splice Fall 2014 - Spring 2015
The Great Saskatchewan Timelapse with Artist-in-Residence Berny Hi
Board of Directors
Jessica Riess - President Kelly-Anne Riess - Vice President Ian Campbell – Treasurer Gerald Saul – Secretary Chrystene Ells, Mattias Graham Martin Makowski, Martha Roberts , Mike Rollo, Gerald Saul , Rod Slamp
Staff
Gordon Pepper - Executive Director Kristine Dowler - Members Services Coordinator and Interim Production Coordinator Noelle Duddridge - Programming Coordinator Logan Vanghel - Production/Teaching Assistant Splice Magazine is a publication of The Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative, a non-profit artist-run centre that supports, encourages, and assists independent filmmaking in Saskatchewan. The Filmpool Cooperative is committed to developing an awareness and appreciation of independent film that reflects the individual and collective cultural expression of Saskatchewan people.
Splice Magazine c/o The Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative. #301-1822 Scarth St. Regina, SK S4P 2G3 P. 306.757.8818 | F. 306.757.3622 splicemag@filmpool.ca | www.filmpool.ca
Editor: Kelly-Anne Riess
Design & Layout: Jessica Riess
Cover Photograph Featuring Berny Hi: Gerald Saul The opinions expressed in Splice are not necessarily those of the Filmpool, its Board of Directors, the Editor, or anybody other than the authors.
A Message from the Filmpool Executive Director Recently I’ve had discussions with a number of people about the state of Saskatchewan’s film community and industry, and of course a wide range of opinions exists on how best to sustain growth. Important variables like production funding, equipment access, education, crews, and marketing must all be addressed. It is equally important however, to recognize the passion and dedication required to initiate and to complete projects. The will to create lies at the heart of all artistic endeavors. This spring, the Filmpool presented three visiting film artists, Roger Beebe, Terrance Odette and Jaimz Asmundson to our community. What becomes clear is the intense passion that these artists exude. Our community needs to recognize that fostering a creative film environment and culture - perhaps more than anything - is what will successfully drive our film community and industry forward. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Splice Magazine editor KellyAnne Riess for all of her work in coordinating the production of Splice for the past few years. Splice provides a voice for independent film and Kelly’s professionalism and commitment in keeping this voice alive and well has been unparalleled. Thank you Kelly! Gord Pepper, Executive Director
A Message from the Splice Editor Saskatchewan Filmpool members are doing amazing work and are competing nationally to earn great opportunities. There was Lowell Dean who won the million dollar CineCoup prize to make WolfCop. In this issue of Splice we will be reading about other Filmpool members who have also earned national filming opportunities. Matt Yim and producers Matthieu Belanger and Allan Roeher were the Saskatchewan selection for the Indiecan 10K Challenge and recently screened their first feature Basic Human Needs as a result of that competition. Luke Black completed the Canadian Film Centre Producers’ Lab and later produced What Doesn’t Kill You, a film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014. As for me, I received a Banff CTV National Fellowship and, recently, with the support of the Filmpool, received a Telefilm Micro-Budget Production Grant for Emerging Filmmakers for my documentary Finding Al – A Documentary. There is a lot of great work being done at the Filmpool and in this issue you will also read about the Filmpool’s new inititative, the Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards (SIFAs) designed to recognize that work. I hope you enjoy reading about all the success stories at the Filmpool this year. Kelly-Anne Riess, Splice Editor
In this Issue.... 01 Saskatchewan Filmpool Launches Film Awards By Kelly-Anne Riess
03 Building an Indie Career: A Year at the Canadian Film Centre By Luke Black
05 How Not to Make a Movie: My Conversation with Filmmakers Matt Yim and Matthieu Belanger By Emily Berntson
07 Bataille's Sacrifice and the Screen Actor By Matthew Gartner
09 Images from the 2014 Sask. Independent Film Awards 11 The Long and the Tall of It: A Look at Two Recent Films by Berny Hi By Gerald Saul
13 C-41: Developing Colour Film Negatives By Ian Campbell
15 Finding Al – A Journey in Documentary Filmmaking By Kelly-Anne Riess
Saskatchewan Filmpool Launches Film Awards By Kelly-Anne Riess
The Saskatchewan Filmpool celebrated its first annual Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards (SIFAs) on November 27, 2014. is a Regina-based filmmaker and educator known for his work in a variety of genres. Other nominees for the award included: au bord de la rivière (Mike Rollo) Synopsis: “au bord de la rivière” is an unblinking examination of the light and movement patterns that animate a river bank; an earthly mysticism in miniature, a professing of natural secrets hidden in plain sight. Bio: Mike Rollo is a filmmaker from Regina, SK. His work explores alternative approaches to documentary cinema – methods which thematize vanishing cultures and transitional spaces through references to memory, history, religion, autobiography and architecture. Mysterium (Jennifer Sparrowhawk) Synopsis: A woman looks for a house in the wilderness. What she finds there is not what she expected.
