November - December 2011: Reel West Magazine

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

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FILM, VIDEO, INTERNET AND DIGITAL PRODUCTION IN WESTERN CANADA

Kris Elgestrand’s Diary:

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PAUL FE

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LOCAL COMPOSERS

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BC Stays in Tune with

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PIXAR CANADA

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Meeting Expectations at

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CANADIAN MAIL PUBLICATION SALES AGREEMENT NUMBER: 40006834

DOPPEL GÄNGER

CONTENTS

16 CHOOSING WHISTLER

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The Whistler Film Festival had what appeared to be the perfect reputation for a festival that followed the more traditional Vancouver event. It was a lot of fun. However, after 11 years, organizers are beginning to sense that attention is being paid to the caliber of guests and the film premieres.

5 BITS AND BYTES 9

LEGAL BRIEFS

18 MEETING EXPECTATIONS

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REEL WEST PROFILE

When Pixar Canada held its first press conference in the spring of 2000, it kept expectations low with the promise that it would focus on short films. Now that two films have been completed, will the local company break out into features?

10 BEGINNINGS

21 DEFYING TRADITION

14 QUESTION AND ANSWER

If traditional ways of marketing and distributing films are dead, where are the replacements? A panel at Whistler’s Summit film industry forum will look at alternatives for independent films.

15 EXPERT WITNESS

22 STAYING IN TUNE

PRODUCTION UPDATE

12 BEHIND THE SCENES

30 FINAL EDIT

ocal composers have made a remarkable contribution to the BC film and television industry L throughout its history. Although most admit that it’s never been an easy ride, they are keeping up with the challenges and finding new markets for their work.

24 FEAR AND SELF-LOATHING ON THE FESTIVAL TRAIL Woody Allen may have a doppelgänger in Vancouver filmmaker Kris Elgestrand. His diary on the writing and co-directing of Doppelgänger Paul (Or A Film About How Much I Hate Myself), features much hand wringing and angst. However, the film received good reviews in Toronto and is on its way to Whistler.

COVER/CONTENTS: DOPPELGÄNGER PAUL SCREENWRITER KRIS ELGESTRAND AND CO-DIRECTOR DYLAN AKIO-SMITH; PHOTOS BY KATE CAMERON. 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. CONTRIBUTOR: NATHAN CADDELL. REEL WEST MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED SIX TIMES PER YEAR. SUBSCRIPTIONS CANADA/US. $35.00 PER YEAR (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA). REEL WEST DIGEST, THE DIRECTORY FOR WESTERN CANADA’S FILM, VIDEO AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY, IS PUBLISHED ANNUALLY. SUBSCRIPTION $35.00 PER YEAR (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO US). BOTH PUBLICATIONS $60.00 (PLUS $10.00 POSTAGE TO USA) PRICES INCLUDE GST. COPYRIGHT 2010 REEL WEST PRODUCTIONS INC. SECOND CLASS MAIL. REGISTRATION NO. 0584002. ISSN 0831-5388.

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REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

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PRODUCTION UPDATE

What’s coming. What’s shooting. What’s wrapped.

Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas in Once Upon a Time

PHOTO © ABC, INC.

Crews Still Busy with Superman, Redford

The late fall will see Vancouver crews keeping busy with big movies and hit TV shows. Man of Steel, the Zack Snyder Superman film, will be here until January while Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep was looking at a November wrap. Snyder’s cast includes Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane and Michael Shannon while Redford is working with Shia Labeouf, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Julie Christie and Stanley Tucci.

Meanwhile, one of the bigger hits of the fall season, Once Upon A Time, could be the next long-running local show. The

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series, which stars Big Love’s Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White, had the highest ratings of any new drama series when it premiered on ABC in late October.

Staying in Vancouver over the winter months are the feature Primary and the series Alcatraz, Arctic Air, Fringe, Level Up, Supernatural and Secret Circle. New here in late October was the feature Crowsnest, which has Brenton Spencer producing and directing and working as DOP. His co-producers are Matthew Chipera and Lukia Czernin while Ken MacAlpine is the location manager and the cast includes Mittita Barber,

Victor Zinck Jr., Aslam Husain, Chelsey Reist, Christie Burke and Olivia Steele-Falconer.

Here in early November was the documentary Aurora – Fire in the Sky which had Ivo Filatsch directing, Sabine Holzer as executive producer, Udo Maurer as DOP, Judith Hamberger as production manager and Sebastian Greubl as production coordinator/location manager.

Returning for a second season in October was the series Fairly Legal, the story of a woman who becomes a mediator after feuding with her father, the owner of a law firm. The show’s execu-

tive producers are Peter Ocko, Steve Stark and Clara George, the producer is Anton Cropper, the line producer/ production manager is Erin Smith, the DOP is Dan Stoloff, the production designer is Ricardo Spinace, the production coordinator is Michelle Parzentny and the location managers are Geoff Teoli and Monty Bannister.

New to Vancouver is Falling Skies, which comes here for a second season from Winnipeg. The show stars Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood as humans trying to survive an alien attack on Earth. It is executive produced by Greg Beeman and produced by Grace Gilroy with Nate Goodman as DOP, Rob Gray as production designer, Yvonne Melville as production manager, Genevieve Bridges as production coordinator and Bill Burns and Ritch Renaud as location managers.

Here in late October were the television movies Big Time Movie and Dawn Rider. The latter had Savage Holland directing with Scott McAboy as executive producer, Rick Maguire as DOP, Michael Diner as production designer, Michael Williams as production manager, Lisa Ragosin and Phaedra Eccleston as production coordinators and Michael Gazetas as location manager.

The western Dawn Rider stars Donald Sutherland and Christian Slater and has Terry Miles directing, Jack Nasser as executive producer, Dureyshevar as supervising producer, Tara Cowell-Plain as line producer/production manager, Brian Davie as production designer, Melyssa Rose as production coordinator and John Wittmayer as location manager. n

REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

Von Pfetten Gets Cracked Vancouver actor Stephanie von Pfetten will star in the upcoming CBC show Cracked. The Battlestar Galactica alumnus will play psychologist Daniella Olsen in the drama which follows teams of cops and psychiatric professionals who make up the Psych Crimes and Crisis unit.

The show also stars David Sutcliffe.

“David and Stefanie bring a warmth, intelligence and wit to these

BITS AND BYTES characters who are thrust into a dark and heartbreaking world. They are literally the light shining through the cracks.” says writer Tracey Forbes.

The show was created by Forbes and Toronto Emergency Task Force officer Calum de Hartog, and has Susan Morgan and de Hartog producing with Forbes, Peter Raymont and Janice Dawe as executive producers.

Vancouver Gets New Cinema Vancouver will be home to a new 11 screen movie theatre in 2014. The theatre, to be known as the Cineplex Odeon Marine Gateway and VIP Cinemas, will be located at the Marine Gateway development at Marine Drive and Cambie Street.

“We are so pleased to be a part of this exciting new development in the heart of south Vancouver,” said Cineplex Entertainment vice president Pat Marshall. “Now residents will have a leading edge entertainment experience even closer to home.

Our new theatre will be state of the art, featuring three VIP Cinemas and an UltraAVX auditorium that deliver a new level of entertainment.”

Marshall said that each VIP Cinema auditorium features high-back leather seats and reserved seating as well as an array of food and beverages that will be delivered to each individual seat. She said the theatre will also feature a lounge that will be available exclusively to VIP Cinema guests. She said the UltraAVX auditorium will feature significantly larger screens, a digital surround sound system utilizing the latest in Dolby digital sound technology, reserved seating and high-back rocker seats.

Marshall said all 11 screens will be equipped with Christie DLP Cinemaprojectors and that three cinemas, including UltraAVX, will be equipped with Real 3D technology.

Mobile Web Site Launched PS Production Services Ltd. today announced the launch of its new mobile website, PS Mobile. According to a spokesperson, the launch of PS Mobile comes on the heels of the company’s website re-launch in January and is the first mobile specific website for the Canadian film and television production community. He said PS Mobile takes the key features of the regular PS website and simplifies them for the smaller mobile screens.

“Since the launch of our new website we have seen mobile traffic increase, and the time has come to provide our customers with a mobile site that meets their need for convenient access to information anywhere, at any time, through their mobile devices,” said Scott Hosmer, PS’s marketing director. “People need information and they need it now. The new PS Mobile website was designed to provide exactly that.”

Melanie Leishman, Alexander House, William Turnbull and Maggie Castle in Todd & The Book of Pure Evil

Evil Returns

PHOTO BY ALLEN FRASER

The Winnipeg-shot Todd & the Book of Pure Evil started its second13-episode season on October 30 on the Space network. According to publicist Andrea Allen, the Gemini Award winner for Best Ensemble Cast in a Comedy Series debuted as one of the highest-rated premieres for a Space original series and continues to gain momentum. Allen said Season 1 was the most-watched Canadian program on The Comedy Network this summer among all key adult and male adult demographics.

The show, which tells the story of a teenager who finds a book that could end the world as we know it stars Alex House as Todd Smith; Maggie Castle as Jenny Kolinsky; Bill Turnbull as Todd’s best friend Curtis Weaver and Melanie Leishman as Hannah B. Williams.

The show was is co-created by Craig David Wallace, Charles Picco and Anthony Leo with Leo, Wallace, Andrew Rosen, Jamie S. Brown as executive producers. Producers are Leo, Rosen, Sarah Timmins, Shaun Johnson and Shawn Watson .

REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

Hosmer said that in addition to providing a streamlined version of the standard website PS Mobile includes a production toolbox section that is available exclusively on the new mobile site. He said the production toolbox offers users “quick and easy access” to reference material such as gel colour correction charts, beam width information, film and television electrical guidelines, illuminance tables etc.

Sim Video Appoints Three Three senior staff members have been promoted to the executive management team of Toronto-based Sim Video. According to a spokesperson, John DeBoer, the director of East Coast Operations has been appointed to the position of chief operations officer and will be responsible for company-wide procedures, purchasing and engineering. In addition to his COO duties, DeBoer will also function as the general manager for the Sim Video Toronto office.

Appointed to the position of Chief Strategy Officer was Jim Martin, vice president of West Coast Operations. The spokesperson said he will lead Sim in all global sales strategies as it pertains to equipment advances, expanded geographical opportunities and market trends. He will also be responsible for growing the sales/marketing team while continuing to manage operations on the West Coast and in the US. Chris Parker, who heads up Sim’s workflow services division Bling Digital, has been named chief technology officer. Company president Rob Sim said he will be responsible “for identifying, experimenting and implementing new technology to ensure our clients benefit from the most current and efficient systems available to the motion picture and television industry today.”

“Over the years, these individuals have worked tirelessly to push our company forward. They are extremely accomplished in all that they do and I am pleased to announce their promotions” said Sim. “I am confident that we’ve put together a strong team of talented professionals who understand our corporate vision and who will lead Sim Video well into the future.”

DeBoer, Martin and Parker join chief financial office Alex Sandahl, co-founder Peggy Sim and Rob Sim, who round out the executive team.

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Canada’s Space network is working on a show set in a frontier as unforgiving as that to be found in the skies.

Borealis is set in the Canadian Arctic and is shooting on location in Alberta. A spokesperson said production is scheduled to wrap in November.

