july - august 2010 : reel west magazine
DESCRIPTION
Magazine for the Digital, Film and Television IndustryTRANSCRIPT
Vancouver-based producerMarc Stephenson has gone
FROM THE FRINGE TO FOX
JUL / AUG 2010 $5.00
FILM, VIDEO, INTERNETAND DIGITAL PRODUCTION
IN WESTERN CANADA
PLUS: The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom Q&A: Robert Luketic Personal Stories Beginnings: Rob Sim
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3 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
4 PRODUCTION UPDATE
5 BITS AND BYTES
10 BEGINNINGS
12 BEHIND THE SCENES
14 QUESTION AND ANSWER
15 EXPERT WITNESS
29 LEGAL BRIEFS
30 FINAL EDIT
16 KEEPING IT PERSONAL Western Canadian fi lmmakers have been writing what they know for decades. However,
the approach is different now. Instead of writing dramatic features based on memory, some fi lmmakers are telling personal stories about their own lives and those of their fami-lies through documentary features and shorts.
20 EXTERIOR MOTIVES Although interprovincial co-productions are one of the better ways of getting movies
made, Quebec fi lmmakers don’t usually need to leave home. The Quebec-based produc-ers of the prairie-set period piece The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom knew they couldn’t fi nd the appropriate exteriors at home but still had to shoot half their fi lm in Quebec in order to qualify for funding from SODEC.
24 FROM THE FRINGE TO FOX Executives at “quirky comedy” factory Fox Searchlight think The F-Word, which is sched-
uled for a 2012 release, will be a big hit. In his diary, Vancouver-based producer Marc Stephenson, who discovered the original script at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, looks back on the disappointments, the endless meetings and the day he realized the studio would be making him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
CONTENTS
COVER: VANCOUVER-BASED PRODUCER MARC STEPHENSON; PHOTO BY PHIL CHIN ABOVE: THE GREY FAMILY AT THE KITCHEN TABLE (THE YEAR DOLLY PARTON WAS MY MOM); PHOTO BY SÉBASTIEN RAYMOND FOR PALOMAR
REEL WEST MAGAZINE IS A WHOLLY OWNED ENTERPRISE OF REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. IT EXISTS AND IS MANAGED TO PROVIDE PUBLICITY AND ADVERTISING THAT SUPPORTS THE GROWTH OF THE WESTERN CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY.
EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER: SANDY P. FLANAGAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: IAN CADDELL. PUBLISHER: RON HARVEY SALES: RANDY HOLMES. CREATIVE DIRECTOR: ANDREW VON ROSEN. ART DIRECTOR: LINDSEY ATAYA. PHOTO EDITOR: PHILLIP CHIN. REEL WEST MAGAZINE IS
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$35.00 PER YEAR (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO US). BOTH PUBLICATIONS $60.00 (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA) PRICES INCLUDE GST. COPYRIGHT 2009 REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. SECOND CLASS MAIL. REGISTRATION NO. 0584002. ISSN 0831-5388. G.S.T.
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REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 20104
PRODUCTION UPDATE
What’s coming. What’s shooting. What’s wrapped.
If you ever wanted to hear theories
on the origins of two fi ctional icons,
you should probably pay attention to
the plots of a couple of new movies
calling Vancouver home this summer.
Rise of the Apes is being billed as “an
origin story” that looks at how genetic
engineering led to the development of
intelligence in apes and the onset of
a war for supremacy. Meanwhile, the
Little Red Riding Hood legend gets a
twist or two from veteran director
Catherine Hardwicke.
Hardwicke directs Amanda Sey-
fried in the latest version, Red Rid-
ing Hood, which tells the story with
a backdrop of a Romeo and Juliet
style romance between a young girl
and an orphaned woodcutter. It has
Jim Rowe as executive producer,
Jennifer Killoran and Julie Yorn as
producers, Mandy Walker as DOP,
Tom Sanders as production design-
er, Brendan Ferguson as production
manager, Nicole Oguchi as produc-
tion coordinator, Hans Dayal as lo-
cations manager and Joel Whist as
special eff ects coordinator.
Apes has Th omas Hammel as ex-
ecutive producer with Peter Chernin
and Dylan Clark as producers, An-
drew Lesnie as the DOP, Claude
Pare as production designer, Wendy
Williams as production manager,
Patricia Foster as production coor-
dinator, Catou Kearney as location
manager and Tony Lazarowich as
special eff ects coordinator.
Th e television pilot Th e Killing was
shot in May and tells three separate
stories against the backdrop of a po-
lice investigation into a murder. It
has Patty Jenkins directing, Veena
Sud, Mikkel Bondesen and Kristen
Campo as executive producers, Ron
French producing, Craig Forrest as
production manager, Jennifer Aich-
olz as production coordinator and
Kent Sponagle as location manger
Here in May and June was the
television movie Killer Mountain
which had Sheldon Wilson di-
recting, Chris Bartleman and Jeff
Schenck as executive producers,
Charles Bishop as producer, Trac-
ey Jardine as supervising producer,
Jamie Goehring as line producer/
production manager, Renee Read
as production designer, Alison Ste-
phen as production coordinator and
Jaime Lake as location manager.
Th e television movie Th e Fairly
Odd Parents was scheduled to spend
much of July in Vancouver and had
Savage Holland directing with Scott
McAboy and Lauren Levine as ex-
ecutive producers, Jon Joffi n as the
DOP, Richard Hudolin as the pro-
duction designer, Michael Potkins
as the production manager, Lisa Ra-
gosin as the production coordinator
and David Tamkin as the location
manager.
Th e USA network series Facing
Kate is about a lawyer who leaves the
family fi rm to become a mediator
after her father dies. It has Michael
Sardo and Steve Stark as executive
producers with Clara George as
producer, Ricardo Spinace as the
production designer, Erin Smith and
Geoff Teoli as production and unit
managers, respectively, Michelle
Parzentny as the production coor-
dinator and Monty Bannister as the
location manager. ■
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Fiction a fact of BC industry life
5 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
Olympics Treatment for LilithTh e Vancouver-based 2010 Lilith Tour will get the kind
of treatment reserved for the Olympics, according to
CTV. Th e network says the tour will be covered by
a multi-network consortium, much like the coverage
given the 2010 Winter Olympics. CTV spokesperson
Jennifer Corelli said that in addition to the main net-
work, coverage will include MuchMusic, MTV, Bravo!,
the CHUM radio net-
work and CTV News
network. She said the
tour will also receive
regular updates on
www.lilith.ctv.ca
Corelli said the
neworks’ support will
include the building
of awareness for the
tour’s charitable initia-
tives across Canada.
She said CTV is
producing and airing
a national 30-second
public service an-
nouncement. Th e
Lilith Tour is choosing a charity in each of the fi ve
Canadian cities to support during the festival. She said
that to date, Lilith Fair has raised over $10M for wom-
en’s charities across North America.
Th e Canadian leg of the tour, which runs through-
out the summer, will feature Sarah Mclachlan, Mary
J. Blige, Sheryl Crow, Kelly Clarkson and Chantal
Kreviazuk, among others.
BITS AND BYTES
School Goes 3DThe Government of Canada recently announced it was giving Vancouver’s Emily Carr Uni-
versity of Art and Design $530,000 toward the purchase of equipment and the developing
of its Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) Centre of Excellence in digital media and fi lm technologies.
“British Columbia has a vibrant fi lmmaking industry and today’s investment will pro-
vide the necessary resources so this industry can remain competitive in the West,”
said Lynne Yelich, federal Minister of State for Western Economic Diversifi cation.
Western Diversifi cation spokesperson Lisa Hutniak said the S3D centre will be housed
in Emily Carr’s Intersections Digital Studios. She said the new initiative will “strengthen”
Emily Carr’s applied research and collaboration with industry and will result in the only
western Canadian S3D fi lm-making technology research and training program.
“We are grateful to the Government of Canada for recognizing the need for this
type of investment,” said Dr. Ron Burnett, Emily Carr President & Vice-Chancellor.
“This funding will allow us to grow the capabilities of the Centre and lead the country
in ground-breaking S3D technology research, education and training.” Hutniak said
the investment will give the BC fi lm industry “a leading position” through training and
applied research in production and post-production for S3D technology.
Distribution 360 Makes Change Canadian production company Distribution360 announced at the recent Banff Televi-
sion Festival that it is entering into the multi-platform entertainment distribution arena.
Spokesperson René d’Entremont said that the company’s mandate is “the full mon-
etization of television and interactive content.” She said Distribution360 focuses on
children’s, youth, drama and factual programming on traditional and emerging plat-
forms for distribution to international audiences.
“At Distribution360, we strive to provide the best possible client service to produc-
ers and broadcasters internationally,” said managing director Stéphanie Röckmann-
Portier. “We take a client-centered approach, which allows us to represent programs
and content to potential buyers in the most compelling way.”
Distribution360 was co-founded by two Canadian production companies: marble-
media and SEVEN24 Films. Dentrement said the company brings unique expertise to
the table from different areas in the entertainment industry, including a proven track
record within new media.
Restoration to ContinueThe Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television recently announced that it will contin-
ue the fi lm and television-related programming of the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust,
including the Astral Restoration Program. The Trust, which protected and promoted
Canada’s audiovisual heritage, folded in the fall of 2009.
“As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, it is particularly fi tting that we have been
provided this unique opportunity to broaden the scope of our work to include the res-
toration and preservation of Canadian fi lm and television,” said the Academy’s Sara
Morton. “Understanding and honouring our artistic heritage enhances our apprecia-
tion for the works we recognize annually through our Awards shows. We are proud to
continue the efforts of the AV Trust and look forward to preserving and promoting our
country’s rich and dynamic fi lm and television history.”
Academy spokesperson Judy Lung said the Astral Restoration Program, which
was introduced in 2000, has restored and re-released a number of fi lms including
Loyalties Les bons débarras, and Seul ou avec d’autres.
SA
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CH
LIN
Vancouver-based director John Za-
ritsky’s fi lm about a Vancouver stand
up comic dying of Lou Gehrig’s dis-
ease has won the Special Jury Prize
at May’s Hot Docs documentary fi lm
festival in Toronto.
Leave Th em Laughing follows Car-
la Zilbersmith in her battle with Lou
Gehrig’s disease. Th e jury said the
fi lm told the story of “an unimagin-
ably horrifying disease that draws us
in rather than making us turn away.
Th e subject is someone approaching
death, but the fi lm is about how to
live. We admire it most for bring-
ing us into an intimate relationship
between a mother and son without
feeling voyeuristic or manipulative.”
Sponsored by the Brian Linehan
Charitable Foundation, the award
features a $10,000 prize.
Th e fi lm was one of three Cana-
dian fi lms to fi nish in the top ten
for the festival’s audience award. It
fi nished fi fth while John Walker’s A
Drummer’s Dream fi nished second
and Juan Baquero’s Listen to Th is
fi nished seventh. Th e winner was an
American fi lm, Th under Soul. Ac-
cording to executive director Chris
McDonald, the festival showed 170
fi lms and brought more than 150
fi lmmakers and special guest sub-
jects to Toronto.
Laughing leaves them voting
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 20106
A new Knowledge Network docu-
mentary fi lm about BC’s leading
artists explores how each artist’s
approach and style is infl uenced
by their location. According to a
spokesperson for cArtographies, the
fi lm examines both the challenges
and inspirations of their geographic
surroundings.
Katharine Brodsky says direc-
tor Brian Johnson profi les several
BC-based artists including visual
artist Stan Douglas, musician Jes-
se Zubot, singer-songwriter Veda
Hille, dancer and choreographer
Crystal Pite, writer Michael Turn-
er, fi lmmaker Fumiko Kiyooka,
theatre performer Paul Ternes,
and painter Renee van Halm.
