Movies - Week of January 7

Murderball *** (D)
Storytelling **½ (D)
I'm Not There ***½ (P)
Der Amerikanische Freund *** (D)
El Orfanato **** (T)

For legend, see week 1

Best Movie of the Year so far (Cinema or new DVD releases only included)
American Gangster

2007 The Year in Review

2007 flew by. QTLibrarian inspired me with her year in review, so here is my not-so-month-by-month recap:

January-February - read almost 100 short screenplay entries for thinsoapy's contest in a search to find a new script. Found one and to my surprise it was from a writer living in Calgary.

March-April - started casting for the short film. Original plan was to try and shoot it in April or May. Had some issues with an addendum to the IPA that removed the ability to use union actors in projects less than 15 minutes, so we had to re-cast one of the leads.

May - Started cycling to work a couple of days a week; 12km each way. Felt great but my neck started to bother me. Switched from knapsack to pannier, helped a bit. Our plan of getting the film shot before our big trip is foiled by losing a location and then our DP to a strike. Some other things went wrong, too but I can't remember them all.

June - I finally left the continent for the first time in my life! Gina had been to Europe before but I was beginning to wonder if I would ever travel. The artificial hip was great - walked more than I had ever before and did lots of cycling. Three weeks in Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France - eating waffles, pannenkoek and tasting many, many beers - and still we lost weight!



July - back from Europe in time for Bre's birthday on the 2nd. Started looking for a replacement location and found a perfect substitute. Tried to get everyone together to shoot the film but postponed it to September (too many holidays). Bought a new bike so I'd be sitting up straighter. Helped the neck and took some time off the ride (smaller tires=less friction=higher average speed)! Harry Potter 7 released.

August - got down to business planning the shoot. It felt strange working through August, since it's usually the month in which we take our vacations. Continued to ride two or three days a week. Another good consequence of riding (and being gone for 3 weeks): when Honda calls to remind me it's time for my 96,000 km service I laugh at them - I'm only at 92,000! Bookclub camping trip (that should become an annual event) was fantastic.

September - Gina's family BBQ at Sheep River Falls. Finally got the film crew and cast together and shot the short. Whew!



October - Gina got another year older. Also the month we stopped cycling to work. Me, earlier than Gina because of a Gall Bladder attack (out of left field, and during the film festival - argghh!). Kels- this is also why I wasn't at your Austin send-off. At least the film festival was excellent (saw 10 of 12 films we purchased tix for, Gina saw 11). If you can find Adrenaline by Robert Lynn, which is a feature shot in one single continuous shot, I highly recommend it.

November - went for an early winter ride around the resevoir. Busy at work but still had some time to do a rough cut of the film.

December - went on the annual Solstice Tree Hunt. Shopping, holidays with families, the usual. As always, fun. The girls got a Wii and presently I suck at GH3 and putting in golf.

Looking forward to 2008.

Movies - Week of December 31

I'm going to keep track all year. That way, when Gina asks what my favourite movies of the year were, I can just look it up.

Stardust **** (D)
Nanny Diaries ** (D)
Memoirs of a Geisha * (T)
American Gangster **** (C)
The Stranger **** (D)
Brick ***½ (D)

Best Movie of the Year so far (Cinema or new DVD releases only included)
American Gangster

Legend
* - Rating (out of 5)
C - Cinema
B - Blu-ray
D - DVD
L - LaserDisc
P - Free Preview
T - TV/PVR
S - Short

Getting Screwed by a Girl Guide...

Guess it's been a while since I bought some of these. For some reason the girls don't come by the house. Anyway, I was annoyed to find this "rip-off shelf", now a part of the flimsy plastic tray inside every box of Girl Guide Cookies. The box is the same size (that's what you pay for!) but now there are [at least] four fewer cookies inside. Perhaps the girls are concerned about my health?