Honourable Mark Docherty and Brian Stockton, winner of the Best Film - Jury’s Choice Award. Photo Credit: Ian Campbell.
Through this initiative, which was the brainchild of Filmpool board member Kelly-Anne Riess and developed by staff, volunteers and board members past and present—including Janine Windolph, Robert Miller, Trudy Stewart, Tricia Martin, Gordon Pepper and Noelle Duddridge—it is hoped that the profile of Saskatchewan independent filmmaking is raised and that the awards will foster the next voice of Saskatchewan filmmakers. The SIFAs were given out in three categories: Best Film – Jury’s Choice, Audience Choice and Best Student Film. The winner of the Best Film - Jury’s Choice Award was Snapshots by Brian Stockton. The award came with a $500 cash prize and SIFA trophy. The winning film was a personal documentary featuring 5,000 still photographs taken over a period of 25 years. It was a life flashing in front of viewers’ eyes in rapid, hypnotic fashion. Stockton 1 | Splice Magazine | Fall 2014 - Spring 2015
Bio: Jennifer Sparrowhawk is a Saskatchewan based filmmaker. Her work has screened in Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Australia. Parathyroid Punk (Chrystene Ells) Synopsis: A swaggering punk parathyroid tumor puppet boasts about the hell he causes. Bio: Ells loves life, making stuff, having adventures and conducting experiments. Mostly she loves to do these things with other people. This Huckster’s Paradise (Matt Belanger & Matt Yim) Synopsis: On an evening stakeout, a young couple attempt to out a case of infidelity but discover playing private-eye isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Bio: Matt Yim is a Regina based writer/director who just completed his first feature film, Basic Human Needs, with producers Matthieu Belanger and Allan Roeher. Huckster’s Paradise was the winner of the Audience Choice Award, which was sponsored by Mispon, an indigenous filmmaking collective. The award came with a $150 cash prize and a SIFA trophy.
The best student film went to Running By, a film by Bryce Gamache. The film was about Ethan, who was born into a traditional farming family and expected to take over the farm. Ethan is faced with trying to live out his passion of running before this happens.
(Regina, SK) are emerging filmmakers who met while studying at the University of Regina’s Department of Film. Both have a strong focus on directing, but Jordan’s interest in screenwriting and Jason’s interest in cinematography resulted in a decision to collaborate.
Gamache is currently attending Univeristy of Regina’s BFA in video production. In his last year he has studied all aspects of filmmaking but finds himself taking to the directing field of film.
Paragon (Zoe Gaudry) Synopsis: Paragon Lifestyles Incorporated has high quality control standards and the questionable moral code to enforce them.
The student award came with a $100 cash prize, a SIFA trophy and a basic Filmpool membership.
Bio: Zoe Gaudry and Omar Ismail are students of the U of R Film Department who share an interest in animation and genre films.
Other nominees for the student award included: A New Understanding (Brenden Wishlow) Synopsis: The lifelong struggle of a mother attempting to find her true passion. Bio: Brenden Wishlow is a recent Film and Video Production grad from the University of Regina. Isaiah (Jason Rister & Jordan MacKenzie) Synopsis: For years Isaiah has struggled to renovate his childhood house, perpetually tearing it down and repairing it in an attempt to deal with his past.
The awards were hosted by James Whittingham and Laura Abramsen. Both Whittingham and Abramsen are wellknown actors in Saskatchewan’s independent film scene and co-stars of Saskatchewan feature film The Sabbatical. The SIFA award night would not have been possible without the help of volunteers Ian Campbell, Mattias Graham, Karla Paragg, and Jessica Riess, along with Filmpool staff.