Brodsky says Johnson
“uses performance, documentary,
and experimental fi lmmaking to take
viewers on a unique journey through
the worlds of these powerful artists.”
She says Johnson used four themes.
Th ey included Vancouver as a post-
modern utopia, the proximity of na-
ture, the freedom of the frontier, and
community. “cArtographies,” she says,
“responds to questions on why these
visionaries choose to live where
they live, how physical and cultural
environment might infl uence their
work, and how their varied processes
work,” she says.
Th e fi lm was produced and co-
written by Leah Mallen of Twofold
Films and edited and co-directed by
Brendan Woollard with music by
composer John Korsrud. Th e Know-
ledge Network’s Murray Battle was
the executive producer.
Doc Unveils BC Artists
Monster and FriendsA short fi lm about a girl’s journey to feed an elusive mon-
ster lurking in the woods is currently in post production.
Monster stars Jodelle Ferland, a co-star of Twilight Saga:
Eclipse and lead actress in Terry Gilliam’s Tideland.
According to director Debra Burns-Johnson the
fi lm’s script won the 3rd Annual Hot Shot Shorts Con-
test. Th e award includes $20,000 in in-kind services
and cash donations from the Vancouver fi lm commu-
nity. Th e contest also gives 100% of its proceeds to the
fi lmmaker for costs inevitably incurred in production.
Monster was directed by Burns-Johnson and pro-
duced by Timo Puolitaipale with Jon Joffi n the DOP
and Rich Johnson the editor and VFX producer.
Burns-Johnson said Monster is also utilizing online
crowd funding through Indiegogo and working with
Vancouver-based movieset.com on promotion.
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7 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
NEWREBATES
Winnipeg Appealsto CrowdWinnipeg was home to Oscar-nominated writer/
director Julien Magnat’s feature debut Faces In Th e
Crowd this past spring. Th e psychological thriller, a
Manitoba/Saskatchewan co-production, stars Milla
Jovovich and Julian McMahon. A spokesperson,
Richelle Bourgouin, says the movie was made with
key technical and creative personnel from both
provinces. “Principal photography took place in
Manitoba and post-production including all com-
puter generated visual eff ects will be completed in
Saskatchewan,” she said.
According to Bourgoin, Magnat’s script tells the
story of a school teacher (Jovovich) who is attacked
by a serial killer and survives, but is left to struggle
with a neurological disorder commonly referred
to as face-blindness (prosopagnosia). Only able to
recognize voices she fi ghts to adapt to her diagnosis
and the ever-changing faces of those around her.
Working with a detective (McMahon) she races to
identify her attacker. Meanwhile the killer is closing
in determined to eliminate the potential witness.
In addition to Jovovich and McMahon the cast
includes Michael Shanks, David Atrakchi, Sarah
Wayne Callies and Marianne Faithful. Th e fi lm is
being produced by Saskatchewan’s Minds Eye Enter-
tainment and Winnipeg’s Frantic Films with Fore-
cast Pictures and Radar Films. Th e producers are
Kevin DeWalt, Jean-Charles Lévy, Clément Mis-
erez, and Jamie Brown, Scott Mednick and Sylvain
White. Th e executive producers are Christopher
Petzel and Jovovich.
MIL
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OV
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Formerly Production Equipment Rentals
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REEL WEST WAS THERE in Vancouver on June 5th for the 2010 Leo Awards and in Banff June 13-16 for the Banff World Television Awards. Award recipients and attendees photographed by Phil Chin.
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2010 LEO AWARDS (AND THE WINNER IS...)2010 LEO AWARDS (AND THE WIINNER IS...) 1. Costume Design, Short Drama JENNIFER SHARPE 2. Direction, Dramatic Series BRENTON SPENCER 3. Male Suppporting Performance, Dramatic Series CHRISTOPHER HEYERDAHL 4. Direction/Storyboarding/Screenwriting, Animation PHILLIP IVANUSIC, DAVILA LEBLANC, ASAPH FIPKE, KEN FAIER, CHUCK JOHNSON 5. Musical Score, Documentary DAN GAGNON 6. Screen Writing, Documentary CATHARINE PARKE 7. Direction, Youth Program JB SUGAR 8. Direction, Documentary Program PETE MCCORMACK 9. Student Production DAWSON TOLLS 10. Feature Length Docurmentary Program DERIK MURRAY, PAUL GERTZ, PETE MCCORMACK and CREW 11. Direction, Short Drama ANA VALINE 2010 BANFF WORLD TELEVISION FESTIVAL2010 BBANFF WORLD TELEVISIONN FESTIVAL 1. Speaker/Presenter DAVID SUZUKI having fun with RCMP offi cers 2. Actor/Producer ILLEANA DOUGLAS 3. Multi winner for Life 4. Actor/Director JASON PRIESTLY and wife 5. Comedy Award Recipient RICKY GERVAIS 6. Actors ZAIB SHAIKH, KENNY HOTZ, ERIC MCCORMACK and JASON PRIESTLY 7. MARNI FULLERTON, SANDY FLANNIGAN and attendee 8. Green Grand Prize winner LOUIE PSIHOYOS 9. Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient WILLIAM SHATNER 10. Producers NIMISHA MUKERJI, JOHN RITCHIE, PHILIP LYALL 11. Grand Jury Prize PHILIPPE MULLER
9 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
Wapos WrapsOne of western Canada’s longest running animated se-
ries will be back this fall on APTN. According to Wa-
pos Bay spokesperson Tera McGuire the fi fth season
of the show recently wrapped production. “Th is year
we will have completed eight new episodes of Wapos
Bay,” said Dennis Jackson, the show’s producer. “We
have new sets and new characters, one of which will
be David Suzuki playing himself as an environmental
warrior in a futuristic post apocalyptic world.”
Th e stop motion series, which is set on a reservation in
northern Saskatchewan, was created by Jackson and his
wife, Melanie Jackson, and is based on Dennis Jackson’s
Cree culture and childhood experiences in Sandy Bay,
Saskatchewan. McGuire said the world depicted in Wa-
pos Bay originated in a short story Jackson wrote in high
school. She says that in his fi nal year of fi lm studies at the
University of Regina, Jackson took the story and made
a short fi lm that went on to win the Telefi lm Canada/
Television Northern Canada Award for Best Aboriginal
Production at the 1998 Banff Television Festival.
McGuire said the show’s list of awards includes three
Geminis, two Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival
Golden Sheafs, two Showcase Awards, two imag-
ineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Awards, a 2009
Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) Award of
Excellence, and a 2009 Elan Award for Best Director
for an Animated Production.
A BC production company recently
premiered a fi lm about an activist
and a retired sex worker who push
the legal limits of prostitution and
open a co-op brothel operated by
sex workers.
Th e Brothel Project, which was
nominated for a 2010 Leo Award for
best short documentary premiered
in June on the Global network.
Written by Gillian Hranowski and
directed by April Butler-Parry, it
follows Jody Paterson and Lauren
Casey as they challenge mainstream
thinking by opening their brothel in
Victoria.
Shot in New Zealand and Victoria,
the fi lm was narrated by Vancouver
actor Carly Pope and produced by
Force Four Productions.
Brothel Open
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201010
Although I was born in
Michigan where my fa-
ther was attending uni-
versity, I grew up on a
farm in the Ottawa Valley. I learned
about hard work from my parents
who, in addition to running a large
farm, were educators and sociologists.
I attended Sir George Williams Uni-
versity for two years where I was fi rst
introduced to television production.
But I couldn’t resist joining a friend in
San Francisco during the “summer of
love.” I made new friends in California
and somehow we came up with the
idea of going to Amsterdam. Th ere we
undertook an impossible dream.... the
building of a 55’ schooner. Along with
a small crew, I lived the hippie life on a
barge and at the same time organized
the construction of Th e Stone Maid-
en. I spent much of the 70’s sailing the
Mediterranean and when it was time
to wind down, we took her across the
Atlantic. It was now the late 70’s and
my partner and I decided to sell our
boat. It was the proceeds from this
enterprise that fi nanced the purchase
of my fi rst camera. It was around
this time that I met my wife Peggy,
while on a shoot in New York City. I
remember that I was in the process
of incorporating a company and try-
ing to decide on a name. Peggy said,
“Why not, simply, Sim Video Produc-
tions?” And so it was.
Freelancing was tough and we
were expecting the fi rst of our two
sons. I remember Peggy’s disappoint-
ment when I came home from a job
interview at the CBC with the news
that they would not hire me. But, as
time would prove, we made the best
of it! Our fi rst “offi ce” was a walk
up over a Roti shop in a run-down
neighborhood of Toronto. Th en it
was the basement of a small house in
the West End.
Right from the beginning, I was
privileged to work with many up and
coming television producers and high
profi le corporate clients. It was ap-
parent that there was a growing de-
mand for broadcast video equipment
rentals and most rental houses were
still focusing on fi lm. I took my small
nest egg and purchased the Ikegami
HL-79 which was the “hot” camera at
that time. I quickly spread word to let
all my contacts know I had a camera
available for rent. Th e response was
amazing and we found steady work
for it almost instantly.
For the fi rst while, Peggy and I han-
dled everything ourselves, operating
the company right from our home.
Peggy would take bookings and handle
client calls while I would check equip-
ment and make sure it was ready for
the next job. I also continued to work
as a freelancer going out on jobs with
our camera packages, using any extra
income to invest in more cameras,
lenses and accessories.
By 1989, our business was growing.
At this point, we had two full time
employees and four camera packages
and we were physically outgrowing
the confi nes of our basement opera-
tion. We knew we had to seek out a
BEGINNINGS
Rob Sim President & CEO, Sim Video International Inc.
11 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
more functional offi ce space for our
staff and one that would allow us to
increase our inventory.
Making the move to secure a more
suitable location and taking on a
lease, overhead and all the costs asso-
ciated was a tough decision to make.
Th e 80’s were a diffi cult time for many
small businesses and interest rates
were at an all time high at 18%! As
trying as these times were, we knew
that we couldn’t hold off on making
the move. However, we were very
careful to not overextend ourselves.
We found a small offi ce in downtown
Toronto where we decided to set up
our fi rst shop and it felt incredible to
put our sign above that door.
Once we moved in we were able to
better service our clients. With a lot
of hard work we were able to secure
contracts with many of Canada’s
leading broadcasters, cameramen
and production companies like CBC,
CTV, Global, Alliance Atlantis, In-
sight, Shaftesbury and Barna Alper
Productions (all of whom we are still
doing business with today). Our cli-
ents were extremely loyal and it was
these relationships that helped us
weather through the recession and
still grow in the process. We con-
tinued to acquire more equipment,
more staff and more clients than any
other video equipment rental house
in the city.
By 1991, we were approached with
our fi rst expansion opportunity. Pro-
duction was booming in British Co-
lumbia and we decided that it would
make an ideal location for another
Sim Video offi ce. From there, we ex-
panded our inventory to include Avid
post technologies, off ering the fi rst
non-linear editing systems available
for rent in Western Canada. Our fi rst
post project was Far From Home: Th e
Adventures of Yellow Dog, which was
sadly the late Phillip Borsos’ last fea-
ture production. In 1994, Sim Video
West capitalized on the increased
demand for specialized playback
services by securing multiple season
contracts with high profi le shows
like Th e X-Files and went on to claim
its place as a leading provider of play-
back services in Vancouver.
More and more Hollywood proj-
ects began shooting in Vancouver
and using our services. With our LA-
based client list growing, our next
logical step led us to open an offi ce
in Hollywood and by 1999 we were
offi cially operating in three of the
world’s busiest production centers.
Around that time, the introduc-
tion of high defi nition cameras rep-
resented our most pivotal moment
as a company. Th e technology was
innovative and the picture quality
was like nothing we’d experienced
in the video world before. We knew
that HD would defi nitely change the
landscape of production and that we
had a small window of opportunity
to become leaders in this area. Th at
is, if we could master the equipment
quickly enough.
