The World Does Not Revolve Around Me

Welcome back! Mike and I are headed into preliminary meetings this week with a foley artist who has worked on some great films here in Toronto. Hoping to get the wheels rolling on that in the next few days. Still prepping the film for colour correction and currently deciding on the right colourist/colour grading house for our needs. Some exciting updates regarding music -- but I'll save those ;) More on all that later!

This week, I'll take another step outside the world of William's Lullaby (don't worry! Plenty more updates/trivia/stories from set/teasers to come!) and fill you in on what's going on around me in the world of film. A lot of my colleagues/friends are busy creating some pretty brilliant things of their own and I thought now would be a great time to let you know what they're up to. Some of these projects have a direct connection to William's Lullaby and I'll include that information below. So here we go:

Pretty Pieces - dir. Leigh Ann Bellamy

Leigh Ann, a Kingston-based filmmaker, writes, directs and stars in this short piece and I was lucky enough to see a preliminary cut of the film a few months ago. This has been a passion-project of hers for quite awhile and is based on a play which she also starred in. She adapted the script and shot the film in October of 2011. It is now making the festival circuit rounds. 

A story of two people who desperately crave what the other cannot give.

William's Lullaby connection: Amanda Shaw served as Co-Producer on William's Lullaby. A few months later she worked as the set-dresser on this film.

Kenneyville - dir. Brooks Hunter

Kenneyville has been finished for some time now, but it's an important one to include on here. Brooks Hunter directed this tense thriller in 2011 as a metaphor for mental illness and the drugs/medication used to combat mental illness. Brooks seems to have also mastered the art of making a low-budget film look like it was made for more money than it cost to make the thing. The film is a pretty entertaining ride and certainly has its scare moments, but it's even more interesting once you read between the lines and discover the metaphor buried underneath the horror. Kenneyville is now available on iTunes: Buy Kenneyville Now

 

William's Lullaby connection: Stephen Lee served as Location Sound on both Kenneyville and William's Lullaby.

SICK - dir. Ryan M. Andrews

Sick just had its premiere here in Toronto at the Blood In The Snow Canadian Film Festival this past November and is a throw-back to the classic 70s horror in which character development and story took precedence over cheap scares. Andrews even mentioned films like The Exorcist and The Shining as well as TV series like The Walking Dead in his opening introduction. Sick is a huge collaborative effort from the Toronto indie film community and is definitely worth a watch.

William's Lullaby connection: SICK stars Richard Roy Sutton as Seph. Richard also takes the lead as Thomas Splinter in William's Lullaby.

Dana - dir. Mark Drewe, in collaboration with Tommy Chang

I've been looking forward to this one for awhile now. Dana is a short film that looks at an abusive relationship and what one man will do to protect his best friend. Dana is wrapping up post-production and should be popping up around film festivals soon!

William's Lullaby connection: William's Lullaby's Richard Roy Sutton plays an aggressive and antagonistic role as Dave in this short. 

The Golden Hour - dir. Jason R. Gray 

Dana is a nice lead-in to Jason R. Gray's short as it is mostly the same crew, although different production company. This is a major passion project for Jason. He released the teaser trailer on 12/12/12 at exactly 12pm. Set to a beautiful cover of Blue Moon it's quite riveting and this will be one to watch for on the festival circuit.

Tension(s) - dir. Vincent Lecrocq

This action-thriller stars Louis Mandylor as an ex-negotiator of the Boston Police Force who is taken hostage in his own home. And it looks like it will live up to its title! I met these filmmakers following their shooting of this film and had the pleasure of story-editing a new script of theirs. I am quite looking forward to this one coming out.

William's Lullaby connection: Once again, William's Lullaby star Richard Roy Sutton plays opposite Louis Mandylor as one of the hostage-takers.

21 Shorts - A Kingston Collaborative Effort

I'm including this venture on here because I think it's quite an interesting idea. 26 short films from a variety of Kingston filmmakers shot in 26 weeks. This initiative is spear-headed by Kingston local Eric Ferguson and really is a fascinating idea. I believe they started shooting these in August and over the course of the next few months will continue to shoot one short film a week. This is true collaborative filmmaking and should provide a rich platform for the filmmakers of Kingston going forward. 

FIND OUT MORE HERE

Neutral Territory - dir. Josias Tschanz 

Taking a moment to look out West, Vancouver actor and filmmaker Josias Tschanz tells a deeply personal story in this award-winning feature film which has been seen everywhere from the film festival circuit to the IFC. 

NEUTRAL TERRITORY

Friends in Dark Places - prod. Paolo Malo

Still out West, Paolo Malo is racking up credits in the industry, working in every department from camera, cinematography, producer to director. This short film looks quite chilling. It was produced by Paolo and the cinematography is by him as well. It also stars the brilliant Flora Karas (also a Vancouver actress), who you may recognize from my short film, The Boy Who Knew which is featured in last week's blog post.

