THE EVENTS

1. Filmmakers & Photographers Showcase
This event has always been a great hit in the past. Photographers and filmmakers will fill a beautiful small room in  a historical building in Gastown. Everyone is welcome to submit work (i.e. photographs, music videos, short films, experimental films, trailers etc). Each participant will be given the opportunity to show their work on an 8 foot screen and discuss the vision behind their project and take questions from the audience. Not everyone who attends needs to show their work, but it’s a very friendly environment so don’t be intimidated to show us what you’ve been working on.

To learn more about this event and to RSVP please visit the following page:
If you’re a filmmaker click here
If you’re a photographer click here

2. Actors Studio @ Romantic Child
For this event local actors will  fill a beautiful small room in  a historical building in Gastown. Actors will first be given a short lecture on audition strategies before breaking into small groups where we’ll workshop a few small scenes from some of the world’s best films and plays. At the end of this event all of the actors will crowd around a small stage where each group will perform in front of the other actors. This gives the entire group the opportunity to sit on the other side of the casting table and analyze performances the way a Casting Director would.

For more information on this event please sign up and RSVP here

I hope to see you all there!

Casting for the role of our protagonist’s wife, Ana, was one of our biggest concerns because her character requires an actor who’s comfortable going deep and exploring the themes of manipulation, control and the possibilities of love.

Ana needs to have a particular thirst for life. A thirst that she uncompromisingly pursues. We want to see the poetry in her actions, relationships and behaviour. Someone who’s aware of the microscopic details of life. Someone who doesn’t simply exist in a functional sense of the word, but instead is aware of the patterns of the moon, psychological effects of color, the importance of romantic bliss, uncompromising love (or at least the pursuit towards this emotional potential). She’s an adventure seeker and someone who’s in love with the potential of the world.

Distortion of Truth

We had a mountain of submissions for the role of Ana and we called in roughly 30 actors to audition for us. All of the actors did a great job but some of the actors were slightly too sentimental with the part. Jane Campion’s quote kept running through my mind warning me against the dangers of sentiment.

“I hate sentiment, which I believe is a distortion of truth”.

What we were looking for is a much more genuine belief in the character’s dilemma. We were not looking for a calibration of an emotional outcome, but instead we wanted to see a deeper understanding of the experiences of the character.

Many of the candidates had incredibly strong auditions, but in the end it was Erika Walter who captivated us. Erika embodies everything we’re looking for in our character of Ana. We need an actor who can be  booth cold and bohemian, warm and elegant, flawed and confused, calculated and smart and beautiful in a natural and honest way.

As an actor exploring our character of Ana you’d be forced to explore the darker sides of your personality. Not darker in the cartoonish sense of the word. For example, it might be emotionally less risky for an actor to play the role of a sex worker, a thief or a scoundrel because they will likely have no experience with those modes of living. Therefore it will inevitably lead the actor down a path to create something completely fictitious.

Of course, even when exploring such obviously fabricated characters an actor will still use emotional replacements which will allow them to draw on their own personal history to bring something unique to the character, but in the end they can still hide behind the fictitious mask of the character. Something obviously not real, which can potentially make the role a little safer in the emotional sense of the word.

Of course there is a substantial amount of character development and research that needs to go into the characters mentioned above, but the roles wouldn’t be intimidatingly personal. The actor when playing one of the roles mentioned above would likely be judged on how well they absorb information and present it on screen. Essentially, it’s an emotional research project. On the other hand, an actor playing a role that has some truth in their own character will be judged on how much of themselves they expose. Our character of Ana is a risky role to play because we’re not giving Erika a mask to hind behind.

However, I believe that his is what makes our script “actor friendly”. It’s full of subtext and is a story in that will be both challenging and unusual to navigate through. This gives actors a lot of room to breathe life into the script and make it their own. My strong guess is this will be one of the most magical elements of making this film – Seeing actors pour their hearts and experiences into their character and relationships.

