US broadcasters are still used to calling the shots but their need to decrease costs while delivering the same quality of product has made them much more open to real partnerships with broadcasters in this country. Kim Roberts is a lawyer with the entertainment law boutique Chandler Fogden. n 7
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Parallax Film Dives Deep
Vancouver’s Parallax Film Productions have secured a coproduction deal with OASIS HD for their upcoming Miller Thomson LLP millerthomson.com wildlife series Bahama Blue. The six-part, one-hour series explores the islands of the Bahamas, home to one of the fiercest natural habiFormerly Production MT_Reel West Digest Ad_v6.indd 1 5/5/2011 1:35:47 PM tats in the world. According to Parallax Producers Ian Equipment Rentals Herring and Maija Leivo, the series will look beyond the picture-perfect beauty of the turquoise water to explore the life and death that unfolds beneath. The series will be shot by underwater cinematographer Pete Zuccarini, who’s long list of credits includes all four of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Life of Lights,Camera, Pi, and The Motorcycle Diaries. “We’ll be collaborating to create new techniques to do time-lapse underwater filming amongst a number of Aerial lift and material handling specialists other creative ways to get the very best possible shot,” said Zuccarini in a release. “We’ll be using a range of (Coquitlam) cameras such as the Canon EOS 1D C, Canon Cin1-877-875-WEST (9378) www.WesternOne.ca ema C500, Red, Arriflex and also a high speed camera called Phantom Flex 4K. We want to be able to get into Proud Members of MPPIA Our Own Trucks for On Time Delivery small places never before shot in 4K. Add to all of this 24 Hour Service Serving the Movie Industry for Over 20 Years the propulsion equipment we’ll use to go through the chrystal caves so that we can really capture the raw beauty of it ... This is going to be an amazing series.” Parallax has also brought on-board London-based Heaters distribution company TVF International to represent the series internationally. Bahama Blue goes into proScissor Telescoping Personnel Straight Mast & Articulating General Line duction early in 2014. Lifts Booms Genie Lifts Telescoping Forklifts Booms Equipment vancouver calgary edmonton saskatoon regina london kitchener-waterloo guelph toronto markham montréal
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Reel West November / December 2013
Profile
CMF launches InnovaTV Catalina Briceño. “After meeting in Toronto in January 2013 to pool our knowledge and share our experiences, we all expressed an interest in pursuing these exchanges using an online tool. InnovaTV is the end result.” Subject areas include t-commerce (transactional interfaces related to digital TV content) and the influence of social networks on television consumption. The CMF invites creators, producers and broadcasters to submit content and ideas to the editorial committee at info@innovatv.ca.
Photo by Brie Childers
The Canada Media Fund (CMF), in collaboration with Konrad Group, has launched a new online resource on emerging technologies. Using video interviews and short blog articles, InnovaTV (innovatv.ca) helps producers and broadcasters share ways of using the latest technologies to make digital content. “This new platform is the result of an industry initiative led by people working in television production and broadcasting on a daily basis,” said CMF Director of Industry and Market Trends,
Emmanuelle Vaugier Actor This busy actor has built a career in film and TV on both sides of the border. Her feature work includes American horror movie Mirrors 2 and Saskatchawan-shot Dolan’s Cadillac, and on TV she’s played Charlie Sheen’s ex-fiancee on the CBS comedy Two and a Half Men and a detective on three seasons of CSI: NY. Most recently Vaugier reprised her role of sociopath The Morrigan on supernatural drama Lost Girl, which premiered its fourth season on Showcase in November. She also guest-starred on an episode of the CBC series Republic of Doyle and shot the movie Teen Lust in Winnipeg. Hometown: I was born and raised in Vancouver and I moved to Los Angeles in 1997. Start date: The first time I did a play in second grade I loved performing. I loved being on stage, I loved every aspect of it. I started doing extra work and commercials and then I got scouted in a mall for a modeling agency. When I was 16 I went away on my first modeling contract and after modeling for a few years I decided I was going to stay in Vancouver for awhile and focus on my passion which is film and
Nerd Corps producing Slugterra Movie Vancouver-based Nerd Corps Entertainment is making a one hour TV movie based on their Slugterra sci-fi comedy kid series which airs on Disney XD. Slugterra: Ghoul from Beyond is slated for a spring 2014 release and will take Eli Shane on a new adventure to save Slugterra. “We’re very excited to present the next chapter in the world of Slugterra, both as licensed global property and a narrative,” said Nerd Corps’ Ken Faier. “It brings new opportunities for distribution and sales, unique product tie-ins and promotions for licensees, which we are currently working on with our partners.” The growing brand also includes two new Slugterra Flash games and two new iOS games launching over the next year. Reel West November / December 2013
television. My first break as an actress was a 1995 NBC movie of the week, A Family Divided, with Faye Dunaway, Stephen Collins, and Cameron Bancroft. That was my first speaking role. Then my big break was a Showtime movie of the week called The Halfback of Notre Dame. Larry Sugar was producing. That was my first lead role in a movie. Most memorable working experience: I have been lucky to work with some amazing teams of people on all the shows I have been involved with and I have made many good friends along the way. I still keep in touch with people from Smallville and CSI: NY. All these shows have brought new people into my life and people that stayed in my life, which is rare. When that happens, it is really special. Latest projects: It’s my fourth season on Lost Girl. What I enjoy most is the way they write for me. I get to have a lot of fun. They don’t get in our way too much in the sense of ‘you can’t do this.’ They let us explore creatively. They wind us up and let us go which is a lot of fun. I recently shot a movie in Winnipeg, Teen Lust. It’s about a group of satan worshippers… It’s a teen comedy… I will throw that in there. This was my third time shooting in Winnipeg and I was happy it wasn’t winter. But we were shooting nights so I didn’t see more than the inside of a hotel and the inside of a trailer, but I had my dogs with me to keep me company. I also worked on the Republic of Doyle in Newfoundland. I have been travelling around quite a bit. It keeps life interesting. Would I love to shoot something in LA and come home to my own bed every night? Absolutely. But I wouldn’t trade anything for this job where I can travel and see different places and meet new people all the time. It’s fantastic. I love it. Future Ambitions: I would love to do a movie with Meryl Streep… but that is out of my hands…. I love that I have jumped between comedy and drama and not been pinned to one, but I would love to do more comedy.
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Photo by Phil CHin
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Reel West November / December 2013
Behind the scenes
The Sky is the Limit for the Underground Circus After a decade in business, this circus company has developed a reputation for creating elaborate spectacles, building awe-inspiring apparatus, and training elite performers.
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he Underground Circus is 10 years old and growing. What started out as Ninon Parent and Peter Boulanger teaching some friends for free, has grown into Vancouver’s elite circus company. The founders, Parent and Boulanger, both began their careers at Montreal’s L’ecole National du Cirque, and then spent two years touring with Le Cirque du Soleil around North America and Europe. They took their expertise and training techniques to Vancouver, and after five years of performing together as Tesseract, founded Cirque Phoenix, a mixture of fire and circus performances. Five years later, they decided to change their focus to mainly original circus acts, and became the Underground Circus (tUC). The Underground Circus soon developed a reputation for their strong technique, innovative apparatus, and attention to detail. They create circus productions, working in partnership or alone, from small one or two act shows, to elaborate spectacles. The company core currently consists of eight acrobats, with another eight in training. tUC doesn’t have a circus school, but the company does offer training to people who want to treat circus as a profession. A typical training session with the Underground starts with a short warm up, followed by a half hour of strength exercises, designed by head trainer Parent, to tune the body for all around circus skills. Then a stretching period, after which the group breaks up to work on individual skills or acts. The company has been in their newest studio space for three years, and they love it. With 28 foot high ceilings, a semi-sprung floor, and 4,000 square feet of training space, it’s the perfect place to train and rehearse. The company has complete control of the space, which allows them to
Reel West November / December 2013
do mock ups of the different venues they perform in, in order to rehearse shows as completely as possible. The space has also been used for film & television shoots, stunt rehearsals, private events, as a rehearsal space by other performance companies, and the site of some great parties. Parent and Boulanger passionately believe that if an artist wants to treat circus as a profession, it takes the same dedication as it would to become a professional hockey player, a musician, or really, any sort of professional. “A lot of the people who come to us from a recreational background are shocked by how hard you have to work to be considered a professional,” they explain. “Some leave, others are inspired by the way we train.” Boulanger designs the unique apparatuses the company uses, with names such as Triceau, Tesseract, Moon’s Eye, Aerial Art, Bubble, and Skyladder. He also creates large pieces, such as a 34-ft high marionette capable of lifting aerial circus acts, or the world’s largest eagle sculpture, with a 60-ft wingspan. This year, on a commission for the Calgary Stampede, he built two double life-size horses, operated by four puppeteers inside the horses, flown 70-ft above the audience. The company creates anything from unique individual acts, to full length shows, and have worked in almost every venue in Vancouver capable of hosting some kind of circus event. Their specialty is creating specific theatrical circus events for each client, tailoring music, acts and costuming to the client’s theme. One of their main markets is corporate events, and with several thousand under their belts, Peter and Ninon can supply anything a client might desire. n 11
Photo by Phil CHin
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Reel West November / December 2013
Beginnings
A Fascination with Films and Filmmaking Paul Klassen is a movie buff, an editor and a promoter of the local industry as an IATSE representative.
