Everything will probably be fine.

Well, we did it. With the generous help of some superb individuals, principal photography on 'My Old Flame' is complete! This week has been a whirl of things that are the opposite of vacationing, but I guess I can vacation when I am dead. After wrapping last Sunday, seeing my Vancouver and Edmonton crew off, and dropping gear back to Calgary on Monday - I shot a series of promotional videos in Canmore for three businesses, took my drivers test (passed, having only had an inking of how to parallel park for about 12 hours), and got home Saturday morning to a city that feels vacant, and yet, is absolutely brimming with noise.

We had a great cast - composed of Rachelle Tomm, Joe Morris, Chelsea Restall, and Joanne Hope.  All wonderful to work with, able to look beyond their lines and right into their character. Plus, our dynamite crew - Daniel Jeffery (assistant director), Christian Lai (gaffer), Nataliya Fedulova (production designer), Justin Madsen (sound), Lauren Tamke (camera assistant), and Amy Diedrich (hair and make-up). We also had some help from Robert - and for our overnight shoot at Café Books - we had the generous super-help of Joy Mclean, Jocey Asnong, and Jasmin Nadeau.

Plus, support from Amanda Suhan, Sandra Wheeler, Sue Girard, Rheanna Toy, Joel Salaysay - and of course, mom and dad - who housed and catered the entire affair, much to their collective horrors. Numerous thanks as well to Panavision, William F Whites, Clairmont Camera, and FAVA.

It's really hard communicating the size of  film set when you're about to move into a location. The people and the gear are always more than they expect. It was even a surprise for my parents, who were slightly overwhelmed by the number of things in their kitchen. Thankfully, we weren't in any space too long, and we had people with decent amount of patience on your side. I made sure we were fully insured, I laid out everything clearly to all of the locations involved. My typical 65% organized was up at about 90%, and that's nice when that happens. I do think it was a success. We got everything done with ample time, everyone was happy (I think), and it's always nice dealing with film. We had only one unloading issue, and one camera trouble shooting issue - which was promptly solved by me throwing batteries around. We cool.

Things I have (re)learned:

1. For the love of god, always ask questions, questions do not hurt

2. Get a crew you like, and who can get a long with each other, especially when the project is on your dime - that one person who's not on the ball can drag the whole thing around

3. It's tough, but you've got to lead a stress example, the moment you become stressed is the moment everyone else becomes stressed and things get messy
4. If your film spaghettis in the change bag, don't panic, even if it turns in a horrible, knotted monster - somewhere there is a beginning of that roll, and an end
5. If you can, get more gear than you need - I supplied my crew with tons of most things, why? Because on a lot of sets I've worked on, there is a lack of one thing that makes everything slog along - whether it's something as inconsequential as tape, clothespins, sandbags - or things like food, drink, and dry socks
6. Stick to your guns - if your vision butts up against an obstacle on set, push right on through - that vision is what will keep this thing together in the end
7. Repeat the mantra: everything will probably be fine

Thank you, everyone - for your ongoing support, your hard work, and your standard of excellence that helped push this production forward!

In this lull that is pre-post-production, and after my relocation to Vancouver - it hardly feels it happened it all. The only telling factor is a stack of 14 rolls of film sitting in my house that wasn't there previously, and a duffel bag in the middle of the kitchen that I am too lazy to unpack. The sooner I can get that film developed, the sooner I can feel like something was accomplished (I mean, something other than a fun shoot). The next steps for me concern a stop motion character who I wrote in (and shot very... unorthodox plates for). The research phase will be a little longer, as he will be a fully articulate figure. I'll be sure to post updates as those arise. 

After an evening of Whistler grapefruit ale on Saturday, and a morning brunch at Thyme to Indulge on Sunday, yesterday was my half day of holiday before getting back into the thick of things. School starts today - it will be an intrepid year of strange things. It feels like there's a bit of a storm on the horizon, but it isn't very clear. There are tons of shoots, and I'm very pleased to be crewing on many of them.