Bio: Jordan MacKenzie (Kelowna, BC) and Jason Rister
Staff and board celebrate the success of the first ever SIFAs. Board members Jessica Riess and Mattias Graham as well as staff Kristine Dowler, Gord Pepper, and Karla Paragg. Photo Credit: Ian Campbell. Splice Magazine | Fall 2014 - Spring 2015 | 2
Building an Indie Career: A Year at the Canadian Film Centre By Luke Black In January of 2013, I finally bit the bullet and applied to the Canadian Film Centre. I’d been active as a filmmaker for about five years and had created fifteen short no-budget works through artist-run centres like the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers and the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative. As is common with most narrative filmmakers, I was trying to find a way to transition from short form to long. Since I was the driving force and financier behind most of my previous productions, I was very much a film industry outsider (more than I even realized at the time). But I knew enough to know that if I wanted to make the transition I should probably build some business skills. My decision to back-burner artistry for business acumen coincided with the launch of the Saskatchewan Art Board’s second Arts Entrepreneurship & Business Development Course. The six month intensive was a crash course in the creation and development of small businesses, particular in its application to artists. It was enlightening and clarified that if I wanted a career in the business of film, I was a lot farther from the goal line than I had reckoned. However, now I knew what I didn’t know and could pivot myself to focus on the unknowns.
The Canadian Film Centre has a reputation in Canada, but the most I knew was that the CFC was a training program for filmmakers who’d reached a certain point in their careers. When I sent my application, I didn’t think I was at that certain and unknowable point yet. So I rationalized the application as an introduction – someone would see my name and my work then, in a few years when I applied again (and again), they’d be able to track my career growth and perhaps take a chance on me. I still don’t think that was a bad plan, it just turned out the CFC did think I was already at that certain and unknowable point where they could help my career. As an indie short filmmaker, you’ve probably safely assumed I wore many hats on my productions and you’re not wrong. I’d at various times been a director, producer, writer, editor, cinematographer and everything in between. Sometimes all at once. Since the CFC’s Film Program offers four individual streams – directing, writing, producing and editing – I needed to make a choice about which of those hats I wanted to wear. Because I had shifted so much of my recent effort and passion into developing business skills, I decided to pursue the Producers’ Lab, which turned out to be the right decision because all the work I had done on business models and production case studies were the perfect prelude to the lab. The CFC program was an intense five months. Beginning in July, we worked full-time with incredible mentors and speakers from both Canada and the US to create marketready feature film packages. Everyone spoke candidly about their careers, our projects and the state of the film industry. It was an atmosphere of peers sharing insights, not just teachers imparting information. We weren’t spared the difficulties we would face in this career but were nonetheless repeatedly inspired to continue forward. The mysterious inner workings of film development, financing, and distribution were laid bare. At the end of it all, I wouldn’t presume that I know everything there is to know, but from where I had been five months previous, I was light years ahead in my career.
Scene from What Doesn’t Kill You, directed by Rob Grant, 2014.
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The program wasn’t all abstract knowledge though. We were also given the chance to work with the other labs to
develop our creative skills. The four labs came together in October to create short films and, more importantly, get to know each other creatively. We pitched concepts, discussed collaborations, and then selected teams made up of a member from each lab to produce a short film. It was a wonderful reminder of why we’d all come to the CFC and why we were all filmmakers. The short films were all completed and showcased at the end of our time in the program. Watching our films gave us the opportunity to observe how each individual – all of whom we’d gotten to know intimately over five months together – had left their own unique stamp on each collaborative work.
am confident enough to position the projects as products in the film marketplace. There are still plenty of challenges and unknowns to overcome as I pursue my career in the Canadian and global film industry, but thanks to the guidance and support of so many people (from inside and outside of the CFC), I am on a clearer career path than ever before.
At the end of the film program, the director residents are given the opportunity to participate in a Short Dramatic Film Program. The program aims to give the directors an opportunity to create a short film that can act as both a stand-alone work and a proof of concept for a feature film. While the program is exclusive to the director residents, I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to produce two of these films. I teamed with a co-producer on each film to share the workload and embarked on creating two of the largest scale short films I’ve ever been involved with. As can always be said of production, it was a gruelling and intense endeavour that was ultimately an amazingly rewarding experience. We had some of the most eager and talented volunteer crews I’ve ever worked with, who were more than willing to put up with an unseasonably cold March. Couple them with some very generous postproduction partners and, at the end of the day, we had two amazing projects in the can. Life on Juniper, directed by Mark Ratzlaff, is an unusually touching sci-fi drama about an ageing farmer who encounters an alien visitor determined on disrupting his quiet way of life – it will have its festival premiere in early 2015. What Doesn’t Kill You, directed by Rob Grant, is a sci-fi thriller set in the aftermath of a horrific car crash where two bullied teens reappear completely healed after they die and must decide the fate of their paralysed friend. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014, where we received an honourable mention from the short films award jury. It’s now been over a year since I started the CFC’s Film Program. Looking back, it seems like a lifetime ago I was sitting in a boardroom with Karen Henders at the Saskatchewan Arts Board office in Regina trying to develop a business model to break into the film industry. Today, I’m working with incredible peers – both new and old – on developing a slate of feature and short films and
Scene from Life on Juniper, directed by Mark Ratzlaff, 2015. Splice Magazine | Fall 2014 - Spring 2015 | 4
How Not to Make a Movie:
My Conversation with Filmmakers Matt Yim and Matthieu Belanger By Emily Berntson
Scene from feature film Basic Human Needs.