Essentially, with our character Ana we were looking for someone who we sensed would be brave enough to take emotional risks, both by themselves and with the other actors. Brave enough to expose their darker side on screen. We all have this side to us, but most of us would rather keep it secret, work on suppressing it or at least minimizing it. To ask an actor to explore this part of their personality on a deep level and then show it to the world is a lot for us to ask. However, it was a challenge that Erika was up to.

Audition Process

After her initial audition we called Erika in for a callback and had her read with 5 potential characters for our protagonist of Liam. We wanted to see the dynamic between Erika and the other potential male leads. The day of callbacks went incredibly well and at the end of the day my strong suspicion was that it was Leif and Erika that should be matched together. They both have a slightly more bohemian and tender look. The type of couple that wouldn’t live in a modern condo downtown, but in a cozy little loft somewhere in a more artistic part of a city.

The most important thing for us was keeping the relationships believable. There are a lot of magical moments in our script but we want to have a fim footing in reality and this is the relationship where we will achieve that. We wanted our characters to have a strong creative, imaginative and adventurous slant to their personalities.

Erika  minored in Theater studies from St Mary’s College in Alberta and she’s taken acting classes at Shoreline Studios in Vancouver as well as audition classes with Ty Olsson. She’s worked or lived in Tokyo, Thailand, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Macau, Paris, Milan and Rome to name only a few of the places.

What’s most impressive about Erika is her level of commitment to her craft. Seeing her work on her character backstory,  voice and relationships will undoubtedly prove advantageous.

Searching for a Cinematic Look

From the beginning of the audition process we knew we were looking for a couple that had a very cinematic look. It’s hard to accurately describe what that look is, but most film actors look very different than TV actors. On the one end of the spectrum you have the casting of arteur films which use hyper realistic actors to embody a generally hyper realistic world. On the other far end of the spectrum you have soap operas which use hyper unrealistic actors to portray a hyper unrealistic world. If I had to draw it out it would look something like this.

On the far right you have a focus on the physical in a very two dimensional way. It’s lowest common denominator. It’s a very sexualized sense of beauty. As we work our way left the sexualized component of the characters start being tamed. The characters start becoming a little more rough around the edges, more textured, conflicted, tortured and experienced. It’s this left end of the spectrum we we wanted to explore.

Erika falls within that spectrum beautifully. Of course, she’s a very pretty actress (just as Johnny Depp is a very handsome actor), but there is something interesting and poetic about their look and something richer about their personalities. Something that says “I’ve lived”.

Welcome aboard Erika!

Our Other Characters

1. Liam – Leif Nygaard
2. Young Liam – Coming soon
3. Ana – Erika Walter
4. Chunga – Coming soon
5. Marni – Coming soon
6. Jackson – Coming soon
7. Poldy – Coming soon
8. Giom – Coming soon
9. Paulo – Coming soon
10. Sara – Coming soon

Life in Bosnia

When I recall my life in Bosnia the first thing that comes to my mind is Edgar Alan Poe’s verse: ¨All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream¨. To feel strongly about certain experiences in such a way they have to exist within realm of the past; distant enough so that we are not able to claim them as real or unreal. This, I would say, is a dream.

Therefore, Bosnia is a distant past, a dream that I purposefully don’t want to forget. Because forgetting it would mean, among many other things, ignoring a valuable writing resource. Living afterwards as a refugee in Slovenia, under different circumstances, going through challenging experiences, being compelled to see the world in a different way brought out many fears, opened the floodgates and allowed  confusion and conflicts to settle in. But it was here, for the first time, that I dared to think, and then write, about the relationship between now and then.

Obsession in symbols / Magic / Tarot Cards

Obsession with magic. I would not say I have one. Magic as a deceit or magic as a story about the magic of deceit. It would be very interesting, it would be magical, to write story about a person ( A fashion designer ala Karl Otto Lagerfeld lets say) who thinks he found an elixir of eternal life. He wants to live forever and thus perpetuate his stupidity, because it is usually those kind of people who don’t want to grow old and die (myself not excluded).