Sony’s fi rst digital high-defi nition
camera, the HDW-700, carried a
steep price tag but we wanted to be
at the forefront of this digital revo-
lution. We invested immediately
and became the fi rst rental house in
Canada to off er these cameras, pro-
viding two 700s for the world’s fi rst
HD television series, Lexx for Salter
Street Films in Halifax. Even though
there was a huge learning curve we
knew our early adoption would pay
off . We had two very skilled engi-
neers working for us (who still work
with us today) and we knew that
their work would be pivotal in ensur-
ing clients felt comfortable using the
new technology. Sony was also very
supportive when it came to ensuring
that clients using their cameras were
well taken care of.
Sim Video then went on to provide
Sony F900 camera packages to shoot
Earth: Final Confl ict; the world’s fi rst
24P HD production. After that, we
were seen as leaders when it came
to HD equipment. Th at’s when our
real growth began! Both shows re-
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We continued to stay ahead of our
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REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201012
PH
OT
O P
HIL
LIP
CH
IN
13 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
BEHIND THE SCENES
Almost twenty years after it made its professional debut at a maxi-
mum security prison in Montreal, the Vancouver-based Under-
ground Circus is an established member of the Canadian entertain-
ment scene. And it has also blossomed into a regular contributor
to the western Canadian fi lm scene through stunt and dance work.
Th e Circus was created by Peter Boulanger and Ninon Parent, two former
members of Cirque Du Soleil, and alumni of Montreal’s L’école National du
Cirque. Boulanger says they started it as a way of training friends who were
interested in the circus arts. “We started out just sharing our skills for fun,”
he says. “However, after a couple of years, a few of our friends had developed
their skills to the point where they asked us if they could join in our shows.”
Boulanger and Parent moved Th e Underground Circus to Vancouver in
1992. Th ere seemed to be a strong interest in the Vancouver community for
a circus group and Th e Underground Circus almost immediately developed a
reputation for strong technique, innovative apparatus, and attention to detail.
Some of the fi rst connections they made in the fi lm industry were through
the stunt community. “Some great BC stunt performers did shows with us when
they were fi rst getting into fi lm,” says Boulanger. “Th ere’s a lot of similarity in the
risk and physical skills involved, plus, of course, the emphasis on performance.
Ninon and I still work in stunts, and we’re very glad that our circus training has
helped us with the general movement sense that’s so critical for stunts”
Training is still a priority for Parent and Boulanger but the company is
involved in every aspect of its shows. Boulanger says they don’t leave any-
thing to chance. “We train people who are passionate about the circus arts,
to raise their skills in performance and acrobatics to a professional level but
we also build the circus apparatus and explore movement and performance
in these new environments. We create the circus productions, either working
in partnership or alone. And we have a range of shows. We can provide small
one or two act shows and we can create elaborate corporate spectacle.”
Naturally, there are many stories that have developed after almost 20 years
of circus life. “We have taken the show on the road a lot,” says Parent. “We
were one of the main acts on the outdoor stage at (the Montreal comedy fes-
tival) Juste Pour Rire and we did a birthday party for a Malaysian Princess in
Hollywood. We’ve performed with 12 diff erent symphony orchestras and last
Christmas we were doing shows in Hong Kong.”
There have also been a few crazy days in their home province. “One
show idea Peter created had me and three other women doing a synchro-
nized silk act over the wing of a Boeing 737 for the BCIT Aereospace
Campus,” she says. “We were doing hand to hand balancing on the wings
too, which was wild. There was another time that we floated a contor-
tionist inside a transparent sphere on one of the pools at the Vancouver
Aquarium. That took a lot of testing. We had to be very careful not to
freak out the fish. If they get scared, they forget there’s this giant glass wall
in front of them…”
Under the heading of grand spectacle you can fi nd the creating of a huge
puppet for the opening of the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. “I
designed and built a 10 meter high puppet,” says Boulanger. “It was a mari-
onette. Th e cool part is that we made it capable of picking up circus acts in its
hands. It’s the largest marionette in North America, and the only one in the
world designed to carry circus acts.”
Parent says the Underground Circus was very active during the recent Van-
couver Winter Olympics. “We did the circus entertainment for both the Sam-
sung and Coca Cola pavilions at the David Lam Park Live Site,” she says. “We
programmed several nights at the Commodore, including one mass fl ash mob
dance of over forty dancers. And we poured vodka from one of our circus ap-
paratuses at the Russian pavilion in Science World. I think we ended up hiring
almost 90 performers during the Olympics”
Boulanger admits that the creating of specialized events takes a lot of re-
hearsal. He says the group recently opened their own facility to develop new
concepts and to rehearse the company. “We love our space”, says Boulanger.
“Our fl oors are all semi-sprung. Th ere is just enough spring to reduce impact,
without losing stability. It’s got high ceilings, and any kind of rigging we want
to put in. And it’s not just for us. We intend that it be used for the perfor-
mance community for anything involving rehearsal and production in circus,
dance, theatre, fi lm, stunts. If it is movement related, we can host it.”
Parent says the future looks busy. “We’re writing a show that we hope to
have in BC theatres this autumn and we’ve got a string of corporate shows be-
fore then that we’ll have to do a lot of prep for. We’re going to keep developing
our space, putting in diff erent rigging and equipment. And we will be training.
We’re always training” ■
Practice made perfect for Underground Circus
portunities. As the technology con-
tinued to evolve, cameras like the
Sony F900R, F23 and F35, Phantom
HD and RED ONE convinced pro-
ducers who traditionally shot fi lm to
make the switch to digital faster than
we ever anticipated. Th is ultimately
pushed our move to even bigger of-
fi ces in Toronto, Vancouver and Los
Angeles and led us to open two more
Sim Video offi ces, in Halifax and Bei-
jing, to keep up with demand.
In 2009, we discovered a small
company while we were on-set pro-
viding 57 RED ONE cameras for a
Nike commercial shoot. Th e com-
pany, Bling Digital, reminded us of
how we started our own company
many years ago. Th ey had found a
niche market providing digital and
tape-less workfl ow solutions for RED
camera productions and they were
really making a good name for them-
selves in the industry. We found that
Bling’s on-set data management and
digital dailies services were highly
developed and accurately addressed
the needs of today’s producers. We
also recognized that their services
complemented our core business
and fi lled the grey area that existed
between our camera and post rent-
als. With all of this in mind, we ap-
proached Bling about the possibility
of combining our services and fi nally
made our plans to merge offi cially in
November last year.
Now, with over 28 years of indus-
try experience behind us, we’d say
that Sim Video’s success has been
based on a lot of hard work and prep-
aration, following our gut instincts
and building a team that shares our
passion for technology and service.
A little luck and happy clients hasn’t
hurt either! ■
Beginnings continued from page 11
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201014
Like many Australian fi lm-
makers before him Robert
Luketic attracted Holly-
wood’s attention with an
award-winning fi lm. In his case it
was the short fi lm Titsiana Booberi-
ni, the story of a girl who discov-
ers facial hair removal after being
ridiculed by other women. He was
brought to the US to direct Legally
Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon
in the summer of 2001. Th e movie
made over $100 million domesti-
cally and earned Luketic the right to
direct more American comedies.
Two years later he followed up
with Win a Date with Tad Ham-
ilton! In 2005 he made Monster In
Law with Jennifer Lopez and Jane
Fonda, who came out of retirement
to make the movie. He switched
to drama to make 21, starring
Kevin Spacey and Jim Sturgess but
switched back last year for The Ugly
Truth starring Katherin Heigl and
Gerard Butler. In 2010 he brought
Heigl back for a second comedy,
Killers, which also starred Ash-
ton Kutcher and Tom Selleck. The
movie, which was released in June,
is expected to be out on DVD this
fall. In May, Reel West Executive
Editor Ian Caddell talked to Luke-
tic about Kutcher and his Killers,
comedy’s risks and the slow death
of the DVD.
Ashton Kutcher brought you into
the fi lm. How did that process
evolve?
“Lions Gate called me and told me
they had a movie with Ashton in it
and I didn’t know that he was a pro-
ducer until I took the meeting. So I
took the meeting and they said ‘you
have to meet Ashton.’ So I went to his
house and we had two meetings. I
wanted to see what kind of producer
he would be and he is a very smart
kid. He is probably one of the best
producers I have worked with. He is
involved but also passionate. He will
waive his hours because actors have
a certain turnaround time that they
have to work and he is just there all
the time. He worked like a dog on
this movie and I will gladly direct
anything else he wants to produce.
He is great. He is super smart and a
real entrepreneur.”
Does he get in the way at all?
“No, he takes direction. He will try
anything you want him to try. He
just wants it to be good. He wants to
learn. He wants to expand himself,
so there was never any tension I can
honestly say.”
Can you talk a little about the high
risk of making comedies? We know
it is all subjective and there will al-
ways be people who don’t get the
joke. Do you ever feel uncomfort-
able or take it personally?
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Robert Luketic Comedic director and risk-taker
Kat
herin
Hei
gl a
nd A
shto
n K
utch
er s
tar
in L
uket
ic’s
Kille
rs
15 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
EXPERT WITNESS
“It’s hard to be full of yourself in Canada. If there was a motto in Canada it would be ‘who
do you think you are, eh?’ I think it is very good training to just be a person growing up
in Canada. People say a lot of things about Canada, that it is boring and stuff but if you
look around the world there is something to praise in boring. It is a very civilized world to
grow up in and I am very proud of it.” Mike Myers on being Canadian.
“When Kevin (James) texts me I laugh for fi ve minutes. I don’t write that ‘lol’ because
I am a comedian and I think other comedians will say ‘are you kidding me?’ So I just
write back ‘good one.’ (Chris) Rock is one of the funniest guys I have ever met in my
life with just summing up something and having a different slant on it where you just
think ‘that is amazingly accurate. I can’t believe that he ever thought that.’ His comedy
is just genius. There was a lot of adlibbing and a lot of jokes these guys brought. I
wasn’t shocked by anybody. Friends of ours said they loved Spade and I think that is
because they are used to the rest of us doing good work but they aren’t used to David
doing anything good.” Actor Adam Sandler on hiring his comic friends to co-star
with him in Grown Ups.
“Twitter gives me freedom of expression more than anything. I can say whatever I want
and it is unedited. I don’t have to depend on anyone else to deliver my message. I think
it gives me a connection to what people are thinking and feeling and what they are inter-
ested in and it makes me better at my job. I will have someone post things on my Face-
book fan page occasionally but I post everything on my Twitter page. People on Twitter
keep it real. For instance, if you are complaining about something that is not something
to complain about people let you know. There is always someone there to keep your
ego in check which I really appreciate.” Actor Ashton Kutcher, who set a record last
year for the most Twitter followers, on his relationship with social networks.
“I like working with young people and I like working with fi rst time directors like (Harry
Brown’s) Daniel Barber. There is something about the freshness. The young actors
that were on this fi lm were excited and prepared, sometimes too excited but it’s so
great working with young people. I was taught the Stanislavski method, which is that
rehearsals are the work and the acting is just a result of that and that’s not really a big
thing now. But I do believe in working as a team. If someone fl ubbed a line I would
fl ub mine. I think that is appropriate.” Actor Michael Caine on working with a young
cast on Harry Brown.
”The people who work forever in this business are usually the people who do the same
thing all the time. It’s much more diffi cult this way where you take a movie where you
have an accent and then you are playing a cop. They can’t pigeon hole you which is
good but they can’t say ‘this is what he does so let’s hire him for this role’ so it works
both ways. I follow my desire but this journey is tricky. It is a grind because the movies
I want to do are not the things people with money want to do.” Actor Don Cheadle
on making choices.
“I used to take what people were writ-
ing about me very personally but I
just learned to not do that anymore.