Basic Human Needs is the first feature film from writer/ director/actor Matt Yim and producers Matthieu Belanger and Allan Roeher. It was the Saskatchewan selection for the Indiecan 10K Challenge, a Canada wide initiative by distribution company Indiecan Entertainment and executive producer Avi Federgreen, to help filmmakers create their first feature film for a budget of under $10,000. An exercise in frugality, ingenuity and determination, the team was required to take their film from concept to completion in ten months. The film follows a young couple, Miles and Audrey (played by Matt Yim and Laura Abramsen) recent university graduates whose intelligence and emotional sensitivity can’t make up for their debilitating lack of ambition. Although they claim to have plans of moving away — from Regina to Toronto, Montreal, or any other city that might intrigue them on a particular day — they do nothing proactive to get there. Instead, they remain fixated on their own fantasies of an ideal grown up life; 5 | Splice Magazine | Fall 2014 - Spring 2015
that is, until adulthood is abruptly thrust upon them. I sat down, over a pot of green tea, with Matt Yim and Matthieu Belanger, after a rough-cut screening of Basic Human Needs. Our discussion ranged from crowd funding to non-professional actors to the challenges of making a no-budget feature film: Emily: Okay. Let’s start off with the 10K Challenge. What were your original thoughts when you heard you were the Saskatchewan selection? Did you find that stressful? Exciting? Yim: Well, we thought it was a million dollar movie when we first heard about it. Belanger: This was last year, before anything was officially announced. Yim: We got a tip that [executive producer] Avi
Federgreen was looking for scripts from Saskatchewan, so I started writing whatever sprung to mind, disregarding budgetary restraints for the most part. And then we realized, months later, ‘oh, it’s $10,000 that you get, and you have to raise it yourself, and it has to be shot by August.’ Belanger: Then we weren’t quite sure what we’d gotten ourselves into. DENNY’S RESTAURANT 1800 Victoria Avenue East Yim: I had to write a completely (306)different 949-2447script in about www.dennys.com two weeks. I decided to base it on a short I’d made in film
school, not because I was interested the subject matter EARL’SinRESTAURANT -- it actually bored me to death -- but because it’d mean EAST 1875 Victoriawould Avenue already East ten pages of an eighty-page screenplay be (306) 949-4955 written. I was lazy and desperate. We realized after it had www.earls.ca been written that we needed to reshape the script into EARL’S RESTAURANT something…
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stage. That was March. The script had just been finished.
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Belanger: It was good to have restriction, because (306)that 569-2800 www.humptys.com then you had to write something within those limitations. Splice Magazine | Fall 2014 - Spring 2015 | 6
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Bataille's Sacrifice and the Screen Actor By Matthew Gartner The identity of the screen actor comes in the form of three separate selves that exist within both the actor's physical body and their body of work. The private self, the character self, and the persona self-work together to create a composite identity. Some of the distinctions that are made about actors are applicable to the notion of sacrifice that is presented by French philosopher, Georges Bataille: the actor is elevated while being placed into the realm of utility, has their characters ended at the conclusion of each film, and experiences some sort of rebirth as a result of the experience.
The Three Selves of the Actor: Private, Character, and Persona Georges Bataille dedicates a few sections of his book, Erotism: Death and Sensuality, to presenting a formulation of sacrifice, where he writes that the ritual “elevates the victim above the humdrum world where men [and women] live out their calculated lives” (Bataille, 82). The subject of the sacrifice is taken in front of a population and turned into visual spectacle. The audience observes as “tense onlookers” as the event unfolds, and then stand hypnotized “in the succeeding silence” (22). Those in the audience are able to identify with a proxy, while still remaining safe. This dynamic of being placed in front of an audience, who place a specific purpose upon a person, while this person negates their standard existence for the possible benefit of the audience defines the screen actor's private self. The second self that the screen actor is comprised of is the character. The subject in the sacrifice will ultimately have their life ended, as a character ends at the completion of a film or series. For both Bataille's subject and the actor, “the self-contained character of the participators as they are in their normal lives” is destroyed at the completion of the task (17). This process of the end of one individual as a part of the narrative that plays out, alongside the intimate distance of this subject from the audience, and the apparent relative lack of control over one's own progression define the character self. The private self is thought to be inside of the character, which would indicate that the character has someone inside of it. The character behaves like a husk; it is an active, alive, and fragile self that serves a function, but can be left behind and disposed of just as quickly as it can be entered into.