After such a strange, stress-saturated summer, I'm feeling ready, these days, for the cool, sweater-weather of fall. Though, with some bitterness, as I felt I have squandered these summer months in editing suites and not doing anything outdoorsy at all. I picked up some spicy Camino hot chocolate today, so when that damp chilly snap comes, warming beverage and alpaca hair sweaters are in arms reach.

Great news! My fall 2012 film, My Favourite Things, has been selected for the second annual Canadian Young Actors Film Festival! Tickets are $10 for the Gala and Awards on September 21st! More information here! This is the first of my films to be accepted into a festival - I'm super proud of my cast - Eliana, Tytan, and Dawson - pleased as pie! Thank you, as well, to my crew, classmates, and supporters!

Things to look at!

Human Town! A webseries I key gripped on for a few days, produced, in part, by a bunch of SFU grads - it's dark and wonderful, check it out, throw them some support!

Check out SFU grad, Graeme Achurch's film, The Rat on the Contender's Magazine blog!

Chelsea, who played the role of Teddy in 'My Old Flame' also has a blog! Check her out - notes about acting, writing, and life in general

Pop culture ice cream.

One of my favorite Tumblr, second only to Gene Kelly's Butt.

A reminder: Astronaut's advice

Multiple-front pre-eminent disaster.

Well, now that I've rung in my twenty-second year on this planet - I've got to say, it feels like the past year has been this set-up to make this year one of change, opportunity, and brain-building. It sort of feels like I'm stepping off of a high wall into something uncertain, but good. But I have a feeling I've probably said something to that effect before. Who can say.

There's a deep foreboding hedgehog that's sitting in the pit of my stomach concerning this spring. Summer will be a time of busy-ness and celebration - but between now and then, I'm not so sure. It's either a bad bit of deja-vu or some new fangled thing, but something's not quite right. We'll cross that dubious bridge when we come to it.

I'm just beginning to cut my film for this semester. I'm battling through my dislike of the post-production process, syncing sound is slow - the assembly cut is slow. But it's all coming together. I've got some great, hand-drawn titling I'm doing - the film now officially being called "A Spoonful of Sugar" (thanks, Joel). After spending the most pretentious hour of my life surfing the 'typography' tag on Tumblr, I got some super ideas of lines, patterns and fonts to doodle around with. I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

I set up a new set of challenges going into production for this film, and I think I'll come out the other side better for it (as we often do). I had a great little cast and crew working with me - and save the date: our screening is going to be on April 18th at the David Mowafaghian Cinema at Simon Fraser University Woodwards at Hastings and Abbot. It's free! And there's nothing better than filled seats to us filmmakers.

Now that we're into March, the preproduction process concerning my grad film is fumbling along. Having made the first half of my film stock purchase from Fujifilm, I now open my fridge every day to stare at six rolls in square cans patiently waiting for their time to come. My current trepidation is breaking my script back down to the essentials and building something that is worthy to be shot on the last little bit of super 16mm in manufacture. No pressure or anything, brain. I'm really hoping to externalize some very internal feelings with my last student short. It's something I'm dreadful at, but I think taking a step back and looking at how I tend to internalize things could help me create something wonderful and bold - an adventure in self-discovery through collaboration and filmmaking. (So exciting!)

I'm looking forward to building a crew and a plan to get everyone out to Alberta late August. As much as I don't enjoy pre-production, having it all come together on that first shoot day is just a fantastic feeling. I'm looking forward to the adventure. My most ambitious shoot to date.


I had a dream recently (yeah, I'm going to talk about my dreams), my first with having to do with a long-lasting, subconscious need to forgive. After reading Looking for Alaska by John Green, I had a weird mental suturing occur between feelings I had been having regarding the loss of a friend, and my reluctance to relinquish those feelings that stuck around after. I think about it often, and the dreams I have had regarding the loss have been numerous - but this one was different, it's not closure by any means - but perhaps something working towards it. It's refreshing to find a piece of fiction that affected me so thoughtfully and positively. And sometimes a revisit to young adult fiction is just what my heart needs.