But then one day, just before he is about to drink his elixir he gets a letter from Count of St Germain dated from 1754. In this letter St Germain is expressing his desire to meet with Karl Otto and have a little chat with him. Eventually they do get together and then the story evolves.

When it comes to astrology and Tarot cards I still wouldn’t call it an obsession. In those I saw a tool for story telling. Why do people go to astrologer or Tarot reader? Why are people interested in reading a cup of coffee? Simply because… you want to hear a story in the form of the truth about yourself and others or lies about yourself or others; it depends how you look at it and how much you believe in all that.

What makes these things interesting is where are you looking for the story or the reflection of ourselves, of what we are and what we are not. In Astrology you are looking for the story in signs positioned in certain planets, houses and fields. In tarot you tell the story by deciphering various symbols depicted in the cards. In a coffee cup you are looking for shapes, lines and “accidentally” formed figures to help you tell the story. What makes it even more interesting for me is that their origins trace way back into a distant past. You see, it is all about past. That is why I could never be a Buddhist. Or is that so; because why teachings, whether conveyed orally or read in centuries’ old scriptures, if not to preserve them, if not to preserve the past. You see, it is all about now and then.

Biggest challenges

The biggest challenge is to recognize the chaos, to give a form to that chaos and then tell the story clearly.

Your writing process:

It would be the best If I could write in accordance to Kurosawa’s suggestion; `”One page a day and within one year you would have 365 pages.” But we both know that in our case that is not possible and so I have to write at least five or more pages a day or every second day.

I’ll usually go to places where there is a lot of distraction so that I can procrastinate my writing. But once I get into it I move to place where I will not be distracted.

Although the album is classified as a hip hop album, there are still similar (but not familiar) Amon Tobin and DoubleClick confrontational electronic undertones.

Amon Tobin and DoubleClick are known for their creative slant towards an area of music that goes way beyond the confines of being considered simply “electronica”. Sway on the other hand is undoubtedly UK’s biggest hip hop artist, and offers the album sometimes light-hearted and funny and at other times politically charged and issue based lyrics over Amon and Doubleclick’s beautifully crafted soundscapes.

Two Fingers is a surprising album. It’s not surprising in the sense that it’s a great album (I think most people expected that), it’s surprising because listeners have no idea what to expect with this collaboration.  It’s a new sound with new dub, jungle and hip hop rhythms, highly accented rhymes, and unpredictable soundscapes. Whether you’re interested in the sounds of dreamlike obscurity or mainstream rhythms this album will hit you hard.

We’ve just wrapped the music video for one of the more popular songs off the album entitled “Not Perfect”. You can see the music video below.

Just to give you an idea of how seemingly contradictory this album is, listen to the Amon Tobin Track entitled “4 Ton Mantis” (Directed by my favorite Canadian Photographer: Floria Sigismondi)

And now listen to Sway’s song entitled “silver and Gold” featuring Akon.

COLLABORATORS

Directed by: Sterling Pache
Designed by: Timothy Hung
Produced by: Damian Kuehn

Music Collaborators:

Two Fingers:
Amon Tobin
Doubleclick
Sway

At the heart of this project lays a story. It’s a story about love that we are all excited to tell using our individual talents. As auteurs, our primary focus is doing what we want to do and telling stories we want to tell. We don’t plan on changing this philosophy for our first feature film.

That being said, we know we need to develop an approach that will allow us to become sort of…. umm…populist auteurs.

If we plan on making this process sustainable, reaching an audience will be of paramount importance. We don’t want to drift into nothingness or get so burnt out and under-rewarded with this process that we never undertake another film project again. Therefore, this process involves having a strong team that is capable of both creating a film that is worth watching and then finding an audience to watch the film. This blog post will introduce you to some of our independent film strategies that will hopefully allow us to make this happen.

SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT

Igor Serdarevic is writing a script that rings true to his own experiences and ideas. We have no moral agenda with our story and we don’t want it to be full of the dogmatic undertones found in many independent films. Life is way more interesting and complex than that and we’re happy to leave the teaching of moral codes and standardizing behavior to churches and schools.