According to producer Jon Slan, the show is set approximately 30 years in the future and tells the story of a Deadwood-like frontier town situated in the high Arctic. He said the series explores the “political, environmental and social impact” of a world in which

the polar icecaps have melted and countries are vying for the last vestiges of oil in the Arctic.

Slan said the cast includes Ty Olsson as a former ultimate fighter who owns the airstrip, hotel and bar, Michelle Harrison as an environmental guerilla and Patrick Gallagher as a local Inuit. The show was created by writers Andrew Wreggitt and Andrew Rai Berzins and is produced by Slanted Wheel Entertainment and SEVEN24 Films. Tom Cox, Jordy Randall and Slan are the executive producers.

5/5/2011 1:35:47 PM

Doug McGrath, Kathleen Robertson, Jayne Eastwood and Cayle Chernin in Donald Shebib’s Down the Road Again PHOTO BY CAITLIN CRONENBERG

New Road Includes Vancouver Stop

Don Shebib and Doug McGrath are going down a road for the first time in several decades but this time they start a long way past Toronto, which was the destination of the Halifax-based characters in the classic Shebib film Goin’ Down the Road.

Set forty years after the original film, Down the Road Again begins as Pete McGraw (McGrath) is retiring from his days as a Vancouver postie. With the news of his wayward life-long buddy Joey’s demise (co-star Paul Bradley died in 2003), Pete finds himself the custodian of a series of letters, an envelope full of money and a plea from his late pal to head back east with his ashes along with details for a special delivery.

The movie, which stars McGrath, Kathleen Robertson, Jayne Eastwood, Cayle Chernin, Tedde Moore and Anthony Lemke, opened in late October in Vancouver, Halifax and Toronto with other centres to follow in November.

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REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Tomas in Mad Ship

PHOTO BY ALLEN FRASER

Ship Anchors in Manitoba

An 18 day shooting schedule that took the cast and crew of the feature film Mad Ship through the towns and cities of Manitoba started in early October and wrapped in Winnipeg October 27. The show was partially shot in the towns of Selkirk and Holland after two days of shooting in northern Norway.

Mad Ship is the story of Tomas Sorensen (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a Norwegian immigrant to the Canadian prairies in the 1920s. A man of great passion and integrity, he dreams of creating a wheat dynasty in this new land of opportunity. He is also a man deeply in love with his beautiful wife, Solveig (Line Verndal.)They have a profound bond that has to sustain them and their two young children through the Depression, a massive dust storm and the threat of foreclosure.

The movie also stars Rachel Blanchard, Martha Burns and Gil Bellows. It was written and directed

by David Mortin and Patricia Fogliato and produced

by Patricia Fogliato, Liz Jarvis and David Mortin.

Rhonda Baker is co-producer, and the film is executive produced by Daniel Iron, Phyllis Laing, Knut Skoglund, John G. Carbone and Mark Sanders.

Long Hello for Goodbyes The show Wapos Bay: Long Goodbyes began its hellos in late October and will continue to premiere in December. The show, based on the TV series, had its world premiere at the prestigious imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto on Oct. 23 and will play selected festivals in the US before having its televised premiere on Dec. 3 on APTN. “It was humbling to have our Wapos Bay finale movie screened at imagineNATIVE because it is one of the premiere indigenous film festivals in the world,” said producer Dennis Jackson. “It is REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

always an honour to be recognized by your peers whether those are other indigenous people, animators, filmmakers or friends.”

Spokesperson Tera McGuire said the night featured a special tribute to the late Gordon Tootoosis, a long time cast member.

She said the movie has also been selected to screen at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (Oct.29), the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco (Nov. 5), the LA Skins Festival in Los Angeles (Nov. 16-20) and the Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival in Sydney, Australia.

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Zombies on the Prairies

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A new film combining the familiar themes of forensic science and a zombie attack is currently shooting in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Called 13 Eerie, it tells the story of six ambitious forensic undergrads who are marooned on a remote island during a university field project. Unbeknownst to the group, the site was formerly used as an illegal biological testing ground for life-term criminals left for dead.

While the zombies themselves are a tightly guarded secret, producers said the film applies a unique interpretation to the traditional zombie genre.

“While you may have seen a zombie movie before, you haven¹t seen zombies quite like this,’ said producer Kevin Dewalt while Don Carmody said audiences “will want to avoid dimly lit pathways on their way home from the theatre after seeing it.”

DeWalt and Carmody are producing the film with Mark Montague while Roger Christian is executive producer. The film is the feature length debut for director Lowell Dean, and was written by Christian Piers Betley. It stars Katharine Isabelle, Michael Shanks, Brendan Fletcher, Nick Moran and Brendan Fehr.

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The view from 40 Days at Base Camp

PHOTO BY CAROLINA AHUMADA CALA

40 Days Expands

A documentary feature about the base camp at Mount Everest has expanded to become a docu-reality series.

The new show, Base Camp Everest is based on Dianne Whelan’s documentary 40 Days at Base Camp.

The series will take the audience back to Kathmandu in the spring of 2012 for eight episodes. According to a spokesperson, the cast will be drawn from the array of characters from around the world who climb Everest and those who provide the essential life support services for the multi-week journey to the summit. Base Camp Everest “will capture drama, danger and amazing spirit of Mt. Everest and those daring enough to challenge her perilous slopes,” says the show’s executive producer Michael Ghent.

In April 2010, Whelan traveled to Nepal and Mount Everest Base Camp to direct and shoot 40 Days at Base Camp. Prior to that, she had taken the short film This Land, a story of her experience as an embedded media person on a historical Sovereignty Patrol in the Canadian High Arctic, to the 2010 Vancouver International Film Festival.

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REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

LEGAL BRIEFS

Website Series Merits Federal Court Decision

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n April 7, 2011, the Federal Court of Canada delivered its decision in the case of Tricon Television29 Inc. v Minister of Canadian

Lori Massini Entertainment Lawyer

Heritage. This case was unique, in that Tricon had applied for judicial review of a decision made by the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (“CAVCO”), which denied Tricon so-called “Canadian content” tax credits on Tricon’s television series, Beautiful People.

The series followed two individuals, Greg Hodge and Robert Hintze, both of whom were not Canadian citizens, as they attempted to launch their website, BeautifulPeople.net in Canada. Their website was originally launched in Denmark, and was instantly controversial, proudly boasting its policy of “no uglies allowed”.

This series undoubtedly made for interesting television, given the subject matter, the polarizing owners, and the large amount of media attention surrounding the site.

Tricon intended to produce the series in order to receive a “Canadian content” certification from CAVCO, which would entitle them to receive higher tax credits than they would be entitled

to receive if the show were merely produced in Canada, but not certified as “Canadian content”. In order to achieve this certification, a live action production must obtain no less than six out of a possible ten key creative “points”, with points allotted based on whether or not certain key creative positions are filled

by Canadians.

Out of the six point minimum requirement, a “Canadian content” production must obtain one of the two points allotted for lead performers, meaning that at least one of the two lead performer positions must be filled by a Canadian. Tricon took the position that the series was a documentary series so, in their opinion, there were no “lead performers”, and the two individuals who received the lion’s share of the screen time (i.e. Hodge and Hintze) were documentary subjects, and not “actors” or “hosts”.

Documentaries typically do not have lead performers, but can still be certified as “Canadian content” in the absence of achieving all six points, if all remaining key creative positions are filled by Canadians. This exception is enumerated in Clause 1106(9) of the Income Tax Act. Under the then-current CAVCO guidelines, what constituted a “documentary” for CAVCO purposes was not clearly defined; however, the exception in Clause 1106(9) only

applies when a production is genuinely a documentary. In the case of Beautiful People, the court looked at a number of factors, including remuneration, billing, and screen time, and determined that the series was not a documentary, and that Hodge and Hintze, were, in fact, “lead performers”. Because neither Hodge nor Hintze was Canadian, Tricon failed to meet the threshold for “Canadian content” certification.

The result was that the series only qualified for so-called “service” credits, which are lower than “Canadian content” credits. Such an outcome could obviously have a serious financial impact on the producers.

In 2010, the CAVCO guidelines were modified to more clearly delineate which programs will be considered “documentary”, and which will fall under the “lifestyle/human interest” category. This category deals with eligible “reality” programs that are not true documentaries. Prior to this, the “lifestyle/human interest” category did not exist, and the documentary category was essentially seen to encompass all eligible “reality” productions.

Unfortunately for Tricon, Beautiful People was produced under the old guidelines, and Tricon was of the opinion that their series would fall under the “documentary” classification. The

new guidelines clearly define “documentary” and clarify that “lifestyle/ human interest” programming will, in fact, contain lead performers, stating that where there are no “actors”, a lead performer will be “an individual who performs one of the following functions… a featured performer or subject in a production within the lifestyle/human interest genre”.

Even with the benefits of the new guidelines, all Canadian producers of documentary and eligible “reality” programming should familiarize themselves with this case. It is always a good idea to consult with CAVCO and your production attorney if you are uncertain whether or not your program will fall under the classification of documentary or lifestyle/human interest. This could help to avoid mischaracterizing your production, and finding yourself in a position where you are denied “Canadian content” certification.

Lori joined Roberts & Stahl in 2007.

Her practice focuses on the entertainment industry, assisting clients with all aspects of entertainment law from drafting agreements and negotiating the hiring of actors, writers, and directors to advising musicians and recording artists. Lori is actively involved in the arts, and is an accomplished dancer and musician. n

PROFILE

Fiona Forbes Host Fiona Forbes was on her way to law school when she decided to try her hand at broadcasting classes at BCIT. She eventually earned local hosting gigs and, in 1996, began working on Shaw Cable’s Urban Rush with co-host Michael Eckford. They moved from there to become the first hosts of CITY TV’s Breakfast Television before moving back to their original home.

Home Town Born and raised in Vancouver Start Date I auditioned for my first hosting gig on a dare and somehow found myself on live television a week later. I hosted a few different local shows for a couple of years and then was paired up with my co-host Michael Eckford. We’ve now been working together for 15 years!

Best Day Any day I don’t stick my foot in my mouth on TV! Actually, every day is a great day. On Urban Rush we get to meet people who love and are passionate about what they do...it never gets boring!

Worst Day When I realized the shirt I was wearing was see-through about 2 minutes into a live one-hour show. Some people might call that my best day!

Most Memorable Working Experience Being a talk show host, interviewing the legendary Regis Philbin was pretty cool. After the interview he said “You’ve got something kid!” It was pretty cool hearing that from someone I admire so much.

If I Won an Oscar I Would Thank My Dad for daring me to audition for that first gig.

My Latest Five Year Plan To live long and prosper. To take our show where no show has gone before....oh wait...that was some other show...

REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

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PHOTO BY PHIL CHIN

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REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

BEGINNINGS

Terry David Mulligan

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Canadian Media Icon

hich beginning? Where do I start? Skunk Hollow in North Vancouver where I grew up and raced around the streets?

That’s the area above Marine Drive and bordered by Fell and Hamilton. That was my Skunk Hollow anyway. The problem was that I was racing because I was usually being chased by a gang.

That’s what the streets were like then. There seemed to be nothing else to do but beat on each other or go salmon poaching in the rivers and creeks.