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The final self that forms the actor is the persona. For Bataille, and especially in the case of the actor, the type of death that sacrifice involves is not necessarily the standard sort of physical cessation, “sacrifice is a deliberate act whose purpose is a sudden change” (90).The ending of one individual is accomplished within one's own body as a reorientation. This process involves the forgetting of one incarnation and the beginning of a new one, with mortality being linked to life as a rebirth. Subjects and actors are seen as having some sort of intimate and direct interaction with powers beyond normal human experience, often divine. This is an advantage; an elevation above one's peers and contact with a greater mode of existence – a transcendent power, or a supposedly ideal lifestyle in the actor's case. In his article, “Acting: Stage vs. Screen,” Leo Braudy suggests that “acting deposits a residual self that snowballs from film to film, creating an image” that informs subsequent roles, and that the audience and “the actor...can play with as they wish” (361). The image that comprises the persona is more of a mosaic, where certain parts of the image are brought to light more than others. The persona changes with each role that an actor takes on. The systems of reorientation through less than final occurrences of death, change within one individual over time, interaction with elevated or divine powers, and the onlookers being able to contact the experience of the subject without actually having to go through the conflict are mirrored in the self of the persona.
Cycles and Inner Experience The private self is placed in front of spectators while being negated each time an actor enters a role, the character eventually passes away (in or) at the end of the film, and the persona undergoes an alteration as a result. Upon completion, the cycle returns to the beginning. For Bataille, what sacrifice is getting at is a desirable way to live one's life, or an ideal mode of existence, which is referred to as inner experience. Certain activities, like the mode of sacrifice that has been described, provide a person with this inner experience, and these activities should be cultivated for the best life. Not only is the actor capable of achieving this state, but their achievement of it places them within an ideal and maximally effective (and maximally affective) way of life. “It is the common business of sacrifice to bring life and death into harmony” for Bataille, with the event being a site where “life is
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mingled with death, but simultaneously death is a sign of life, a •way into the infinite” (91). The cessations that the Equipment access actor experiences • Productionlikewise funding provide them with a path into the infinite, as their go from a standard existence • Reduction onselves workshop registration into an• ideal one. registration fee Free SIFA • Splice Magazine
Bataille• Community provides a and useful illustration which relates to Networking screen acting. The writer suggests that an individual Name: “achieves his [or her] inner experience at the instant when bursting out of the chrysalis” or cocoon, the individual Address: feels that they are “tearing” themselves, “not tearing City: Prov: something outside that resists” them (39). The actor's personal self is placed into a character, or chrysalis, which Postal Code: temporarily covers it up. At thePhone: same time, this personal self is acknowledged to still be occupying the exterior Email: wrapping, and remains present despite its masking. This character or cocooned state is comprised of an exterior Subscriber - $15 being and an inner being. The cocoon or shell has its Basic Production Level - $60 own qualities of vitality because Full Production Level - $75of the being inside of it, which Affiliate has departed from its normal mode of existence Production Member - $75 in order to develop new statuses and definitions (Bataille New $10 as part of the person, even though includes the- add chrysalis it is left behind). The character eventually ceases to exist The runs April 1 March 31. Prorated in membership concert withyear the alteration oftothe wrapped being and prices available to new members. Contact us for more the emergence of the new one. Each definition of the information. individual actor through a new combination of their selves contains some residue of the most recent incarnation filmpool.ca - 306-757-8818 alongside the latest interpretation.
Johanne Larue and Carole Zucker describe the film actor as “a human mask composed of projected light” (297). In this definition, the characters are not the masks, but – $15/year theSubscriber actors themselves are. The actor simply bounces Subscribers receive The Dailies (Filmpool’s weekly efrom character to character with an apparently human newsletter), a free subscription to Splice Magazine, and exterior that simply operates as a mask for whatever new the ability to post calls or promotional notices in The Daiindividual is set to inhabit that space. The mask is less a lies. This level does not have voting rights. form of protection than it is a familiar surface that can act Basic as a starting pointMembership for interaction with a character. Production – $60/year Through this composite definition, the actor tends to be a Basic Members are entitled to everything a Subscriber collection of selves is projected ontorates a body. is entitled to plusthat access to member for equipment rental, reduced rates at Filmpool workshops and events, and voting rights at the Annual General Meeting.