In fact, we all expect to feel uncomfortable with some of the ideas the film will explore as our characters travel through their world. If we don’t find the film at least slightly controversial and uncomfortable then why would we do it? Film should challenge the filmmakers and we should feel like we’re growing with the process. We have an opportunity to make ourselves feel uncomfortable, challenged, scared, uncertain and conflicted… we should use this as an opportunity to grow and experience a new world. So let’s experiment with shadows and bad behavior.

If you’ve watched Igor’s last two short films (Codependence and Mars to Jupiter) you’ll notice he embeds a strong sense of poetry in his writing. Those two short films called for a more poetic approach to complement the visuals and story.

However, this time he’s working within a more traditional narrative structure familiar to North American audiences. Lullaby for a Lunatic, will still be peppered with poetry, challenging and thought provoking elements but it will just fit more comfortably in the mould of western dramatic structure.

Igor is heavily influenced by some of the world’s best writers, theatre directors and filmmakers. In fact, he was forced to see a psychologist after his family, concerned that Igor had an unhealthy obsession with film,  found out he watched a 9 hour film at the cinema. His parents are, without a doubt, correct that he is unhealthily obsessed with books and film. But it’s this unhealthy obsession to storytelling that drew me towards his eccentric personality in the first place. If he was my son, I too would send him to a shrink… but he’s not my son, so his psychological hang ups are sort of an asset to me.

At a party last week, he was yelling at a few of us that the book Demian by  Hermann Hesse and the book Prophet by Kahil Gibran should be a mandatory readings in the curriculums of schools. We were all politely listening to his rant but he still felt the need to shout at us “In fact, it shouldn’t just be mandatory… it should be fucking LAW to teach our children about love”. As a side note, you should know that Igor doesn’t even have a child.

My job at this point is to act as a bridge between Damian and Igor ensuring that Igor isn’t falling prey to some of the criticisms of his heroes. Igor could easily fall into the trap, like Tarkovsky, Pasolini or Bergman of being criticized for being overly academic, dry and yes I hate to say it but…. boring. So my role at this point is to ensure that Igor feels confident marrying the pedantic concerns of Tarkovsky with Damian’s concern of creating commercial narrative cinema. It is my goal to have the film exist both in some remote library in Bosnia and in a neighborhood DVD store in Manhattan.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Speaking of commercial, narrative cinema it’s important that we enter into this process with an understanding of the current state of film production today. Generally speaking, in order to make something marketable to an international audience you generally need 2 things:

1. Big named actors
2. High production standards / Strong sense of design

This is why co-productions are currently seen as the only way to secure the budgets necessary to compete internationally. While there is nothing we can do about not having big named actors, or our small budget or the fact that we won’t be partnering with Switzerland anytime soon to get this film shot, there is something we can do about high levels of production design. We have a powerful weapon. His name is Timothy Hung (applause).

Designing our film is a huge concern of mine. I’ve been so fortunate to meet Tim, who will be one of the film’s designers. In a lot of ways Tim will be the films architect and philosopher. He will be responsible for each of the pixels you see on the screen. He will build the stage and help convince you that our world is real. As an audience member, when you look at the film and you “feel” something, that will largely be due to Tim’s ability to communicate mood and emotion.

Tim has a shockingly strong set of floor skills (i.e. he understands decoration, propping, makeup, hair, color, design, wardrobe etc) and he also knows how all of these pieces of the puzzle fit together. We’re taking a little bit from films, art, Hollywood, photographs, sexual experiences and conversations with our mothers (to name only a few sources of design inspiration) and we’re using it as a base to come up with an aesthetic approach to our film. We’re still in very early stages and much of what we decide will depend on a polished draft of our script, but we’ve started this process early for the sole purpose of allowing Tim to inspire us with his ideas.

There is a lot resting on Tim’s shoulders. He will also be working closely with me to help ensure we find the most design friendly locations for the film. Once we have our locations we’ll discuss props, wallpaper, lighting, lensing, storyboards, texture, color palettes, makeup, wardrobe etc.