On the other end of that story, I also recently had, what I'm going to call, my first 'rage' dream. From which I woke up thinking I had yelled all my issues with everything at everyone and it felt pretty good. My brain's sending signals.

I've got a very bizarre inkling to write again. Write novels. And I'm having a hard time separating it from the weird-things-I-do-when-I-procrastinate feeling or something very genuine and real. Who knows! We'll see what's left when summer settles.

Twenty-thirteen has already been moulded into a collection of cliché war-room abstractions: rising to the occasion; riding out there and meeting the challenge head on. A less neutral body has more enemies, but closer friends. To stir the pot... and so on.

I feel somewhat courageous, like I woke up one day and put my sassy pants on... and they haven't really come off.

Spring's on it's way. I know because my eyes are super itchy all the time. I can't wait to get out in the garden once this rain lets up. I can't wait for sunshine and heat and freckles.



Things you should probably check out:

I finally got to go to the Rain City Chronicles - hop on that train because it's great.
A reminder that The Featured Creature exists.
Never been to the Stormcrow? Go to there.
Check out this double feature at the Vancity theater this month!
Want a home page?
Shout out to a film project! Resonance by David Kelso and Russell Hirsch - they're shooting this fall!

Production wrap...?

Production having wrapped this past Sunday on my short film 'My Favourite Things' (working title), and taking a couple days hiatus from the footage, it's time for some pre-post-production musings while I get my ProRes conversions. Fun stuff.

It was an exhausting two plus months in pre-production. My reluctance to relinquish control/delegate to others along with a determination to learn the ropes put me in a position of acute stress. I was my own producer, writer, director, cinematographer, oi.

We had tremendous luck with the weather, an animated and responsive few actors (plus a gecko named Neelix), a patient group of actor supervisors and a crew that was more than I could have hoped for. Our set dec looked great - quite different than I had planned, but still absolutely wonderful.

Photo: Marnie Dunbar

Although it looks like we're coming in a chunk over budget, I'd say this was a very worthy journey - as most journeys are. I was able to pace out my resources, explore rental options, play with DSLRs and an excellent lens package assembled from a few different sources. The only major disappointment was my inability to get gear support from my school due to a large number of productions taking place on the same weekend. This caused my budget for gear to skyrocket, which always puts me on edge a bit. Although, now that I'm destitute, I get to eat set leftovers for the foreseeable future.

Some things to keep in mind during production:

• Feed your actors and your crew well, they're not being paid (on an indie/student set anyways) - treat them to something nice

• Consistent crew over your shoot days is prime, you get a bit of a community thing going on, everyone is on the same page at the start and end of every day

• Get yourself a dynamite art director, we had a supreme set dec combo costumes/script supervisor and it was organized, efficient and effective

• Also get yourself a dynamite AD who knows their business, how to schedule and when to step in when things are getting behind - we were able to wrap two of our three days early because we had an effective game plan for the weekend

• Do your research and ask questions when going into any kind of rental house - they appreciate competent, patient, polite people going there for business, especially if you're a student

• Have someone new on your set? Get to know them, take them out for coffee - and make sure they know they're part of the team when they come onto set - strangers on set is a variable that is totally avoidable, it gives you a chance to make new acquaintances instead of just utilizing them as crew

• Don't miss an opportunity to make a good impression - keep your cool, even if you're behind schedule, even if something isn't quite panning out the way you want it to - keeping an even keel wont fail in keeping your crew behind you, your shots done on time, your head clear and everybody happy

• Be generous with your time - even if you're a super busy director/producer type, always take the time for any single person on your team - there is no reason not to know everyone's name, what their role is, and any possible obstacles they may be personally overcoming on the set - it's a student/indie set, you don't have a PR devision for your 200+ crew, and your volunteers deserve some attention

We had a remarkably chill set, although I was stressing on the inside pretty hard, I felt at ease knowing that my cast and crew were at ease. I'll state again how vital and fantastic my cast and crew were to the completion of the production stage of this film.

