And The Winner Is...

...ME!

Yesterday I got the fantastic news from Julia Dordel, actor/producer/creator of "Libelle - The Series" that I had won the award for Best Director of a TV Pilot at the Los Angeles Film, TV & Webisode Film Festival.

A wonderful surprise, a great honor and an excellent motivator that couldn't have come at a better time. "Motivator...?" you say? Yes, even someone like me who always has something on the go needs the occasional boost or professional validation that essentially says, "Don't give up!"

The vagaries of the film and television industry make it next to impossible  for those of us who are a ways from "A-List" to make a solid living doing only one thing. Though I've directed a bunch of short films etc. I'm still not getting paid for most of it so a lot of my time is spent doing the writing and story consulting work that pays the bills and the directing is relegated to more of a hobby.

Directing takes a lot more time, energy and commitment than a lot of hobbies out there and so after awhile one starts to ask questions like:

• "What am I doing here?"
• "Is this worth it?"
• "Have I got what it takes?"
• "Am I EVER going to make a living at this?!"

With age comes experience, grey hairs and introspection. Priorities shift. Dreams transform and sometimes even fade away. When I started out on this crazy film and tv adventure I was barely an adult, I had bags of optimism and wide-eyed wonder, I'd sacrifice anything and everything for a break and most importantly, I was completely naive. If I'd had any massive success back then it would have been mostly luck and I would have probably messed up any opportunities that came my way simply because I was too dumb to even know that they were opportunities.

I've had my struggles along the way but I've also had enough amazing experiences to keep cynicism at bay and to continue kicking the wheels on the film and tv jalopy.

Which is why winning the recognition of ones peers is so important. It's not enough to have friends and family tell us "Well done! Keep making films!" We need Likes, Shares, Re-Tweets and yes, even official accolades, to let us know that we're still headed in the right direction and all these things are best when they come from complete strangers who have no obligation to Like, Share and Re-Tweet.

So to that end, check out Episode 4 and 5 of "Libelle" (and if you've yet to see them, Episodes 1, 2 and 3 as well!).





As for the directing award and what it means to me, I'm choosing to take a moment to pat myself on the back and thank all of the amazing people who helped me along the way. You know who you are!

I'm also going to turn the award into some positive momentum to work harder, write better and take the directing work to the next level starting with my next webseries project "Fools For Hire". Stay tuned for more on this coming soon.

Until next time folks, keep fighting the good fight.

Libelle The Series: Episode 3

Episode 3 of the webseries I directed last year launched today.



A big chunk of this episode was shot at Thunderbird Stadium at UBC. This was also our first day of shooting and since it had been awhile since I'd done any directing work I was feeling a little nervous. Thankfully, (at least on this particular day) directing turned out to be like riding a bike - once you've done it, you never forget how to do it.

It helped me a lot that I had a wonderful cast, some of whom I'd worked with before such as Michael Teigen who starred in my short film Say Yes. It was my first time working with John Marshall Jones and Adrian Holmes who played Commissioner Steele and Detective Zet. There's always a little bit of a "getting to know you" dance when working with an actor you haven't worked with before but thankfully both John and Adrian were quick to pick up on my take for the scene.

The first half of our day was spent shooting the stadium interiors with Michael followed by a chunk of the big scene out front. By the time we got to shooting the coverage on series leads Anita and Eric everyone was extremely comfortable with the scene... Which can be very dangerous as the intensity and the emotional stakes can lose some of their dramatic oomph.

Realizing that the scene needed to be re-energized I pulled what can be a risky directing move...

Eric and Anita were getting too comfortable in their reactions so I pulled aside John (Commissioner Steele) and told him to go "off-book" and improvise off the script. "Give it to them", I said. "Tear a strip off of them!"

And tear a strip off them he did. Throwing a stream of insults at poor Eric and Anita.

This could have gone horribly wrong. A surprise like this can give a director a reaction from the actors that is totally wrong for the scene or, worse, damage the trust between actor and director. Thankfully in this case, the actors trusted me and gave me what I needed.

I hope you enjoyed the episode. The next chapter of Libelle: The Series will be launching next week.

Until next time folks.

June Update

It's been a busy month around here, hence the reduced frequency of blogging. However, it'll mean there'll be lots of cool things to share with you in the coming months so stay tuned!

Last week I was on set shooting behind-the-scenes pictures and video for my friends over at Qube Film who produced my music video "Tonight" a couple years back. They're currently producing "Skye and Chang", a new action-drama TV pilot for APTN which will air in the Fall.

Closer to that time I'll be able to share lots more but until then, here's a sneak peek at what the set looked like late on Saturday night...