Tim is the backbone of an ambitious project like this. He’s a genius eccentric with a lot of style and class all his own.

DIRECTORIAL CONCEPTS

I’ll be directing the feature film. It is my responsibility to maintain a consistent tone throughout the story. I need to look at our film in terms of its “moments” and I need to consider an assortment of things when I make decisions about each of these moments.

I need to ensure design complements the script, casting complements the story, locations are design friendly and that atmosphere and spectacle are all well thought out. I also need to make color choices, find locations, cast actors, dress actors, chase light, create light, experiment with subtext, work on blocking, find the emotional gut of a scene and think about how all of this fits together in some sort of cohesive manner.

Our story is off to a potent start and I’ve given Igor a smorgasbord of visual ideas that may or may not fit within the confines of the story in the hopes that it will allow me an opportunity for some directorial flourishes.

Our intention for our first feature is to work on a film that has it all: Story, character, style and attitude. We’re not only shooting for substance, but also a sense of style very rarely seen in independent film.

More than ever before I have confidence in my technical abilities. I have countless notebooks filled with technical and creative ideas for our film. This isn’t to say that I don’t have a lot to learn, I do. Or that I have made all of the necessary technical mistakes, I haven’t. But I have a growing pool of experience and inspiration that I will draw from.

I know this film will be shaped not only from my own experiences but also by some of my favorite filmmakers. Namely: Mathieu Kassovitz, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Andrei Tarkovsky, Pasolini, Wong Kar Wai, Park Chan Wook, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Gaspar Noe, Werner Herzog, Roman Polanski to name only the filmmakers who’s names I know how to spell. These filmmakers are so articulate and exhaustive in the research of their films, that watching their films or reading their essays helps me better understand my own blind spots.

I also draw inspiration from books, music, photographs, paintings etc… I hope to respect these different influences but maintain the uniqueness of my own ideas. In the end my goal is to create a film more powerful than the sum of its parts. I want to find a way to incorporate this film into my existing body of work because I feel, for better or worse, like I am developing a style that is all my own. So far, the films I’ve worked on have been personal pieces that have allowed me to work out parts of my own identity.

It’s difficult at times to think about your story ideas not finding a home. Movies designed for mall audiences seem to be the only way to make your film projects sustainable. I know in large part audiences are responsible for the conservatism of film today and it’s this mall audience that allows and supports filmmakers to create a product that popcorn sales can piggyback off of. But filmmakers are also to blame because although they complain about having to tell fart jokes in their films to sell tickets… they do it… they don’t search for an audience they would be more interested in communicating with and they lazily rely on existing, conservative and safe models for distribution, which inevitably shapes their story ideas.

I hope that with this film we can introduce North American audiences to a style of filmmaking they are unfamiliar with but excited about while at the same time staying away from the styling standards so familiar to independent cinema: Poor control over lighting, poor camera placement, lack of story structure, two dimensional characters, lack of arc, cliché scenes, “on the nose” dialogue, miscast characters who are more the filmmaker’s best friends then they are actors and so on. Even just making a mistake with 1 of these seemingly technical elements will wipe your project into oblivion.  My obligation as the director, besides interpreting script and working with actors, is to make sure that doesn’t happen (With Damian’s help of course).

INDEPENDENT FILM DISTRIBUTION

You see, I also fall prey to the independent filmmaker cliché:  (use index finger to push my glasses up, then gently cup my chin with by thumb and index finger, and in a monotone English accent say) “my perception of the world differs from the Hollywood paradigm”.

But it’s this snobbish attitude towards Hollywood that ensures most independent films don’t have two legs to stand on. The truth of the matter is that Hollywood (most of the time: See Uma Thurman’s Motherhood: $131 opening weekend. haha) understands the mathematics and algorithms of creation and distribution and we as independent filmmakers have a lot that we can learn and borrow from them.