Calgary International Film Festival - Shorts

a scene from Mime Massacre

We went to see the 10 short films that were short-listed for this year's Alberta Centennial Awards at the Calgary International Film Festival. I wanted to see what else is being produced out there and know if our own efforts are not wasted. The good news? Narrative films are alive and kicking! None of the 10 finalists were purposefully obscure.

The bad news? You have a better chance of making the top 10 in Alberta if you make your film in Vancouver and it seems to be a necessity to have public funding. Gina makes the point that the festival jury probably puts more credence in films that have received government grants because they take comfort in the fact that they have been pre-screened and have met with approval elsewhere. Once again this proves that no one is willing to make the call themselves - things must be decided upon by consensus (if so-and-so liked it, it must be good).

What about those of us that would rather spend their time and money making films rather than filling out grant applications? We've seen the other side of public funding and the reality is, for what you get (if anything!) it's not worth the time. I don't even want to get into the MTV (Montreal Toronto Vancouver) factor.

One other thing to note: I am all for "film" (as opposed to video) making but for first-time movie makers I would recommend video. It's much better for the environment and it allows you to shoot rehearsals, resulting in fewer takes, better performances and lower costs. But of course, if it's not your money then who cares, right?


One Damn Thing After Another (25 min)
Director: Ben Babchishin

Dave says - Not a bad concept but I'm unsure on the execution. While the animation parts were excellent (and a great way to reduce the cost of shooting), I think there were too many "styles" - especially for a short film. It was also painful to watch the actors' extended laugh sequences. In response to the main character saying he's a 'Bridge Architect', Gina asks: don't Engineers make bridges?

Zoot Alors! (7 min)
Director: Tammy Primeau

Dave says - Funny & cute. It was strange to see the eyebrows of the little sock monkey disappear at times but hey, maybe they were going for that!

Fridge Management (3 min)
Director: Lawna Hurl

Dave says - Not funny, especially not "wickedly funny" as the blurb promised.

Mime Massacre (6 min)
Director: Colin Decker

Dave says - Exactly what the title says it is. It was bloody funny and well done. I especially liked the mime who built the wall of bricks to hide behind.

The Janitors (12 min)
Director: Daniel Arnold, Matthew Kowalchuk

Dave says - I was surprised to see "Cancer-man" William B. Davis in a film in this line-up but it was well-done. I think the premise was great and would like to see this expanded to a feature. For 12 minutes long, there was plenty of characterization which you don't usually see. Nice work.

Shipwrecked (10 min)
Director: Devon Bolton

Dave says - Out of the 10 shortlisted films for the Centennial Prize, this one was the obvious winner. Beautifully shot and scored, with a great kid who had no dialogue to work with but pulled it off perfectly. I can't figure out why they made this look like it took place in the 30s or 40s, other than kids these days have no imagination. Still, it works.

The Perfection of the Moment (4 min)
Director: Corey Lee

Dave says - The director was a year ahead of Gina at SAIT and the lead actor was in the first feature that Gina and I ever worked on - Trouble (1995) by Paul Di Stefano. Joel was very good as the man of a thousand "second thoughts". Overall it was pretty good.

The Artistic Taxidermist (5 min)
Director: Sandi Somers

Dave says - Weird - I had a similar script sent to me by an aspiring screenwriter a few years ago. While this has its funny moments, it seems to me that the whole second act (there are only two in this one) was the premise and that the first half was a misguided attempt at working towards that premise.

Missing Person (7 min)
Director: Trevor Smith

Dave says - Good concept. The acting was sub-par but you can overlook that in low-budget shorts, can't you? Speaking of actors, the younger cop was credited as "George Smith" but I'm sure that he's the Geordie Smith I knew in High School. The long, slow dolly shot at the end was very well done.

CEA (4 min)
Director: Robert Prowse

Dave says - "Synchronized Wheat Dancing" could have been the working title for this one. I apologize for not being up on my artisitc dancing but "CEA" is meaningless to me. While it was beautifully shot, Gina came up with a much better ending that would have taken this one to the next level: they should have considered making this an explanation of where crop circles come from.