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he first movie I went to on my own was Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life. All of my previous trips to the theatre were with friends or family, and were big events which had been well planned out in advance. This time, I simply went out on a free evening with no planning whatsoever, and enjoyed both the movie and the experience of being in a giant room full of people having a good time. I also enjoyed the freedom of going to a movie when I felt like it, without it having to be a big deal. It was so easy, in fact, that I did it again. And again. As I went through university in pursuit of my Bachelor of Commerce degree, and during my first career as a software developer and e-business project leader, my appetite for the big screen increased. I often went to the repertory cinemas which ran three double-bills a week, and sometimes saw all three. I volunteered at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and took tickets at the Ridge Theatre. I watched a lot of independent, international, and classical cinema, and when I realized that I didn’t want to retire in information technology, I determined to make a career change into the film industry. My choice was heavily influenced by the independent writer/director/ producers whose films I had been watching over the years. Along with fellow Canadians such as Gary Burns, Atom Egoyan, Bruce McDonald, Guy Maddin, Deepa Mehta, and Bruce Sweeney, I was also a fan of the work of Peter Greenaway, Peter Jackson, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, and too many others to mention. I wrote scripts and took courses in directing and producing, thinking that I wanted to become a writer/director/producer myself. Instead, I became an editor. My path to editing started with an email which bounced its way to me one day, looking for some help in the editing room of the feature film Say It Isn’t So. This was in the year 2000, and the film industry in BC was booming, with productions hiring to fill the increased demand. I was reworking a couple of my scripts and trying to finish another when I received the email. I realized I would get a chance to be involved in a fascinating part of the filmmaking process: the central hub where the efforts of the entire cast and crew are combined into the final, finished product, for everyone to see and experience. I decided to take a break from writ-
Reel West November / December 2013
ing, applied for the job, and had my first exposure to BC’s motion picture production service industry. One production led to another, and I moved from being an assistant editor synching film dailies on an editing bench, to an assistant editor on the Avid editing system, to an editor. Every production was an adventure of one sort or another, and I loved the work, the people, and being a part of the industry itself. Along the way, I became the co-chair of the editing department at IATSE Local 891, which began my involvement in the administration of the union. When the position of Business Representative came up for election, I ran and won in early 2009, and was re-elected in 2012. As IATSE Local 891’s Business Representative, I rely on my university education, my knowledge of filmmaking, and my experience gained in the industry to promote the province as a filming destination. I am also involved in the negotiation of our contracts, sit as a trustee for our health benefits plan, and help carry out the day-to-day business of the local. Although I no longer work directly on any individual project, I hope that my efforts help others build and maintain their careers in this fascinating and rewarding industry. Most of my work is accomplished in an office in front of a computer, which is how I spent my days in my first career many years ago. Since then, my love of film has taken me on a rather circuitous route to where I am now, a position I never even knew existed when I made my first steps into the world of filmmaking. I am one of many people drawn to the industry because of a love of film, and one of many who find a challenging and rewarding career in a discipline which wasn’t envisioned at the outset. Everyone I have met along the way has a unique story to tell, and I think that is part of the magic of film and television. Production is the collaboration between so many people with divergent skills, crafts, backgrounds, and experiences. I am thankful that the industry which has developed in British Columbia can provide opportunities to thousands of individuals who want to work in film and television, whether directly or indirectly. Although a career may not represent the meaning of life, most of us spend a significant portion of our lives at work, and I am happy to be working in a fascinating industry with rarely a dull moment. It has certainly kept things interesting every step of the way. n 13
Photo c/o Whistler film festival / Joern Rohde
Festival Feature
Hitting New Peaks Whistler Film Festival continues to grow attendance while maintaining its focus on quality, not quantity Story by
Cheryl Binning
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he Whistler Film Festival (WFF) is still a youngster by festival standards, at just 13 years old. But despite it’s youth, it’s making waves as one of the world’s premiere boutique festivals. “We are one of the youngest festivals but one of the most influential festivals,” says Executive Director Shauna Hardy Mishaw. “The fact that Variety considers us one of the top 30 festivals in the world is a huge kudo for us,” The U.S. industry magazine endorses 30 festivals a year and has partnered with WFF since 2011. The festival is also growing. Last year, WFF broke the 10,000 attendance mark and the 13th annual event, which unspools December 4 to 8, is expected to increase delegate numbers by another 10 per cent. “We will always be intimate and boutique because of our unique location in a resort town but there’s lots of room for growth,” points out Hardy Mishaw. “But first and foremost, we will always be interested in quality, over quantity.” WFF has found its unique niche: focusing on the art and commerce of filmmaking and celebrating Canadian talent in the context of worldwide movie-making. “We offer filmmakers the opportunity to not only show their film to a public audience, which is definitely an essential part of a film festival, but also give them opportunities to further their projects and their careers,” says Hardy Mishaw. By combining screenings, film competitions (the $15,000 Borso Award for Best Canadian Feature and the China Canada Gateway for Film Script Competition), panel discussions on key topics facing the industry, pitching opportunities and professional development, WFF has designed itself as a place to do business with all 14
the major Canadian and international players in a relaxed, intimate environment. “This festival is about building relationships and leveraging those relationships,” says Brightlight Pictures Chairman Shawn Williamson, who chairs the WFF Board of Directors. “It’s not just about the film you just made, but the next one you are going to make.” This year’s WFF Summit focuses on film distribution and all the heavy hitters and new players on the Canadian film distribution and exhibition landscape will be represented at the festival, including Entertainment One, Cineplex, Bell Media, Mongrel Media, Kinosmith, Phase Four Films, Pacific Northwest Pictures, IndieCan, Image, RLJ Entertainment, as well as companies from the US and internationally. “It is an industry driven festival and my goal personally and professionally is to build the Western Canadian filmmaking industry and bring distributors and buyers to the festival,” says Williamson. “The reality is most of the film financing power lives in Toronto, LA and New York and we bring them to Whistler.” WFF screens up to 90 films from Canada and around the world. “Over 50 per cent of our program is consistently Canadian — we put Canadian film at the heart of our festival,” says Hardy Mishaw. “But we put it in international context so we have an American indie strand, an international discovery strand and a world cinema strand.” The festival also awards a $15,000 prize in the Borsos Competition for Best Canadian Feature Film. Launched in 2004 in honor of legendary Canadian filmmaker Phillip Borsos (The Grey Fox, Bethune: The Making of a Hero), the Borsos Competition for Best Canadian Feature Film celebrates independent vision, original directorial style and the diversity of talent found in Canadian film. Returning for his second year as WFF’s Director of Programming, Paul GratReel West November / December 2013