It then boils down to the process of picking and choosing which parts of the Hollywood system we find most attractive. While we, as independent filmmakers, almost unanimously agree that we feel confident forfeiting the car chases and Vin Diesel as our lead, we should learn something about the systemization of their production process, their care for professional crewing, their attention to detail, their aesthetic, their marketing template etc.

The point is… that it’s not all bad. It’s not all cleavage, shallow character archetypes and backlot studios with underdog protagonists named Tyson. There are lessons embedded in this institutional approach to filmmaking that independent filmmakers can learn from.

Fortunately for us, we have one such open minded, creative, professional thinker on our team: Enter Damian Kuehn (applause).

In order for us to achieve our goals we need to have an ambitious, professional producer with occasional kamikaze flare ups at the head of our ship. Damian Kuehn, has experience  working both within the institutional film world of the NFB (National Film Board), but also jumps off that ship to run wild in the realm of independent cinema now and again. The result is an individual with the professional standards of a studio executive but the bravery and naivety of a 16 year old who just got their first video camera and refuses to believe it’s all doom and gloom for us independent filmmakers. It’s a pretty rare combination and I can’t believe we’re lucky enough to have him as our captain.

Damian will be hero of this project if it takes off. While we’ll all feel like we’re fighting an uphill battle trying to accomplish such a daunting task with incredibly limited resources, Damian’s role is the role that quite simply may be impossible. While Tim, Igor and I will be able to create this film, It essentially falls on Damian’s lap to find an audience for the film. This is the area where virtually all independent films fail. They have such a weak production backbone that they have no idea what to do once the film is completed.

As the producer of Lullaby for a Lunatic Damian needs to constantly reinvent his job description, sometimes on the spot. Not only does he need to manage and shape his team and story (to ensure we create something he can find an audience for), but he also needs to think of new ways to tell stories, package the film and find an audience for the film. He also needs to ensure we don’t simply exist within our own little independent film bubble. His job is to implement self imposed checks and balances to ensure quality and high probability of financial success and therefore sustainability as independent filmmakers. This idea of sustainability is something that is very important to us. We can’t simply make this film and not have the steam or resources to make others in the future.

Therefore, our going-in position for this project is that we don’t want a distributor. Our plan will be a festival release as our theatrical release and then gorilla DIY distribution strategy. Damian and myself will spend an extra 12 months on the project, starting now, to find our own audience and develop our own marketing strategy.

Our reason for choosing this path is simple. Independent filmmakers are consistently on the loosing end of the stick when it comes to working with distributors. There are countless examples, but let’s look at the film “Ballast”.

Lance Hammer’s film was a Sundance sensation. The film won a prize at the prestigious Park City festival for both Best Director and Cinematography, but Lance pulled out of a deal with IFC Films in order to maintain the rights to his film since the offer, which was a normal offer (most offers currently range from $25,000 – $50,000), could barely cover the expenses for the film. Not only that, but the terms of the contract seemed “crazy” according to Lance who was referencing the part of the contract which would have him give away internet rights for 20 years. In an interview with indieWIRE Lace states:

“IFC is a really good company…The problem is the larger issue that’s plaguing every filmmaker right now: The distributors don’t really offer any money. That’s not that big of a deal if they would allow you to have control of your project, but they don’t.” Lance continues by saying: “Now that the film is done, I have to think responsibly because I want to have sustainability as a filmmaker. If Sundance is considered the acme of American festivals, and ‘Ballast’ was one of the films that was rated highly there, then it would be a total tragedy if I couldn’t make another film like it again.

It’s disheartening to know that independent filmmakers are having difficulties even just recouping the cost to make their films. Companies like IFC or mini-majors like Sony Classics, Fox Searchlight or Focus Features, are offering filmmakers back their cost (or less) for their advance in exchange for giving over virtually all creative control.

Not only that, but based on their purchases, your film could also be shelved, leaving your film to drown in obscurity. The little, if any, money you get in exchange for your film is simply not worth giving up DVD, TV and international release rights. Our goal, therefore, is to maintain ownership of our own film.