The poaching part was controlled by my father, Pat Mulligan, the Game Warden as they were called back then. His job was to make life miserable for the poachers and their job was to make mine equally as miserable in return.

There’s also a beginning in North Kamloops, which we moved to when I was in the eighth grade. My father and mother (Joyce) felt they had to get their kids out of North Van or my brother Dennis, sister Maureen and I would all end up in big trouble!!

That was where I first heard the unbelievable voice of Wolfman Jack. It was on radio and coming all the way from the Texas/Mexico Border. And always late at night with a huge echo To me it was like it was coming from another planet. The place where it came from was a place where they were playing R&B and blues on the radio. No-one was doing that in my town. Red Robinson had started doing that in Vancouver but I couldn’t hear him in Kamloops.

The Wolfman served up Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Coasters, all the DoWop groups with all the heavy blues voices. Right then the idea of being the guy who played this music on the radio started to take shape in my tiny little mind.

I’m thinking that Red Deer, Alberta, where I was a Mountie, were my beginnings. The British Invasion had started to dominate the radio chart. There was The Stones, The Hollies, The Animals, The Kinks, The Who but especially The Beatles, the greatest band there ever was. Again, I was drawn into the voices and music. My Wolfman had become Hal Weaver, the slickest of dudes. Even though no one could see him, he dressed up in a three piece suit with pinky rings and a neck mike. Some could stand up and walk around. He put on a show.

I had become Richard Dreyfuss, looking for my Wolfman in American Graffiti. Slowly, talking into a microphone became more important than my work as a Mountie, which included serving summons, feeding prisoners, chasing drunk judges and attending autopsies. And thus, on a drive back from a short vacation in Banff, I decided to leave the Force. To some, it was a mark against your very soul: a failure of major proportions. I phoned my father and said “Dad. I decided to leave the RCMP” Silence, then: “to do what ?”

I said “I’m going to be a disc jockey.” He hung up and didn’t talk to me for a year. And so I began a journey I could never have imagined. A beginning implies a turning point. The first turning point was the summer of 1967. I was back in Regina where I had trained as a Mountie and doing radio for the small rocker CJME and then for the posh giant of Saskatchewan CKCK. I’d been throwing myself into radio for three hard years. And not just long double shifts but stunts like living and broadcasting in a car and hanging from a crane for a week or two. I would do anything to get Vancouver’s attention. Finally came the call I’d been dreaming about. It was Red Robinson and he was asking if I’d like to leave Regina and come back to the coast. I screamed at the top of my lungs for about an hour. Years later I would shoot a story for MuchMusic on the grand opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio. Inducted into the Rock Radio section was my friend Red Robinson. What a day.

There were other beginnings. I’m hosting what I know is a hit CBC TV REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

series called Good Rockin’ Tonight. The problem was the CBC didn’t know it was a hit. All I wanted was some kind of job security because I had mouths to feed. Every 13 weeks or so, I’d have to hold my breath and hope another contract was offered. It was no way to live!

Thus I found myself in Toronto for an event. After my work was done I called Moses Znaimer at MuchMusic and basically got in his face about how Toronto acts dominated “The Nations’ Music Station.” I leaned on the word “Nations’” because their “Nation” seemed to be Bay and Bloor. In typical Mr. Z style he basically told me to “put up or shut up.” So I recorded and sent him what I thought stories from Vancouver would look like. He liked it and offered a weekly show from Vancouver. I left the CBC and started MuchWest and proudly represented the West for 15 years.

MuchWest then led to many years of Movie Television on CityTV. That series gave me the luxury of spending my days on TV and film sets on the coast. It allowed me to tell the stories of actors and writers, directors, producers and festivals. It was the beginning of a 13 year run with Chum TV. For the longest time I wandered the planet trying to find a radio station that sounded like the one I heard in my head. I promised myself, for the sake of my sanity, that I had to play music on such a station. I was sent to Edmonton

by Moses to do a story on CKUA, the listener-supported province-wide radio network heard throughout Alberta.

What a shock and revelation to discover a station that played all of the blues, classical, jazz, roots and World beat music that I had heard in my head.

As I was leaving the station I let it be known that what they were missing was a rock music program, but one based on jazz and blues and R&B and the best tracks from classic rock Not the cuts that get played over and over again but the tracks just before those hits. And just after. They asked for a demo.

I think I passed the audition because I’ve been doing Mulligan Stew for 15 years now. It’s very likely the best radio I’ve ever done. CKUA also airs Tasting Room Radio, my food and wine show that’s filled with all the characters to be found making great food and creating fabulous wines. Now there’s a show that deserves to be heard in Vancouver, one of the world’s best food and wine cities.

There was another beginning in my life. I was sent by the management at CKLG and CKLGFM to San Francisco to find out what was going on in radio.

In San Francisco I sought out and found Big Daddy Tom Donahue who was the night time announcer and creative mind of KSAN. For a week I sat there and watched him spin the tunes, interview the bands and take hundreds of phone calls. There was true rock and roll on FM. I flew back to Vancouver and reported that the future lay in FM stereo and convinced them to turn the station into Canada’s first underground FM station. I had a ball ordering a couple of thousand albums and once the announcers got the hang of the format, we were off and running. The audience response was fantastic.

The best beginning was meeting Meg Foster/Mulligan in Toronto. That beginning led to a marriage and four wonderful kids and a life together.

Every day brings a new beginning. You just have to be open to it. You only get so many. Today we’re starting a new life back in Vancouver. It feels like another beginning.

Mulligan’s Stew — My Life… So Far, written by Terry David Mulligan and Glen Schaefer, is published by Heritage House Publishing and is currently available. n 11

MARY BISSELL – PRESIDENT, WIFTV

BEHIND THE SCENES

Women in Film and Television Vancouver

S

The Vancouver branch of an international organization is unique and innovative

ome newsletters work. Mary Frymire, a member of Women in Film and Television Vancouver (WIFTV) has been a strong supporter of the organization’s monthly newsletter ever since 12

she read about the call for a woman director to helm a dramatic feature about breast cancer.

“I had just wrapped a 2-hour feature documentary on breast cancer and had been trying to cross over into directing

drama for decades. I applied for the position, the producer flew to Toronto where I was temporarily working, met with me and hired me. I am now working with him on several drama projects and have a brilliant professional rela-

tionship with his company.”

Frymire’s success is an argument for the current clout of the WIFTV. The organization, which was incorporated in 1989, has over 350 members. It’s one of 35 chapters of Women in Film + Television International, which counts more than 10,000 members worldwide.

While the international organization is strong, the local chapter has established itself as one of its more unique and innovative branches. In the early years of its formation it established The Producer’s Workshop, a three-year educational program supplying access to information about funding, thereby increasing the potential of indigenous productions created by women. The best and brightest guest speakers were invited to co-write the first Producer’s Workbook. This launched the careers of many of Vancouver’s top female producers, directors and industry managers. In 2010, the organization published the fourth edition of the Producer’s Workbook, which is now used as a curriculum resource at the Vancouver Film School.

WIFTV has also established one of only three film festivals in Canada featuring women filmmakers. (The others are Toronto’s Female Eye Film Festival, and the St John’s International Women’s Film Festival.) The Festival brings filmmakers and audiences together and offers opportunities for women filmmakers in Western Canada.

Those opportunities were slow in coming according to producer Sharon McGowan, one of the group’s original members. McGowan, who started working in the industry in the 1980s, says that while most male colleagues were supportive, being known as the “token” woman on a set took its toll.

“Sometimes you felt as if you were carrying the torch for your entire gender, proving that women could do these jobs and that messing up would reflect badly on the next woman who came onto the project. This wasn’t imaginary as many people I worked with actually said things like ‘the last girl we had really screwed up so we haven’t hired another one until you.’”

When 200 women showed up from all sectors of the industry to help found WIFTV in 1989, McGowan says she saw it as a turning point.

“I found it absolutely exhilarating. It WIFTV continued on page 28 REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

whistlerfilmfestival.com

QUESTION AND ANSWER

William Friedkin T

homas Edison said that “genius is one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration.” It would appear that William Friedkin has a differing opinion. In interviews over the years he has maintained that he created most of his great movies through the inspiration of others. His latest movie, Killer Joe, may not make a list of hits that includes The Exorcist, The French Connection and To Live and Die in LA, but it won some buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be released in the new year. It stars Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch and newcomer Juno Temple in the story of a desperate man who hires a hit man to kill his mother for the insurance.

Reel West talked to the filmmaker at the film festival.

14

Director

This is the second Tracy Letts play that you have adapted to the screen.

(The first was Bug.) You have adapted several plays to the screen, which is unusual since good plays are usually considered to be hard to make into movies since the audience is expecting the play but also wants more from the film.

“Yes, but this is a screenplay that was derived from a play that few people saw. Casablanca came from an unproduced play called Everyone Comes to Rick’s. All the characters were there.

They only changed one character and that was (Ingrid) Bergman’s character and she was an American woman. Then they thought ‘why would an American woman be stranded in Casablanca?’ so they decided to change her to a European woman and they cast Bergman. But all the charac-

ters are from the unproduced play. It’s the material and not where it comes from. It could be a novel or it could be an original script or from real life as The Exorcist was or an adaptation of an event that occurred. When I see a film I see a film not a filmed play.

But I have been directing for 40 years and I think I have made just 16 films because I am not that attracted, especially today, to what they are making.”

Would you agree that half of the work of a director comes with the casting?

“The script and the casting of a film are 90% of a film. I had a perfect cast for The Exorcist and they are all identified with their roles now, and yet they came to me somehow in a kind of mysterious way. And the same is true of The French Connection. I didn’t want Gene Hackman. There were six other guys that we went

to. He wanted to do it. Then when he got it he didn’t want to go there because he didn’t want to play a guy who used the ‘n’ word like that and beat up suspects and was such a hard head. He fought against it and I had to constantly remind him who he was playing and what but ultimately he was great and I have a gold statue at home because of him. So he was a gift against my better judgment.”

What’s the other 10%?

Well, the most important job a director has is to create a mood where the actors you have chosen can reach into themselves and produce their best work.

Where they can feel free enough and comfortable enough and know I trust them. That they can take a chance and they can create and surprise me. That is all I do as a director. I cast it, I pick the material and then I try and create REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

an atmosphere where people can do their best work. That’s all directing is, really. It’s not my face up there and I didn’t write the words but once I cast these people I pretty much have to figure out what their capabilities are and not look for a miracle.”

Is it true that you will only do one take?

“It’s not a rule but I believe in spontaneity over perfection. Early in my career I would do 20 or 30 takes hoping for a miracle on about take 27 and it never happened and I would get into the cutting room and I would see that the thing that impressed me the most was the first take. That was when I realized that was where the spontaneity was. Sometimes a scene isn’t a first take because there is an accident or the camera is out of focus or a light falls in the shot. Many things can go wrong after you say ‘roll it.’

It’s like throwing a forward pass in football. There are several bad things that can happen. You can throw an interception or miss completely or the pass will be dropped. I will only do a ‘take two’ if someone really blew a line or there is a technical mishap.”

Who do you see working today who is a kindred spirit?

“There are a lot of filmmakers I admire

mance, humour and understatement.

If you want to be a filmmaker that is all you have to do, literally. I go to film classes and the professors ask me to talk to the classes and I tell them that. I say ‘get out of film school, get a hold of all of Hitchcock’s films, take a look at them and then buy or rent a little digital camera and make a film.