Someone must like them. Th at is all
I care about now but I used to be
very upset about reaction. I became
very dark about things. I was so op-
timistic when I came to Hollywood
but I found myself becoming bitter
and I have turned that around be-
cause I realized there was no need
for that. People are going to write
what they are going to write. Critics
are important. Th ere is a place for
them in the world but I can’t make
things for them because that would
be wrong. Th ey have to fi nd it them-
selves. But people like my movies. I
have been very successful commer-
cially but not critically.”
Ashton Kutcher says he likes to
make changes in the editing bay as
a producer. Do you supply a lot of
coverage so that producers and edi-
tors can have control over the fi lm?
“Th ere is not a lot of coverage in my
movies. Th at is something that you
learn as you go along, that you don’t
shoot a library of things for people
because they will say ‘let’s look at it
this way.’ You can control the struc-
ture of the scene or what it means by
being specifi c. I don’t do a lot of cov-
erage although some of the action we
have to shoot over and over again. A
dialogue scene is what it is and there
is not much you can change. You can
cut words out but that is about it in
terms of the way I like to shoot stuff .”
When DVDs fi rst came out there
were so many extras but that is less
and less true now. How do you ap-
proach the DVD?
“No-one buys DVDs any more. Th e
DVD market is terribly depressed.
People are looking online and they
want immediate access. Th ey don’t
want to hold on to something. Th ey
want something that they can watch
when they want on their personal
device. You don’t have to take any-
thing with you. You can download
it. DVD has had its day. Th ere are
exceptions like Avatar. I don’t think
I will ever do a DVD commentary.
I would rather shoot my brains out.
Does anyone listen to those things?”
You don’t save things for the
DVD then?
“No, I will do that because there are
things you want to share with people
whether they are interested or not.
Th ere are things you thought were
good. We shoot more than we need
and there are scenes where the actors
were really good and that of itself is a
great thing to share with people. In
an action fi lm you don’t get to see the
way it is going to be because there
are eff ects that you don’t put money
into. So you end up with something
that is not worth showing people
with green screen.”
What makes you laugh? What do
you fi nd funny?
“I like it when two people discover
things about themselves or make
themselves feel uncomfortable. I like
when people are uncomfortable or
hysterical. Th e discovery of secrets is
very funny to me. I like it when you
are in a relationship and you think
you know someone but you don’t
know them. Th ere are things we keep
secret in our relationships for a rea-
son. You don’t tell everything to your
spouse. Th ere are some things that
will be forever just for you and I like
exploring those things.”
Is there a Luketic style that you see
when you watch the fi lms?
“I never watch my movies after the
premiere because I don’t feel like it
belongs to me any more. I haven’t
watched Legally Blonde since I did it.
If it comes on television I will watch
the fi rst fi ve minutes and then skip
the rest. I just don’t personally want
to watch it because it is all compro-
mise from the moment you start
making it.”
You use the backdrops as a charac-
ter. Is that important in establishing
character and humour and drama?
“It is very important because it is the
stage in which your play unfolds so
attention to that is as important as
the cast you put into it. It informs
how the actors are going to behave
and how we are going to feel when
we are there. It has always been im-
portant to me to establish where we
are. When you are doing a play the
backdrop and the set are the fi rst
layer, the foundation on which you
build everything else. We go through
an exhaustive location process for all
the movies.”
How tough is it to keep a balance
between comedy and drama?
“It’s hard but necessary because life is
not all laughs. Sometimes you need to
stop and feel things which help high-
light moments of levity and lightness.
You need to have both because life
is not all happiness and it is not dra-
matic and sad either. I think it makes
sense to have emotional connection
in a comedy that is farcical. It is value
added so it is not all stupidity.” ■ Excerpted from interviews done by Reel West editor Ian Caddell.
Mik
e M
yers
in T
he L
ove
Gur
u
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201016
CLOCK WISE FROM TOP: Jochen Schliessler, on location in the Yukon; Allison Beda, during the fi lming of How to be a Model; David Hauka on location near Palm Springs while shooting his upcoming fi lm Awkward; An image representing Anne Marie Fleming’s fi lm Long Tack Sam
17 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
WHILE THAT APPROACH to fi lmmaking will al-
ways be with us, writing what you know can also take
other forms. Vancouver-based fi lmmaker Jochen
Schliessler has made several fi lms for German tele-
vision that followed the journeys of his father Mar-
tin, a documentary fi lmmaker. David Hauka chose
to use diff erent narrative approaches to look back at
his own life and the death of his parents and grand-
parents in Certainty. Meanwhile, Ann Marie Flem-
ing and Allison Beda are putting themselves into
their own fi lms through both short and long stories,
in documentary and fi ctional form.
Hauka came to a trio of personal stories (Cer-
tainty is the fi rst of three with Awkward and an-
other as yet unnamed fi lm scheduled to follow)
from a career in Canadian dramas and US service
work. He had produced Whale Music, directed
Impolite and had been the production manager on
several American movies and television shows in-
cluding Eight Below and Th e Five People You Meet
in Heaven when he decided to look back at his own
life and times using music, collage and narratives
that would take the viewer through the images of a
generation. He says that the toughest part of mak-
ing personal fi lms is that you are forced to dredge
up memories that you had been happy to leave
behind. Th e best part is that you can usually fi nd
universal truths in your own personal stories.
“It is a very hard process creating these pieces,
because you fi rst have to get to the truth of it and
then pare it down to something that is not just ex-
pansive endless prose or nostalgia or self-serving
treacle. When you rip it down to something that
is personal it becomes universal because everyone
has had these experiences whether we are talking
about death in the case of Certainty or about the
evolution of love, which is the theme of Awkward.
Any one of these things is incredibly diffi cult to
talk about. I think the closer you move towards
your real experience the more universal the sub-
ject matter is and the more accessible it becomes
to a viewer.”
Th at said, he admits that there is an inher-
ent danger of naval gazing. He says that trying to
fi nd the common denominators in your own life
and those of others without crossing the line into
self-indulgence can be tricky. “You have to be ex-
tremely careful about that (self indulgence.) When
I was developing Certainty, I had to be very care-
ful about getting maudlin or going someplace that
was not being hard on myself. It is like self analysis.
I am not saying that you do this (making personal
fi lms) to avoid psychiatry or anything like that but
people involved in those things say that it (Cer-
tainty) is valuable for their patients to see because
it isn’t self-indulgent. Instead, it is saying ‘this hap-
pened.’ Th is is not about me bathing myself in self-
indulgence it is more like an acid bath. It is not a
place I want to go personally but it is a place I am
going as a fi lmmaker. So I think that yes, being
perceived as self-indulgent is a huge danger. Th e
checks include being constantly self aware of what
you are doing but also showing the work in prog-
ress - which is something that I had never done be-
fore - to people from a wide array of backgrounds,
including people who don’t know me and people
who have known me for years and won’t cut me
any slack. Th at was all part of the process.”
Fleming has been making personal fi lms for
over 20 years. Her fi rst short fi lm, Waving, played
the fi lm festival circuit in 1988. She says that when
she decided to look back at the life of her Chinese
great-grandfather and the roots of her family it
was diffi cult for her relatives to understand why
she was interested in the life of a man who had
died before she was born. Th e fi lm, entitled Th e
Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, is an exploration of
his life on the road in the early 1900s as an acrobat
and magician. She says her relatives expected that
she might be judgmental or maudlin but that she
has always worked hard to keep away from both
elements. And she says that she too was able to
fi nd universal appeal in something that began as a
personal journey.
“Th ere were a lot of things that I chose not to
represent in the fi lm,” she says. “I wanted to hint at
issues without being provocative for the sake of it.
My family was not interested in this story for the
fi rst couple of years. Th ey couldn’t understand why
I was digging things up but when they saw the his-
torical relevance that this man had and the impact
on cultures, they changed and became interested.
I spent fi ve years on it and I now feel that if we
all spent that much time caring about people who
were alive it would be a better world. I found it
to be a painful process, particularly learning about
my grandmother who I spent 24 years with and
these huge lives that were not appreciated. I was
aghast at my own ignorance but all over the world
that fi lm brought people together, people who
thought they had nothing in common historically.
We were very similar in a larger picture and we
were living out these stories that we didn’t know
about so it was very moving and it was a very posi-
tive thing.”
Fleming has made 18 fi lms now, ranging in
Some of the best known western Canadian fi lms have been personal stories told through a somewhat fi ction-alized narrative. The school of “Write what you know” brought us Sandy Wilson’s My American Cousin and American Boyfriend, Anne Wheeler’s Bye Bye Blues, Mina Shum’s Double Happiness and Julia Kwan’s Eve and the Fire Horse all of which owed their existence to the nostalgia of their writer/directors.
Keeping it Personal
Story by
Ian Caddell
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201018
length from fi ve minutes to 90 and
from quirky dramatic shorts to fea-
ture documentaries and the 2003
dramatic feature Th e French Guy.
She says that telling stories that aff ect
the people in them can only work if
they feel that there is respect behind
the camera.
“I deal a lot with my own family
so I have to take a distance stance in
my storytelling. It is interesting mak-
ing that choice. It helps me deal with
issues that I might feel too close to.
I am an odd duck in that I put my-
self in a third person distance with
my own work. I think that if you are
choosing to exploit something you
have to have a lot of respect for the
subjects because they are sharing
something with you.”
Schliessler’s father involved his
family in the making of his docu-
mentaries and eventually both his
sons, Jochen and Tobias, went on
to become fi lmmakers in their own
right while his daughter Tina worked
as a sound editor before becoming
a portrait photographer. Jochen de-
cided to literally follow in his father’s
footsteps by retracing his journeys to
places as far fl ung as South America
and Alaska. Th e documentaries he
has made about his well-known Ger-
man fi lmmaker father have fared
well when shown on German televi-
sion. He says that when he makes his
fi lms he often fi nds himself wonder-
ing how his father managed to do
the same work a half a century ago
considering that travelling to remote
regions is a tough enough task in the
early part of the 21st Century.
“When we went to South Ameri-
ca, it was so hard, with a small crew.
Th e gear alone was tough in terms
of transportation. I would think
‘my god, how did my father do this.’
Th ere was so little communication
back in the 1960s compared to now.
You never knew what was going on
with him on his travels because it
would take three weeks to get a let-
ter and you would only know he was
fi ne then. He was gone so much and
he wasn’t an easy person. I think it
was very diffi cult for him to live the
kind of adventurous life he lived and
then come home and be a father fi g-
ure. It is very interesting for me to
try and feel what he was feeling out
there and then take that home. Th e
more I do the closer I feel to him and
what he must have felt going through
this. Th at is a challenging process.
Th at is where it gets a little deeper
for me and that is where it is not just
comparing old footage with the new.
Th ere have been moments where I
have met people who worked with
him and I showed them old footage
on my computer and they see them-
selves or family members and there
is this incredible thing where it is
almost like I rejoined my dad with
people and they connect and I have
felt that we have created a bridge.”
Th at “bridge” has been rebuilt in
several places. Schliessler says that
the key to the success of his “foot-
steps” documentaries has been
showing the world of his father’s
time against that of his own. And he
says he learned a lot about the times,
the places and the man he felt he had
never really known.
“My dad’s fi lms on Alaska started
in the 1950s with the natives doing
traditional drumming and dancing. I
went back there and went hunting on
the ice with the Inupiat (the Ameri-
can term for Inuit) shooting every-
thing for the fi rst part of a two part
series on Alaska. We went through
Alaska doing vignettes. He had been
there when the oil pipeline was built
at Prudhoe Bay and had done a story
about bush pilots who landed climb-
ers up there and he did a movie in
Sitka. I took little clips out and high-
lights of archived footage. Th e story is
the son following his dad’s footsteps
so we blended my footage and the
archival footage. We did two parts in
Alaska and two parts in South Ameri-
ca. We went to Ecuador where he had
worked with bush pilots and to Peru
and then to Bolivia where he did a
little short fi lm. It helped me so much
to know more about him and to feel I
knew who he was.”