The show is the brainchild of Loretta Sarah Todd and stars Sera-Lys McArthur and my good friend Olivia Cheng who I worked with last year on the webseries "Libelle" that I directed.

"Libelle" was one of 6 webseries recently selected by the Banff World Media Festival to pitch before a panel of judges and an audience as part of the 2012 Banff Digital Launchpad. The series also has an Indiegogo campaign on the go-go which you can contribute to here.

Here's a clip of Olivia Cheng's grand entrance in "Libelle":

Continuing the trend of working with folks I've had fun with in the past, I'm currently in pre-production on a new comedy series with Nicholas Harrison (who also plays a villain in "Libelle") and Mike Cavers. We'll be commencing shooting on that in July. I can't wait to see how it turns out and to share our shenanigans here.

Until next time folks, thanks for visiting!

Coming Soon!

2012 is running on nitro it seems... Almost the end of February already!

After the 52 Week photo blog experiment I felt like I needed a little break from here and it's probably just as well since I have been extremely busy. It's time to re-organize, re-focus and re-jig things around here I think. This year I'll be taking a small step back from the photographer hobby and getting back to what I do professionally, namely writing, directing and story consulting.

I have lots to share in the next little while, much of it focused on the on-going projects I'm involved in such as:

- The webseries Libelle which I blogged about back in Week 18.

- The Death of Alec Gray which is the feature I will be directing.

- Writing for Capcom Games Vancouver (as soon as the game I am writing for is officially announced!)

- DSLR filmmaking.

DSLR filmmaking is of particular interest to me since it's a natural progression from exploring the stills side whilst bringing me back to my passion as a filmmaker. Initially I was hoping to shoot a short film every month for this year but work commitments have made this unattainable, at least for now.

However, I did manage to shoot some video on my trusty Canon DSLR and I'll be sharing the results of that soon. Here's a few screen grabs from the work-in-progress edit:

Like the short film from Week 2, there was no script and it started out as more of a "gear test" than a serious effort but I'm pretty happy with how things are shaping up with the piece. For the techno-geeks among you and for those of you wanting to know how you can turn you're DSLR into a filmmaking tool, I'll do a separate blog on some of the gear used, problems encountered and how I approached the Post Production.

Given my work commitments, my blog posting schedule will probably be less frequent than the weekly 2011 posts but I'll do my best to share content as often as I can. Stay tuned for the finished short film.

If you have any questions, requests or comments please do share them below!

Movie of the month: DISTRICT 9

Only 4 months to go until the end of the year so time is running out but, whatever plays on movie screens between now and then, District 9 is assured a high spot on my Top Ten of the year. Director, Neil Blomkamp, makes one of the most impressive feature debuts in years with this film.

Several days after seeing the film, it is still very much in my mind… So, what did I like about it?

Story: Unlike most Hollywood summer fare there’s no giant action set piece right off the top – the narrative takes its time to get going (by way of a hyper-realistic and gritty documentary style) that gives us one piece of information after another. Though we are dropped slap bang into the middle of this harsh, violent world of oppression, the basic story set-up comes gradually, ensuring that we fully buy-in to the fantasy elements of it all. When the more conventional story twists and turns unfold, they are twice as effective because they have earned getting there and we are more invested in all of the proceedings.

Character: The same is true of the film’s central protagonist… Unlike most summer fare, we are not presented with the typical heroic figure that we can immediately relate to – quite the opposite in fact! Our “hero” here, Wikus Van De Merwe (newcomer Sharlto Copley) is a weasel of a bureaucrat and an outright bigot. He describes the destruction of alien babies with glee, comparing the sound of their burning to “popcorn popping”… He is a weak man, way in over his head, and the furthest thing removed from a classic hero type.

And yet, for me at least, it is with this character that the film is a true triumph not just in this genre but in all the films I’ve seen this year. I can’t remember the last time I saw a character so despicable get put through so much, frustrate me as much or keep me on tenterhooks for such a long period of time.

Much of the gold here comes from mining the audience’s preconceived notions of storytelling… We know how to recognize a main character and we have been trained to recognize a hero – we know what to expect from them and though they may have severe flaws and unlikable characteristics, we expect them to learn from their errors and set things right.

District 9 is one helluva harrowing journey… There is a point in the film where I was sure Wikus was well on his way to being the classic hero and then- he makes a dumb, selfish, frustrating choice that left me terrified and completely at a loss. I had the rug pulled out from under me and found myself not knowing where things would go next. I had that awful feeling that our hero would never be a hero. I found myself subconsciously hoping that the filmmakers wouldn’t go to that dark place of hopelessness and force me to hate them for it. It’s a scary place to be as an audience member. A place as alien to me as the unfortunate “prawns” imprisoned in District 9.