You will know how to do it just by watching the work of a master.’ That’s how all the traditions are handed down. It’s like painters. There was (Johannes) Vermeer in the 17th century. Before him there were others doing much the same thing but then Vermeer took it somewhere else. But paintings beget other paintings, film begets other films and music begets other music. The classical music of Russia in the early 20th century led ultimately to (Igor) Stravinsky who cracked the mould completely with Rite of Spring. People didn’t get it.

They didn’t understand what he was doing but what he was doing came out of the Russian tradition of the composers who preceded him. So my work as a filmmaker comes from the films that came before me.”

There is an idea in this film that there is evil and good in everyone.

“I cast it, I pick the material and then I try and create an atmosphere where people can do their best work...” but I don’t know how they work. I like the films of the Coen Brothers and Paul Thomas Anderson who would be an interesting filmmaker in any era. But I still like the European films of the 1950 and 60s. That is where my inspiration came from. I also liked Kurosawa. But I liked the Europeans like Antonioni and Fellini and Jean Pierre Melville who did a great thriller called Samurai starring Alain Delon. As for other modern directors, I think David Fincher’s film Se7en is a masterpiece.

It is one of the scariest films I have ever seen. It is brilliantly directed.”

You’ve talked about Alfred Hitchcock in the past. How has he inspired you and your films?

“You don’t have to go to film school to make a film. Just watch his movies.

It’s a master class in all kinds of filmmaking - not just suspense - but roREEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

Is there somewhere you first saw that in film?

“Citizen Kane, where there are no heroes in that the main character is an embodiment of goodness and passion and evil and he evolves through all these stages in the film.

That is a quarry for filmmakers from everywhere in that it contains the very best in all the cinematic disciplines: lighting, acting, story composition, screenplay. It’s all done at the highest level in that film. It’s like (Marcel) Proust or James Joyce where the books become the quarry for other writers. That film is a quarry for filmmakers. No one can do it that well. They haven’t yet but those of us who are still directing are still trying. That is what keeps me going.

I haven’t made a film that could latch the bootstraps of Citizen Kane.” n

EXPERT WITNESS

Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad

“A lot of people think ‘this guy does that really well. Here is a role just like that for him.’ When I left Malcolm in the Middle I got two offers to do television pilots and they featured fun, goofy dads. I said no and one of the producers said ‘why would you say no. You’re perfect for it and it’s exactly what you do.’ I said ‘it’s exactly what I did for seven years but I am not going to help anyone put me in a pigeon hole.’ So, I won’t be looking at scripts about a teacher who becomes a drug dealer for a while.”

Actor Bryan Cranston, a three time Emmy winner for Breaking Bad, on avoiding stereotyping.

“I spent a couple of years in Hollywood when I was trying to get the film side of my career in line and I actually had a pretty good time. I was terrified to go out there.

People who knew me assumed that I wouldn’t like it very much but something really interesting happened to me out there. When I got there I was sitting around kvetching on a bench in Venice and a kid went by on a skateboard and said ‘you actors.

You move out to LA and you bitch and moan about it. But there is a whole other city here that doesn’t have anything to do with show business. It’s a great city.’ He kind of dressed me down and once I started looking at it from that vantage point I really enjoyed my time there.” Actor Michael Shannon on making the move to Hollywood from New York.

“We finished Warrior and went on to Inception so it was really nice to wear a pair of silk pants and a silk shirt and a sun tan and just lie down and sleep for awhile. I didn’t have to get beaten up anymore. But now Chris (Nolan) has asked me to come back and go through the whole thing again and put on more weight. Bronson (the lead character in the film of the same name), was fat and Warrior’s Tommy was all about replacing that fat with 14 pounds. Playing Bane means putting that 14 on and then adding 10 pounds. We are dealing with minimal sums but we are messing around with the endocrine system so I worry about that.” Actor Tom Hardy on changing weight with every film, including Chris Nolan’s upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in which he plays the villainous Bane.

“I had to do that movie right. I got my Class A driver’s license and I can drive an 18 wheeler. I told the director that I wasn’t going to cheat it. I wanted the audience to see me in the truck because it was her livelihood and it defined who she was as a person.

I went on short haul drives with those ladies. It is so imperative to me as an actor to accurately portray someone even if it isn’t a real person and if it’s a trade or something like that to show it in its most honest light.” Actor Michelle Monaghan on the work it took for her to portray a big rig truck driver in Trucker.

Excerpted from interviews done by Reel West editor Ian Caddell.

15

Choosing Whistler

Is there a right time to hold a film back from a prestigious film festival and hand it to a smaller one that is on the rise? That was a question that faced one of Vancouver’s more prolific production companies, Screen Siren Pictures, in the fall of 2009. >> A year earlier, they had seen their movie Year of the Carnivore selected by the Toronto International Film Festival but rejected by Vancouver’s festival. Their 2010 film, Daydream 16

Nation, was ready for Vancouver but producers Trish Dolman and Christine Haebler decided to bypass Vancouver and head for the hills.

Haebler says that the timing of

the Whistler Film Festival, which runs from November 30 to December 4 in 2011, is close to perfect.

“We all have fatigue after Toronto so a couple of months off is good.

And we like the small, inclusive nature of the Whistler festival. We have a lot of respect for (programmer) Stacey Donen and we think he is a very interesting artistic director.

We also have respect for (director) Shauna Harvey and what she has created there. They like the films we make and have never turned us down. They are interested in what we are doing and maintain contact throughout the year essentially cultivating a relationship with us.”

Dolan says that the other thing that brings the company back to Whistler every year is its ability to bring people who can help producers in their endeavours. “Whistler brings great guests. We do business there in the meetings we have, particularly with the people that come up from LA. I think this is because the festival appeals to people and they see a day or two of skiing as an added bonus.”

Hardy, who has been with the festival since it began in 2001, says that that there is a niche that is missing and that Whistler can fill it. “Toronto’s buyers provide the largest market in the world and that is a strong position when you are looking to meet with the right people. Vancouver is about feeding the tremendous appetite of a city of cinephiles with a huge buffet of films. We have high profile people here and that has become a priority for us. We believe in celebration on that level. In some ways we are more like (Colorado’s) Telluride (Film Festival) and that was always the intent.”

Of course, following the Vancouver and Toronto film festivals in the calendar is not the only impediment that has been faced by the Whistler Film Festival in its 11 year history.

For several years, the image of the resort town as a fun destination helped to bring filmmakers and audiences to a festival that was dwarfed by that image and the backdrop.

Hardy says that while being the “fun” festival might have been a good selling point in the early years, it wore thin. She says now it’s about the films. “I think that being a ‘filmmaker’s festival’ means we are targeting a level of talent and that filmmakers are supported and have contacts here that can drive their films forward. Fun is part of it but we have definitely gotten over the stigma. We have a majority of REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

film premières and that has given us stronger position. Essentially the Whistler festival is not just about parties anymore. There is a really solid film festival here and I think we have caught on in the community. We embrace the notion of cultural events with an international profile in our community. We are particularly proud of the Canada China Gateway program which is a new partnership with Variety. We want to host the industry in Los Angeles to raise our profile internationally. We are looking beyond our own borders in terms of impact.”

Although they passed the ten year mark last year, Hardy admits that she has had no time for reflection. She says that each year starts out with a new set of challenges and new needs. “We have encountered challenges this year. Some have been financial but we have managed to recover from them, so you hope that when you get this far you can stand firm. But you just can’t keep going, you have to get creative. We are still the new kid on the block but this has to be a filmmakers’ festival.

We are very clear on that kind of stuff. The films are better and the caliber of guests are getting better.”

If Whistler is to become a “filmmaker’s festival” in the eyes of the world, much of the heavy lifting will have to be done by Stacey Donen. The former Toronto International Film Festival programmer took the Whistler job in 2009 and says that while being a place that feels like home to filmmakers is the ultimate goal, there is still a lot of work to be done.

“We are going into our eleventh year and distributors and film agents are still getting to know who we are. We are so many things to people: a resort town, a boutique festival, an intimate place where filmmakers mingle with audiences.

We want to be a filmmakers’ festival and we want filmmakers to want to play with us and they are seeing why they should play with us and we are growing continually. There is also the case of where we are in terms of Vancouver and Toronto. We will be more or less appealing to certain films but we need to stand apart from other festivals.”

The festival has managed to bring several Canadian films to the festival that either weren’t ready for the two REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

preceding festivals or didn’t make the cut. Donen says that throughout its history, the festival has shown loyalty and support to Canadian films and that pays off a little more every year.

“We are huge supporters of Canadian cinema,” he says. “We have the Borsos prize for young filmmakers and we take Canadian films seriously. We make great films in this country and we try to show that by bringing the best works to this competition. This year the list will include Edwin Boyd (which won the Best Canadian First Feature Film prize in Toronto.) As we have grown over the last few years we have been able to get the best films in the country to play into that competition We will also have films from some of the best Canadian filmmakers here at the festival including the latest films from Philippe Falardeau, Jean-Marc Vallée and Guy Maddin.”

On the top of the list of musthaves for both Hardy and Donen is a new theatre. That’s likely for next year according to Hardy who says “you can’t be a top notch festival without proper venues.”

Donen says that having their own theatre, something only recently accomplished by the Toronto and Vancouver film festivals, would go a long way in giving Whistler’s festival credibility. “If we were playing 52 weeks a year it would make a big difference because we would love to have guests and panel discussions on a regular basis.”

Of course, the setting of the festival cannot be denied as an attraction. Donen says that while there are times when being in such a small centre can seem like a deterrent to building a festival, most of the time it is a great asset. “The sharing of stories in an intimate setting and locale makes it attractive in terms of guests. As a small place it’s not on people’s radar so that can be a challenge. Of course, the other part of it that it does help is that it’s a beautiful small place.”

Says Hardy: “I am biased. This is one of the most beautiful places in the world. The editor of Variety came up last year and he had written a film and came up here as a filmmaker. He said ‘I can’t believe this place. And you are in the same time zone. We have to be connected with you.’ It was a real ‘ah ha’ moment.” n

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PHOTO BY DEBORAH COLEMEN / PIXAR

18

REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

Meeting Expectations

If you’re looking to make some fast money, you should probably stay away from the Gastown offices of Pixar Canada. The welcome sign is reserved for those who are as committed to long term animation work as the three men who run the local office of the iconic corporation.

Story by

Ian Caddell >> Eighteen months ago, when they first called the local media to their offices, John Lasseter’s missionaries from Emeryville, California were not interested in talking about the glamour of animation or assembly line mentality, they wanted to talk about a corporate philosophy that apparently supports quality over quantity. While we expected to hear about regular features, we were treated to predictions of a TV special or perhaps a short film or two.

They didn’t lie. The next visit, which came this past October, showed that while Pixar Canada is getting a lot of work done, it’s never going to make headlines. Creative director Dylan Brown, who runs the local studio with general manager Amir Nasrabadi and chief technology officer Darwyn Peachy, says two shorts in 18 months is about the right amount of output for a new studio.