Works Cited
Full Production Membership – $75/year
Bataille, Georges.are Erotism: & Sensuality. Trans. Full Members entitled Death to everything a Basic Member Mary Dalwood. San their Francisco: City Lights,for 1986. is entitled to plus projects are eligible production grants, equipment rental deferrals, and they can access
Braudy, Leo. "Acting: vs. Screen." Filmand Theory and the advanced gear:Stage BlackMagic Cinema Pocket Cam, Criticism. 7th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2009. 356-62. Arri SR ii, Jib, Dolly, Panasonic HVX200, and Steadicam. Print. Affiliate – $75/year
Larue, Johanne, and Carole Zucker. "James Dean: The Pose This is available to non-profit organizations in the arts and of Reality? East of Eden and the Method Performance." culture sector in Saskatchewan. Privileges include evMaking Visible the Invisible: A Collection of Essays of Film erything a Basic Member is entitled to however this level Acting. N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1990. 295-324. doesMetuchen, not have voting rights. Print.
Conexus Film Camp 2015 Presented by The Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative & Conexus Credit Union
July 13-17 at the Filmpool Conexus Film Camp is an amazing hands-on, week long film and video production camp for teens ages 13-17. Visit filmpool.ca for registration information.
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The Saskatchewan Filmpool celebrated its first annual Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards (SIFAs) on November 27, 2014. Hosts James Whittingham and Laura Abramsen kick off the evening’s festivities Eric Hill entertains the audience at the 2014 SIFAs A record FORTY FIVE films were submitted for consideration for the SIFAs Jordan MacKenzie (L) and Jason Rister (R), nominated for Best Student Film for the wonderful Isaiah. Photo by Ian Campbell. Best Student Film Nominee: Running By by Bryce Gamache Trudy Stewart (L) and Janine Windolph (R) of mispon at the 2014 SIFAs Lowell Dean and Victor Lam at the 2014 SIFAs Best Film Nominee for Mysterium by Jennifer Sparrowhawk
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The Long and the Tall of It: A Look at Two Recent Films by Berny Hi By Gerald Saul
George Bassler's Perpetual Motion Machine (Digital, 2012).
I love the 19th century, when science was replacing magic, but, for a time, the two became tangled into one. The lens of a magic lantern didn't just bend light, it twisted reality and showed worlds beyond our own. Cameras were widely believed to be able to see ghosts and the myth of alchemy was superseded by the new mythology of the engineer whose supremacy of the machine would cure all ills,
reveal all truths, and harness the infinite. When cinema arrived at the end of the century it was already riding the coattails of the charlatans and geniuses with their myriad of spinning and shining devices, lulling their audiences with shadow-play, puppetry, and diaptic science. Berny Hi would be right at home; a tinkerer, a trickster, and showman. In Kitty Dreams of Dying, (super-8, 2012) Hi uses simultaneous duel projectors and additional lenses and glass to create a living image. Ghostly reflections allow fluid interchange between the two frames as images pass effortlessly between worlds of dream/wake and ultimately life/death. As the recording of Hi's voice tells us of his cat's ongoing successful fight against an incurable ailment, he manipulates the projection of the images making each screening unique and beautiful.
Scene from Kitty Dreams of Dying. (Super-8, 2012).
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Kitty Dreams of Dying is cast upon the screen like a magic spell. Digital reproductions cannot carry the emotional weight that the performance does; only by Hi's own hand can this film come to light. The darkened room, the purring cat, and the hallucinatory streaks of light create a sĂŠance-inspired environment. Like an incantation, this performance helps ensure Kitty's well-being. As we see
through his alternative cinematic techniques, we can recognise that Hi is emotionally grounded in the cinematic apparatus. It is the place of comfort where he seeks solace. In George Bassler's Perpetual Motion Machine (digital, 2012) Hi presents a story with rich potential about two tragic men, the 18th century European Johann Bessler (occupational name for a tinkerer) who investigated the construction of a perpetual motion machine but died fixing a clock tower, and the Saskatchewanian Johaan Bassler (a nickname for a scatterbrained person) who died under the uncontrolled spinning blades of what was purportedly a successful perpetual motion machine of his own. Again, Hi uses his own soft-spoken voice in monologue to tell these tales. The recording of his voice seems to be done in two (or more) recording sessions, sometimes cut together in mid-sentence. The script often reveals its own rewrites through Hi's correcting of himself. This demonstrates both an immediacy, as if spoken live along with the film, as well as a considered process, recorded at different times and edited together. This dichotomy creates an ambiguous sensation for the viewer as we cannot discern if the project is painstakingly constructed or assembled casually. Visually, Berny Hi's use of puppets—a drinking/dippy bird, clocks, a camera, and a music box—to represent this mythological machine is intriguing. However, while the spectre of creation
is enticing, it fails to be as satisfying as the theme of "mortality" which hung over Kitty's Dream of Dying. Hi's inventory of the subjects' personal details (the various deaths of Bessler's family for example) may be better suited within a chronicle of local history than the confines of a short film. While these factual events could certainly be transformed into a macabre tale of murder or mysticism suitable to Poe or Lovecraft, the causal relationships suggested by them in this film is insubstantial. George Bassler's Perpetual Motion Machine hints at crime and injustice and passion and creation and madness but only delivers a portion of this potential. It is as if Hi needs a broader canvas onto which to weave together his tangle of threads in all their complexities. Simply put, I wanted more. These two recent films by Hi remind us of more difficult times when machines required more than a tap of a thumb to operate. Invention, including the art of film trickery, did not begin with a keyboard command but were devised by individuals willing to craft tools and manipulate devices. Hi reminds us of the value of embracing the glass and the steel, how the tangibility of our tools brings our bodies and our craft closer together and perhaps, in some way, allows us to cope with the rest of the physical realm, of change and pain and mortality.