ton points out that there is a lot of local love for the festival and this is being celebrated this year by the number of B.C. films making their world premieres at the festival. The local lineup bowing for the first time includes Carl Bessai’s film noir comedy No Clue, Ali Liebert’s Afterparty, Teach Grant’s gritty crime story Down Here, and Allan Harmon’s family film, If I Had Wings. “ I view that as part of the festival’s role, to premiere B.C. films here,” says Gratton. And with numerous distributors attending the festival that spells good news for films seeking distribution, he points out. When it comes to choosing the film lineup, Gratton says he looks for films that skew young and are fun or edgy. “WFF teems with young filmmakers who are full of energy and want to connect and talk about their projects,” says Gratton. “It is a young skewing festival and that influences my decision making. “ Among the light, comedic fare at this year’s festival is Jeremy Lalonde’s comedy Sex After Kids, a laugh out loud romp that features the likes of Jay Brazeau, Mimi Kuzyk, Katie Boland and Kristin Booth. The festival will open with the Western Premiere of Jason Priestley’s heart-warming and inspiring road movie Cas & Dylan, featuring Tatiana Maslany opposite Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss as two mismatched road travelers: a depressed and ailing doctor and a rambunctious hitchhiker. “Cas & Dylan is a perfect example of what I look for in programming Whistler,” says Gratton. “It’s funny, touching, accessible, has great performances and features stunning scenery of the Rockies. I had tears in my eyes at the end and laughed my butt off on the way there.” Gratton also likes to program
“Conventional films don’t challenge your audience and grow your festival... I try to find a few films that will push buttons.” - Paul Gratton, Diretor of Programming hard-hitting movies. “This year we have a lot of cutting edge movies, the type of movies you wouldn’t want to bring your aunt Hilda to,” says Gratton, pointing to the Canadian premiere of Jane Clark’s Meth Head, about a gay crystal meth addict who turns tricks to support his habit. “Conventional films don’t challenge your audience and grow your festival so I try to find a few films that will push buttons,” he explains. Other highlights include the Western theatrical premiere of Barry Avrich’s Filthy Gorgeous: The Extraordinary World of Bob Guccione, an exposé of the private life of the man who founded Penthouse and produced the infamous Caligula, still the most expensive XXX movie ever made. Documentaries also make up a large component of the program. The festival closes with Lucy Walker’s documentary Crash Reel, which highlights the life-long rivalry between half-pipe snowboard legends Kevin Pearce and Shaun White which culminates in Pearce’s near fatal crash and resulting head trauma. There are also a number of First nations themed films in the lineup including Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian) with Benicio Del Toro as a First Nations war vet suffering from a head trauma injury, mistakenly assumed to be a form of mental illness
Jason Priestley’s Cas & Dylan starring Richard Dreyfuss and Tatiana Maslany will open the 2013 festival.
Reel West November / December 2013
by doctors not used to administering medicine to First Nations people. Uvanga, co-directed by Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, tells the story of a single mother who returns to Nunavut with her son, so that he can discover his roots and learn about his deceased father. On the business side, WFF’s Whistler Summit features three days of panels and networking events where industry can delve into the ever-evolving convergence of art, technology and commerce in cinema. “The Summit is structured around the theme of bringing your films to market and is designed to provide filmmakers and producers with the necessary tools to succeed both within and beyond Canada’s borders,” says Gratton. WFF’s Summit kicks off on December 5th with the second annual China Canada Gateway for Film Script Competition, a coproducing initiative that gives Canadian filmmakers access to the Chinese production community and the world’s second largest domestic film market. At this coproduction pitch session Canadian writer/producer teams talk up their projects to Chinese studios with production financing on the table for three selected projects. This year’s companies include Edko Film, Xian Film and TV Production Co. and Beijing Guoyingshengshi Culture Communication Co. The
panel of international experts vetting the pitches include Elisabeth Costa De Beauregard Rose, President, International Sales & Distribution, Voltage Pictures; Kirk D’Amico, President & CEO, Myriad Pictures; and Mark Slone, Senior Vice-President of Acquisitions, Entertainment One. Peter Wetherell, President of Magus Entertainment, and Cybill Lui, Head of Anova Pictures, will moderate the competition. As part of the event, the Chinese box office blockbuster Finding Mr. Right will screen and be the subject of a case study. The film is among the top grossing Chinese films of all time, earning nearly US$83 million at the domestic box office on a production budget of US$5 million. Produced by Hong Kong’s EDKO Film and Vancouver based Holiday Pictures, this contemporary romantic comedy was mainly shot in the Vancouver area with an all-star Chinese cast. It’s the story of a rich Chinese mistress who goes to Seattle to have her baby to get around China’s one child rule, a common practice for rich Chinese women. “It’s a perfect example of cultural sensitivity, because you have to know about how women get around China’s one child rule to develop this film, but at the same time it works in WFF continued on page 29
Allan Harmon’s If I Had Wings is part of the festival’s local lineup.
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Photo By Diyah Pera
Festival Feature
Partners in Crime TV funnyman Brent Butt teams up with indie filmmaker Carl Bessai for the comedy caper No Clue Story by
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Katja De Bock
V comedy star Brent Butt and indie filmmaker Carl Bessai are unlikely partners in crime, but they conspired together on the new crime comedy No Clue, which makes its debut at the Whistler Film Festival. The duo brought their unique expertise to the making of the film. “I knew he understood I am going to be in charge of the funny and he is going to be in charge of making it a movie,” says Butt, who wrote, produced and acts in the film, with Bessai as director. “We were on the same page from the get go.” For Butt, the transition from Canadian TV folk hero to a feature filmmaker is a whole different ballgame. And for Bessai No Clue is a chance to show that after more than a dozen highly awarded Canadian indies, he’s up to the challenge of a big-budget feature with an international cast. “This is very much a new project for me, because I’ve made more personal films for the most part. This is a broader, more commercial film; it’s a more universal kind of movie,” says Bessai. No Clue is a $6-million crime-caper comedy with a film noir structure starring Butt alongside American stars Amy Smart (The Butterfly effect, Crank, Crank: High Voltage) and David Koechner (Anchorman). The film will be released in the spring in Canada by eOne. Myriad pictures holds world rights excluding Canada. Butt stars as Leo Falloon, who runs a company dealing in specialty advertising, which is situated next to the office of a private investigator. When a beautiful, dis-
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tressed woman comes into his office, thinking she’s hiring a private eye, he’s smitten with her and doesn’t have the heart to tell her she’s got the wrong guy. He can’t say no and gets deeper and deeper into the façade. Then things go terribly wrong. Fans of Butt’s personas Brent Leroy of Corner Gas and Stan Dirko of Hiccups will recognize aspects of both these characters in Leo. “I say sometimes I act like Bob Hope. Whatever character Bob Hope was, a cowboy or an astronaut, you kind of got the same guy,” says Butt. “Leo is the least cartoonish of them, the most realistic. But he is most certainly that type of guy that I feel comfortable playing. I like the idea of pushing the boundaries sometime in testing my abilities as an actor, but I feel my strengths really lie in this type of character. That’s where I feel I can deliver the most comedy.” Butt’s wife Nancy Robertson plays a cameo in the film, but apart from her, you won’t see any actors from Hiccups or Corner Gas. The movie is targeting an international audience so the film required actors that distributors consider marketable in other countries, like Smart and Koechner. While Butt had an existing relationship with Koechner, having performed at live-shows together, he cast Smart because of her ability to play both sides of her character, which is initially helpless, but actually quite scheming and dangerous. Butt worked four years on the script before it was ready for production. “With the sitcoms, the stories are really small. I used to call them ‘Find the pencil stories’,” he says. “The character has a pencil, he loses a pencil, he tries to find a pencil and at the end of the episode, he finds the pencil. And that’s just the excuse to hang a lot of good dialogue and jokes on. But with a movie, it’s four times as long, but also you have to tell a bigger, more satisfying story. That’s just a different kind of animal.” Reel West November / December 2013