“A tree doesn’t grow from a sapling to a tree overnight. It takes a while for those roots to grow. We do some things very quickly. I was reflecting on the fact we have two films under our belt and we are well under way on feature projects so our approach is working. Some of it feels fast but we took our time with Air Mater because we wanted to make sure we got it right.”

Air Mater is the tenth in a series of short films that feature Mater, one of the more popular characters in the two Cars features. The others were done in Emeryville but this episode, which took approximately a year to make, was completed at the Gastown offices, with supervision from Emeryville-based director Rob Gibbs who commuted north when needed. The film is part of the DVD/Blu Ray Cars package that comes out in November. The second short film is Small Fries, a Toy Story spinoff that will be seen in front of 3D showings of The Muppets, which will be distributed to theatres in November.

Brown says that if outsiders assume things are unfolding slowly in Vancouver, the pace has a familiar feel to those who have worked for the parent corporation for a while. He says that the company takes its time doing most things, and that it starts with the hiring process.

“The approach to hiring is the same approach we used in Emeryville,” he says. “It sees nine or 10 people interviewing every candidate and sometimes we will interview them multiple times. It will last over many days as well.

We want a whole picture of the person and not just the talent and skills they have because we think about hiring for the long term. We don’t just hire for a REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

project and say ‘thanks, maybe next time.’ We want people to come here and stay. We have already seen that with some of the employees who say ‘now that I am here I am finally buying a home.’ Some of the people are starting families and buying homes of their own. When people come in we don’t throw them into the fire. We put them into ten weeks of training - sometimes 12. That is all they do because we want them to understand the tool and feel one with it.

I think that what is wonderful about our culture is that when we hire people we hire smart people and then train them and say ‘let them be smart and let them be great at what they are great at.’ In terms of leadership in a creative environment it may be your job to point out where we should put energy and attention or it may be to put energy and attention somewhere else. Oftentimes it is to get out of the way and let your people do their jobs, and that is what we learned at Emeryville.”

While the three leaders of the local Pixar branch may have separate titles, they were sent north to collaborate. Brown says they wear multiple hats. “My job as creative director is about quality and culture. I think that it is to make sure the quality of the work we are producing here is up to the Pixar standard.

And that is not something written in stone on a wall. It is a moving target in a sense. It’s a bar you hit and you try to reset that bar constantly. It is looking at a project and elements that you’re in production on and saying ‘we really hit it well here but this other thing isn’t quite good enough. It isn’t hitting on all cylinders yet. So let’s bring that up.’ Part of it is also that I have been very involved with the physical design of the place including the art work that is put up on the walls because we want to make people feel they are part of the history of the company.

“Darwyn is in charge of everything technical and we work closely together on that. Amir is in charge of the business of the company and the production schedules and I will come in and contribute in a creative/process point of view of ‘you know what we should start here?’ And Darwyn will say ‘because of these technical considerations we should start here.’ It’s very much the same as how it worked at Pixar. It’s absolute collaboration.”

Emeryville is never far away. Vancouver was chosen over Toronto because of the 2 hour, 40 minute flights within the same time zone. Now that texting has become common, Brown says that the connection to head office and the key staff that calls it home makes things easier than ever.

“I have regular calls with directors and texting has been amazing with the art directors asking ‘did we miss this?’ or ‘do we want to do this?’ They will zip it back to me and send images so it has been very important to not 19

Pixar Canada in Vancouver provides animation to support Pixar Animation Studios franchises such as Toy Story and Cars; Pixar Canada’s Creative Director Dylan Brown with General Manager Amir Nasrabadi and Chief Technical Officer Darwyn Peachey.

PHOTOS BY DEBORAH COLEMEN / PIXAR

“We want to be able to do our own thing enough to occasionally be innovative in the process ... as a smaller studio we can take slightly larger risks and change things more easily.”

– Darwyn Peachy

20

let any distance or technique that we use to communicate be a barrier. The idea is ‘let’s get that out of the way as much as possible so that we can communicate as though you are in the next room.’ That has been great for me.

However, there is also an independence that comes with being 1000 miles of air space away from the corporate home. Nasrabadi says that it can be intimidating at times to realize you can do it on your own but admits that thus far it has worked out well. “I think it’s a good thing that we have independence from Emeryville. Sometimes it is scary and sometimes it’s uncomfortable but at other times it’s liberating, to be honest. We have a nice blend of autonomy and our functionality is mostly autonomous. There are some critical ties back to the studio that are important to us.”

The most critical of these has been the relationship with Gibbs, who spent a lot of time in the air while directing the aptly named Air Mater.

He says that while the story evolved slowly, the two offices of Pixar managed to find the right place from which to make their movie.

“It was a huge challenge to create this world with a new studio.

You had one person in Vancouver building all the sets and we didn’t have everything figured out on our own end. We (Emeryville) wanted them to get started on something that we hadn’t figured out so there was a lot of back and forth. We had done the first nine Maters in Emeryville and during the time of prepping up the ninth one Canada was getting started. This one took about a year while they were ramping up the studio and we were working with them. For the first films, we were working with experienced animators so things went a lot quicker. There is a certain way of animating them so we had to go through a learning curve. They (Pixar Canada animators) were eager and excited and really wanted to do a good job so they kind of moved the characters round a lot more than you should, to where it becomes hard to look at. But once we kind of learned how to deal with that it started to move smoother.”

According to Nasrabadi, the modest predictions of 18 months ago were based on the idea that while REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

Saskatchewan native Peachey was the only Canadian member of the management triumvirate, the company’s Canadian office should feature as many Canadians as possible. That would mean a slow start and shows that would be easier for new animators to cut their teeth on.

“Eighteen months ago we did talk about the potential of a TV special, a one-off thing to air on prime time TV. But we haven’t started that yet and we aren’t sure if that will come our way. We only started bringing in our first group of artists and technicians to start framing Air Mater in July of 2010. We brought in another group in August and we had the final group in October and each of them went through about an eight or nine week course. There are very few people here from Emeryville. Two thirds of our staff is Canadian and that includes a group who are repatriated. The others are split between various places including Western Europe, the US and Australia.”

The collaborative approach at the top apparently makes its way down the line and includes the people like Gibbs who have to rely on communication from afar to get much of their work done. Peachey says Gibbs is a good example of how autonomy has come to Pixar Canada through strong communication with its head office.

“We have some very important collaborations with people like Rob where we will see him every day over a network connection and we will be working with him constantly. In that way it can be a very tight relationship but in another sense as a studio we can make a lot of decisions and make them quickly. We want to be able to do our own thing enough to occasionally be innovative in the process because as a smaller studio we can take slightly larger risks and change things more easily. We would like to be able to draw on all the new ideas that all of our diverse staff that we have hired from everywhere bring in here and then feed that back to California.

One of the things that I have always enjoyed about Pixar is that at least you know what the company mission is. There isn’t a lot of confusion about why we are here (in Vancouver.) We are here to make films true of Pixar Canada.” n REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

FESTIVAL FEATURE

Defying Tradition: A panel at Whistler’s Summit film industry forum looks at alternatives for marketing and distributing independent films Story by

Ian Caddell

effort as they have been working on the film and know their intended audience the best. Our goal is to achieve an end result where the filmmakers and producers are happy with the campaign and the external message created is the best possible

MAJOR CHANGES to the marketing and distribution of inde-

one to sell the film to the public. One thing we try and do is to

pendent films have been rumoured to be around the corner for

manage expectations and be honest with the filmmakers about

years. They have usually centered on digital media, but most

how we expect their film to perform. Having this discussion at

filmmakers have come through the traditional processes and

the start of the process can alleviate many misunderstandings

still seem mostly interested in taking their films to festivals and

later on. There are variables but most of the time the potential

having distributors pick them up for territorial sales.

box office will determine the marketing spend for a film and af-

A Mavericks Marketing panel at the Whistler Film Festival’s

fect the scope of the campaign. After we have agreed on the

Summit will be told that while the “traditional” film marketing

budget for the film we can then move ahead with creating the

business is dead, the most important thing for filmmakers to

different elements best needed for a successful campaign.”

remember about marketing their film is to be “totally, always” involved with their project’s marketing needs and campaigns.

Dodds has been marketing films since she worked with producer Mark Achbar to sell 2003’s The Corporation. The film

Film business consultant Peter Belsito, who will join Hel-

became a trail blazer in its approach to marketing. She says

loCoolWorld creative director Kat Dodds and Mongrel Media

that the subject, the history of corporations, was an easy sell to

marketing executive Danish Vahidy on the panel, says he wants

existing fans of Achbar’s earlier work, Manufacturing Consent.

filmmakers to know that the onus is always on them to make sure that their film gets the marketing it deserves.

“We literally chased down every possible audience, based on every possible angle in the film. But we did start with the early adopters,

“Some filmmakers do this very well and their films and ca-

and they were from the start the folks who were either young activists

reers prosper. The ones who walk away from marketing soon

or the slightly older fans of (the Achbar/Peter Wintonick film) Manufac-

find their films failing and careers as well. Filmmakers have no

turing Consent. Many were drawn in, without even seeing the film, on

choice but to create, push and always be involved in every

the basis of the premise of the film and the association with Manufac-

stage with their film’s marketing.”

turing Consent. So we first played up these ‘content connections’ and

Belsito brings a strong film background in film distribution and

then we researched every group or individual, the types that would be

promotion to the panel. It includes being a founding member of

called ‘influencers’ in today’s jargon, and we told them about the film,

Newsreel, a radical anti war student filmmaking collective and the In-

we invited them to grassroots VIP screenings all over the US, and this

dependent Feature Project (IFP) He has produced feature films and

worked. We just let them all see the connection between what the film

feature documentaries and wrote screenplays. He was an executive

was about, and how it fit in with their own goals.”

with Film Finders before moving with the company to IMDb. Two

More recently, Dodds and HelloCoolWorld have taken on ex-

years ago he became a guest blogger on Indiewire’s SydneysBuzz,

clusive Canadian distribution for the award-winning documentary

which covers the international independent film business.

65_RedRoses, the story of the life and journey of Eva Markvoort

As an American looking at a Canadian industry that is, by its

as she battled Cystic Fibrosis. She says that while she can relate

nature, independent, he says we are fortunate to have unique

to distributors and the difficulty that comes with trying to get films

resources for international distribution. “Telefilm is a great help-

in theatres, she also empathizes with young filmmakers who may

ful and creative organization, good people and money some-

believe they can get buzz through social networking but will find

times. And the treaties Canada has with most countries is also

that they need to stay connected to the work.

a big plus for internationally minded filmmakers.”

“I think there is a big disconnect in the entire industry about what

According to Whistler Summit producer Kryssta Mills, the

it takes to have a grassroots indie success. Now that we are taking

Mavericks event will stress all of the things that filmmakers can

on actual distribution I do feel for the business realities of distribution.

and should be doing to market their films. “Aside from the regu-

But at the same time I feel for the plight of talented young filmmakers

lar Facebook page, basic website, etc, why not host a flash

who barely get paid for their work, let alone paid to promote it for years

mob screening in your town, against the brick wall of one of

on end. And that is what it takes to have a long-tail release, time and

the buildings frequented by characters in your film? How about

effort to utilize the lovely tools of social networking. The buzz phrase

working with your distributor to have a live string section playing

is that it’s about conversations not push marketing. But it takes time

in the theatre during specific scenes in your film? This panel is

and genuine engagement by filmmakers and advocates for this con-

designed to get the filmmakers thinking differently about how to

versation to be real.”

reach their audiences, and to use the tools that they have within their power to engage and keep their audiences.”