Expanded Cinema: The Great Saskatchewan Timelapse Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada | November 2014-September 2015 Expanded Cinema is a creative adventure in cinematic language created and facilitated by Berny Hi, a Regina-based filmmaker, and current artist-in-residence at the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative. Over 30 independent artists are coming together to explore vertical cinema as a community collaborative film project, The Great Saskatchewan Timelapse, consisting of a number of 1-2 minute short films, animations, and puppet films created in workshops across Saskatchewan that will be edited together for site-specific presentation on a monumental, free-standing rectangular screen mirroring the shape of the province. The project will playfully trace the memory of place, from Saskatchewan's earliest defined geological past, through the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, the crashing of meteors, the ebb and flow of the glaciers, the arrival of mammals and the migration of the first humans, and subsequent cultural events, leading to the present day. The projects take place at Hi's Regina-based studio, The Vault, and in various locales across Saskatchewan. Funded by the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative, the Saskatchewan Arts Board and its Creative Partnerships, and the City of Regina.
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www.gunderson.tv.
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Finding Al – A Journey in Documentary Filmmaking By Kelly-Anne Riess
I always wanted to be an independent documentary filmmaker. “Then be one,” David Hansen, a Regina TV producer I was working for almost 10 years ago now told me when I expressed this to him. “Just do it.” “Well, it’s not that easy,” I replied. Maybe. Maybe not. Later, I would be mentored by Mark Bradley, another television producer at 291 Film Company. He told me to “just come up with a simple idea for a documentary, something in your own backyard that you could do without a lot of money.” I was living in Moose Jaw at the time and Al Capone was
rumoured to have visited there according to the local lore. “Perfect,” said Mark. “I don’t think anyone has done a documentary about that yet.” People, I learned later, had tried. But no broadcaster was really interested in the idea. They didn’t realize how such a story could capture the public imagination. Mark mentored me on preparing a realistic low budget for the documentary--$100,000 for a 60-minute documentary he thought would be fair. He taught me how broadcast licences worked, how to apply for tax credits and money from the Canada Media Fund. How did I stumble into such a useful mentorship? It was offered to me through the Saskatchewan Arts Board Creative Industries Entrepreneurship Course back in 2010. I thought the doc would be an easy sell to SCN, since they were a huge supporter to emerging TV producers and filmmakers. Well, we all know what happened to SCN at this time. The government pulled its funding, and the future of SCN was unknown. Mark helped me get all my paperwork together for the documentary and just for kicks I applied to the Banff World Media Fesitval CTV National Fellowship and got in. As a fellow, I would have a chance to pitch to broadcasters, like History Television, in person. In the meantime though, a company called Blue Point had taken over SCN and they put out a call for proposals. I submitted my materials to them, but they weren’t interested in Al Capone or Moose Jaw. Oh well. Maybe somebody bigger and better would want it at Banff in 2011. As it turned out, History Television was kind of interested in the idea and they invited me to email my materials in so they could be discussed by all of the decision making types… but alas they passed. So, 2012 rolls in and I have put all this work on paper into a documentary that I can’t seem to sell, but I still want to make the documentary.
Deirdre Capone in Moose Jaw. Photo Credit: Thomas Bartlett, 2013.
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Around this time, I met documentary filmmaker Steve Suderman, formerly of Regina, now of Winnipeg, thanks to the loss of the Saskatchewan tax credit.
Host Leon Willey in search of Al Capone. Photo Credit: Thomas Bartlett, 2013.