Like Hauka, Allison Beda has
moved from US service work to
making her own fi lms and back
again. Between 2007 and 2009 she
worked as a camera operator on the
TV series Aliens in America and as
a director on the Canadian lifestyle
series Th e Shopping Bags while mak-
ing four personal shorts of her own.
She says that she has never felt par-
ticularly comfortable about talking
about things to people in her life but
has made several movies that com-
municate her feelings.
“It’s interesting because in some
way (making personal fi lms) feels saf-
er than talking to people one on one,”
she says. “I think it’s a way for me of
having intimate relationships with-
out having to be there. I have a hard
time talking about feelings which
isn’t necessarily a good thing because
I thrive on intimate connections and
the idea that you can tell everything
to family members and friends.
However, I have had a hard time do-
ing that so that is a way of making
those connections. I think that if you
are passionate about something you
make it happen. I am totally passion-
ate about making my short fi lms. It is
the thing I will always do no matter
what my circumstances are.”
In 2003, after making short per-
sonal movies with provocative titles
like Be Zero Be and You Are Not the
LEFT TO RIGHT: A scene from David Hauka’s fi lm Certainty; Jochen Schliessler, on location; Peggie LePage and Allison Beda, during the fi lming of How to be a Model; An image representing Anne Marie Fleming’s fi lm Long Tack Sam.
“I am an odd duck in that I put myself in a third person distance with my own work. I think that if you are choosing to exploit something you have to have a lot of respect for the subjects...”
- Ann Marie Fleming, Filmmaker
19 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
Boss of Me and Look Who Is F***ing
Sorry Now she made a feature length
documentary based on her fi rst ca-
reer called How to Be a Model (A 12
Step Plan.) She says it took her ten
years to get around to making the
feature, which she says came from
answering so many questions about
her own life as a model.
“When people would fi nd that I
modeled they would react with hor-
ror as though I was involved in pros-
titution. So I knew I wanted to do
something on that but I kept going
back and forth on the possibility. I just
think there is always something that
gets me worked up or passionate.”
Th e four short fi lms she has made
in the last three years have seen her
telling her personal stories through
tennis (30 Love), bicycling (One Day
LA), a phone call (9-1 Mom) and a
day at home (Just A Minute.) She
says that they usually spring from the
pages of her journals.
“I prefer making personal fi lms
like 30 Love where there are actors
I can work with and I like having a
director of photography with great
ideas that are diff erent and actors
who can bring something into it.
It doesn’t always happen that way
though because how often can you
ask people to do things for free? I
write a lot of journals and sometimes
they come from that. For instance, I
was asked to make a little segment
for the Northwest Film Festival in
Seattle. I was going to do a dance fi lm
and that fell apart because I couldn’t
put the people together in time and I
had this little thing I had written and
I thought maybe I could do ‘a day
in the life.’ Eventually I called it One
Day LA. I wasn’t going to be in it. I
came down to LA and asked for help
and no one could do it. I had to shoot
myself and then was stuck with ‘how
do I shoot myself on a bike.’ I asked
my friend Marya Delver to shoot me
and that is how it came together.”
Fleming too started out making
small movies that told personal sto-
ries against relatable backdrops. She
says that while she has approached
fi lmmaking from diff erent direc-
tions, if there is a common thread
it is the acknowledgment of life’s
experiences.
“I have made a lot of fi lms in dif-
ferent ways,” she says. “Th ey are so
diff erent but when I see them to-
gether there is an amazing cohesion.
I guess the fi rst time I was conscious-
ly involved in self exploration would
be (1989’s) You Take Care Now and
Waving. Th ey set the tone that I still
see in my personal work. It’s not
confessional or judgmental but it is
acknowledging experiences and put-
ting personal experience out there
in a universal context so that people
can relate to you. Th ey are more
about observations and statements
and exploration about what might
have been as opposed to what is.”
Hauka says that he can’t imagine
making a personal fi lm if he didn’t
feel passionate about the subject.
However, he will also do whatever he
can to make it resonate with people
who may not have had the same ex-
periences but understand the con-
text. “Certainty was about death and
grieving and it was about personal
loss and parents and grandparents
but it could just as easily be about
the loss of friends. We all have close
friends who passed away when we
were young or now and that passion
is raw. I think it (passion) has to be
there because if it isn’t there then you
are not anchoring the work with any-
thing that is true.” ■
The Definitive Producing WorkbookFor the producer, the world of independent film and television production is often surrounded by a sea of paperwork. The contracts, documents and requirements of agencies are constantly in flux. Nothing is definitive, every contract has its own set of particulars and every deal is different. "Boilerplate" agreements are open to negotiation. Rules can be flexible.
The PW4 will help guide a producer through some of the overwhelming volume of documents involved in the world of independent film and television production. Legal writers review the standard clauses and reveal issues of concern to producers negotiating contracts. Many sample agreements are included for reference. The book provides a comprehensive overview of national and provincial funding bodies and engaging stories and words of wisdom by seasoned producers.
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ENTERTAINMENT LAWYERFilm • TV • New Media
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JOHN P.H. NICOLLSGROSSMAN & STANLEY
Professional Advice – Personal Service20 years in the U.S. and Canadian industries
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604-683-7454 • [email protected]
Order your copy today:[email protected]
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201020
Th at change began when two Montreal-based
Anglo fi lmmakers found themselves on Genie jury
duty in Toronto. On the way home Tara Johns, a
writer-director who had grown up in Alberta and
Saskatchewan, pitched Quebec native Barbara
Shrier on an idea that she had for a movie set in
the provinces of her youth. Several years later Th e
Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom has wrapped
principal photography in rural Manitoba.
It has been a strange pan-Canadian journey, one
that has taken Johns and Shrier from their fi rst meet-
ing in Toronto through communication with all four
of the western provinces and back to Quebec. Along
the way they discovered that if you are a fi lmmaker
who wants to commute between Quebec and anoth-
er province there is good news and bad news. Th e
Quebec funder, SODEC (Société de développement
des entreprises culturelles), will off er strong support
but if you are shooting in another province to capture
the fl avour of the script, you will still have to shoot at
least half of your fi lm in La Belle Province. Although
Johns’ script was set in the prairies, she would have to
fi nd a way to shoot almost every interior in Montreal.
Th at would be diffi cult enough under most circum-
stances but Johns had used her memories of grow-
ing up in the prairies in the mid-1970s. Th at meant
the show was a period piece that had to fi nd ways of
moving from one province to another while staying
true to a bygone era.
Shrier says that once they had decided that they
would apply to their home province, their options
were limited. “Tax credit laws in Quebec are strin-
gent,” she says. “You have to have 75% of the shoot
in Quebec and when you are crewing up there are
six or seven conditions and one was not possible.
Th at was the cast. It was very diffi cult to cast the
fi lm in English because you can only use Quebec
actors. Th at was put in place so that they wouldn’t
be replaced by actors from France which is easy to
do in Quebec. Th ere are not many English actors
so I told SODEC that it would be diffi cult. Th ey
said to dilute my copyright and create a co-pro-
duction. So we had to shoot the interiors in Que-
bec and then go out west for exteriors.”
Shrier has made nine fi lms in Quebec includ-
ing Jutra and Genie winners and nominees. But
although she is English, she hadn’t tried to put to-
gether a co-production with any English-language
fi lmmakers. She says that she was wary of leaving
her home province but knew that she had to go
west in order to get the movie made.
“I work with people who trust me in Quebec but
in English Canada they don’t know me or Tara and
the traditional challenge is that if you are a Que-
becer you can’t make movies without SODEC and
Telefi lm. You need both of them. Th e fi rst challenge
was it was set in Calgary so it was a western story
about a young girl in the prairies. We needed to
stick to the story, which was not about Quebec, and
in English. And we needed to get money from SO-
DEC, which traditionally supports French-language
fi lms. It usually takes four rounds of going back to
them but I got a ‘yes’ from both SODEC and Telefi lm
in my fi rst meetings and more money from SODEC
than Telefi lm. So while everyone is going to think
that it was made in western Canada and there is not
a trace of Quebec in the fi lm, anyone who knows
me will know that I am the Quebec trace.”
Interprovincial co-productions have been an asset for Canadian fi lmmakers for several years. However, there was still one boundary that had not been crossed.No-one had thought about making an English-language co-production between Quebec and western Canada.
Exterior Motives
Story by
Ian Caddell
21 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
Having made that decision they had to fi nd the
place that worked best for the fi lm and for the
restrictions that would come with working with
the SODEC regulations. Shrier began to send out
the script to the fi lm commissions of the western
provinces. Eventually they found Buff alo Gal, the
Winnipeg-based production company that has
brought several co-productions to Manitoba.
“I was looking for a partner I could trust and a
strong production company that would take care of
me and would work within the same value system.
I set my standards high. I believe it is important to
work with people with similar philosophies so that
you feel you are spending the money in the right
place. You want to make it a pleasant experience.
For instance, I have a very stringent green philoso-
phy. When I started talking to people Buff alo Gal
kept coming up and I came to the conclusion that
(producer) Liz Jarvis was like me. We came out and
scouted the locations and we were impressed.”
Jarvis was impressed with the script but says
that while it may be an inter-provincial co-produc-
tion, there were several aspects that made it feel
more like an international agreement. “It’s actually
structured diff erently than most inter-provincial
agreements,” she says. “Most of the co-produc-
tions we do are with Ontario and they are looser
than the one we made with Quebec for this fi lm
because of some of the rules on tax credits. For
instance, the use of key creative personnel is more
of an issue than it is with other provinces. Th e
tough part is trying to balance the ‘spend’ in both
provinces, which impacts on the tax credits. If you
work with Ontario and shoot in Manitoba and you
meet a minimum spend of 20 percent (in Ontario)
you are still eligible for the Ontario credit and not
just service (industry) ones. When you work with
Quebec you are working with a formula that in-
cludes key creative personnel (from Quebec.) It is
a bit more complex because you have to maintain
the exact balance in the spend. So we had to shoot
15 days in Quebec and 14 here. Travelling around
was a challenge on the budget but it was challeng-
ing overall because you have two provinces and a
period piece. But I feel as though we put it all on
screen and kept within our budget.”
Th e story that Johns wrote centres on an 11 year
old named Elizabeth Alison Gray (Vancouver’s Ju-
lia Stone) who decides to run away from home to
fi nd her real mom when she fi nds out her parents
(Macha Grenon and Gil Bellows) adopted her as
a baby. Having lived in Calgary before moving to
Saskatchewan as a teenager, Johns says she always
knew that the movie would be set on the prairies.
She didn’t know that being on location would make
an impact on a cast and crew that included several
people from her adopted hometown of Montreal.
“I lived in Calgary until I was 14,” says Johns.
“When I was writing the story I was drawing from
my own experiences living on the prairies. I didn’t
get reconnected with that until we were out in
Manitoba scouting for locations. I don’t think I rec-
reated anything from that time. It was an evocation
of what I lived and what I knew from way back then
and I think that part of what made it so powerful
was that I was surrounded by people who were new
to these places, people who had never experienced
this before and were discovering something. Th ey
were blown away by the freedom that you feel in
the middle of the open dramatic sky and the bald
prairie and they were grateful and appreciative to
have this experience.”
Jarvis says that the scouting was extensive. She
says that it was decided early on that it would be
easier to create interiors that matched the script
than to fi nd the right exteriors. “Manitoba was the
primary setting so the locations in Quebec hinged
on the locations that were found in Manitoba. Th ey
had to fi nd a house that was from the same period as
one we found here (in Manitoba) and they needed
the general geography and interiors that matched
our exteriors.”