Like Belsito, she believes distributors need committed filmmakers in order to get the most out of the product. She says

The close working relationship between filmmakers and dis-

that coming from two films that elicited passion from both the

tributors envisioned by both Mills and Belsito is entirely pos-

people selling the movie and the audiences attending, she

sible according to Vahidy. He says that he and his colleagues at

would want to stick to similar movies.

Mongrel see distribution as a collaborative effort.

“If there is a limit to what distributors can afford to shell out, in

“We try and work with our film makers on all aspects of the

their own time or promotional spends, they really need the mission-

campaign and include them in details and decision making

based filmmakers who think of their film as part of a cause. They

throughout the process. We try to make this a collaborative

Defying Tradition continued on page 28 21

Staying in Tune

Local composers have made a remarkable contribution to the BC film and television industry throughout its history.

Story by

Nathan Caddell

W

hen Graeme Coleman is told his composing career has spanned four decades he rejects the notion right away.

“Four decades?! No, no, no....” When the discussion moves from his first composing gig in 1989 to his Gemini-winning work on 2011’s Ice Pilots NWT, he accepts the idea that he’s been a major fixture in the Vancouver composing scene for a long time.

“Well twenty-two years. I guess you could say four decades. It just sounds scary,” he says, chuckling. The truth is that composing scores for motion pictures and television shows has been a fixture of the BC film and television industry for even longer than Coleman’s been at it, providing many jobs and helping to develop a strong community.

It’s a community that owes a lot to Coleman, Schaun Tozer, Dennis Burke, Peter Allen and Michael Conway Baker, all of whom started out in their chosen craft when the industry was going through the growing pains of the 1980s and early 1990s. They inspired and worked with dozens of young composers.

In more recent years, Julie Blue, Joe Docherty, Stephen Bulat, Matt Rogers, American veteran Stu Goldberg and others have found their own niche in the local market.

Coleman started out in a band called Skywalk in the late 1980’s, writing and playing music for the long-defunct instrumental band that was “fairly well known, making albums. Some of the local directors in particular were fans of the band and I got inquiries as to whether I’d write music for film or television.

I got hired often as a keyboard player by composers and stepped in for one of them at a TV production.”

Since then, Coleman has composed for 59 different productions, almost all of them Canadian, winning four LEO awards plus the aforementioned Gemini. When asked why Vancouver has been such a hotbed for composing, Coleman comes up with the expected answer. “It’s just where, for at least a couple of decades, the work was. One of my friends says that ‘composers are 22

drawn to Vancouver’ because they see others doing well.” Such a hotbed has the potential to create hostile competition for jobs, although Coleman says he’s been able to avoid this by having a “small but solid client base and not often tossing my hat in the ring with 20 other composers.”

While Coleman mainly deals with a select group of people and his projects are almost always located in Canada, other composers have found success in Vancouver using different approaches. Dennis Burke expanded his client base and works out of both Los Angeles and Vancouver. Burke followed a path that was remarkably similar to Coleman’s, having also played as a musician in his younger years and getting spot work on television and film productions. That eventually led to a career in the industry that has seen him work in the biggest production centres in the United States and Canada. Asked why Vancouver has been such a breeding ground for composers, the Edmonton-born composer reasons the phenomenon using chicken-and-the-egg logic. “Production came first, and then composers were led there. Most composers come after production.” Like Coleman, however, Burke was working in film and television in Vancouver before there was a boom in production. Both men have seen the business change rapidly for their profession.

They and others paint the current composing scene as less profitable than the “glory days” of ten years ago, citing a higher Canadian dollar as a reason that U.S productions are not as eager to film in Canada, driving some business away. “Most of my movies have been financed by Americans but done with Canadian principals to take advantage of tax credits,” says Stu Goldberg, who has worked on the reality program The Amazing Race. “But that’s been harder to come by these days with less incentive for U.S productions.” Still, hard times have been avoided by those who have started their own composing teams and by a lot of production teams who have trained for U.S films in Canada, and then decided to start their own companies, thus giving life to Canadian productions.

There is no shortage of composers in Vancouver who have come from schools or programs and are looking to make an impact. Stephen Bulat graduated from Capilano College with that purpose and has been in the business for fifteen years, working in many capacities for film productions before reREEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

ally breaking through as a composer.

Although he’s been quite successful and now runs a fully-equipped studio at Mix Media Productions, Bulat speaks of the heavy job competition in the industry that has come from the advancement of computers.

“You have Mac Computers with things like Garage Band, where someone can just click a button and make a loop; you have a mix of that.

Certainly some filmmakers say they won’t hire a composer and just do it off programs on the internet. It’s definitely brought down the quality, not creating a score specific to the film, just creating a mood.”

Still, Bulat believes there’s many productions out there committed to creating quality work. “There are a lot of filmmakers making films with their own money and a gigantic gap between filmmakers who are creating great work but are not financially successful and the ones that are. As a composer, you’re always making the decision of how important a project is to you versus rate of pay and it’s important to support projects that have good ideas. And you know, you have to trust that a lot of producers are going to want quality over anything else. ” Supporting the industry in which they work is essential to Bulat and his fellow composers. They acknowledge it’s necessary to always have projects filming and working in Vancouver, especially those projects that they believe to be important creatively. Sometimes that means taking less money to do a certain project and sometimes it means being Ari Wise.

Wise was one of the top composers in North America for a long time, working on over 200 productions in a span of 18 years after graduating from UBC and moving to L.A to work with industry legends Bruce Broughton (Silverado, Tombstone) and Jerry Goldsmith, an 18 time Oscar nominee. Wise moved back to Vancouver to be with family and after a long period of working here decided, in 2003, to become an agent and represent his peers. “In 2003, I kind of hit the glass ceiling as a composer and made the switch to use the knowledge I have to make it (the composing scene in Vancouver) better. I essentially dropped out because it wasn’t a winning formula; I thought the solution was to create an REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

“To make a living you have to be super-talented, hungry like the wolf and have dogged determination.

You can’t just be the movie artist, waiting for work to come. People that do it do it because they love it.

Film scoring is in their blood...”

- Ari Wise, Composers’ Agent

agency to help composers.”

While many composers, including Wise, Coleman and Burke, talk about the ever-increasing job competition within their occupation in Vancouver, none of them like to see other composers having hard times in an industry that they know is highly volatile. That approach has led to the forming of groups like the Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC), of which Coleman acts as vice president. “Certainly, organizations like SCGC have been helpful to establish rates so that composers don’t undercut others,” says Wise.

“That would become the standard, and it can’t happen. It’s what has hurt our industry in B.C. Even established composers are selling talents for less than they are worth because they feel that’s what they need to do in order to compete.”

Wise, for his part, has had an impact on composers both in B.C and Canada, representing many through his firm, Core Music Agency. Asked whether it’s easier to get jobs for other composers than it was to get jobs for himself, Wise responds with a resounding yes. “Oh. definitely. It’s

much easier to talk about how good someone else is than how good you are. It’s hard to approach production companies like that. If you’re an industry expert, people know who you are and respect your opinion. It’s easier for them to listen to me. I’m going to pick the guys that are right for producers’ shows. Of course every composer is going to say they’re right for it.”

As the years have gone by, it hasn’t just become easier for composers to have a representative like Wise working on their behalf; it’s also become essential in some situations. “Lots of producers won’t accept stuff without agents or lawyers,” says Wise. “In the US, most studios don’t accept submissions without an agent. I’m still amazed that Canadian productions accept unsolicited material.”

One composer who has reaped the benefits of working with an agent is Matt Rogers, one of Wise’s clients.

Rogers, who acted as Wise’s assistant for a number of years, says that the composer-turned-agent has helped his career tremendously. “Personally I don’t think I’d be in the business if it wasn’t for him, partly because of

being his assistant but also because currently he doesn’t get all my work but he’s constantly pushing for the next thing. He’s always thinking about what the next step would be in my career and trying to get me a project that’s bigger than the last one I worked on.”

What can be a huge boost to a composer’s employability is their versatility, as many of the top composers do all kinds of productions. “I’ve done everything from murder movies to feel-good happy ones and everything in between,” says Goldberg. “Musically, because I’ve done so many different things over the years I feel like I can fit any music situation and my employers do too.” Wise agrees: “Some composers have a style. They can’t step out of it and that becomes a problem because they are for hire and need to be versatile.”

Another way in which leaders of the industry help fellow composers is by teaching and training them at various schools around Vancouver, many of which offer top notch instruction. Dennis Burke teaches at a couple of different schools, noting Defying Tradition continued on page 28 23

Doppelgänger Paul Screenwriter Kris Elgestrand and co-director Dylan Akio-Smith PHOTO BY KATE CAMERON

Fear and Self-Loathing on the Festival Trail

Screenwriter Kris Elgestrand admits to being able to relate to Woody Allen. The following diary reflects that, featuring at least as much hand wringing and self-loathing as the New York-based horn player goes through making his movies. Even the title of the movie he and co-director Dylan Akio Smith are taking to the Whistler International Film Festival has a hint of Allen. Called Doppelgänger Paul (Or A Film About How Much I Hate Myself ), it had its world premiere at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.

Diary by

Kris Elgestrand MARCH 2009 “First, I’m born. Then the trouble begins.” That line from Soderbergh’s Schizopolis seems entirely apropos of life and filmmaking. As far as life is concerned, it seems you’re always somewhere in the middle or you’re dead. As I’m merely lost, I must not be dead. I must be in the middle of a script. The script is The Job, an ad24

aptation of my play. The play has gone through development at Playwrights Theatre Centre and the Banff PlayRites Colony. Now the film version is in development with Telefilm. I’m at the point where I’m at a loss to come up with anything new to do with it.

With no deadline immediately looming, and a change being as good as a rest, I decide to write something else.

APRIL Now I’m not stuck on the script I’m writing because I’m stuck on something else.

MAY Somehow I got unstuck. The script, called Doppelgänger Paul (Or A Film About How Much I Hate Myself ), is finished but has the dubious honour of being the worst thing I’ve ever written. Not wanting to be alone in my shame, I send it to a couple friends. They encourage me to make it. Briefly invigorated, I retreat to my natural state - anxiety and despair. Seems like a good time to go back and finish that other script which, perhaps not coincidentally, is

about anxiety and despair. The exercise of writing Doppelgänger Paul has cleared the air on The Job and I turn in the draft ahead of schedule, everyone likes it and we finish our round of development. My friend and collaborator, Dylan Akio Smith, is directing a short I wrote called Big Head. The story has something to do with how we teach kids to hate themselves. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is called a recurring theme or, at the very least, a hobby-horse.

REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

SEPTEMBER Dylan has finished work on Big Head and we’re in Toronto for its World Premiere at TIFF. Our wheels are turning again, having actually made something rather than just talking about it as we’ve been doing on The Job. We meet with distributors and funders and generate some interest in The Job but it’s slow going as we haven’t attached cast yet. Response to the script has been great but it’s a tough sell without names. Finally, I tell Dylan about Doppelgänger Paul which I’m thinking of making my first feature as a director. He wants to read it.

