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I cowrote a Canadian Film Centre short film this year titled Rattan that’s definitely the most polished and “produced” piece on my resume. I feel really lucky to have had the experience, as it just may well be one of the last projects I work on that’s shot on film. Given that high quality digital cameras are becoming more affordable and accessible, the increasing perception of film is that it’s a luxury limited to auteurs with a great deal of jurisdiction, large spending allowance and generous shooting schedule. I personally know of one or two purists who are adamant that even the best digital cameras can’t replicate the photochemical processes achieved with film. On a whole though, it seems that the quality of digital photography is helping to bring about a new wave of indie filmmaking accomplished with shoestring budgets. It’s more or less what my experience has been limited to, which is why working on Rattan has been such a special treat.

Shot with anamorphic lenses, it features set pieces with complicated stunts, crane shots, green screen sequences, and extensive special effects. I’m definitely hoping that more fantasy/horror projects come my way, as the experience really teaches you to be spare and impactful with your writing. There are rules you must follow with horror, and you have to be mindful of time and resources when you’re writing gory action scenes.

Those of you interested in checking out the project should head on over to its Facebook page. Throw it a “like” if you feel so inclined.

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I just wrapped up production on a short film I began developing about a year ago. The shoot went pretty smoothly- cast and crew were prompt, expedient, and an overall joy to work with. An actor paid a lovely compliment afterwards, saying that he had never experienced such a professional shoot. Even so, I still experienced the same butterflies that I felt the previous times I’ve directed shoots. It’s an unbearable yet incredibly addictive stress high that usually makes me anxious to be prolific and get going on as many projects as possible. This time around though, I was able to comprehend through the stress high afterglow that a production break wouldn’t be such a terrible idea, and that I should focus on paid work, administrative tasks, and developing spec script ideas for the next while.

In the past year and a half I’ve worked on five short films- as a screenwriter for two, and a director for three- not including production exercises while I was a screenwriting resident at the Canadian Film Centre. Each film project has been easier than the last and yet harder, as they incrementally grow more ambitious and challenging. I’m a trained screenwriter but never really went to film school, and short films have been an excellent learning tool. I’ve been anxious to learn as much as I can about film production in a short period of time but now realize that breaks are also necessary. While it’s good to push yourself with a sink or swim approach and learn through experience, it also doesn’t hurt to take things slow and absorb knowledge organically as well.

The process for this short film is by no means over- it requires a great deal of work in post production, but for me the hard part is over and I can relax. During a class taught by Guillermo del Toro, he told us that his favourite phase of film development is the editing stage, because the bullshit is done and over with, and the fun can begin. Stress high notwithstanding, I share his sentiments.

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Katsuhiro Otomo, author and illustrator of the Akira manga series, strangely perceives his 1988 film adaptation of the aforementioned comic to be a failure. To be sure, it’s difficult to condense six volumes of manga into standard, two hour, cinematic format. But the movie itself is magical in that it instigates child-like feelings of awe and wonder, not only for its meticulous illustrations, but tragic and relatable story. The plot may feature nuclear war, government conspiracies, and scientists using children as lab rats to infuse them with telekinetic powers. But at its heart is a relationship between two teenaged boys- one who has been picked on all his life, who resents his stronger, bolder friend for always coming to his rescue. 

Throughout screenwriting classes, I’d keep hearing that a viewer should be able to pinpoint the theme of a movie easily, and sum it up in a sentence or two. I never quite understood that until I watched Akira. It’s one of those films that infuses you with a deep itch to be creative, and generate an uncomplicated emotional response within people. While I can’t hope to successfully pull off something of the scope as Akira, hopefully I will eventually make something that will enable people to perceive the world differently.

"…Sharon Stone, when doing the interview circuit [for Basic Instinct], was really annoyed by the fact that everyone always asked her how she felt about all the nudity, when she had real problems with the fact that her character killed someone on screen. When filming this sequence, a paramedic had to be on standby as she kept passing out, and suffered nightmares…."

SUPPORT INDIE FILM :)

I’ve created a Kickstarter campaign to finish production for a film project I’ve been blogging about since last summer. In the event that you’d like to support independent film, you are more than welcome to mosey on over to the website and donate, and/or reblog this post and spread the word on social networking sites! Thanks a bunch!

SHORT FILMS- COMING SOON! →

The Canadian Film Centre has just announced the teams for their short dramatic film program. I’m posting the link because my name is listed. This makes me feel special. I like feeling special.

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About time he got nominated for an Oscar. BTW Gary, I’ve had a crush on you since Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

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I’m turning into one of those annoying people who constantly drop celebrity names and/or run-ins with people affiliated with prestigious movies. “Hey the producer of Adaptation and Little Miss Sunshine came to do a workshop with us”, etc.. I swear I’m not doing it to be obnoxious! (In any case, I’m not actively aware I’m being obnoxious). This seriously is my life at the present and I’m hoping things don’t taper off any time soon.

My latest encounter was a master class with the lovely Juliette Lewis last week at TIFF Lightbox. I asked her about her GAP commercial with Daft Punk, the host of the class picked her brain about working with Scorsese and Woody Allen, and all in all it was a pleasant and informative hour. At the end of the class she took a picture of us “inspired souls” (as she called us) and posted it to her twitter account. I can faintly see myself at the far right with a couple of other Canadian Film Centre residents. 

Next up: In Conversation with Gale Ann Hurd, aka producer of all my favourite James Cameron movies! I hope she talks about the Abyss.