Steve made his first documentary Over Land by picking up a camera and just doing it. He filmed the loss of his family farm and got into some festivals and such. So why couldn’t I do that and just make a film? Just do it?
One of them, Greg Stanton, was willing to film for one day only free of charge to get me started.
Why did I have to wait for someone to give me permission to make my film? What did I need to just get started today?
After that, I used my savings to hire a DOP when needed. You can estimate that it will cost between $300 and $600 a day for a DOP when doing your own budget, depending on who you hire.
Well, I wanted to make a documentary, so I guess I needed some interviews, but the families who had Capone stories weren’t that easy to find. There were a few on record at the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, but they weren’t in the phone book.
I also had a friend who was a commercial photographer who was willing to try his hand at filming, and he did so for free, when he could, just for the experience of being a part of the project. So he filmed much of my project and this was a huge savings to me.
So I wrote up a press release and sent it to the Moose Jaw Times Herald. They did an interview and wrote a story, which the Regina Leader-Post also ran and people started to come forward with Capone stories, including the grandniece of Al Capone, Deirdre Capone.
When it came to equipment, I had none. So I rented equipment from the Filmpool free of charge because I had successfully applied for an equipment deferral grant.
Now all I needed was a camera crew, as my technical skills are pretty limited. I had only worked above the line in the film industry in the story department as a writer and researcher. I also worked as a unit director, doing interviews for documentaries. I would be the person asking questions, while a director of photography (DOP) sat behind me doing the filming. Because of this, I was friends with a few DOPs.
I had several days of filming under my belt, when I saw that SCN was now taken over by City. They had a call out for proposals, so I submitted my Capone project again. This time I received development funding from City, which also allowed me to pick up some development funds from the Canada Media Fund and SaskFilm that was still around in 2012. This allowed me to work with an editor to make a trailer. I also had money to hire a composer to make original music for it, and I had the trailer properly edited and Splice Magazine | Fall 2014 - Spring 2015 | 16
Host Leon Willey with creator Kelly-Anne Riess. Photo Credit: Thomas Bartlett, 2014.
colour corrected. City ultimately passed on it, saying they had decided to focus more on series than one-off documentaries. I successfully applied for some travel money from SaskFilm and went to the Banff World Media Festival and pitched the project around to broadcasters again. While I made some good contacts at Banff, no one was really looking for one-off documentaries. But I kept on with the project. Again, using my own savings I brought Deirdre Capone from her home in Florida to Moose Jaw to do an interview with her, which attracted a lot of media attention, including that of the national media. I followed the Soo train line, the one rumoured to have taken Capone to Moose Jaw and Chicago. I did interviews along the way. Capone was spotted everywhere along the train line from Portal, North Dakota to East Grand Forks, Minnesota. After I got back there was an opportunity to apply to the 17 | Splice Magazine | Fall 2014 - Spring 2015
Telefilm Micro-Budget Production Program for emerging filmmakers. I had spent five years being an active volunteer at the Saskatchewan Filmpool, helping out on the board of directors, so I asked Gord Pepper to be my reference for the program. I also hired an editor to make a new film trailer for my application. It was a long shot given that it was a national program and I would be competing with filmmakers from across the country. I was successful and got the Telefilm grant, which was great. I finally had enough money to cover post production expenses. At the same time I was applying for the grant, I attended a film luncheon in Winnipeg and, by mere luck, sat beside a CBC broadcast executive. Somehow my project came up, and she asked to meet with me later to hear more. As a result of that meeting, CBC gave me a broadcast license.
So my documentary will have an audience when it’s finished. Currently, I am working with an editor in Winnipeg to finish my film. The documentary will air this summer on Absolutely Canadian. The exact broadcast date to be determined. Along the way, I built a website and Facebook page for the film. I used paid Facebook advertising to find my audience and so far have racked up over 600 likes from people in Saskatchewan and Manitoba—a decent fan base for a documentary that may only have regional interest. And so as David Hansen said if you want to be a filmmaker just do it. Yes, you have to take a leap of faith and spend some of your own money. That’s the scary part. I learned you have to bet on yourself before others will and if you surround yourself with talented people and do good work, your film will eventually find an audience.
Lowell Dean on set in Moose Jaw. Photo Credit: Thomas Bartlett, 2012.
Filming in the Big Muddy with Thomas Bartlett, Tillie Duncan, Lesley Anderson, Deirdre Capone, Ian Rogers, and Kelly-Anne Riess. Photo Credit: Thomas Bartlett, 2013. Splice Magazine | Fall 2014 - Spring 2015 | 18
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