NOVEMBER I get some friends together to do a table read. It goes well.

Now I’m getting worried about being the one to screw it up. Woody Allen says the process of making a movie is the process of screwing up the script.

I am a huge Woody Allen fan and can’t decide if I arrived at my negative worldview partly thanks to him or if it’s what drew me to his work. At any rate, I agree with him (although that hasn’t been my experience as the work I’ve done with Dylan has turned out really well, often better than I imagined). It’s clear Dylan would like to direct Doppelgänger. Now I have a decision to make but I stubbornly refuse to make a decision.

JANUARY 2010 Dylan has sold me on the idea of co-directing Doppelgänger Paul. His argument works on a variety of different levels: thematic, metaphysical and, finally, practical.

We put things in motion with the intention of having a rough cut ready for June. A project like Doppelgänger could be just the thing to keep us moving - and making movies.

MARCH Dylan has a friend interested in investing enough money to get the film in the can on our original timeline. Things are slowly falling into place. The plan is to shoot in April.

MAY Cooler heads have prevailed.

Though the film is definitely accomplishable on our budget, it’s not in anyone’s best interests to stick to our crazy schedule. We bid farewell to our hopes of having a film in TIFF 2010. Dylan and I are now looking at six years between our first and second features.

In his memoir, Duke Ellington wrote about something he called “chronological masochism” by which he meant a kind of perversion in which people seem to enjoy torturing themselves with the calendar - birth dates, milestones, anniversaries – its place relative to accomplishments or lack thereof. By REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

Duke’s estimation, I’m a pervert.

JULY Working with producers Oliver Linsley and Katherine Hazen, we submit Doppelgänger for production funding with Telefilm. Anticipating a lengthy wait for news, I embark on a project I’ve always wanted to do: write and produce a feature film in one month. I often produced plays on similar timelines in my early twenties and I’ve wanted to take a similar approach to feature filmmaking. I figure if I can keep the budget low enough, it can only be a good thing. Even if the movie turns out poorly, the exercise will have been worthwhile.

AUGUST The script I’ve written is called Funeral Day. It’s set over the course of a single day as an anxious man tries to change his life instead of attending his friend’s funeral. But now Brad Dryborough, my good friend and a great actor, is leaving for Whitehorse to direct my play, The Boys. I don’t want to shoot without him so I decide to wait. I figure Doppelgänger will shoot in January at the earliest which leaves me time.

SEPTEMBER That was fast. Telefilm had very favourable things to say about Doppelgänger but they don’t have the money to invest. That’s called rejection. They did, however, encourage us to make the movie and come to them for finishing funds. That seems a good bet as that’s how we made our first feature. Dylan, Katie and Oly are talking about shooting Doppelgänger in October with Dylan’s friend as our executive producer. Everyone’s somewhat miffed that I have this other side project lined up. But I’m pushing hard to get Funeral Day shot.

OCTOBER Doppelgänger is in full forward motion. A crew snag pushed Funeral Day back by at least a week and it’s clear the two movies are trying to happen at the same time. I hold a private funeral in my heart for Funeral Day and move on to Doppelgänger. I’m excited about the cast: Tygh Runyan and Brad Dryborough as our leads and Matty Finochio and Ben Cotton as our secondary characters.

The crew is small but coming together.

When Dylan and I first talked about co-directing, I said he should DP. He’s got a great eye and has DP’d or operated on almost every one of our films.

Dylan decides he wants to shoot with Craig Trudeau, who’s something of a mad genius. Dylan puts forward the idea of almost every department key having a double as we have two direc-

tors, two producers and now two DPs. Our strange little movie about doubles and doppelgängers seems to be being made by doubles and doppelgängers.

NOVEMBER 4 We start shooting with Ben and Matty. We’ve got a month to get this thing in the can, almost a month more than Dylan had to shoot The Cabin Movie.

NOVEMBER 9 We’re in Stanley Park shooting with Tygh and Brad. It’s great to see these guys working together and to watch the Doppelgänger story take physical form. I must admit today it’s more exciting to shoot on the miniature railroad. I’ve been coming to the Stanley Park Miniature Railroad several times a year for my entire life. I’ve always wanted to walk around the tracks and see it from a different perspective.

Today I’m doing it.

One of the most serendipitous moments comes elsewhere in Stanley Park. Our scene, the first meeting between our leads, is written to take place in front of the beluga pool at the Aquarium. The poor captive whales swimming in endless circles were meant to be inexpensive production value as well as a shared object of shame for Karl and Paul.

Unfortunately, the area isn’t covered by our permit to shoot in the park so the production value is no longer inexpensive. Craig wanders around to find an alternative and comes upon what is possibly the most gorgeous location in the park at that time of year - the abandoned polar bear enclosure. The fall colours are blazing but the place feels sad, isolated and empty, just like our two lead characters. I just need to figure out how to rewrite some of the voice over leading up to the scene, changing the shared shame the characters feel over beluga whales in captivity to something involving a non-existent (deceased) polar bear.

NOVEMBER 15 Despite my overwhelming anxiety about making this movie, I have to admit a certain kind of magic seems to be working in our favour. Katie Hazen has somehow convinced Powell’s Books in Portland, OR to let us shoot in their store.

For many of us on the movie, Powell’s is a kind of Holy City, an almost mythical land of books in one of the coolest cities on the West Coast. This means that, like our lead characters, we’re about to go on a road trip. A doppelgänger road trip, if you will.

NOVEMBER 17 No sooner had we

decided to go to Portland than I’ve started worrying about everything that could go wrong. I sometimes get that way when crossing the border.

My anxiety is not lessened by the unfortunate news that the hotel rooms we’re to stay in on the way to Portland have shared washrooms. The washroom question has taken over all other concerns, creative or otherwise. I’m sending frantic e-mails to Katie in the middle of the night.

Does this hotel really have no rooms with private washrooms? Tygh Runyan assures me the facilities are very nice. But Tygh doesn’t know me that well. Unfortunately, there’s no room in the budget for my neuroses.

I have to surrender and go with it. Or at least try my best. Or at least keep my mouth shut and not complain too much. I fail at all these things.

I’m beginning to wonder if I should start taking the medication that surly psychiatrist wants to put me on. I’ll call him when I get back.

NOVEMBER 22 Just north of Seattle, the snow starts dumping. The I-5 has ground to a halt. It’s 10:00 at night and we’re hours from our hotel. I’m in the hero van with Dylan and Brad. The rest of the cast and crew are in two other vans and a mini Cooper. Amazingly, everyone else seems to be having a great time like we’re on an adventure.

I guess I don’t much like adventures. I fear for our lives. Brad and Dylan are doing their best to put up with my endless cursing and worrying.

NOVEMBER 23 It’s the morning after the snow fall. We had to settle for another hotel, a Best Western with private washrooms! And we’re in Tacoma, behind schedule. The roads are covered in ice. Poor internet service on my phone has prevented me from booking an Amtrak ticket to Portland or home. I don’t care at this point. I just want to get away from the imminent danger of this ice-locked city.

We finally arrive in Portland with lots of time to make up. We’re shooting in a very picturesque but somewhat down at heels motel in North Portland. We get some great stuff, particularly a bird’s-eye dolly shot that takes us from the toilet to the shower as one of our characters madly sobs in the shower. It’s the last shot of a long day. If I had my way, we would shoot a static shot, get out of the tiny motel room and go to sleep. But Craig and Dylan are completely right. The shot is great, which doesn’t mean I won’t 25

(Top) A scene in the abandoned polar bear enclosure at Stanley Park (Bottom) Tygh Runyan and Brad Dryborough as Karl and Paul PHOTOS BY CRAIG TRUDEAU / DYLAN AKIO SMITH

complain that it kept me from getting to bed an hour and a half later than was already too late. As the father of a two-year old, I’m all about schedules.

Can’t get something on the schedule?

Too bad. The schedule wins! Next.

NOVEMBER 24 The next day we’re at Powell’s Books. I walk across the Burnside Bridge, take in a bit of Portland, and meet everyone at Powell’s at the appointed hour. It’s really exciting

running through the store with a modest shopping list. Making movies and shopping for books, both at the same time. Who could complain?

NOVEMBER 25 It’s Thanksgiving Day in the US. I’ve had a hissy little bitch fit that the day started late and I’m feeling somewhat sheepish. Fortunately, attention is pulled from me by Craig who wants to drill a hole in the ceiling of Steakburger, a great-looking burger

comes when Craig declares, “Really? I didn’t realize this place was a UNESCO Heritage Site.” Craig Trudeau, ladies and gentlemen.

Later that night, Brad and I blow a tire on the I-5 heading to Centralia.

We have to call the cast and crew van back to get us. Katie and Oly stay with the van while the rest of us cram in the crew van. I sense no one is happy I am getting in this van. Or perhaps

“Making movies and shopping for books, both at the same time. Who could complain?” to be shooting here. The store covers one entire city block and is so huge I usually just get overwhelmed, break out in the sweats and leave without buying anything. Today I’m obligated to stay. When I should probably be concentrating on other things, I’m 26

place in Vancouver, WA. No one wants to let Craig do it, particularly since the manager of the restaurant has kindly and generously pulled himself away from his family’s Thanksgiving Day festivities to open the place for us. One of my favourite lines of the production

I’m really so in love with myself that I can’t imagine a world in which everyone is not thinking about me in some way. Somehow my discomfort at being crammed in the van actually makes me happy to arrive at the hotel without private washrooms. Our

rooms have bunk beds and suddenly I’m an unhappy eight-year old again.

At 5:00AM, after several hours of attempted sleep, I finally realize why I can’t sleep: this room has no windows.

I can’t breathe. I feel things would be easier for me if I would just give in and smoke pot. That’s Dylan’s recommendation. But he’s no doctor. My oldest friend is a psychiatrist and, knowing me, he does not recommend it.

NOVEMBER 29 Back home from the road trip, we owe a couple days worth of material in Vancouver before taking a break to assemble the footage and wait for some new weather for a couple of sections. Having survived the road trip relatively unscathed, I still somehow can’t stop thinking about it. I start writing a song called Road Trip. I cop to almost everything in there. Even more than I am revealing in these pages.

JANUARY 2011 In a departure from our doppelgänger theme, we have three editors. Dylan, Aram Coen, and Alex Leigh-Barker. They’re all gifted editors with different styles which seems appropriate given the shifting styles of the movie. We start like a thriller feel, move into a section Dylan describes as the “Jane Austen” section, then into a buddy comedy, a road movie, a slapstick farce, and, finally, something else. The editors each took a third of the movie and have finished an assembly relatively quickly. The first viewing of the assembly shows we’re in good shape. I immediately want to lock picture, probably because, at this point, my entire script is on the screen!

MARCH Thirty minutes or so has been whittled from the movie before we screen it for an invited audience of about twenty friends and colleagues. The response is very good, which is heartening, but everyone has problems with the pace, which is not. I suggest a few cuts I’m sure will make all the difference in the world and then we’ll be done.

APRIL We’re not done.

MAY We’re still not done and we’re shooting again. It’s the final scene of the movie. We needed a place that feels sunny and warm, where the uptight and anxious characters finally relax. Or not. I don’t want to give it away. Katie did a great job securing the location.