Th e 15 days of interior scenes were shot in
Montreal in April. Almost two months later, the
show moved to Manitoba. Quebec supplied most
of the key crew as per the SODEC regulations. Th e
director of photography, Claudine Sauvé, produc-
ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Elizabeth watches Dolly on TV; Photo by Sébastien Raymond for Palomar. Elizabeth, her bike and the sky; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar. Julia Stone as Elizabeth; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar. FOLLOWING PAGE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Quebec boom being anchored in the crazy prairie wind by Manitoba grip; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar. Barbara Shrier and Tara Johns in Manitoba; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar. Canadian Café sign being shot by DP Claudine Sauvé; Photo by Rebecca Sandulak for Palomar.
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201022
tion designer Normand Sarazin and
costume designer Marianne Carter
were all from Montreal. Th e art di-
rector, Larry Spittle, and the set dec-
orator, Bill Macinnis, were among
those who were hired in Manitoba.
Shrier used Quebec crew that she
had worked with before and brought
key crew from Manitoba to help fi g-
ure out how to make the transitions.
“Th e fact that we had so much
more money from SODEC than
Manitoba meant we had to bring in
a lot of people,” says Shrier. “Our DP
was from Quebec but we had crew in
both places. We were in Winnipeg at
a busy time and we had some trouble
crewing up so we invited some of the
crew I use and they came with us. We
shot in Montreal in early April and in
Manitoba in May and we didn’t have
much prep time. We did prep of four
weeks in both places which is tough,
especially for a period piece.”
Shrier says that while the fi lmmak-
ers were always aware that matching
the interiors to the exteriors would
be diffi cult, there were enough good
ideas to get through the more diffi cult
days. “Initially when we were break-
ing down what would be shot where
there were some obvious things. We
had to capture the period and we had
to fi nd the exterior street and then
match it in Montreal and then we had
to fi nd the Montreal split level that
matched the Manitoba exterior. We
found the right house but when we
scheduled the shot we thought ‘what
about when there are people at the
door and the kids are outside and the
mom’s inside?’ We thought we could
do the ‘mom’ part inside in Montreal
in March and turn it around and do
the exterior in May in Manitoba but
then it became a question of what
do we do with the light and what do
we see inside. Our DP was brilliant
and so was our production designer.
When we went back to Winnipeg we
thought ‘this won’t work.’ So the pro-
duction designer built a swing door
to the kitchen and we decided to
shoot the back half of the house and
upstairs in Montreal but the front of
the house was in Winnipeg. It was
the only way to go because the door
could be opened and you could see
behind it. We brought the swinging
door back to Winnipeg and so we
had a natural movement of actors.”
Art director Larry Spittle had
worked on many movies in Manito-
ba, the list including New in Town and
Th e Lookout. He knew going in that
this fi lm would not be like anything
he had done in the past. He would
be working with people who would
be shooting in Montreal and then
moving to Winnipeg to complete the
scene. “Th ey were shooting the exte-
rior of our (Winnipeg) concert hall,
Centennial Hall, to match the con-
cert scenes in Montreal which was
somewhat challenging. But I think
the biggest challenge was recreating
a border crossing that matched the
interiors of the building they had in
Quebec. We found a defunct border
crossing but we didn’t have access to
the building itself. It had become a
holding area for cattle and pigs but
Normand (Sarazin) wanted to dress
it so that it would look like the one in
Montreal from the outside.
“In the scene we needed, they
would not give us access to the build-
ing and he wanted it to match. So we
just picked her (Stone’s character)
where she is exiting the border sta-
tion. Th en we had to shoot the actual
car crossing booths. Liz had talked
to a location scout here and she sent
photos of a structure covered with a
canopy and it was gorgeous. How-
ever, when we got down there it no
longer existed. So we had the set built
and then you see the canopy above a
guy in the booth. We must have done
a good job because we designed it well
enough to fool people who handed
their passports to our guy.”
Marianne Carter oversaw the mak-
ing of the period costumes for the fi lm.
Like the character, she was a child in
the mid-1970s and says that one of the
challenges of making a movie about
an era that is in the recent past is that
many people in the audience can re-
member what they were wearing dur-
ing the period. She says that while she
has created costumes for several peri-
ods there is something more interest-
ing about designing clothes for a time
that you can recall vividly.
“It is somewhat diffi cult to create
costumes for the 1970s because ev-
eryone has pictures of themselves.
However, we are still in the movie
world so for me it was important to
please Tara because it is her vision.
At the same time when you create a
costume it is nice to have a feeling of
the world during that period. It was
the fi rst time I was able to express a
period that I lived through. When
you speak to people who grew up in
the 1980s they have no idea of this
period. We did a lot of research of
the prairies at that time because it
was such a specifi c world. By look-
ing at where the people are living you
can start to imagine a way of putting
all those pieces together.”
Th e Montreal-based Carter went
west to make sure that the costumes
she had designed from pictures
worked with the exteriors. “Th e fi rst
time I was there we fi t all the actors
and some of the extras from Winni-
peg. We got the show organized in
my four days there and Meg (Win-
nipeg costumer Meg McMillan)
came to Montreal to work with me.
Th en she went back to continue the
project in Winnipeg so that we could
have someone there to make sure
there was continuity. I felt that con-
sidering the challenges we were well
organized and that it looks like it was
all done in one place.”
Th e most challenging shots
may have taken place in Montreal.
Th e café that the Manitoba loca-
tion scouts had found in the small
town of Marquette, Manitoba fi t
the prairies look of the fi lm but was
not going to be easily matched in
Montreal. Shrier says that the best
they could come up with was a café
by the highway. Th at meant mak-
ing sure that the traffi c noises were
muted so that audiences wouldn’t
think big city when they were look-
ing at a rural restaurant.
“Th e Montreal location was noisy,”
she says. “We tried to slow down the
traffi c but there were still so many
sounds that the sound designer said
‘if we shoot the (Manitoba) exteriors
in a sleepy town, we can establish that
“They were blown away by the freedom that you feel in the middle of the open dramatic sky and the bald prairie and they were grateful and appreciative to have this experience.”
- Writer-director Tara Johns on her cast and crew experiencing the praries for the fi rst time
Exterior Motives continued on page 28
23 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201024
PH
OT
O P
HIL
LIP
CH
IN
25 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
APRIL 2004 I am coming off my second feature fi lm
and still basking in some of the glory of the critical
success the fi lm has garnered but also trying to fi g-
ure out what kind of producer I really am. I have
now produced two feature fi lms about the homeless
(Heater) and disenfranchised (On the Corner) and
need to look at more commercial fare.
A friend of mine, Trish Williams, suggests I read
a play called Toothpaste & Cigars which was writ-
ten and performed by some friends of hers. Trish
thinks it would make a good fi lm. I am sceptical as
most plays do not translate well to the screen. I read
the play, however, and fi nd it immediately appeal-
ing. Toothpaste & Cigars is not a fully fl eshed out
world but it has two very strong features: a univer-
sal theme and some excellent dialogue. It is a cross
between Before Sunrise and When Harry Met Sally.
A man and woman meet at a party and hit it off
only to discover that the woman has a boyfriend
and they must navigate their genuine aff ection for
one another even though one of them is in a com-
mitted relationship. Can men and women really just
be friends? Interject some very, very clever dialogue
and witty banter and it seems like a hit.
I get in touch with the playwrights, Michael
Rinaldi and Ti-Jon (TJ) Dawe. We meet up at Ha-
vana on Commercial Drive and over mojitos I tell
them about myself and give them the pitch about
how I see the development of the project. Basically
I would want to get them to write a draft of the
screenplay and see how it pans out. It would be fi -
nanced with funding from Movie Central, BC Film
and Telefi lm. I would be looking to involve a story
editor and a director consultant.
MAY Th ey go for it. I think they are both excited about
working on a fi lm project and seem to really enjoy the
possibility of writing a screenplay. While I get the op-
tion purchase agreement in place I still need to raise
the funds for the writing. I also need some help.
JULY As usual the summer drags on with this and
that while I search for the right team to join our
crew and develop this play. I bring director James
Genn on board as a story consultant. James is a
great creative mind and I really enjoyed his short
fi lm Th e Dog Walker. He seems to get the tone of
a romantic comedy and can be a real asset as a
consultant. I also have to bring on a story editor. I
know Elan Mastai from the Vancouver fi lm com-
munity. He had been the assistant Canadian Pro-
grammer at VIFF and he was hard to miss with his
white guy dreadlocks and infectious laugh. I have
read one of Elan’s scripts and know his sense of hu-
mour would provide a useful contribution to the
development of the project. I hire him as the story
editor contingent on getting development money.
SEPTEMBER I arrange for a meeting with Movie
Central’s creative executive in Vancouver, Shelley
Gillen. Shelly had licensed On the Corner and is a
great supporter of Western-based producers. We
meet at Starbuck’s in North Vancouver and I bring
along James to help with the pitch. I fi nd for my own
personal style it’s important to bring a creative along
with you for any pitch. I’m great with the fi nanc-
ing and management but a creative can really help
you sell a project in the room. Shelly has read our
intentions for the project and has seen the reviews of
the play (it received incredible reviews all across the
country and around the world as a travelling Fringe
Festival play) but she still needs to be convinced that
fi rst time screenwriters can pull this off . Th e play-
wrights have basically produced a draft that simply
adds action to the dialogue and is almost line for line
a version of the play. James and I do our best Laurel
and Hardy act and she is convinced. She will support
the project. We have a development deal!
I do all the rest of my development applica-
tions and am off to the races with the playwrights.
Telefi lm, BC Film along with Movie Central are
on board. I make a relatively low rate deal with the
playwrights, as it is their fi rst crack at being screen-
writers, but it means I can aff ord a story editor and
a story consultant, which is somewhat unusual.
JANUARY 2005 Michael and TJ’s second draft
continues to maintain much of the language from
the play. Th ey both see the connection to the clas-
sic romantic comedies of the past and have tried
to recreate imagery from When Harry Met Sally
as an homage to that fi lm. It is a good fi rst stab but
it needs help. We try another draft with James and
Elan’s help. It is quickly becoming apparent that
Michael and TJ are not going to get the screenplay
where I want it. We all agree that an experienced
screenwriter is what is needed. I ask Elan to take
on more and more in terms of his infl uence in the
drafts. Based on Elan’s sense of timing and charac-
ter the answer is staring me in the face. Elan needs
to be the new screenwriter.
I begin the negotiation with Elan’s agent, Rena
Zimmerman, to lock down Elan as the writer.
I am fortunate that Elan isn’t WGC when I sign
him as I can fi t him into my development budget.
I know he won’t be non-union for long. He is too
good for that. Elan and I are now the core team for
Marc Stephenson was an award-winning Vancouver based, Winnipeg-born producer when his chance read-ing of a successful Fringe Festival play, Toothpaste & Cigars turned into a six year development odyssey that found him knocking at the gates of the Hollywood stu-dios. The adaptation of the play, The F-word, is gear-ing up to shoot in the fall of 2010 for Fox Searchlight. In his diary on his journey from the Fringe to Fox, he looks back on the meetings, the disappointments and the day he realized the studio was going to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
From the Fringe to Fox
Diary by
Marc Stephenson
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201026
the fi lm and I go for 1st to 2nd draft
money from Movie Central as well
as Telefi lm and BC Film. I part ways
with James Genn on the project. He
was an excellent contributor but Elan
does not need the extra support.
MAY Elan produces his fi rst draft of the
script. It has a very distinct style and
begins to introduce other characters
and broaden the world from the basic
two-hander in the play. Th e process of
multiple drafts can be a time consum-
ing one. Th ere is of course the process
of notes and phone calls and dissection
of the material, but there is the delay in
getting money from the various funders
in order to maintain the process. We de-
cide to call the fi lm Fool’s Gold based on
the Elvis sandwich found in the script.