A 2011 RUNDOWN

I haven’t been particularly attentive towards this blog as of late. Which I suppose is testament to how busy I’ve been for the past while. Granted I *did* spend a fair portion of my Christmas holidays watching Food Network and sleeping, but it’s safe to say that the events that transpired during 2011 have resulted in quite the hefty laundry list that I’m tackling the way one goes eating an elephant- one bite of a time. Which nicely segues into the topic of this post: a list of the most noteworthy 2011 events that transpired in the realm of Skratula.

• My very first film project- a student short that I wrote and directed- was screened as an official selection by the 2011 Worldfest Houston International Film Festival, where it won a Platinum Remi (1st prize) for comedy. 
• Although I swore I’d never get involved in film production again, I took on another student film project with the help from some lovely and helpful people. Never Mind the Bolsheviks has since been screened at a couple of film festivals.
• After a wonderful school year under the tutelage of renowned writer Susan Swan, I graduated from the Humber School of Writers. One of my short stories was subsequently published by Storychord Magazine. A longer piece is presently being submitted to magazines for publishing consideration. My mentor advised me to go for the gold and aim for prestigious magazines. Here’s to hoping it gets published soon!
• Minus Lara (a short film I wrote) was screened at the 2011 Yorkton Film Festival, where it was nominated for a Golden Sheaf Award. It went on to screen at the 2011 Edmonton International Film Festival, and won a “Best of Canada Award” at the 2011 Reel Rave International Film Festival.
• I applied to the Canadian Film Centre Writers’ Lab for the second year in a row. My first interview in 2010 was a trip- I had little film experience asides from three spec feature scripts I wrote on a lark, and my resume was glutted with architecture and design skills. Unsurprisingly, I was advised to get more experience and try again the next year. After garnering some knowledge by way of taking a production class and making a couple of student shorts, I applied again in 2011 and was accepted. 

• My boyfriend made me a wonderful birthday cake that was a love letter to Angry Birds. Every bit as tasty as it was amazing.
• My time as a screenwriting resident at the Canadian Film Centre was wacky to say the least. To be suddenly immersed into a comprehensive filmmaker training program was intense and rollicking but an ultimately wonderful experience. My fellow residents are a wildly talented and eclectic bunch, and it was inspiring to see the progression of their respective creative voices. We had classes and workshops with many accomplished professionals including Paul Haggis, John Patrick Shanley, Guillermo del Toro, Mike H. White (who I now have a crush on), and Don McKellar. 
• At the centre, I developed two screenplays through intense workshopping and story editing sessions, worked on several film exercises with fellow residents, and had one of my screenplays read by some impressive actors. A casting agent assigned the lead role to my apparent doppelgänger Sareena Parmar…who read the role of a character based on my teenage self! You can assure that the two of us threw around plenty of “there can be only one” Highlander jokes.

• I travelled to the south of France for my older sister’s wedding. It was probably the most beautiful and idyllic ceremony I ever attended, comprised of bonding with family members and eating delicious food while surrounded by lush, natural beauty and vernacular architecture. Coming back home though was fairly anticlimactic. Don’t even think of deluding yourself into believing that Tim Horton’s croissants and crappy LCBO wine will cut it after days of fresh continental food. I’m now strategizing how and when I can move to the south of France whilst making a go of my screenwriting thing. 

• The Canadian Film Centre residents were provided with passes to the Toronto International Film Festival and advised to watch “no less than three movies a day”. I spent two weeks watching films from all over the world, networking, and indulging on gourmet meals provided by complimentary filmmaker lounges. At one point I “complained” to my disgusted boyfriend that I was growing weary of high end food, and craved nosh devoid of nuances and delicately meshed textures. Ah, first world problems. 

• I wasn’t particularly taken aback by the movies I saw, but two really resonated: Lovely Molly, which blew me away, and Monsieur Lazhar, which has since been submitted to the Academy Awards as Canada’s official selection for best foreign film. Lovely Molly, helmed by Eduardo Sanchez of Blair Witch fame, didn’t seem to impress others but I loved it. It was suspenseful and claustrophobic in the vein of “Tenant” era Roman Polanski, which likely disappointed viewers expecting more mainstream horror fare. I’m hoping it gets a lot more exposure and finds an audience among scaredy cats like me who appreciate spot-on sound mixing and exquisitely structured, slow-burn plot progression. 
• I began part one of film production for a new short film called Render and busted my green screen cherry. Part two cannot ensue until part one has been edited and polished in the SFX suite. Which gives me a healthy amount of time to raise the requisite funds for the next stage of production. While my previous student projects didn’t skimp on outsourcing sound, DOP work, and editing, I’ve taken a fairly DYI approach to filmmaking thus far- mostly relying on myself and friends to look after AD, continuity, grip work, and line production tasks. From here on though I’m hiring people to look after more minor production duties. My time at the film centre has taught me that getting others to look after things that divert you from more creative aspects is well worth the money!

• My CFC graduation exercise was screened for industry professionals at the Varsity Theatre in Toronto. It was a film teaser for a screenplay I’m presently penning, which is a genre take on my own experiences as a first generation Canadian. I’m happy to report that it got a favourable response, and I’m now being encouraged by interested parties to finish the screenplay!

A wack load of other stuff happened, but this is all I can think of at present. It’s interesting to compare this list with last year’s. Maybe next year’s will be just as stuffed with events and epochs. Onwards and upwards!

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The most beautiful actress in the world (in my opinion at least)