Dylan and Craig, once again, are doing a great job shooting it. After this, we just have a couple things to pick up in town, including a reshoot on a scene I’ve rewritten. I’m proud of the rewrite Doppelgänger continued on page 28 REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

as it’s the first time I’ve ever watched an assembly of a movie, realized a scene was in the weeds and come up with a solution that actually works. I didn’t realize it was a problem all on my own, of course. Dylan certainly had an opinion.

I can’t remember if I suggested it or not but since I feel a general sense of shame and humiliation most of the time, I’ll allow myself some momentary pride over the rewrite. Dylan, who’s been doing the yeoman’s work of the fine cutting, cuts in the new scenes, and we hand the rough cut off to Telefilm in the hopes of getting completion funds.

JUNE Telefilm likes the cut and is willing to come in for completion funds. They have notes. Of course, we’re interested in hearing them but Dylan already has a new cut.

They watch the cut and now have no notes. We’re just that good. I celebrate by disappearing with my family to a friend’s house in LA for three weeks. It doesn’t immediately occur to me that I’m abandoning Dylan right now. Once again, I probably have my priorities wrong. As it happens, we don’t even make it to Disneyland and instead spend three weeks in my friend’s place being barked at incessantly by his and his neighbour’s dogs.

AUGUST 2 We’ve been invited to premiere at TIFF. That gives us about a month to finish the movie. Right now, we’re enjoying the relative calm of the mixing theatre. I’ve never been around for a full sound-mix in a mixing theatre. It’s so cozy and dark in there. I never want to leave.

It’s a great experience watching John Hazen (sound guru extraordinaire) work his magic. On completion of the sound mix, Dylan and Craig set to work on colour correction and adding a few digital post-effects. It’s clear Dylan and Craig did a really great job shooting this thing.

SEPTEMBER We’re to do our final playback of the sound mix in Toronto

the day before our tape needs to be delivered to the festival for our first press screenings. We’re trying to take as much advantage as possible of all the resources and opportunities TIFF provides for films and their makers, so we definitely pushed to be ready for the advance press screenings.

It’s the night of our premiere.

We’ve received some good advance reviews and are feeling a slight festival buzz. Dylan slips into rock star mode and creates the impression he’s fully in control and nothing fazes him. I’m not incapable of creating such a facade but I am incapable of maintaining it. At our post screening party, I feel that I look as though I’ve been hit by a bus. I really don’t know if people like our movie or not. This, perhaps, is the problem of making a comedy that’s not funny ha-ha.

We attend the remaining two screenings of our movie. Both Dylan and I feel progressively better after each screening, as our nerves and anxieties abate. Our publicist can’t believe we sit through all three public screenings of our movie. Dylan and I always try to make movies we’d like to see. If we’ve done our jobs well, we should want to watch it again and again. There’s always so much to enjoy whether it’s small moments between the actors, a gorgeous shot or some caprice of the production designer. Sure, there are things we’d love to fix or change, some moment or line we’d love to cut or rescue from the digital dustbin, but if you’re not making movies you want to watch, why bother? Filmmaking can be so unpleasant, it makes sense to at least work toward something that gives you pleasure. This film has ended up being oddly revelatory of Dylan’s and my relationship. I hadn’t realized quite how personal it would turn out to be.

And, amazingly, we’re still speaking.

Next up The Job. Or something else that seems to fall out of nowhere like Doppelganger Paul (or A Film About How Much I Hate Myself). n

Defying Tradition continued from pg 21

leverage over seventy-five thousand dollars

Doppelgänger continued from page 26

of sponsored ad time for our TV PSA, feaare the ones who will be answering fans

turing footage from the film, that promotes

questions on Facebook at 3 am, or sell-

organ donation. And of course, when they

ing DVDs out of their backpacks. So these

go to our website they can also buy the film.

would be the mavericks - the filmmakers

We are planning even bigger things with our

that will do all they can to get their film out.

re-launch of the new version of the film and

I think 65_RedRoses is going to be a great

a Nation-wide campaign to launch for April/

case study in this. Through our partnership

May for Organ Donation and Cystic Fibrosis

with BC Transplant we were already able to

Awareness Months.” n

28

Staying in Tune continued from page 23

that while the job situation is tighter for composers in Vancouver than it was a decade ago, and students are getting training that was only ever available to him through getting jobs, the basic success model has stayed the same. “If you’re going to embark on a career, you have to really love what you do,” says Burke.

“So much that even if you weren’t getting paid, you’d still do it. The best practice is by writing as much music as you possibly can, because I’m still learning and still trying to get good, and that’s after 20 years.

The last score that I wrote is always my best because I’m always trying to do better. You want to be heading in that direction. Write, write, write, go to film schools, meet and get to know people.”

Burke’s point is one that many in the business wholeheartedly agree with, including Wise, who illustrates why some composers succeed while others fail. “To make a living you have to be super-talented, hungry like the wolf and have dogged determination. You can’t just be the movie artist, waiting for work to come. People that do it do it because they love it. Film scoring is in their blood.”

Another technique that many composers, including Wise, recommend for young composers is working with their peers. “Work with student filmmakers,” he says. “Sometimes you’re working with people WIFTV continued from page 12

seems everyone sensed the tremendous benefits that networking and supporting each other could provide.

From then on, the organization was like a steam engine, gathering speed and expanding its reach, energy and vision over the next two decades. I like to think that the organization has been incredibly instrumental in increasing the number of women working in the industry in key positions. There’s still a lot of room for improvement as women are still significantly underrepresented in many key areas, but the progress in general has been wonderful.

The current president, Mary Bissell, says the good news is that while there is still a long way to go until there is equality in the numbers, the progress of women can be linked

who are also working out mistakes.

Develop working relationships with people who are going to go on to make better films and when they come out on the other side so do you. Trust level is huge.” Fostering relationships with young filmmakers is a point reiterated by Burke.

“Young composers have to get to know the directors that are coming up now because they’re going to be making films. Students always want to know my producers and talk with them. I have to say ‘well no, it doesn’t work like that. You have to start up with people who are also starting up.’”

Canadian composers have seen both lean and good years but wherever there is filming there will be a need for composers. Now and for the foreseeable future, Vancouver is a hotbed for those in the trade.

Will composers in Vancouver still be responsible for creating the perfect, eerie score for a thriller, or the playful sounds of a children’s cartoon in the future? “I would hope so,” says Goldberg. “I would hope that producers continue to see the value and talent in Vancouver because there are wonderfully talented people here.”

Coleman, who has seen many composers come and go, says talent will always win the day. “Talent and persistence will win out. Sometimes after five and six years of struggling, it’s last man standing. Like any other business, if you’re good and dedicated, it will happen.” n directly with improvements in the quality of productions.

“I am really excited about leading an organization that is still vital and helping to make positive change for women, despite the challenges of the depressed economy and cuts to arts organizations.

We are fueled by the belief that the film and television industry will become even stronger as more women progress into leadership roles, especially in key creative areas. If you check the stats, it’s quite startling how low the numbers still are. (e.g. The most recent Directors Guild of Canada Awards saw women make up 25 of the 95 nominees.)

“So we see our mandate as helping women to rise to their best potential, as well as celebrating the advancements we’ve made, and giving kudos to the people and organizations who have helped make a difference.” n REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011

FINAL EDIT national Film Festival; photographer, filmmaker and educator Dana Claxton and filmmaker Greg Hamilton, awarded The Shaw Media Award for Best Canadian Feature Film to Anne Emond of Quebec for Nuit 1. The jury gave the Most Promising Driector of a Canadian Short Film Award to Ontario’s Andrew Cividino for We Ate the Children.

The Rogers People’s Choice Award went to A Separation, directed by Iran’s Asghar Farhadi while the Most Popular Nonfiction Film Award went to Sing your Song, directed by Canadian Susanne Rostock and the Most Popular Canadian Film Award went to Ken Scott, the director of Starbuck.

The VIFF Environmental Audience Award was won by People of a Feather, directed by Joel Heath. The $10,000 Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema went to Tibetan director Sonthar Gyak of China for The Sun-Beaten Path. The jury was comprised of filmmaker Ann Hui, Simon Field, former Head of Cinema at the ICA in London and former director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam and actor/director Yang Ikjune. They considered eight films in competition.

CBC Wins Big Catherine De Léan and Dimitri Storoge as Clara and Nikolai in Anne Emond’s Nuit #1. Nuit #1 was awarded the Shaw Media Award for Best Canadian Feature Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival PHOTO CARE OF K FILMS AMÉRIQUE

Calgary Fest a Hit A spokesperson for the Calgary International Film Festival says that while there was still some tabulating to do at press time, it appeared that the festival had increased attendance substantially.

“We’re still going through the process of reviewing our results but it’s safe to say we’ve achieved just over a 10% increase in attendance and are tracking to have had one of our best years yet for ticket sales,” said Jacqueline Dupuis, executive director of CIFF. “We’re grateful to both our loyal fans and new fans who came out in full force to enjoy a fantastic program of films as well as for our stakeholders and sponsors who joined us to throw a world-class international film festival right here in our city.

This year’s strong results will contribute to CIFF’s long-term sustainability and its ability to meaningfully contribute to the cultural landscape of our diverse 30

and dynamic community.”

The festival also announced that its People’s Choice Award went to the Canadian film Starbuck, which stars Patrick Huard as a man who discovers that he is being sued by many of the 533 children he’s fathered through anonymous sperm bank contributions. The winner of the Best Live Action Short award went to Canada’s Long Branch. Directed by Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart it tells the story of a complicated night of passion.

CIFF also announced that director David Dusa had been awarded its coveted Maverick title for his feature film, Fleurs Du Mal; Not Far From The Abattoir as winner of its Alberta Spirit Award.

VIFF Numbers Up The Vancouver International Film Festival concluded its recent 16-day run in

mid-October with reports of increases in both overall revenue and ticket sales. VIFF director Alan Franey said records had fallen in the 30th year.

“We are delighted to report that the Vancouver International Film Festival has broken attendance and revenue records. Admissions topped 152,000, up from 148,000 in 2010. Ticket sales revenue reached a new high of $1,178, 811 with $45,335 coming from the Film and TV Forum. That is up from $1,074,029 last year.”

BC filmmaker Charles Wilkinson’s Peace Out won the NFB’s Most Popular Canadian Documentary award and a prize of $2500 in NFB technical services toward his next film from the Filmmaker Assistance Program. The Festival announced that the Canadian Images jury, which was composed of Beth Barrett, program manager of the Seattle Inter-

The CBC won a total of eight awards, including three Gold awards at the recent Canadian Online Publishing Awards. CBCNews.ca’s awards came in the newspaper/broadcaster category, with the exception of two awards for the CBC News app.

The CBC won the Best Online-only Site while coverage of last spring’s federal election, Canada Votes, won the Gold Award for Best News Coverage. The CBC News app for iPad was the Gold Award winner for Best Tablet App. CBCNews.ca also won five Silver awards including Best Smartphone App (CBC News app), Best Use of Social Media, Best Website Design, Best Online-only Report (for Neil Macdonald’s investigation Who Killed Lebanon’s Rafik Hariri) and Best Cross-Platform Initiative (for Canada Votes.)

According to a spokesperson for Masthead Magazine categories cover the full range of publication types, including online magazines and newspapers, with a focus on excellence in editorial and design. n REEL WEST NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2011