Photo: Marnie Dunbar

Directing wasn't as harrowing as I thought it'd be - working with kids was great. My next challenge will be working with some people in and around my age for my next semester project.

With grad film proposals all handed in, my mind's been buzzing about three short films simultaneously. Next semester calls for a small budget, on-the-fly shoot - maybe an improv-type of script. It'll be a completely different experience, I'm sure of that. And that's one thing I love about film - I have been on dozens of sets in the past year, and quite frankly - I've never had the same experience twice, even if I'm working with the same people.

The production of 'My Favourite Things' coming to a close, a load is off my mind - but the marathon of post-production stretches out before me. The nightmare is seeing if I actually got sufficient coverage. I'm also hoping to do some little bits of stop motion animation to whimsical-up my film. Should be interesting.

Mark your calendars now - SFU's 3rd year screening is on December 6th!

Some things to look at:

Vice's web series Fashion Internationale, which Jezebel introduced me too. The fashion elements don't interest me as much, but the culture is fascinating. I think about changing North American culture quite a bit - it's really neat (and terrifying, in a way) to see it happen in other countries in different and similar measures. Not to mention exploring beauty standards abroad.

Ten best cafés in Vancouver.

Oh bother.

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.” 

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Smaller, more feeble brainstorms

Fall's here. There are large spiders amassing some sort of army in my back yard. There is a single pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. There are large scale brainstorms taped to my bedroom wall. And we go to picture in three weeks! It's this extreme combo of explosive excitement and withering fear. It's a tremendous rush, this challenge. I know there are going to be many that are similar in nature to it, but never twice the same. 

I'm so excited to have other people excited about my project. It's like... extrapolated excitedness. I've gotten a pile of submissions for auditions, and I just feel grateful Vancouver has such a large, strong and many-tiered acting community. Casting is something I've never done on my own before, and it's a combination of waiting, scheduling, papers (flying everywhere), but ultimately, I'm finding the experience quite rewarding. A few friends have really helped me out in getting my 'casting legs' and I really owe them a great deal. Especially when I text them with panicked, insignificant questions at all hours; 'SO WHAT IF THIS HAPPENS', 'DO I NEED TO DO THIS?', 'WHAT IF EVERYONE HATES ME?!' etc.

The beginnings of much, much larger brainstorms

I'm doing all of these new things like casting and prop renting and gear renting and doing a bunch of copyright research (oh god). It's hurdle after hurdle, but everything is quite attainable. Often through the  help of other souls' wisdom and Google, that is. There are so many ways to go about getting things done in pre-production. Although, I know it would be tons easier with a production manager, I see great value in stepping through the process a few times alone, seeing how I fare - taking the time to recognize how long some of these processes take and the hoops you've got to jump through sometimes to get an answer. I don't know, I'm pretty stoked on it.

It seems every week has a bit of a 'themed worry', i.e. last week I flipped about gear shortages combo money shortages and having to deal with rental houes. This week, the theme seems to be casting jitters (large LARGE casting tremors). Next week, whooo knooows. Probably props. Let's just call next week, 'The week Laurel freaks about props'. By the time we go to picture, everything will come full circle. We'll finish shooting, I'll go into short term hibernation (also called torpor, hummingbirds do it - science!), disappear for a few days, then come back relatively right as rain. By then I can stress about editing until the end of tiiiime. Hopefully, I can budget my time (ha) to accomodate some tiny, but rich, stop motion animated scenes into my film (which also might have a sort of working title now) - I got pretty amped on stop motion again after seeing ParaNorman.

I bought a new tea pot, I am pleased

It's pretty great to be writing again. The screenwriting class I have semester has been a lot of work so far, but it just sort of opened up some doors that haven't been opened for some time. The class demands fairly large assignments each week, but they're very open. The more I get to writing, the easier it comes to me, the more I enjoy it. Whether I am improving or not is to be seen, but it's becoming less of a chore.