Our problem will then be “we’ll then how do we secure public awareness, ticket sales and DVD sales”?

In our opinion straight to DVD is better than oblivion and a DVD release doesn’t have anything to do with the caliber of film or the film’s prestige at all. The fact that films like Ballast had virtually no theatrical release yet films such as Hot Tub Time Machine is in virtually every theatre in town speaks to the falsehood of this perception that a theatre release has anything to do with good story telling. If it’s time to put our egos away and forego a traditional theatrical release, then we’re perfectly fine with that. We can use the festival circuit as a type of pseudo festival release and we’ll progress with VOD, DVD sales and art-house screenings from there.

We are not being reckless or defiant in our approach. Damian and I have been to countless production seminars where everyone is talking about the same thing. Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) is searching for a new independent distribution strategy because the current strategy stopped working a short while ago.  Damian and I have an extensive document in the making which outlines our strategy in great detail.

This is why we’re starting our marketing efforts so early. We have started the process of audience building now (6 months before we even plan on shooting our film). You can sign up for a newsletter (see the sidebar above) to keep posted on the film’s progress, you can subscribe to our Youtube page, vimeo page or our brand new twitter page. We’re going to be open to sharing our experiences along the way. We’re not going to simply provide ambiguous, stock information about our production process. We want other filmmakers, who might be interested in doing the same thing, to learn from both our mistakes and victories. We’ll let you know how much money we spend, how much money we make and about the obstacles we encounter along the way.

But truth be told, we need your help starting now so come bookmark this blog or sign up for our newsletter, follow us on YouTube or feel free to contact us by commenting on our blog posts to just say “hi” or ask questions or let us know about your experiences with your own productions. We want to go through this process with you.

THE LAST WORD

Essentially what I’ve been trying to say for the last 6 pages can be boiled down to one sentence: What we lack in finances or resources we’ll make up for with sheer determination, willpower, talent and creativity.

To traditionalists we may not seem grounded enough in conventional filmmaking practices. We might even seem like bandits in the way we’re going about working outside conventional filmmaking boundaries. They may even be upset that I used the “f word” in this blog post. But for us, it’s about trying new approaches and inspiring each other to push ourselves and make each other better. In film, you’re nothing without your team. In the past when we set the bar high, even if it leads to disagreements or arguments, people respect our level of determination and ambition. Without a supportive strong team we’d be like a symphony conductor without the first violin.

This idea probably sounds barbaric to those engrained in the traditional film path… but here’s to hoping.

Our team and ideas are our most valuable assets. I can put this two ways. First, anyone who has read at least one book on film will be familiar with the stock quote “film is a collaborative art form”. However, I feel more attached to the Wu-Tang Lyrics“I got with a sick tight clique and went all out”. (1:12)

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Photograph by : Julia Kozlov

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Due to the nature of their relationship; a dependency is created which is shown by physical attachments, interconnectedness and weight sharing.

The film then explores two different scenarios. Once the codependency is created, both characters become vulnerable yet strong and work together to create something beautiful. The direction changes however when the stronger character abuses their power. The result is destruction, violence and self abuse.

We’ve also used this short as an opportunity to introduce audiences to parts of dancers that they don’t normally get an opportunity to see in a live performance. By moving the camera close to the dancers the the audience can see the dancer as human rather than a disconnected visual object. We’ve done this by showing the small details such as blinking, pulses, breathing, reaction and smaller body parts such as the spinal chord, neck, collar bone, ribs and wrists.

Starring: Caitlin Griffin, Danielle Gardner & Monique Constant

Enjoy.

It’s been just over a year since we shot the video for “T-Dot State of Mind” and we are excited to be working with West on the video for his new single “Coming Home.”  A song which focuses on the joy, love and happiness derived from the words “Coming home” both for the person who says it, and those who await them at home.