A hollowed out baguette stuff ed with
peanut butter and a pound of bacon
makes Fool’s Gold – mmm greasy.
One of the requirements of my op-
tion agreement with the playwrights
is that I secure a director by a certain
date. Th ey want to be sure that the
project is moving forward and not
simply languishing in development. So
I need to start pressing ahead in fi nd-
ing a director for the fi lm. While it’s
nice to churn out drafts in a vacuum,
at some point every project needs to
lock down a director. It turns out there
is not an over- abundance of romantic
comedy directors in Canada. A fi lm I
had recently enjoyed, however, was
Aubrey Nealon’s, A Simple Curve. Au-
brey’s light touch with comedy and the
fact that he has done a feature with a
substantial romantic comedic element
means he is a great candidate. I know
him socially and believe I could work
with the guy. I speak to Aubrey’s agent
and bring him on board as a director
for the picture. We continue with the
development. Aubrey is bringing a
new dimension. As a writer himself
his notes are excellent and three of us
are working well as a team. It takes the
next eighteen months of development
to get the fi lm to a new level. It’s ready
to be shopped.
DECEMBER We need to begin think-
ing about distributors. I contact Ma-
rie-Claude Poulin at Equinoxe Films.
Equinoxe Films had some fantastic
success with My Big Fat Greek Wed-
ding and is a player in the distribution
scene. I have known Marie-Claude
for some time and she is always a
straight shooter and has excellent
taste. I know she will be in Whistler
for the fi lm festival and send her the
script. Marie-Claude loves the project
and agrees to meet in Whistler. She
will give me a letter of interest. I move
full steam ahead with applications for
packaging from our various sources.
Movie Central, Telefi lm and BC Film
all graciously come on board.
SEPTEMBER 2007 We have changed
the name of the script to Th e F-word.
Elan’s wife Samantha comes up with
this excellent name. It has a lot of vari-
ous meanings: “F” for friend and espe-
cially the word you might say when a
girl you like calls you that.
We follow up with Marie-Claude
at the Toronto International Film Fes-
tival in September. She is after some
hard answers in terms of fi nding for-
eign fi nancing. Th is fi lm needs to have
a substantial budget and can’t be done
just with Canadian money. Marie-
Claude wants to see a minimum of a
$5 million dollar budget. She gives me
the names of some mid-sized distrib-
utors and sales agents with money in
the US. It’s time to get down to work
in terms of fi nancing.
OCTOBER I am co-producing the
feature fi lm Edison & Leo and we are
working in Mission BC, an hour’s
drive outside of Vancouver. Th e fi lm
is stop-motion animation and con-
sequently takes a long time to com-
plete. Since I am heavily involved in
the physical production of the fi lm
I am spending a lot of time out in
Mission. Th e year and a half of pro-
duction takes its toll on maintaining
development and I am feeling out of
the loop and a little depressed. When
your head is in one fi lm so much it
can be diffi cult to keep up with all
your other projects.
I get a call from an old friend of
mine, Mark Costa, who is a produc-
er in LA. He has just started a new
company called NHO Entertainment
with his partner Ford Oleman. Th ey
both worked at New Line for years
and have good connections with
many of the LA agencies. I met Mark
on my fi rst fi lm job in Vancouver. I
was the offi ce production assistant
and he was the co-ordinator for New
Line Television. He came up to Van-
TOO
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“Aubrey’s light touch with comedy and the fact that he has done a feature with a substantial romantic comedic element means he is a great candidate...”
- on locking down Aubrey Nealon as director
27 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
couver a few times over the course of
the shoot and we maintained a good
relationship. NHO was looking for
primarily genre pictures and asked
me if I had anything good. I sent
them a horror script that Elan wrote
with the producer’s permission. Th e
fi lm didn’t work out but we have es-
tablished a good working relation-
ship. Although not exactly what they
are looking for I know I have a very
good asset in Th e F-word and send it
over to NHO for their thoughts.
Not surprisingly they like it. Th ey
send it out for a couple of private reads
with some development executives
and get very positive feedback on the
script. We do a shopping deal and they
are on board as executive producers.
MARCH 2008 I start using the
packaging funds from Telefi lm and
I employ a casting director in LA. I
am making more trips down to Los
Angeles this year. I meet with a few
casting directors and settle on Moni-
ka Mikklesen. She is a total character
who is worth her weight in gold in
terms of who is the hottest new tal-
ent. We get the script out to some
high profi le A-list talent including
Natalie Portman and Ryan Gosling.
Having a casting director opens so
many more doors than I could and
you get taken seriously as a moving
force in Hollywood. Th ey suppos-
edly like the script but they are also
passing on the project. Show me the
money! I’m having fun getting to
know Los Angeles. I have been here
before on business but usually for
another producer’s work. Could Th e
F-word be a Hollywood picture?
JUNE Th e script has been shopped
around to the various agencies and
is generating a lot of momentum in
Hollywood. Elan has now picked up
an agent off the heat the project is
getting. Frank Wuliger at the Gersh
Agency is an old school agent and a
source of insider information on all
things that pass through that town.
He suggests that he come on board
as a producer’s agent to help negoti-
ate deals that seem imminent.
JULY Montecito Pictures has taken a
strong interest in the show. Th ey are
Ivan Reitman’s company and certainly
know comedy. Elan and I meet with
their executives along with Mark and
Ford and have a great meeting. I give
them the run-down of the development
of the picture and they are interested in
representing the picture to talent and
the studios. I tell them about Aubrey
and the results are not good. Th e hard
truth about having a Canadian direc-
tor who is not in the Los Angeles mix is
they mean nothing to US studios. Th ey
basically tell me I have to lose Aubrey or
face the reality that the fi lm will not get
made with US funds. I have to make the
hardest call I have ever made. Aubrey is
a friend and to ask him to step aside for
the good of the project is tough work.
He takes it like a champ and I assure
him he will be well-compensated if we
go to camera.
AUGUST I am in the fi nal stages of
post production on Edison & Leo. We
are in a dark room in Technicolor
working on the digital intermediary
colour correction. I get a call from
Jeremy Steckler at Fox Searchlight! He
introduces himself as the executive
for Juno and (500) Days of Summer.
Jeremy tells me he loves the script
and wants to send it up the fl agpole
to his bosses. I am bleary-eyed and
confused from going from the dark-
ness of the D.I. suite to the sun of a
summer afternoon. Th e one studio I
would love this picture to be with is
calling me! I say “yes, yes of course he
can do what he likes with the script!”
I call Frank and tell him what I think
is good news and get the serious smack
down. Th ey want to package the fi lm
so the studio can’t say no - not just
hand it over! I get my fi rst Hollywood
lesson. Never make a decision without
your agent approving. Still, it’s too late
and it’s now in the mix with Search-
light. Mark and Ford lessen my con-
sternation. Th is is what we want!
NOVEMBER Th e fi lm has made the
Black List for 2008. Th ese are the
best of the un-produced scripts for
the year in Hollywood as voted on by
readers and development executives
from the various agencies. Scripts
that have been on the list include
Lars and the Real Girl, Juno and In-
glourious Basterds. I fl y down to LA
to meet with Jeremy and a possible
production partner the studio likes,
a production company called Mr.
Mudd. Th ey are John Malkovich’s
production partners and have pro-
duced fi lms like Juno and Ghost
World. I get invited to have lunch
with Jeremy, Russ Smith and Lianne
Halfon from Mr. Mudd and bring
along Ford. For the kid from Winni-
peg having lunch on the Fox lot and
eating in their cafeteria where the
walls are littered with staff photos
FOR ALL YOUR TRANSPORTATION NEEDSIN WESTERN CANADA CALL
604-668-7233Th e Fringe to Fox continued on page 28
Catherine A. Sas, [email protected] Foreign Legal Consultant with the State Bar of California
Phebe [email protected]
Robson Court1000-840 Howe Street Vancouver BC V6Z 2M1Telephone: 604.687.2242www.canadian-visa-lawyer.comwww.millerthomson.com
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REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201028
from their multitude of fi lms over
the years it’s pretty exciting. Holy
crap! I’m in the studio! Th e lunch
goes great and I like the producing
partners that Fox is suggesting. Russ
and Lianne are real creative produc-
ers and know everyone.
Now things are moving at a real
pace. Searchlight confi rms they are
interested in the script and would
like to make the project. My amaz-
ing lawyer Juliet Smith is brought in
to face off with Fox. Th e negotiation
is exhaustive. It takes months of back
and forth negotiation. Frank and Juliet
work to get the best deal they can for
me. It’s not easy. As a “fi rst time” pro-
ducer in Hollywood the off er is lean
but the upside is the fi lm will be made
by a major studio and will potentially
be on thousands of screens. Th e ex-
posure is worth the tough deal.
MAY 2009 Whew! We fi nally have a
deal. What a marathon! Now we can
fi nally get down to the business of fi nd-
ing a director and casting the fi lm.
JULY (500) Days of Summer is coming
out and has a similar tone and feel to
our fi lm. Its success will aff ect the prog-
ress of Th e F-Word. (500) Days of Sum-
mer does okay but not as well as they
would have liked. Elan is working on a
new draft with notes from the studio.
OCTOBER Still no real movement. No
director and no cast yet. Searchlight is
unhappy with its returns on Amelia and
are reconsidering what kind of direction
they want to take with the company.
Th eir Notorious B.I.G. fi lm also did not
do well. Are they a studio that does ro-
mantic comedies or broader fi lms? We
are feeling pretty low about the poten-
tial movement for the fi lm.
APRIL 2010 We have a new execu-
tive at Fox Searchlight. Jeremy has
left to join Imagine and a new execu-
tive, David Greenbaum, has come
on board. Will he like the fi lm and
champion it? Turns out that yes, he
loves the fi lm and wants to move it
forward. It’s a good feeling again and
maybe we can get some movement
with a director. We have a list of di-
rectors and the meetings and “takes”
from the various directors begin.
MAY Searchlight decides on Alex
Holdridge as the director. He direct-
ed the excellent low-budget romantic
comedy In Search of a Midnight Kiss.
It was a big winner at the 2008 Inde-
pendent Spirit Awards and he really
gets the tone and feel of the fi lm. We
now have a director we can all get be-
hind and the casting has begun. Th e
fi lm is moving fast now and we hope
to shoot this fall. It’s a six and a half
year development process that looks
to fi nally have a happy ending. ■
Fringe to Fox continued from page 27
there are motorcycles and cars that
are pulling up regularly.’ Th en we used
the fact that we could always hear
trains in the background when we
were in Marquette. We had our DP go
out and shoot some trains to establish
train sounds on the soundtrack. So we
kept ahead of the problems by fi nding
solutions that made sense.”
Johns says that the toughest part
for her was having to keep the mem-
ory of the energy and tone that was
established in one place and take it to
the next location. “I don’t think that
is unique to the co-production pro-
cess,” she says. “I think it is the nature
of the beast because you are usually
making fi lms out of chronological
order. Th e diff erence with this fi lm
is you had the light and openness of
the prairies which is not possible to
get all of the time in Montreal. And it
was a period piece so you needed to
keep up with that which can be hard
when you are changing crews. When
we did prep in Montreal and then
went to Winnipeg to shoot it was like
starting all over again. We were for-
tunate in that it was a smooth tran-
sition after the fi rst day because we
had a dream team in Manitoba.”
Johns had a separate challenge:
she was writing what she knew but
she had left the prairies as a teenager.