And you know what? …I frickin’ loved it! I’m not going to ruin it for you by revealing whether Wikus ever becomes the hero we desperately want and need him to be but boy, what a journey it took me on and what an emotional release!

Everything else: District 9 has as much action in it as any other summer movie this year and there are some real doosies pounding the eyeballs. Neil Blomkamp has long been known for his cinema vertite visual style but, surprisingly, I never found myself feeling nauseated by the camera movement. He knows when to settle things down with a well-placed static shot, or sweeping wide shot. He also knows how to capture the chaos of a gun battle while always ensuring we know who is where within the action so the stakes always remain high.

The FX work throughout is as good as anything we’ve seen before, if not better. There is a staggering attention to detail and many nice touches that add to the experience. I particularly liked the way each of the aliens was given a unique characteristic (my personal favourite was an alien seen early on wearing a pink bra!).

District 9 will not be everyone’s cup of tea. The level of suffering the aliens and the lead character endure can be tough to watch and the film pulls no punches in its violence and gore. But if you can stomach this, and you want to see a summer movie that is as thought-provoking as it is enthralling, then do yourself a favour and get yourself to a movie theater ASAP!

Until next time folks...

Projects: "Tonight" - Tito Deville Band music video!

Now that there’s finally a decent quality version online I thought it would be a good time to take a nostalgic look back at the making of my first music video. I say nostalgic because it was last Fall that we shot the video. Needless to say, it took a LOT of post production and a LOT of favors along the way to pull this off for next to no money.

Check out the video right... HERE!

The project came about following my introduction to the guys over at Qube Film, the same folks who I worked with on the Nike, “Fire” spot earlier this month. They were preparing to do a video for The Tito Deville Band’s debut single “Tonight” and I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I met with lead singer Tito and we hit it off immediately and 2 weeks later we were shooting.

From the get-go, there were two things I needed the video to accomplish. As the band’s first video, it was important that they were heavily featured throughout. Secondly, I wanted to capture the Electro-Rock energy… It’s all about going out, dancing your ass off and having fun. The Tito Deville Band are at the forefront of a style of music that is still very new to North America though it has roots dating back to the 1960’s and has been developing rapidly in Europe over the last decade. The band is made up of Tito (lead vocals), Will (guitar), Adam (drums) and Kenya who brings the DJ component.

The shoot took place over two days with the first (and most stressful) day on location at the since closed, Crush Champagne Lounge in downtown Vancouver. We shot on the Red Camera, much of the footage being captured at 120fps to isolate key visual details. Working with such a small budget meant no generator and very few lights but Director of Photography, Cliff Hokanson, got great production value from 4 banks of Nine Lights blasting on and and off throughout together with a couple of 1Ks and a bunch of battery-operated, hand-held lamps that we picked up from Canadian Tire for ten bucks each!

This was the first time I had directed a crowd scene but it’s amazing what one can achieve with 40 enthusiastic folks. Our background extras really brought their A-game to the shoot and though the space at Crush was dauntingly large, we managed to cheat every shot to make it look like the place was packed. The most stressful aspect of the first day of shooting was our limited window of time to get everything in the can – we had 6hrs including our 2hr.+ pre-light time. Despite this, we managed to get 34 set-ups in total and tons of great footage.

Day two took place in front of the green screen at Qube’s studio where we shot all the band performance coverage. The day went without a hitch although we discovered an odd quirk with the Red Camera… On numerous occasions when we were shooting Adam on drums, the camera dropped frames and we had to do another take. Weird that such a sophisticated device would be sensitive to sound waves! Or maybe Adam just rocking it too hard? We ended the shoot filming plate elements for the “electro-cocktail” – kudos to producer, Navid, for his patience and tolerance as we hurled glasses of Lime Gatorade all over his studio!

The editing of the video went very smoothly, editor, Nima, had a great instinct for the beat of the song. With so many green screen/VFX elements it was a big leap of faith for everyone involved as to whether or not what was in my head could actually be translated on-screen… FX whiz Cory really stepped up to the plate and shouldered the responsibility and I’m really proud of what he accomplished. There were definitely some huge challenges to overcome. Going into the process I thought the “electro-cocktail” and light explosion would cause the most problems but in the end the thorn in our side (ok, Cory’s) ended up being the drum kit. It’s gleaming chrome together with the water droplets in slow-motion became a keying nightmare.

Overall, I’m really satisfied with what we achieved, especially with so few resources. The Leo Awards thought so too and honored us with a Leo Award nomination for Best Music Video. Since the shoot, The Tito Deville Band has made huge strides forward, recently making it to the Top Ten in the Fox Seeds best emerging rock band contest. Look out for them and try to catch their next show – their live shows are CRAZY!

Let me know what you think of the video and feel free to share with friends.

Until next time…