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Micheal Williams Quote

“That movie [Lostin Translation] was done
with minimal equipment.When I met
Lance [Acord] I had been accustomed to
working on large-scale movies and being
encumbered and enamored with all ofthe
equipment, so much so thatthe humanity
can getlost. I’ve since become very
interested in working light. It’s not because
ofthe economics, butrather because it
brings you closerto your subjects. So often
the machinery of ourindustry distracts us,
and we lose touch with what we are hired
to do. I find ittruly rewarding to be able to
getthe striking results we achieved on this
spot with such a simple approach.”
—Michael Williams,Director

Thank you Kodak. Your pdf on film crews contained this quote.

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This time of year is getting old

This has nothing to do with me hating summer or even being upset with a northern climate’s summer (which doesn’t feel like summer at all). This is about finding funding for school next September.
Of course I get a loan. I look around for scholarships. I search out job opportunities that won’t interfere with my loan funding. I apply to government grants that give money to people like me. I do ok. I’m not complaining.
It’s a tedious process, even frustrating as sky-rocketing tuition fees glare at you from college payment statements and I wonder why, why is the government doing this to their biggest investment in the future? It’s like bad parenting, crippling kids with massive debts right from the beginning of their potential. Well, if you pay attention to news, you would see a lot of whining from students anyway. Let’s shed some positive light on this volatile topic.
I learn the burden of debt at a young age. I learn to strategize, to plan ahead, to seek out solutions. $50,000 in debt by the time I’m done school, but I have an education, right? I’m a human being with a creative process designed to survive from year to year. I am only a victim if I choose to be a victim.
Doesn’t make me happy what my country is doing to students. But they are like parents. Even bad parents are still your parents and I appreciate being in a country that has mechanisms to get me into school, even if they are flawed mechanisms.
I still hate this time of year. It’s a pain.

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3D Moviemaking: Stereoscopic Digital Cinematography From Script to Screen

By Bernard Mendiburu

Just finished reading this book. Very informative. Almost too detailed, but by using the techniques outlined in this book, 3D is, as they say, logically feasible. ANyone thinking about 3D has to read this book.

Free copies are availlble online, though they have some material removed. Of course you may buy this book from Amazon or your favourite book store.

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Women In View on TV 2013

http://www.womeninview.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Women-in-View-on-screen_web-1.pdf

These findings don’t shock me. In the world I occupy, things are more or less run by men.  Women do get pushed into tasks that in any other industry would be seen as gender discrimination.

I’m also not offended. My experiences with film and theatre make me think that it is woefully old fashioned. Its inner processes are having a hard time catching up with the social and technological progress made in the Northern hemisphere. So I don’t complain. I merely wait. Findings like this will lead to a massive spike in female employment. Someone else will get angry and force the gender discrimination to stop. That’s when I’ll be there script in hand, development in place, female crew standing by my side.  All women looking to enter this industry should do the same.

For the men, let me remind you that diversity is key for any population to thrive in the long term..

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I Read What I Want!

I took a 3D workshop. The instructor gives us a book reference, explains that this book is very thick and proceeds to say “You don’t need it, so why would you read it?”

Excuse me? I read what I want.

I’m 100 pages in. I barely understand it, but what the (insert long string of curse words) is he doing saying we shouldn’t read it because we don’t have to?

Colleges. universities are disappearing because no one wants to sit around and read anymore. Fair enough. Reading is still a good thing. Encourage it.

Well, anyway, he was a workshop teacher and not really a professor. I’m reading it. I enjoy it.

Of course, the brain has a peculiar time understanding some negatives. So saying “You don’t need it” turns into “You do need it”. Try it sometime. My brain understood it as insistence that I do read this book. 

Good thing I like reading.

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Filmmaker’s Bio Updated

Check out what is new that I’ve done.

Awhile back I posted something about my major upcoming projects and it seems like few of those projects ever saw the light of day. What I finished instead, though, is pretty cool. Most of it was done with a group, or an organization coming up to us and seeing if we wanted to help them make a film. Filmmaking is best when done with a community and I am so blessed to be part of this tiny, limited yet enthusiastic community.

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The Colony

So, a year ago, my teacher announces an open call audition for background for a movie being shot in North Bay where they want lots of skinny people. It was a Laurence Fishburne movie and that was all we knew. I went. I didn’t get it, but my roommate got a role as background, as one of the Ferals. It was in the back of our minds for a year. Last night, The Colony directed by Jeff Renfroe opened in North Bay, Canada. It was the world premiere. There was an exhibition at the Galaxy Cinema courtesy of the Canadian Forces Museum of Aerospace Defense. They were selling water bottles and the label was made of seeds, so that you could plant the label and something would grow. It was neat.

There were opening remarks made by Mayor Al MacDonald, mayor of North Bay, Colonel Conrad Namiesiowksi, 22 Wing Commander in North Bay, and Paul Barkin, producer of The Colony. 

The we watched the movie. I won’t spoil it except to point out a unique feature in the setting. It was shot in the old N.O.R.A.D. underground complex located in North Bay about 600 feet underground. The old first line of defense against the Soviets was used to shoot this post-apocalyptic Ice Age movie. It was weirdly spooky to see Cold War facilities used for this purpose.

One more thing. One of the themes in it was that people under extreme conditions will destroy themselves and each other. In a post-apocalyptic ice age, there is a risk that the extreme cold, the starvation and the hardship will strip away your humanity. Some movies, like Resident Evil, take this theme and then make the characters superhuman, almost by default as movie builds on movie. Makes a great movie but the action is not so believable of  humans as we know them. The Colony kept the action on a very human level, instead of being big and flashy. Again, spooky, because it felt like if anyone was put in that situation, that is how they would behave, with cruelty and savagery. It gets scarier the more you think about it and those shadows linger.

Awesome Canadian film. Yeah, when did you ever think you would hear that?