She says that she found freedom in
fi ctionalizing the story. “Th ere is that
old chestnut ‘write what you know’
but in some ways there are traps in
recreating or evoking your past. You
can’t get too nostalgic. I found a lot
of my material and inspiration from
growing up and the time and place
but after that I had to fi ctionalize to
meet the needs and demands of a
two hour fi lm. Th ere is something
that I heard recently that no matter
what story you are telling the key is
to try and make sense of our human
experiences. But it will be a challenge
whether it is in Winnipeg or Calgary
or Kenya and it is a challenge to try
to fi t it all into a two hour arc.” ■
Exterior Motives continued from page 23
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29 REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 2010
LEGAL BRIEFS
On June 2, 2010, Bill C-32 was intro-
duced by the federal government to
address numerous issues that have
arisen since the last substantial revi-
sion to the Copyright Act in 1997, in-
cluding proposed changes designed
to address a number of challenges
resulting from recent advancements
in digital technologies.
In addition to proposed changes to
protect materials in our increasingly
digital society, Bill C-32 also includes
a proposed expansion of the defi ni-
tion of “fair dealing” by adding par-
ody and satire, which although well
established in the US, are currently
not recognized in Canada. A broader
defi nition of fair dealing would allow
producers much more fl exibility when
including third-party materials which
would otherwise have been protected
by the Copyright Act.
Motion pictures may include
material that infringes third par-
ties’ copyright where permission to
include such material has not been
secured. In such cases, a number of
options are open to the producer.
Th e production could be edited to
remove the off ending material. How-
ever, this may only be a feasible op-
tion if fi nances, time or (especially)
if creative willingness permits. If it is
not possible or desirable to remove
the material, there may be one or
more exceptions allowing the inclu-
sion of otherwise copyrighted mate-
rial in the production without secur-
ing permission.
One of the exclusions suggested by
producers is relying on the concept of
“fair use”. Although fair use is regular-
ly referred to in production industry
reference materials available in Can-
ada, it is a US-based principle, rooted
on the idea that it is not “fair” to fi nd
every copying to be a violation of
copyright law if such copying was for
certain purposes, including criticism
or review. Th e concepts of “satire” and
“parody” fall under the much broader
concept of fair use in the US (and
have provided many producers with
access to sources of otherwise pro-
tected source materials). Th e concept
of “fair use” does not currently exist in
Canada although it is often used in-
terchangeably with “fair dealing.” Th e
concept found in the Canadian Copy-
right Act is extremely limited.
Fair dealing is currently a very nar-
row defense under which the use of
the copyrighted material must be for
“private study, research, criticism, re-
view or newspaper summary”, which
is rarely the case in fi lm productions.
Further, because there are no hard
and fast rules available and little case
law, it is extremely diffi cult to defi ne
what is and is not fair dealing. Th is
becomes especially problematic
when trying to provide assurances
to an E&O insurer’s lawyer that all
rights have been acquired, possibly
jeopardizing the ability to secure
E&O insurance for a production.
Bill C-32 proposes an expansion
to the defi nition of “fair dealing” to
include dealings for the purpose
of parody and satire. A parody is a
work that uses elements of a prior
composition to create a new one
that, at least in part, comments on
that author’s works. Some parody
examples include the classic work
of Mel Brooks, television shows like
Saturday Night Live and fi lms like
the Scary Movie franchise. Allowing
producers to rely on parody and sat-
ire in Canada would allow for much
more creative freedom with less risk
of infringing another’s copyright.
Th e current defi nition of fair deal-
ing is far too narrow to be relied on
by producers and as a result, creativ-
ity can in many cases be unjustifi ably
hindered. Th e expanded defi nition
proposed in Bill C-32 will provide
more fl exibility to producers in a
manner consistent with artists’ needs
and will permit greater reliance on an
exception to what would otherwise be
an infringement of copyright. ■
Doran Chandler’s practice focuses on
providing legal services for the enter-
tainment industry, including services
in relation to fi lm and television fi -
nancing, intellectual property issues,
production services and music. After
his previous career as a musician,
touring North America with a folk-
rock band, Mr. Chandler settled in
Vancouver to pursue his legal career.
“Fair Dealing” unfair?
Doran ChandlerEntertainment Lawyer
Reel convenient.
Current and archived issues of Reel West Magazineare now available online at www.reelwest.com
REEL WEST JULY / AUGUST 201030
West Wins Two Two Western Canadian companies
were winners at the recent Banff
Television Festival. Winnipeg-based
Frantic Films won a Rockie Award
in the Lifestyle and Information
category for an episode of the Food
Network’s Pitchin’ In (Pitchin’ In:
Shrimp) and Vancouver’s Force Four
Entertainment won the Best Canadi-
an Program Rockie for its CBC News
Network documentary 65 Red Roses.
Other Canadian productions to
win Rockies included Best Anima-
tion/Kids winner Le Printemps de Me-
lie/ Molly in Springtime from the Na-
tional Film Board in association with
Folimage, PIWI, Divertissement Sub-
sequence Inc and two Quebec fi lms
that won Best Francophone Rockies:
Aveux, from Productions Pixcom inc.
and Radio-Canada which won in the
overall show category and Les vrais
gagnants, which won in the docu-
mentary category. It was produced by
RPM Inc and Radio Canada.
Two Canadians won special
awards. William Shatner won the
Lifetime Achievement Award while
Eric McCormack won the NBC
Universal Canada Award of Dis-
tinction. British comedian Ricky
Gervais won the Sir Peter Ustinov
Award for Comedy.
Alice in Leos WonderlandA TV miniseries based on the iconic
children’s book Alice in Wonderland
has won eight Leo Awards. Alice took
home awards for best feature length
drama, cinematography (Jon Joffi n),
score (Ben Mink), stunt coordina-
tion (Marshall Virtue), production
design (Michael Joy, Mark Lane and
Paolo Venturi), overall sound (Da-
vid Cyr, Paul Sharp, Iain Patterson
and Graeme Hughes), editing (Alan
Lee and Peter Forslund) and visual
eff ects (Lee Wilson, Lisa Sepp-Wil-
son, Sebastien Bergeron, Simon
Lacey and Les Quinn) at June’s an-
nual event to recognize outstanding
achievement in production and per-
formance in British Columbia.
Alice was followed closely by the
short fi lm Th e Gray Matter, which
won seven Leos, and two dramatic
TV series. Sanctuary won seven
Leos in its category while Stargate
Universe won six. Th e Gray Matter
won for short fi lm, cinematography
(James Liston), score (Matthew
Rogers), production design (Daren
Luc Sasges and Ester Bovard), cos-
tume design (Jennifer Sharpe), over-
all sound (Greg Stewart, Miguel
Nunes, Roger Morris and Greg
Hannas) and sound editing (Miguel
Nunes, Roger Morris, Angelo Ni-
coloyannis and Greg Stewart.)
Th ree of Sanctuary’s Leos came
from its actors. It won the series
awards Leos for lead actor (Robin
Dunne), supporting actor (Chris-
topher Heyerdahl) and guest male
performance (Christopher Gauth-
ier.) It also won for costume design
(Christina McQuarrie), makeup
(Todd Masters, Holland Miller,
Harlow Macfarlane, Werner Pre-
torius, Yukio Okajima), production
design (Bridget McGuire) and di-
rection (Brenton Spencer.)
Stargate Universe won for dramat-
ic series, cinematography (Michael
Blundell), supporting performance
(Julia Benson), editing (Rick Mar-
tin), visual eff ects (Mark Savela,
Shannon Gurney, Brenda Camp-
bell, Craig Vandenbiggelaar and
Krista Mclean) and screenwriting
(Brad Wright.)
Winning fi ve Leos was the series
Wolf Canyon, which won for mu-
sical, comedy or variety program,
directing (Allan Harmon), perfor-
mance or host (Jessica Harmon),
cinematography (Randal Platt) and
editing (Richard Schwadel.) Bruce
Sweeney’s feature Excited won four
Leos including feature length drama,
lead female performance (Laara
Sadiq), supporting female perfor-
mance (Gabrielle Rose), and direct-
ing (Sweeney.)
Also winning four Leos was Fac-
ing Ali, which won for best feature-
length documentary, best directing
(Pete McCormack), best editing
(Jesse James Miller) and cinema-
tography (Ian Kerr.) Ice Pilots NWT,
Anna & Christina’s Grocery Bag and
Th e League of Super Evil were also
multiple winners with each taking
three Leos. Ice Pilots won the Leos
for best documentary series, sound
editing (Vince Renaud and Jo Ros-
si) and screenwriting (Catharine
Parke.) Grocery Bag won for best
host (Anna Wallner and Kristina
Matisic), cinematography (Carl Al-
cock) and directing (Jennifer Lit-
tle.) Th e League of Super Evil won
for animation series, screenwriting
(Philippe Ivanusic, Davila Lebianc)
and directing (Johnny Darrell, Rob
Hoegee and Steve Ball.)
Two Leos went to Th is Land and
Short Savage and Stormworld with
Th is Land winning for best docu-
mentary short and overall sound
(Gael MacLean and Doug Pater-
son) and Short Savage winning Leos
for female performance (Skeena
Reece) and editing (Hart Snider
and Brendan Wollard.) Stormworld
won Leos for youth and children’s
program (Shawn Williamson, Ian
Hogg, Paul Barron and Stephen
Hegyes) and the category’s award for
performance (Callum Worthy.)
Other performance awards went
to Jared Kesso for Keep Your Head
Up:Th e Don Cherry Story (lead per-
formance, male) Chad Willett for
Cole (supporting performance, male)
and Erin Karpluk, Being Erica (lead
performance, female.) David Rich-
mond-Peck won the performance
by a male in a short drama Leo for
Instant. Veteran local stunt man Ja-
cob Rupp won the stunt coordina-
tion Leo for Smallville.
Category awards went to Th e Na-
ture of Th ings (information or life-
style series), Trolls (student produc-
tion), Road Regrets (music video) and
Th e Vetala (web series.) Meanwhile,
Oscar nominee Monique Prudhom-
me won the costume design Leo for
Th e Imaginarium of Doctor Parnas-
sus, Tina Louis Teoli won the short
drama award for make-up for Serum
1831 and Todd Masters, Nicolas
Podbrey, Werner Pretorius, Maiko
Gomyo, Vincent Yoshida and April
Boyes won the same award in the
feature fi lm category for Th aw.
Additional screenwriting awards
went to Kelly-Ruth Mercier for the
short drama No One Knows You Like
Your Mother and Vic Sarin, Cath-
erine Spear and Dennis Foon for
the feature length drama A Shine
of Rainbows while directing awards
went to J.B. Sugar for the children’s
program Wrath of the Wraith and to
Ann Valine for the short drama How
Eunice Got Her Baby. Th e animation
program or series category saw the
overall sound Leo go to James Fon-
nyadt, Miguel Nunes, Gord Hillier
and Tony Gort for Max Steel Versus
the Mutant Menace while the musi-
cal score Leo went to Daniel Ingram
for Martha Speaks. ■
FINAL EDITW
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RE
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NT
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ISIO
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ES
TIVA
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FILM + TV FORUM
DROP IN and GET INFORMED
Sept 28 - Oct 1, 2010 + NFD Oct 2
TURNING CHALLENGES INTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE LAST 25 YEARS! email: [email protected] tel: (604) 685.3547www.viff.org/forum
Whether you’re a first-time producer trying to get your
project off the ground, or an industry veteran learning to
adapt to the daunting demands of the digital marketplace,
The Vancouver Film & TV Forum is the place to be!
The Forum provides an exciting platform for our delegates to access domestic
and global market leaders, share the expertise of our international speakers
and make the most of the opportunity to meet and foster working relationships
with their peers. Our New Filmmakers’ Day (NFD), the only event of its kind in
Western Canada and a ’standing-room-only’ event for the past seven years, is
specifically designed to cater to emerging writers, producers and directors of
screen based media.
SAVE THE DATES:
09.28 - Storyville Vancouver
09.29 - Doc Day
09.30 - Film Day
10.01 - TV Day
PLUS:
10.02 – New Filmmakers’ Day
All sessions take place at the Rogers Industry located at the Vancouver International Film Centre.
The Forum is presented by the Vancouver International Film Festival.