Butt intended No Clue as an homage to film noir and classic murder mysteries. “There is something about the ‘there has been a murder and who did it?’ that is intrinsically interesting to humans,” he explains. “It is a genre that has survived for thousands of years and it is a genre that transcends cultures. Every culture in the world seems to have their collection of murder mysteries.” While stand-up and sitcom humour is what has made Butt famous, he emphasizes that No Clue is not just a comedy. “I never wanted to make a zany, wacky comedy, I wanted to make a dark, gritty murder mystery that just happens to be funny because the main character who’s trying to solve the mystery is in over his head,” he explains. “If you took all the comedy out of it, it would still work as a movie.” When discussing possible directors, it didn’t take long for Butt and his executive producer Laura Lightbown to decide on Bessai. The fact that Lightbown is married to the director was no issue for Butt, or for the distributor. “When Carl’s name came into the mix and we talked to the distributor [eOne], they said that’s a great idea,” says Butt. “I had worked with Carl before on Hiccups, so we had a small working relationship. I knew we could get along,” says Butt. But most importantly Butt realized he needed a feature film veteran to help realize the vision. “I hired him [Bessai], because I needed someone to make this a visual, cinematic experience,” explains Butt. “And also somebody who knew how to get the most out of a dollar. Carl has the reputation for being able to make a film look like it’s more expensive than it is . . . This movie, it could not look any better.” For Bessai, No Clue is a walk in the park compared to the hard work that goes into low budget, auteur, indie filmmaking. “No Clue was a great experience, because I didn’t have to raise the money, I didn’t have to worry,” he says. “It was really nice to sail in and do one job. It was the least stressed work I’ve done in a long time.” Jan Kiesser (Fido, Luna, Spirit of the Whale) is the DOP on the movie. “He brings a level of expertise that is a bit bigger than I am used to,” says Bessai of working with Kiesser. “With Reel West November / December 2013
(Top) Amy Smart as ‘Kyra’ and Brent Butt as ‘Leo’; (Bottom) Brent Butt and David Koechner as ‘Ernie’. Photo By Diyah Pera
Jan, we had aspirations to do things that were a little bit more elevated, tools like cranes and picture cars and things that are a little more dynamic.” Having the Vancouver Film Orchestra record the film score at the Warehouse Studios was another first for Bessai. “I was spoiled,” he admits. “The soundtrack brings a level of scale and nuance to the movie.” But most of all, Bessai learned how to direct comedy from Butt. “One of the things I’ve learned from working with Brent is, you really need to stay on the joke. Meaning that if someone tells a joke and they’re saying something funny, you should really be looking at that person when they say the thing that is funny. Not cut away from them,” says Bessai. “Front and centre in this movie is Brent and the comedic tour he’s on.” Though No Clue targets an international audience, the shooting loca-
tion Vancouver is not hidden, quite to the contrary. “Brent really wanted to do something that showcased this city that he loves, Vancouver,” said Bessai. “The plot takes him into the world of videogame programming. There is a climactic scene in the harbour. We really employ the look and feel of the city of Vancouver in the movie.” Butt agrees: “In some ways, it’s a love letter to Vancouver. I’ve lived here twenty years now and I love the city so much. I never intended to move here. I just came here and never left. I wanted to make sure we showed how beautiful the city was and also how there are some real gritty, dark areas, back alleys and seedy characters.” The film also contains homages to places that are close to Butt’s heart, like the legendary comedy club Urban Well. While the film is uniquely set in Vancouver, both filmmakers are ex-
cited to look south of the 49th parallel. “I’m perfectly happy living and working in Canada, but I just want to be able to do projects that aren’t only appealing to Canadians, I want to be able to do projects that appeal to a global audience, and certainly to the American audience, because there is almost 400 million people living in our basement,” says Butt. Bessai is currently balancing his time between Vancouver and L.A. where he has a manager. “Nothing’s easier than popping back and forth between Vancouver and L.A.,” he says. “If you want to reach the international market with your movies, you can’t shutter yourself from the U.S.” With the film’s release slated for the spring, the production team is pulling out all the stops to promote No Clue. Butt’s tens of thousands of loyal followers, including those on Twitter No Clue continued on page 29 17
Festival Feature
It’s My Party!
Graham Coffeng and Ali Liebert in Afterparty. Photo By Richard Amies
Sociable Films turns Movie-Making into a Summer bash with the co-operatively produced feature Afterparty Story by
Katja De Bock
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hen 14 Vancouver friends combined forces during six summer weekends in 2012, the result was the cooperatively owned feature Afterparty, set to premiere at the Whistler Film Festival. It’s the first feature produced by Sociable Films, a company launched by director Michelle Ouellet (Hooked on Speedman, The True Heroines), her husband and actor Nicholas Carella (Random Acts of Romance, Motive) and actor Ali Liebert (Bomb Girls, Down River) in order to put their careers in their own hands. The trio produced the film, with Ouellet as director-editor, and Carella and Liebert starring amongst an ensemble of nine actors and a small crew of five. Afterparty, which follows a group of former high school friends, now in their early 30s, spending the night together after a wedding, is a rare entity as a cooperatively produced feature. Instead of salaries, the 14 participants
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on the film get percentages of ownership. Each own around seven per cent of the movie. “We were only able to do this because the Union of B.C. Performers [UBCP] has something called the Members Initiated Project (MIP),” says Carella. “This option is made available by UBCP to members who want to step outside wherever they’re relegated. They were really good partners. Everyone is so afraid of the union, but their interest is actually to aid actors working.” The MIP Program is a co-op style agreement whereby participants share in the ownership of the production. The agreement requires that all performers be members of UBCP/ACTRA and collectively they must retain at least 55 per cent ownership of the project, but no individual member may own more than 60 per cent. In addition, UBCP retains five per cent and all matters pertaining to the exploitation requires the union’s approval. The revenues collected are forwarded to the union for distribution amongst the participants. “The program originated in Montreal, we adopted it to address specific productions that are produced by members with members,” explains UBCP Director of Film, Television & New Media, Lesley Brady. “I think in my 16 years we have done less than five productions under the MIP Agreement.” Reel West November / December 2013
Brady adds MIP is rarely used because producers with low budgets, member or non-member, are able to find what they need under the more user-friendly and very accessible Ultra-Low Budget Program. Making a a co-operative films is a lot of hard work, but pays off with a great collective feeling, says Liebert, who plays Tracy, an actress on the brink of world fame. “Sometimes you can feel so isolated, doing a small part on a TV show, nobody talks to you, you can just go and show up, be processed, do it and then almost spit out the end like ‘What just happened?,” explains Liebert. “This film wasn’t like that. We shot it over six weekends last summer and it was the best summer ever.” Executive producer Yolanda Jessel came up with the initial investment of $15,000, which paid for principle photography, insurance, equipment, location costs, food, costumes, props, art department and some honorariums. She also offered her private pool for the exterior shots for the film. The interiors of the improv chamber drama were filmed in a rental house in Langley.