Anyways.

Sorry the photos are so boring this week. I'm waiting for some 35mm film scans to come back from the lovely humans at CustomColor and Beau Photo. Then there will be so many photos!

It's inching towards sweater weather people, break out 'dem long sleeves!

Feast your brain upon:

I definitely got stuck in a YouTube loop with Vsauce 2 the other day. Just a short, periodically released video about cool mechanics and tech. Plus! There's links to anything, so you can do some learnin'.

An awesome article on this nutburgers sabre-toothed herbivore that once roamed the Earth.

Check out the fundraiser for the City of Vancouver Archives! Old photographs! Huzzah!

The event of the year, second only, maybe, to Christmas - VIFF kicked off today! Pick up a catalogue and pick out some new, wild things to see! Also come visit! I'm volunteering at the wonderful, wonderful Vancity Theater.

Super-congratulations to Sophie Jarvis, a recent film graduate of SFU, who landed her short grad film 'Worst Day Ever' at VIFF (amongst a bunch of other festivals) make sure you catch it in the short program Break Even!

Tail End of April

A wordy, picture-less post, this post-midnight mind-purge. With lots of hyphens, apparently.

Currently experiencing the charming, end-of-semester alienation I always seem to get stuck with. With each passing semester, the bitterness just gets thicker. I get sick frequently (or really sick every so often, like getting a super fever for one day and being convinced it'll be the thing that kills me), am always exhausted, always out of laundry, eating poorly. The end of semester is a wonderful, fantastical time of year that never feels good. Maybe one of these years, I'll have a good semester's end. Until then... well.

An opportunity for a unique, out of province summer came and went (plus a day of moping with a loop of Noah and the Whale songs), and although I was hoping to spend my summer back home in Alberta, it seems Vancouver's got some other, interesting plans for me. Regardless, I'd like my summer to be filled with adventures, books, new movies, filmmaking and new acquaintances. I am forming a list of things to do, things to accomplish as the days grow longer. Old habits will die hard, but I am prepared for a great deal of change in my future.

The past two semesters have been rather revealing in more ways than one. As the culmination of this time spent comes and goes on Tuesday, it's more a time of reflection for me, rather than a time of celebration. There's more reflection upon this to come, I am sure. But for now, let me say, that although my time spent amidst the frustrating pit that was this whole venture - the experience that this time has afforded me will become invaluable. Regardless of the outcome. And what an outcome it is turning out to be.

I've been thinking a lot lately about experience and perception, values that people will put on individuals depending on their employment, education, gender and ability to represent themselves.  I guess this train of thought has come by because of my long-winded battle with the Vancouver job market. But it seems, from struggles comes logical thought, enlightenment and growing patience. Realizing that being satisfied in any job that is outside of filmmaking isn't necessary.  Realizing that I need a lot more than a resume and diligence to get anywhere at any speed. I'm in this for the long haul, and I guess I've finally realized it's going to be a hell of a long haul.

Each person seems to lead their own lives of bizarre happenings. I hope everyone's doing alright with theirs.

Things you need to know about:

GLITTER AND DOOM: SFU's 2nd year film screening
Yes, it has come to an end. COME AND SEE THE RESULT.

Trailer:


Here's the event on FACEBOOK.

Tickets & Screening Info.


HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU: SFU's Grad film screening

Trailer:


Here's the event on FACEBOOK.

Tickets & Screening Info.

Check out our ad in this week's Georgia Straight!


NARRATED BY MORGAN FREEMAN

Something dreadful happened, yet another harddrive crash. As a result, a few film kids are going on an adventure, to make up for lost time. Spread the word and follow the journey on twitter and facebook.

Check out their Indiegogo page.


To see the outcome of this Morgan Freeman business, plus tons of other excellent Grad films, be sure to come to the Grad screening!

All of the screenings are taking place at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at the Goldcorp Center for the Arts (SFU Woodwards) in Vancouver, British Columbia. Tell your friends! We love a grand audience just as much as we love putting on a show!