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.

24 Hours

The Ministry has entered the Toronto Film Challenge. Starting Oct 4th at 10am we will have 24 hours to make a short horror film. I'm excited and petrified - both good feeling to have when dealing with horror. So far I've assembled 6 of my 8 member team, and I have to say I've got a good crew. It should be a crazy, stressful, and fun 24 hours. The only unfortunate thing is that the challenge falls on the same night as Nuit Blanche, which is a bit disappointing.

I'll keep you posted.

Guest Blogging

I've been invited by the fine people over at the Institute of Canadian Enthusiasm to contribute to their blog on the current Federal Election.

Click on the Institute below to come have a look.

Shorts

TIFF is almost done and, sadly, I've only been able to attend two screenings so far. This was mostly due lack of time and money, as each screening is over $20 - which isn't that high all things considered but it's too high for me right now. Anyway, I managed to see Programmes 3 and 4 of Short Cuts Canada. I specifically chose to see the Short Cuts programmes because I'm currently in the final stages of editing my first short, and pre-production for my second, and I was excited by the opportunity to see what else is out there. And, honestly, I wanted to see if, based on these films, I would have a shot at getting into a festival.

The answer is...I don't know. The range in quality, both technically and artistically was so vast that it's hard to tell. Technically speaking a lot of the films looked more polished then mine, and I think that comes down to my abilities but also my technology, as I have very limited resources. That's one thing that really stood out, the resources most of these filmmakers had/have are far greater than I. During one film's credits when the sponsors and crew just kept going and going, I believe Shira's comment was, "wow, we're so ghetto." There's nothing wrong with this of course, as story and character are what matter but the production values can't distract from those elements. I don't believe they do with my work, although I'll have until they're completed to fully judge.

So what did I think of the shorts? There were some that were great - my favorite from Programme 3 being the documentary Forty Men for the Yukon directed by Tony Massil and from Programme 4 the charming Mon nom est Victor Gazon directed by Patrick Gazé - but overall I left feeling a little disappointed both nights. I wasn't really engaged by most of them. I don't think this was because of the nature of short film - i.e. is it harder to get attached and care for characters in such a short period of time - nor was it primarily due to stories and themes being explored. Visually, of course, some were more beautifully shot and had a definite visual style then others, and only a couple had elements - usually sound - that drew me out. I think it mostly came down to the acting, writing and pace of the films - not to say that these elements were all bad but just inconsistent, both within the films and throughout the programmes. This inconsistency made the extremes more noticeable.

Of course, experience plays a huge part, as the short film genre is generally the playground of emerging filmmakers. That's why I'm here.

What he said.

So the election here in Canada has been officially called for Oct 14th. Everyone is super thrilled about it. Especially since the current Conservative government said that we would only have elections every four years. Yet, here we are only two years later. Hurrah. It's hard to muster any enthusiasm for this thing, since we're likely to end up with the same government we have now, except maybe they'll get a majority. Wouldn't that be fun.

Granted a minority Government is a fragile thing, but it's not like the Conservatives were being challenged on anything they put forward. I guess, this is probably seen as the ideal time to strike and obtain that majority. But with the cost of an election is sitting somewhere around $300million mark it's hard to justify it. Why not take that money and do...hell, almost anything else with it. Instead they make cuts and call a costly election. Hopefully it will be costly for them politically.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the fact that the $48million cuts to the Arts came right before an election speaks volumes about how much weight the current government puts on Arts and Culture. Harper himself tries to avoid using the term "Canadian Culture" whenever possible, preferring to call it the "Canadian Entertainment Industry." No wonder there's a misconception about the arts and artists.

I know not all Tories agree with their fearless leader and, in fact, The Globe and Mail's Simon Houpt - who is blogging during TIFF - happened upon one such Conservative, ex-PM Brian Mulroney who, surprisingly, had this to say about the Arts and Culture...

"We expanded the aid to the arts enormously. In spite of what is said, we increased the budget of the CBC by 3-and-a-half per cent a year for 9 years, and it reflected my view that culture is indispensable to the well-being of Canada, to our unity, to the manner in which we're perceived in the world, and the manner in which we perceive others. It adds to our confidence, our maturity, and to our self-respect.”

Not exactly an indictment of Harper's cuts but it's pretty clear where he stands. I can almost forgive him for this...

Almost.