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.

Libelle The Series: Episode 2

The next episode of the Eco-Thriller webseries Libelle launched today.

If you missed Episode 1, check it out here.



This was a fun episode to shoot with most of it being filmed around the University of British Columbia. We were extremely fortunate to get the boardroom location for the office scenes and it was one of those locations that we didn't lock until the last minute which made Pre-Production more than a little stressful. Finding an appropriate boardroom for a powerful character like McIntyre to reside in was tough and we looked at a LOT of different offices.

As a director, I can be a pain in the ass sometimes because I try to raise the bar high for everyone. Instead of shrugging my shoulders and saying "Meh, I guess this location can work" my M.O. is more "Nope, keep looking!" I'm aware that it makes it tough for my production team but 99% of the time sticking to my guns pays off on screen.

This was certainly the case in this instance. Those giant wooden  roof joists at the end of the episode when the character McIntyre is getting all fire and brimstone on poor Sonia really made the scene and fit the character perfectly.

Episode 3 will be launching next week so check back for that. Also, I'll be posting some awesome pics from a recent camping trip before the end of the week.

Until next time folks, enjoy the sunshine!

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!

Hey 2012, What's up?

Already 2 weeks into the year that is 2012!

The weekly photo blog is behind me now so what's next? Well, for the time being I'll be continuing with my writing work for Capcom Games (it's all very hush-hush but once it's official I promise I'll give a little more detail), I'm working on my feature project The Death of Alec Gray which I'll reveal more about soon, the webseries which is approaching its launch and of course there'll be more adventures afoot with my trusty Canon 60D camera.

As you know, even really basic little point-and-shoot cameras these days can capture video as well as pictures and in 2012 I'm hoping to do a LOT more on the video/movie-making side of things. The Canon 60D has already proven itself in my eyes with the quick and dirty short film I threw together early last year but I'm keen to do a lot more with it in this area.

I don't fully know what shape or form these experiments will take yet or how feasible they will be (i.e. paid work commitments) but I have a ton of ideas!

Of course, I'll still be snapping good old-fashioned pictures too. Speaking of which...

The above shots were taken just West of Lost Lagoon and in addition the wide angle fun, I also got a much better chance to play around with the new Tamron 90mm Macro lens.

Though it's designed for super-close work, it handles pretty well as a telephoto lens too. The below is not a leper's foot but is in fact an oddly shaped piece of drift wood.

And here's a macro of the splinters jutting out from the bottom of the "foot"...

The lens renders the out of focus detail (the bokeh) in a very pleasing manner don't you think?

And it handles flare pretty well too.

This final shot turned out to be my personal favourite though...

Until next time folks.