The film itself...

We wuz robbed

On Friday I attended the screening of the film The Patient, which The Ministry made for the Toronto Film Challenge's Fall 2008 24-hour competition. I was petrified going into the cinema. I had no idea what the projection was going to look like - would the big screen make the film look really pixelated, would the production values make our film look amateurish compared with the others - I didn't know. A lot of my friends had generously donated their time and energy to this little project and I wanted them to be happy (and not embarrassed) with the results.

As it turns out I had nothing to be worried about - other than the usual worries one has when putting yourself out there creatively -as the film went over really well. In fact, ours was definitely one of the better ones. Maybe some others had higher production values, but The Patient held it's own, and I was quite proud. Unfortunately we didn't win any of the kick ass prizes, and I have to say I was a little disappointed by that. Not because the winning films weren't good - the second and first place films (Monster Face and Prom Day 1981, respectively) were both really well done - but because all of the winning films were comedy-horror films. This was suppose to be a horror film challenge, not a comedy horror film challenge and there is a substantial difference. The Patient was definitely the best true horror film screened, and I feel a little bit robbed that that wasn't officially recognized. I say "officially" because one of the members of the winning team said during his thank you speech that "the film The Patient was one of the best things he's seen in a while."* I thought that was incredibly nice and classy of him to say.

I don't want this post to make it sound like I had a bad experience as that's totally not the case. It was a fun, and a little stressful, night and overall the entire experience was encouraging and, as I've mentioned in previous posts, I learned a lot about film making.


*despite the quotes that might not be exactly what he said, as I can't remember word for word, but that's definitely the gist of it.

The Patient

The Toronto Film Challenge was this past weekend, and The Ministry (my team's name) wrote, shot and edited a 5 minute short titled "The Patient." It was a crazy 24 hours.

Here's a summary...

10am Saturday - we received our challenge pack which consisted of a surprise theme, prop and phrase.

This is Dave and I enjoying the first of many many coffees while waiting for the 10am start...

10:15 to 2pm - we hammered out a basic story as a group before splitting into smaller teams to write it, find costumes, prep locations and a create shooting schedule.

Our story all cue carded and laid out, with a machete thrown in for mood...

2:30 to midnight - filming at three different locations

Shira at one of our locations...

Despite what this photo seems to suggest, that is not the craft services table and I am not reaching for another donut....

James, myself and the other team members on route to another location...

Midnight to 8am - editing, editing, editing

Here I am editing with crazy stress hair...

8am to 9am - sound editing

9am to 9:30 - transfer the film to the submittable format - a stress filled half hour full of computer re-boots and curses

9:30am-9:48am - a mad rush across the city

9:48am Sunday - handed in our short film with 12 minutes to spare

My team was made up of some ridiculously talented and dedicated people, and although I personally made some mistakes during the actual filming, they all brought their A game. I'm incredibly proud of them and thankful they were apart of this little film.

The screening of all the films is this coming Friday and I'm petrified. I'm obsessing over the things I would have done differently, which, I know, isn't helpful. But I did learn an awful lot about my strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker, and about film making in general, which was really the whole point. Overall it was a great experience, and I'm glad I entered.

All pictures by Mike.