Reel West November / December 2013
The co-op members were not asked to invest any additional funds. Their percentages were doled out in lieu of their wages for acting and taking over some duties on set after their scenes were wrapped. Sociable Films covered the post-production costs, which included colour-timing, sound mix and scoring. “We were taking a bet on the fact that our film is going to do well and that your seven per cent or whatever is going to cover that,” says Carella. The story of Afterparty was also a communal effort. While Liebert was working on the first season of Bomb Girls, Ouellet, Carella and actor Graham Coffeng (The True Heroines, What an Idiot) came up with the basic idea for the nine archetypical characters and sent questionnaires to the actors, who filled in the blind spots largely with autobiographical material. The team came to set with 40 outlined, unscripted scenes, but well prepared. Director Ouellet had listened to the advice from Carella’s uncle Michael Carella (Carrie, The Kennedys), a DOP/camera operator in Ontario. “He said ‘Just make sure that
when you shoot, you shoot for performance and make sure that you get that scene in one shot,” explains Ouellet. “Whether with two or three cameras, or one camera as a moving master shot that’s going around and capturing everybody’s reactions.’” “My fear was I didn’t want anyone to give an amazing performance and then have to try and turn around on them and then they’re not able to repeat it,” Ouellet adds. The improv often actually sped up the shooting process rather than slow it down, says Oullet, noting they filmed with two Red One cameras, for action and reaction. In addition, the film was shot largely chronologically, to simplify continuity. Kevin Rigney was DOP, Ouellet edited the film, which was colour timed at Deluxe and mixed by Gregor Phillips of Cinescope Sound. The friends are excited to premiere at The Whistler Film Festival. “It’s one of the most exciting emerging festivals in the world,” says Liebert. “It’s a community, it’s the village, you wander around and have hot chocolate, it’s the best.” Carella adds: “We’re young and
funky, they’re [Whistler Film Festival] young and funky, their best years are still ahead of them, our best years are still ahead of us, but still the world is taking notice.” And for Vancouverites, it’s a local vacation. But the fun isn’t stopping there. Though they don’t have a distributor fixed yet, Carella says they’ve planned to reach a nationwide audience touring the film. “Our big thing is, in the spirit of this co-op, we’re going to launch at Whistler our cast caravan. Almost like a band, we’re going to tour the film as a cast and create a series of events, rather than hoping that people show up to the theatre. Every screening you go to will be one of a kind for some reason,” he says. “We will be also throwing after parties with every screening.” The soundtrack and score was done by The Meligrove Band from Toronto and the group intends to perform some gigs with them to create buzz. “So often, filmmakers just leave it up to the gods,” Carella says. “We try to control as much of that as we can.” n
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Shawn Fulton Photography
Festival Feature
No Copping Out
After months of hard work, Saskatoon’s Lowell Dean and the team behind Wolfcop won the inaugural Cinecoup Film Accelerator Competition, giving them $1 million and a Cineplex release. And now they are determined to get their movie made in Saskatchewan, a province struggling since the demise of their tax credit program. Story by
Nathan Caddell
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etting a first feature made in Canada takes a ton of hard work and a certain amount of luck. Getting $1 million to make said movie and scoring a guaranteed theatrical release? Well, that’s like winning the jackpot. But that’s exactly the scenario that’s played out for Saskatoon native Lowell Dean, writer/director of Wolfcop, after 12 weeks of extremely intensive work.
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At the Banff World Media Festival in June, Wolfcop won the first edition of the Cinecoup Film Accelerator, taking home $1 million dollars towards the making of his first feature, while also nailing down a guaranteed theatrical release in Cineplex Theatres. “We didn’t expect to win but that was obviously our goal and we were pushing for it because to get a feature in theatres is almost impossible for a Canadian filmmaker,” says Dean. The script revolves around a small-town, alcoholic cop who’s given up on life, doesn’t care about his job, and looks the other way when he sees crimes being committed. But when he suddenly turns into a werewolf, he re-examines his life. Reel West November / December 2013
“It’s like Spiderman,” says Dean. “Great power, great responsibility… except a little more violent.” Dean came up with the idea about a year ago and, once he wrangled on a couple of his producer friends, namely Bernie Hernando and Hugh Patterson, they struggled to find any takers to help get Wolfcop made. That’s when Dean and company heard of the Cinecoup Film Accelerator competition and went for it, throwing their hat into the ring with 89 other films. The program revolves around 12 different competitions, each with the timeline of one week, all with the expressed purpose of showcasing the film concept to the public and getting audiences familiar with these projects. The goal is to develop a fan base before the film is even made, but the road to get there isn’t an easy one. “It was pretty intensive actually,” says Dean. “It was far more work than I think any of us were expecting but it really pushed us and really motivated us and we like to joke that it’s like we’ve already made a movie after going through that process.” Every weekend for three months they delved into a new mission, posted new videos online and received fan feedback. “It was all stuff that we knew we’d have to do in the long run but it gave us deadlines to complete them ahead of time,” explains Hernando. “So the quicker pace kept us on our toes. We put together a package in three months that normally might
“It was far more work than I think any of us were expecting but it really pushed us and really motivated us...” - Lowell Dean on participating in the Cinecoup Film Accelerator Competition take a year to complete.” The filmmakers say Cinecoup was an invaluable experience that will help them as they go forward making their film. “It taught us how to be creative and learn to use what we’ve got and pull resources and get people on board,” says Hernando. “What I find most interesting about the program is that you get an audience before the movie even exists,” adds Dean. “I was very cagey at first with the idea of showing my idea to the world. You’re kind of protective, you don’t want anyone to see it until it’s perfect but now, based on the reaction, I would do it in a heartbeat again. You get to see what kind of response you’re going to get before even making the film and you can see if it’s going to be worthwhile or not.” Winning the competition, while completely unexpected and a huge boon to Wolfcop’s future, wasn’t a make or break for the film, as the
team had already decided win or lose, they had learned enough from Cinecoup’s program to go forward with the film. “At that point we already felt like we were in a good place with Wolfcop” insists Dean. “We didn’t expect to win, not at all. Our goal was just to create enough exposure that whenever we were eliminated, we would have a little pitch package that we could take to producers and say here’s our trailer, here’s our idea, here’s the reaction we got online, help us fund our movie.” Cinecoup CEO and Founder J. Joly says one of the reasons Wolfcop emerged as the winner is due to the way the film’s creators branched out to audiences far and wide, pulling them in with clever marketing ploys. “Their international reach was amazing and the quality of their work in the 12 challenges was killer,” says Joly. He also loved the Wolfcop tagline,
Dirty Harry only hairier.” “When we were measuring things like engagement and sentiment reach … people loved that,” says Joly. Joly is a former short film director who started a successful digital marketing agency called dimeRocker with clients like Disney and CBC. It was over a couple drinks that the Queen’s University grad decided to venture back into the film industry. “During the day I hang out with my clients but at night I’d hang out with my filmmaker buddies,” recalls Joly. “Because I kind of moved away from film, when I’d go to drink with my friends they’d all be like ‘Oh it’s broken, nothing works, it’s way too hard to get distribution,’ and I just heard all this pain. And it’s funny because I was away from it and as an entrepreneur, when you hear pain, you go ‘Well wait, that might be a business model.’“ Joly decided that all the recent changes in the film industry could
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Shawn Fulton Photography
“Canadians are pretty f*** up. We like weird, funny, gross, black comedic things...” - Cinecoup CEO, J. Joly
actually be good news for indie filmmakers and came up with Cinecoup as the answer to his friends whining. “All of the rules are being re-written, there’s no more gatekeepers, there’s tons of ways to monetize and distribute your film,” explains Joly. “I told my friends I’d put together 22
the financing, the technology and a guaranteed theatrical and then they had no more excuses. I just said ‘Ok I’ve solved that problem.’” Joly is a rare breed, that believer in Canadian film who’s invested enough to actually put his money where his mouth is. And it’s not just talk, behind
all of the bravado one can tell that Joly deeply believes what he’s selling, even from a business standpoint. “When you look at it, there’s really only two kinds of films that make money from a broad, consistent, return on investment perspective,” exclaims Joly. “There’s the big Hol-