While last year’s shoot had us running around in negative a lot degrees, with enough snow on the ground to build a politically correct snowperson, this year we had the luxury of shooting at Studio 207.  Yes the four walls and roof was a treat, we’ve never felt so spoiled by heat.  While part of the shoot did have us outside on the rooftop, it didn’t keep Sterling from wearing his camo shorts outside.  Bold move.  Also working with the talented makeup skills of Amanda Wynne was a treat.  A smile on her face, and a willingness to help, even if it fell out of her spectrum of makeup and fell into the spectrum of helping around set.  She rocks!!!

What really drew us to this song was the importance of family, home and the love that can be produced by it.  As a result, it was very important for us to focus on the true family unit of mother, father and child, and the purity of love.  To emphasize this, we worked primarily in a black and white colour pallet, allowing for focus on the message and symbolism of purity around love… and darkness resulting for poor life decisions.

Was it fun on set???  The love and laughter was bountiful… smiles, good music and good fun, most of which is thanks to our young talent.  While historically we are used to our star working with us on scheduling, what we quickly discovered with our youngest star was when it was time for a running party… then it was time for a laughing giggling running party.  It did make it interesting to predict the direction of the shoot, but we managed to secure all the shots we were looking for.
Funniest part of the shoot?  Trying to get 12 feet of Dolly track onto the subway during a subway breakdown.

All in all, we are really excited about the newest addition to the T-West collection, and are excited to share it with you.  Keep your eyes peeled for it’s release in March! And for now, see below to see some of the screen captures from the shoot.

Until next time…

Koray Salih and Sterling Pache
Romantic Child Studios

Conviction from Cinemanifesto on Vimeo.

Here is the trailer for the short film “Inside Out”

Inside Out – Trailer from Cinemanifesto on Vimeo.

Another short film called “Bridge”

Bridge from Cinemanifesto on Vimeo.

This was shot in 2 hours by Nihat Karakum, we spend more time setting up the camera and dolly than filming… I wanted to experiment and learn how to use the PANASONIC AJ-HDX900 DVCPRO HD CAMCORDER…

Reel scientist from Nihat Karakum on Vimeo.

Toby Benson (MySpace), a London native, but now residing in Brooklyn, New York grew up under the influence of his father’s (a well known jazz musician) record collection and musical tastes. After discovering his father’s vinyl collection of jazz legends like Bix Biderbeck, Milles Davis, and Bill Evans, it wasn’t long until Toby found himself gravitating to the rich, melodic sounds of the trumpet. Growing up, Toby carried his horn with him everywhere.

Toby is trained in classical composition, attending schools in the UK, India and the United States which have helped him develop his craft. While Toby was in the United States he started developing his love for electronica music.

We’ve recently completed the music video for “Analog Glitch”. The video was inspired by the sounds in the song. The song is composed of two main sound sources. One sound is chaotic, modern and electronic while the other sound shares the musical qualities of a classical orchestra or choir. The lone female’s voice, backed up by stringed instruments and glitches of digital distortion make this off beat song one of our current favourites.

We found images to represent each sound. The chaotic, electronic sounds were paired with images of a dusty circuit board. Cutting in and out of focus through the use of digital effects.

We coupled the angelic sound of the women’s voice with the center of an orchid flower. The flower, not only has the shape of a singing angel with wings, but also embodies some of the shapes of a person such as a mouth, the back of a singing throat and a head. The perfect object to compliment the beautiful sounds within this song.

The video was also an experiment in lighting, editing, compositing, color and space. All of the strobing effects you’ll notice on the top layer of the video are done through a dirty mirror while creating the light pulsing effect with a bright flashlight. This is just one of the many subtle tricks you’ll find in this music video. Enjoy.

Sterling

You can watch the high quality version of the video on Vimeo here

To here more of Toby’s music visit his MySpace Page

We did have 1 scare however, when 1 of the actors who was out on the fire escape (acting as a drug addict) shouted into Damian and I “uh guys…. there’s a cop cocking his shotgun below me”. The good news is they didn’t mistake our actor as a burglur and start firing at him.

The behind the scenes production stills below were taken by Jennifer Uchinami of flash Fry Photography

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