It's time for the Canadian Film Fest and there are some pretty amazing screenings - including the Homegrown Shorts program this Saturday. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview five of the filmmakers. Check it out:
1. Grocery Store Action Movie: Matthew Campbell Tell us a little bit about your short film. Grocery Store Action Movie is a short film based off a radio skit that Chris Wilson and Peter Carlone (Peter'N'Chris) wrote that aired on CBC Radio. It's about a man who gets up to the till in a grocery store, and realizes he forgot one key ingredient to an important get together that night! With time running out and his wife on the phone leading him along, he dashes around the store in search of that elusive last item while dodging obstacles trying to slow him down. It became part of the Crazy8s film contest here in Vancouver when my friend and producer Ryan Silva contacted me, looking for a director that could shoot this comedy piece and integrate a bit of visual action and style. I gladly accepted, and somehow we managed to make it through all the pitches to become one of 6 winnners selected for the Crazy8s film program. We shot the film over 3 nights with a bunch of industry professionals volunteering their time to help out. How does the process for making a short film compare or differ from a feature film? Due to it's shorter format, it requires less time from busy people to film, meaning you have a lot more flexibility with locking down locations and crew. You also spend a lot less time in post editing it, allowing you to get your finished work out faster to the public. A feature film requires prep work months ahead of time, scheduling the locations, crew, and actors based off everyone's availability. Short films can be banged out in a relatively short time period. Why should people go and see this film? People should see the film because it's a fun filled cinematic ride with two very talented comedians (and their talented friends), some cool stunts and more than a few instances of homage to some classic action films. It's a guaranteed laugh-out-loud film. 2. she came knocking: John Ainslie Tell us a little bit about your short film. "she came knocking" is the story of a young woman who witnesses what she believes is a husband acting abusively towards his wife. When the police won’t help her she decides to take matters into her own hands. How does the process for making a short film compare or differ from a feature film? I think the main difference for me is that I use short films to find my voice whereas with features I use that voice. Shorts allow you the room to explore and experiment with little risk. With features, there’s usually a large sum of money that someone has put up for you to make the film and you generally have to answer for that. There are a lot of outside voices looking to have input on your vision. It also becomes difficult to try crazy things, like in “she came knocking” we did a three minute long take with no coverage. You can’t (or shouldn't) do that on a feature. Why should people go and see this film? It’s a fun little short with some tense moments and great performances. I promise it will entertain. 3. I Love You So Much It's Killing Them: Joel McCarthy Tell us a little bit about your short film. Our film is a pitch black comedy about a shy accountant named Vivian who happens to love brutally murdering innocent people in her spare time. She was living the perfect life of a serial killer until she meets the man of her dreams. How does the process for making a short film compare or differ from a feature film? The major difference making a short film over a feature is that you have no time to waste telling your story. When writing a short film I always go back to the famous Blaise Pascal quote, "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter". It's very true of short films, it is a tough practice to tell an engaging story with less screen time. Why should people go and see this film? People should see this film because it's pleasantly fucked up. It's not every day where you get to see a romantic comedy where children get brutally murdered, folks have their throats slit, etc. It's a pleasantly surprising film where audiences almost feel guilty laughing at the subject matter. 4. The Cameraman: Connor Gaston Tell us a little bit about your short film. The Cameraman is about two brothers who try and come to terms with the fact that they both have a 50/50 chance of inherited Huntington's disease from their abusive father. It's a feel-good comedy. But seriously, the boys deal with their coin-flip lives in different ways. The littlest brother--the cameraman--films their dysfunctional lives with his Super 8 camera. The film was made through the Harold Greenberg Fund's shorts-to-features program. How does the process for making a short film compare or differ from a feature film? Well, it's shorter. And we had more time to experiment on the short, which is invaluable for me. My first feature, The Devout (which plays at the Carlton for a week starting April 7), was my film school. I learned so much and am proud of what we accomplished on such a small budget, but doing the feature before making the short really instilled a sense of confidence for me, and The Cameraman benefited from that. Why should people go and see this film? Support Canadian film! I've seen a couple of the shorts in the program and they're really great and inventive and unique. You're bound to see a wide range of styles and genres. And if you don't like one, it'll be over quickly! Plus the filmmakers will be at the screening, so it's a chance to connect to them and the indie film community directly. 5. Ways to Water: Kit Weyman Tell us a little bit about your short film. Our short film is about Toronto summers, it's about love, it's about water. There’s something special happening in Toronto right now. There’s a creative energy in this metropolis unlike anywhere else in the world. A new generation is emerging from the fabric of our immigrant population. we are a city of neighbourhoods: distinct, yet interconnected. Where our cultures meet, our identities have been challenged - and in this way our storytelling, creation, and art has evolved. We are a city coming into our own on the world stage, and I’ve been lucky enough to be within communities that have helped spur this growth. Our city’s music now plays on international airwaves, while a new wave of music videos and cinema has been inspired by its growing mythology. We are a shifting entity, a changing landscape - geographically, socially, culturally. This film is about capturing a side of Toronto in the midst of this evolution, and exploring this world through a story of love and water. Water fascinates me. It always has. As a filmmaker, my work explores the ever evolving human relationship to water - environmentally, visually, and metaphorically. Water permeates our urban existence in all forms, but loses its magic within its everyday mundane use. We often forget that Toronto resides on a body of water. It has become a resource - something outside of us - when really it is the most crucial part of ourselves. Water is life. It shapes our world through shifting glaciers and rising sea levels, while our human bodies are more than half h20. In fact, a Japanese researcher named Masaru Emoto believed that the structural make up of water can actually be affected by human emotions and consciousness. His research led me to question how we truly affect each other in everyday interactions within the city, and in the ways we learn to love. Our lives are held in cups, spilling into one another as we make our indivudal ways through this world. Our roads become rivers; the city becomes an ocean; we search for our own oasis of peace, caught up on shifting waves of change. During a time when climate change threatens our very existence on planet earth, this film seeks to reconnect an urban audience with humanity’s most essential and magical element, H20. This is cinema for our millennial generation - where everything in the world feels attainable, but our uncertain future on earth is not promised. How does the process for making a short film compare or differ from a feature film? A lot of my friends have actually called this a Feature Short Film. It definitely went for a larger scope than some more traditional shorts go for, and we actually had to cut it down in the editing process. I think that ultimately the core principle of the short film is less is more - how can you say what you want to say in the most potent ways. Because you won't have time to say it again. But ultimately, that's how you should approach film making overall, feature or short. Less is more. Why should people go and see this film? I think this film shows a side of Toronto that a lot of people haven't seen, and a unique frame of how water relates to us as people. My favourite films show me new ways of seeing the world around me - Donnie Darko, Le Haine, Kids... The visions is familiar, yet different. We know the world it lives within, but the film opens a door to another dimension of it. I feel like WAYS TO WATER is in the same vein. I'm really proud of the work we put in on this, and really happy with what we have to put up on the screen. |
Archives
September 2019
|