lywood tent poles, the $150 million films or the sub-$5 million independents, mostly genre pictures. Everything else in between is completely broken, it’s very difficult to make your money back.” As for Wolfcop, Joly thinks it rose to the top of the competition because it’s genre material. “Canadians are pretty f*** up. We like weird, funny, gross, black comedic things. And I don’t think there’s enough of that anymore.” With the contest settled, Wolfcop now begins the real battle, getting the film made. Shooting began on October 27 in Regina and Moose Jaw and continues for the following 17 days. With Dean, Hernando and their crew all reigning from Saskatchewan, there was never a doubt about where Wolfcop would be filmed, even as the province abolished its tax credit program. “We could have gone off to Winnipeg or Sudbury or something with two or three of us, but to me this movie is more than two or three people. Throughout our whole campaign, we had an army of Saskatchewan people behind us, working for free,” says Dean. “This is their movie too. The simple answer is that our team is here.” Though Wolfcop was able to get in under the old rules, thus grabbing a tax credit before it was grandfathered out, the industry in Saskatchewan is struggling. Many producers and crew have left the province, seeking better opportunities in other provinces. “They just announced a new platform called Creative Saskatchewan and I think everyone here is cautiously optimistic,” say Dean. “There are a lot of people who have built a life here and want to work in film and we’re all just sort of crossing our fingers and hoping. I’m a firm believer that there is a worthwhile film community here.” For the filmmaking team, the biggest coup — next to winning the Cinecoup Film Acelerator — is the opportunity to screen their film to a hometown audience. “We want to make movies in Saskatchewan because we don’t just want to see New York or L.A in the theatre,” says Dean. “That’s one of the most exciting things to me, that we could actually see Saskatchewan in the theatre.” n Reel West November / December 2013
Silver Partners
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Reel West November / December 2013
DEAN RAY and REBECCA CAMPBELL in Down Here. Photo By Adam Myhill
Diary Feature
Running in Heels, Directing in Drag
Teach Grant is a well known Vancouver actor but his latest role is co-writer, director and producer of the feature film Down Here, a gritty murder mystery in which he also cast himself as a transvestite. The movie is the redemption story of a detective (actor and cowriter Dean Wray) who is investigating a growing number of murders of young women, while also dealing with his own demons. In the following diary, Grant discusses the challenges of wearing many hats on the film set, including the dangers of directing in drag. Diary by
Teach Grant October 2013 Down Here is a film about a man who has lost everything. He’s a drinker and a detective — it’s really all he has left, the bottle and badge respectively. He’s alone in his Downtown Eastside Vancouver apartment, banned from seeing his own daughter relative to a drinking and driving incident that has left her confined to a wheel chair. Somehow he’s held it together enough and is still out there in the street trying to protect the cities young prostitutes from predators. There he meets certain key members of this fragile community that manage to help provide him with the opportunity he needs in order break his own cycle of self-hatred and abuse. The question is will he embrace sobriety in time? If the film asked but one thing of me, it was to keep it simple, grounded and understated. I wanted the story to unfold in a confident and patient manner that slowly sucked the audience into our pace, into our world. Most importantly to me, this film is never telling you what to think and in some ways works towards being slightly elusive. I wanted the audience to chase me a little, to be willing participants. July 2012 It is the summer of 2012 and I find myself treated to an opportunity to co-guest star on CBC’s Arctic Air in Yellowknife with veteran actor Dean Wray. After a great time shooting with Gary Harvey, visiting the sights like Buffalo Air and eating the world’s most expensive fish and chips, it’s time to head back to Vancouver. On the flight home Dean talks to me about an audition we once had. Apparently, he was late for a ferry and I had overheard and volunteered to let him go ahead of me. Dean had never forgotten that and said that he had me in mind for a project that he had written called Nailer, a crime thriller he had in his back pocket. SeptEmber 2012 I brought the script with me to Winnipeg where I spent the bulk of August and early September shooting Mr. Hockey in which I played real life goalie Smokey McLeod. Old friend Martin Cummins whom I met working on Devour and again on Shattered, as well as Andrew Kavadas, were on the shoot, both of whom would make great contributions to the Down Here. I contacted Dean and let him know that I was interested in directing the film, but only if he allowed me to re-write the script and thankfully, he obliged. I wanted to develop it into more of an art film, a social drama with an under-current of a Reel West November / December 2013
thriller as this type of cross genre is where I felt I could be most effective. I think the moment I sat down to begin writing was the moment I knew I was about to start smoking cigarettes again. Interesting, considering that ‘addiction’ is one of the major themes in the script. I tell myself that I’ll quit when the script is finished. One month later I’m ready to present Dean with Down Here. November 2012 By late November, we are ready to send it out to begin attracting actors and crew. First stop, Martin Cummins. I send the script to Martin unsure if he would jump on board, and in a sense he was a litmus test for us. I felt if I could attract someone of Martin’s ilk that it was in some way validating to our project, to our script. In Martin, we found our ‘Tim’ and with him came his downtown acting studio as a production office and one of our shooting locations. Martin also connected us to Murray Gibson at The Character’s Talent Agency, who represented Tantoo Cardinal. We had written the script with Tantoo in mind and a couple weeks later, Murray contacts us and lets us know that Tantoo is excited to do the project. It did however come to our surprise to learn that she was now living in Toronto. Can you say budget alert?! December 2012 Dean and I take on a meeting with his sister Shawna Wray, who proves to be something of a firecracker. She is in fact our co-executive producer along with Dean himself. I like that she makes fun of him and laughs when I do. According to her, he deserves it. Shawna and I will make a great team … A few days later I have a joint account with a woman I barely know and we’re all in business. Dean and I begin to hit the streets and pounding the pavement proves to be rather effective for us. We begin to discuss the pros and cons of shooting on a RED, or going 5D at a coffee shop at the end of a long day. Both of us are leaning toward the 5D so that we can remain light on our feet and move quickly, not to mention, in pocket. Then comes the chance meeting of a lifetime. The guy sitting next to us politely chimes in, (he must have been laughing to himself listening to us) “ I’m a DOP…and this is how it all breaks down.” Meet Adam Myhill. We have tripped over our DOP and not only did he measure up, but would turn out to be something of a dirty wizard on his 5D mark III, with an impressive arsenal of rare boutique lenses. If Adam doesn’t soar into the mainstream of Vancouver filmmaking after this film gets seen, I will be shocked. December 2012 Dean and I had been on ride-a-longs with VPD’s Odd Squad through the D.T.E.S and are learning more about our topic every day. Things are developing nicely, but who’s going to actually run this ship? We knew from the beginning that we were in way over our heads and had been trying 25
(Top) Dean Ray as ‘Roy’ and TEACH GRANT as ‘Yvonne’; (Bottom) TANTOO CARDINAL as ‘Stella’. Photo By Adam Myhill
“We have tripped over our DOP and not only did he measure up, but would turn out to be something of a dirty wizard...” to find someone to join us and ultimately take care of operations. With Dean playing the primary character in all three of the story lines and me in the director’s chair (and in DRAG… more to come), there is no way either of us could be effective as logistical producers. It was becoming increasingly difficult to attract someone into this position, especially when there wasn’t a great deal of money in26
volved. Thankfully, Dean had on old contact. Enter into our world Crystal Braunwarth, unit publicist for ARCTIC AIR and a legitimate producer/ filmmaker. She immediately assumes the role and brings professionalism and legitimacy to our ranks. Not only will people in the real world take us more seriously, but we now have a paper trail. Shawna’s money is in good hands for the first time. I immediately
sign power of attorney of our bank account over to her. January 2012 Dean and I hand out every part in the film to our colleagues. It’s our world--but neither Dean nor I know of any young actresses in Vancouver who could play our Sky/Riley character, who to me is the true heartbreak of our film. I contact my friend Daniel Bacon at the Vancouver Actors Studio and he set us up with a list of