The Path - dir. Emily Jenkins

Emily is a force to be reckoned with. A Ryerson University student, she has produced, directed, edited, written, PA'd projects all outside of her school work-load. She even worked on Kenneyville featured above. She is churning out gold and along with Leigh Ann Bellamy, these are two strong women in film. This short film comes from Glass Eye Pictures a Ryerson University based production company.

Mikka - dir. Alexandre Carrière

Mikka has already been making the short-film festival rounds and is doing extremely well. At the OFF-COURTS Film Festival in France, Alexandre won for Best Quebec Director. The short film stars, Roc Lafortune as a dying man who, through a series of flashbacks, relives the last few hours of his life.

William's Lullaby connection: Toby Bisson graces the face of Mikka's poster and takes the title role. He also takes the title role in William's Lullaby.

Silent Retreat - dir. Tricia Lee

Silent Retreat is described as a quiet horror film, with very little dialogue as it is actually set at a silent retreat. This film looks quite haunting and is a unique way to tackle the horror genre. Keep your eyes out for this one.

Teach'er - dir. Cody Campanale

This award-winning short film comes from Cody Campanale, a prominent force in independent film in Toronto with a vast list of credits.

Solo - dir. Isaac Cravit

Solo is a new independent thriller from Director, Isaac Cravit, starring Degrassi's Annie Clark. It received some media attention during production here in Toronto -- and Degrassi fans will likely be keeping their eyes peeled for this film about a teenage girl, terrorized as she spends two nights alone on a remote island as part of her camp counsellor initiation.

SOLO

William's Lullaby connection: William's Lullaby co-producer Amanda Shaw serves as Wardrobe Supervisor on this film.

21 Brothers - dir. Michael McGuire

This Kingston-made and Canadian-based WWI film currently holds the title of "Longest Single Shot Film in History" in the Guinness Book of World Records. The producers built the trench used in the film by hand, an effort that took over three months. This film is an incredible achievement and certainly puts Kingston on the map for record-breaking filmmaking. Worth a watch!

21 Brothers on iTunes

So there you go, folks! A look at what's going on with filmmakers past and present in the Canadian, independent industry. As you can see it's a big, small world! There's more I could be posting but this list is already getting quite long. So for now, check out the films listed above and support.

As always...

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What are your thoughts on some of these films/trailers? Don't forget to comment below!

I'll chat with ya next week.

N.

Films That Influence Me #1: THE SIXTH SENSE

I remember seeing The Sixth Sense in the summer of 1999. It was the drive-in double feature. I was nine years old. First billing was Inspector Gadget for us kids, which we were likely to fall asleep to. I was still awake when it finished and what followed was a film that got under my skin and has stayed there ever since.

I never ended up making it through that first viewing. After a chilling scene in which young Haley Joel-Osment meets an unexpected midnight visitor in his kitchen, it was decided (most likely based on our white knuckles) that this film was not appropriate for young kids -- or rather me, as my siblings were likely asleep. It's true. The film had traumatized me. But there was something about it that stayed with me, and though I had only seen an hour of the film, I could not shake what I had seen. To this day, I'll admit that the hairs still stand up on the back of my neck if I'm walking into a dark kitchen in the middle of the night.

It may have been a year or two later, maybe even less, when I was finally able to convince my parents to allow me to see the film in its entirety. Seeing The Sixth Sense from beginning to end was when I realized that a horror film can be more than just a horror film; that a ghost story can be about more than just the ghosts; that the reason why this film scared me went beyond some of the frightening sequences it featured.

I have since watched The Sixth Sense hundreds of times. I've read the screenplay over and over, and know the story by heart. A lot has been said about M. Night and I'll be the first to say that, along with directing one of the best films I've ever seen (The Sixth Sense) he's also directed one of the worst (The Happening). But whether The Sixth Sense was a one-hit wonder, or a fluke, or not -- it is a gem of a movie that I believe will remain a classic much like The Omen or Rosemary's Baby. And it has greatly influenced my filmmaking.

The haunting atmosphere, colours and even music in my short film The Boy Who Knew are inspired by the overall design and feel of The Sixth Sense and I watched M. Night's masterpiece quite a bit during my directing research for that film.

Even The Boy Who Knew features an ending (although much more subtle) in which the protagonist, alone, comes to a revelation which brings the story together  -- much like the over popularized ending of The Sixth Sense.

For me The Sixth Sense is on my list of influential films because of how well it executes a very real theme through the horror/thriller genre. I love films that have a supernatural edge to them but are based in reality -- and this is The Sixth Sense through and through. The film, in a nutshell, is about a young boy who has the ability to see the dead. What the film is really about is communication -- amongst the living. Who can forget this unbelievably powerful scene. It has been a long time since a "horror/thriller" has featured incredible writing/acting such as this [MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ... although not the big one]:

An Emotional Confession

The film is riddled with symbolism and moves at such a steady pace. It knows where it's headed and as an audience member you feel like the storytellers are in complete control of their masterpiece.

I'll talk about quite a few films that have inspired me in this blog, but from a creative writing and directing stand-point, it's safe for me to say that The Sixth Sense is one of my greatest influences.

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