young women to audition for Sky and the various other characters that round out and texture our streets. We need to find actresses that are off-type and unique to keep it real. The last girl to come through the audition door came with a warning. Teach, she’s green, but I had to bring her in, she asked, and I have a feeling. Cut to: this fragile, terrified eighteen year old girl, frail, nervous and quivering with gigantic Tim Burton style eyes. Dean and I share a look….please be good. She takes to her mark and it’s hard not to feel for the girl ‘cause she’s scared out of her mind. After her first several fumbled lines I’m already reeling, how can I make this work? She’s greener than green, yet perfect in every way. I just know the audience will feel exactly like I do right now when they see her for the first time. I ask her to drop her sides, they’re just getting in her way and I tell her that the lines don’t matter, just to say what comes to mind. Dean takes the place of the reader and it begins to happen. We do a simple exercise specific and relevant to a scene in the film, place her sitting down, back to the wall and ask her to immobilize her arms and improv the scene…OMG…she has a breakthrough!!! One of those breakthroughs that are a joy to watch a young actor have and when I say joy, I mean in a twisted sense because it was so heart wrenching that I nearly had to stop it. It took some time for the poor girl to close back up. Rebecca Campbell becomes one of the two biggest risks that I take in the making of this film and it proves to say, with great risks come great rewards. The second is casting myself as our Transvestite Yvonne. January 2012 I am sitting in a make-up chair on local TV show Supernatural and key hairstylist Jeannie Chow is kindly setting me up with a selection of wigs. As our principal photography date rapidly approaches, so does my uncertainty with my decision to play Yvonne. Not only is it said to be a rookie mistake to cast oneself, but the role itself is something of a challenge for me. It is a part that no casting director in town would even think to consider me for, but I wanted something very specific of Yvonne, for her to be another unlikely source of stability and calm, another character for Roy to lean on, free of stereo type and affectedness. I felt like I could pull it off, but didn’t truly know it until Jeannie placed that red wig on my head. The Reel West November / December 2013
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make-up girl couldn’t resist and she began testing, applying lips and eyes, while my hands began to movie airily, my voice softened and I began to feel like Yvonne and for the first time I actually feel like the right actor for the part…then it hits. I look like my mother. Next stop, running in heels. Janruary 25, 2012 It’s my 40th birthday and I spend it with Crystal driving through Aldergrove location hunting. She had previously come through for us in a big way and with much paperwork, insurance and convincing-- somehow secured the Artic Air production office as our police station. Our schedule is such that we have no choice but to find Roy’s apartment and watering hole near to this locale. The only question is, how do you match an Aldergrove location to the Downtown Eastside? Low and behold we find The Alder Inn. It’s disgusting, we love it and I have to have it. After some slick negotiating by Crystal we have both of our last two remaining locations in one building, the bar downstairs and one of the scariest apartments I have ever seen upstairs. It is as if Roy picked it himself. And the major bonus, the exterior shoot offs blend perfectly into our setting. Happy Birthday. February 2012 Day one of principal photography and I am chain smoking between set ups, thinking, pacing, working it all out, making changes to my shot plan and working with time constraints. The set looks fantastic and continues to throughout as my production designer Chris Wishart and his art department continue to knock every location out of the park. I still marvel at the city blocks Chris manages to paint on minimal supply, and we are once again punching way above our weight class, something of a through line on this film as we relied on our keys to bring more than the task. They deliver. First up is Dean Wray and Michael Rogers and it is immediately apparent that their long-time relationship has come to play in a tactful form of one up-man-ship, not in a negative sense, but two proud actors that wanted to rise to the occasion. Unfortunately we fall a bit behind. Mental note, never schedule the most difficult rig of the film on day one. We’re chasing the light and Tantoo is due to begin shooting. One thing I wanted to avoid on day one was having her on set, so that we could find our legs and oil up
a bit. It turns out to be an unnecessary concern as she seems to be enamored by the collective of efforts and spirit that she sees amongst the cast and crew. She doesn’t need a personal R.V and rolls with our indie punches like a seasoned professional, which is what she is, a consummate pro. Ultimately, beyond her fabulous work on the film and the depth of character she breathes in Stella, it is her attitude about the things that we were not, that showed me what a true artist she really is. Day one is in the can, we make it by the skin of our teeth. It will take some creative editing, but it’s one for the win column. For some crazy reason my wife Karolina agrees to let me use our house as a location for Stella’s home. Not only is she on a series working full time as a props buyer but she is also our property master, so her days are long, but somehow, and I have no idea how, she manages to do an incredible job and props is definitely one department I never had to worry about. It just gets done. Thanks Babe, love you. ( I’ll quit smoking as soon as principal photography is done and subsequently promise never to use our home as a location EVER AGAIN. Lesson learned). Beyond that, Dean and Tantoo are killing it. Their relationship is developing brilliantly and their chemistry is perfect. When Dean finally takes to his mark and launches into ‘the confession’ scene it’s like the pressure in the air changes on the set. We all watched slack jawed, his tortured delivery is honest and sincere and I internally revel as he’s giving me the moment that the entire movie is directed toward. It’s deep and restrained, heart-felt and touching and to be honest, painful to watch. He and I often joked that if this movie had been done through studio or standard casting, neither of us most likely would be in it, at least not in our roles, but let me say for the record that Dean Wray can carry a film. As for myself? Running in heels is a pleasure compared to directing in Drag. Synthetic wigs and lip gloss are a lethal combination. Besides creating a bit of a distraction, you can’t eat, too many changes, my various boas are killing the sound department and my headphones are messing up my wig. It is however, very much worth it as good things certainly came from the day and notably, one actor’s life may have been changed forever. You’ll have to see the film and decide who.) Reel West November / December 2013
Half way through the shoot—everyone’s gelling, things are moving. What starts as an easy days turns into a mid-day nightmare as a scheduling error has cost us a location. Interior / Exterior Bar / Flop house, not easy to come by, especially on short notice. Once again, Crystal comes through for us and by lunch we are on the move to Vancouver’s renowned Tiki Bar at the Waldorf, a much used location. It is definitely our most complex lighting set up, but when Adam is done with it once again we are making lemonade. It turned out to be our Goodfella’s shot, probably my favorite shot in the move. By this time in the process I’ve come to learn exactly how good of an actor Martin Cummins is. His character Tim represents a little hope in our darkened world, and every time he is on set, he is giving me hope, making my job a little easier. He’s simply as good as it gets. It’s our last day of shooting in Aldergrove and Chris Wishart and the art department have saved the best for last. Roy’s apartment is a gem to behold. Brent Stait plays Inspector Steve Wiley and he is stopping in on Roy who is one of his detective’s and also, his brother in law. There is a lot of unwritten history to play in the scene and it is pre-loaded so to speak. I knew that Brent was going to be really good on the day, but I was unprepared for exactly how good he would be. It’s a really great thing to have high expectations and have them blown away. Once we are through with that scene, probably the most fun to direct in the movie, it is time for Dean to tackle his proverbial demon under the skin sequences. It is in these sequences where we learn most about who Roy truly is, what haunts him, about his pain and sorrow. To me, it is in these quiet moments where Dean shines brightest, and it’s where he is able to make a flawed character understandable. It’s his work here that if I were him, I’d be most proud of and as his director, am most pleased with. That’s a wrap. We suddenly realize how tired we all are, but happy. May 2012 — September 2013 Post production would require a seventy page article. It is not an easy road for this film to completion, but a few key names enter the picture and help us get our little engine movie over the hill, including major contributions from Jonathon Shore at Brightlight Pictures and Finale Edit Works. Kirby Reel West November / December 2013
Jinnah my sound designer, proves to be an incredible addition to the team, along with Crispin Hands who’s original composition sits under the film like a warm blanket. We would be remiss without mentioning my good friend Larissa Tandy who provides all the songs for the film and creates an original track specifically for our closing montage. This brings me to our editor Dave Thompson, not only did he step in to play our pimp Ace on short notice and did a fantastic job, but as an editor proved to be a perfect partner by which to craft and hone this story with. His work ethic and skill speak for itself. I haven’t met too many people in this life with the level of character that he possesses and I am continually amazed by his patience and approach. Respect. April – October 2013 Early on in the post process Crystal recognized that there was a missing component to our producing team, and that was the person responsible for getting our movie out there into the commercial and festival world. Crystal’s friend and colleague S. Siobhan McCarthy joined on as producer and brought many of her connections with her, such as Pacific Audio Visual Institute who supported our ADR and other invaluable contacts. Her enthusiasm and diligence are largely responsible for us getting into the Whistler Film Festival. She has been able to break through and make a personal connection and in my mind, without her and what she has done for us, we may not have had this wonderful opportunity to show our hometown audience Down Here. For me personally, it is the most important showing we will ever have, not only because those closest to us will be able to see the film on screen, but I believe that Vancouver and Whistler film audiences will be our toughest critics and I welcome that. When I look at the laurels for the Whistler Film Festival at the top of our poster I am overcome with a sense of relief and pride. Down Here has truly been a wonderful collaboration, creatively and otherwise, and we are sincerely thankful to everyone who jumped on board and helped make this movie. It’s only my first feature and I am excited to see where things will go from here and how I will grow as a filmmaker. I’ve got two more projects in my back pocket and my experiences on Down Here will certainly play their part in what comes next. Roll Credits. Time to quit smoking… n
WFF continued from page 15
both countries,” says Gratton. “So the film is perfectly suited to the China Canada Gateway program.” With a focus on distribution, the Summit will feature a keynote address by Mongrel Media president Hussain Amarshi and a discussion on the pros and cons of consolidation in the media with Entertainment One President Patrice Theroux, Cineplex VP Michael Kennedy, and Bell Media VP Kevin Goldstein. Gratton points out that all the big players in vertical integration are represented at this panel: Entertainment One which recently bought Alliance Films; Bell Media which purchased Astral; and Cineplex which aquired Empire Theatres. But there’s also aggressive new players on the scence which will be explored in a the “New Distribution” Indie Scene continued from page 9
text, when one of the sisters needs a life saving organ transplant. As to why make it as a short first, Axani says “the advantage is being able to find a visual style and tone for the film, as well as see what an audience responds to. The downside is there’s a lot of time and resources going into it that in the long run might make doing the feature right off the top worthwhile. If your story is ready, it might be worth it”. Mackenzie Gray, writer and director of the Crazy8s film, Under the Bridge of Fear, adds ‘Making a short film gives you a visual rendering of what you’re trying to make and first hand experience of working the script and material into a finished project. And it can generate interest in the feature before getting it off the ground”. No Clue continued from page 19
and Facebook, will get a taste of what the movie has in store during his January/February standup comedy tour. Butt will show audiences the trailer, talk about the film and run contests to build buzz. “I am not just an actor, I’m also a live-performer, entertainer, I’m a standup comic, so I have the ability to tour to promote this movie the way a band would tour to promote an album,” explains Butt. The film’s debut at The Whistler Film Festival is an ideal start for the
panel featuring execs from Pacific Northwest Pictures and IndieCan, as well as more established companies that are stepping up to the plate, like Kinosmith and Phase Four Films. An Alternative Distribution panel will look at new opportunities to get films on screens. Guests include J. Joly, founder and CEO of Cinecoup; Bill Bromiley, Chief Aquistions Officer at Image, RLJ Entertainment, and Avi Federgreen, CEO of IndieCan Entertainment. There are also opportunities for filmmakers and producers to sign up for one on one meetings and pitch their projects to commissioning editors, sales agents, distributors and other key executives attending the festival. “At Whistler you can run into a buyer and convince them to go have a glass of wine with you,” points out Williamson. “At larger festivals you just don’t get that kind of access.” n Gray’s film, a detective story that pays homage to the film noir thrillers of the 1940s and 50s, was very ambitious production value-wise for a short. The film version will require a much bigger budget so the challenge for Gray, as he explains it, is “keeping control of the project as a director. And the need to write a part for a bankable star to play without losing the integrity and essence of the short film.” His advice: “Don’t be afraid to ask ANYBODY who can turn your short into a feature to look at it.” You can hear more from these filmmakers at the ShortWork Lab at the Whistler Film Festival and watch many of their shorts at a screening that evening hosted by Crazy8s. Paul Armstrong is a film producer who also produces The Celluloid Social Club and the Crazy8s Film Event. n promotional bandwagon. “eOne decided Whistler has the perfect timing to premiere a film which will be released in early spring,” said Lightbown. It will be Brent Butt’s rookie year at the festival. And for Bessai, a former Whistler Film Festival board member, the first time he’s been able to show a film at the event. “As a board member, it’s a little bit suspect to have your films in the festival, so I’ve never been able to play a film,” admits Bessai. “This is the first year where I’m not on the board and so I get to show a movie, which is great.” n 29
Final Edit
Alan Franey is stepping down from his position as VIFF Festival Director after 26 years in the role. Photo by Janos Molnar
VIFF ups attendance, Franey steps down
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fter a 16 day run, the 32nd annual Vancouver International Film Festival came to a close on October 11, after screening 341 films from more than 75 countries, making it one of the largest film festivals in North America. “We can say with certainty that we have engaged new audiences, helped to enliven neighbourhoods new to the festival and built a platform for the growth and renewal of our wellestablished organization,” said Executive Director Jacqueline Dupuis in a statement. She also noted that the festival saw a healthy growth at the box office, reaching upwards of 130,000 in gated attendance at the festival and the forum. The close of the festival also brought the news that Alan Franey, VIFF Festival Director for 26 years, is stepping down from this role. He plans to continue to be involved with VIFF but to focus on programming. “On behalf of the board and staff of
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VIFF, I wish to thank Alan for his immense contributions to VIFF these last 26 years as Festival Director,” said David Hewit, Chair of the VIFF Board of Directors in a statement. “His artistic acumen and steady hand have enabled VIFF to become the world-class festival of cinema it is today. We have had the pleasure of working with Alan all these years and it is with great respect and regard that we support his desire to step down as Festival Director. “ As the festival winded down, it also presented juried and audience awards to celebrate this year’s crop of outstanding films. The Best Canadian First Feature Award was presented to two films: Jeff Barnaby’s Rhymes for Young Ghouls and Jason James’ That Burning Feeling. Rhymes for Young Ghouls depicts the aftereffects of the trauma inflicted by residential schools on the First Nations population while also telling a story of an oppressed people trying to rebuild. That Burning Feel-
ing is a witty comedy that paints a self-deprecating portrait of Vancouver’s crazy characters, from condo maniacs to yoga lovers, while telling a story of finding authenticity in an upside down world. The jury, made up of actress Gabrielle Miller, Capilano University’s Dianne Neufeld and journalist Michele Smolkin, said in a statement: “These two films share storytelling of equal high quality but are so different in terms of genre, tone and creative expression that the jury decided to honour them both.” The jury also honoured Mathieu Arsenault with the most promising director of a Canadian Short Film Award for his film Nathan. The jury said “The rugged handheld camerawork and dynamic editing capture the emotional journey of an irresponsible young man learning to become a father. This unflinching and heartbreaking film is most worthy of the award for most promising director of a short film.” The Best BC Film Award was
handed out to Bruce Sweeney’s The Dick Knost Show, a comedy about a prickly and impulsive sports talk show host, and the BC Emerging Filmmaker Award was presented to director Matthew Kowalchuk for Lawrence & Holloman, a satire on the modern rat race. The Award for Most Popular Canadian Feature Film went to Down River, directed by Vancouver’s Ben Ratner, which tells the story of three women who are inspired by a neighbor to reach new heights, but left lost, when she leaves them. The VIFF Most Popular First Feature is Wadjda, a Saudi Arabian film directed by Haifaa Al Mansour, about a ten year old girl asserting her independence and dealing with the realities of growing up female in that country. Like Father, Like Son, directed by Koreeda Koreeda Hirokazu of Japan, was honoured with the Rogers People’s Choice Award and When I Walk from Jason DaSilva was named the VIFF Most Popular Canadian Documentary. The VIFF Most Popular Canadian Environmental Documentary Award went to Twyla Roscovich of B.C. for Salmon Confidential, documenting dangerous viruses threatening wild salmon, and the most popular International Documentary Award was given to American Jennifer Steinman for Desert Runners, about the extraordinary competitors of desert ultramarathons. The Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema was awarded to Anatomy of a Paperclip, directed by Ikeda Akira of Japan. It’s the story of a paperclip maker and his romantic longing for a butterfly woman. At the festival close, Women in Film & Television (WIFTV) announced the recipient of the 18th Annual Artistic Merit Award is Chloé Robichaud for her film, Sarah Prefers to Run. “… Robichaud’s clear and compelling direction, coupled with a strong lead performance from Sophie Desmarais, made for an engaging story that ran away with audience’s hearts,” said Jury president Mary Margaret Frymire, owner of La Sirena Pictures. Since 1995, WIFTV has presented the Artistic Merit Award to a Canadian Woman filmmaker whose work is appearing in the Canadian Images Program at VIFF. The award recognizes and celebrates high artistic merit. n Reel West November / December 2013