D'fwago Productions

Eric and I realized we are not going to be shooting Snuffed in 2012 as we had hoped…so we decided, what the hell, let’s submit this little raunchy nasty script to a couple of feature film screenplay contests.

So far, the news hasn’t been horrible…in fact, considering the subject matter…we seem to be doing ok.

2012 Rising Star Screenplay Competition

There’s still 3 or 4 more screenplay contests to go so hopefully we find someone who really just loves this thing to bits like we do.

Let’s see where things stand.

IT CAME FROM PLANET EARTH:
We (416film.com) have our pitch in at Bravo Fact to try and offset the costs of potentially shooting It Came From Planet Earth. Come on everybody, fingers crossed that we hear some good news. I think our pitch is solid but one never knows if it is what the fine folks at Bravo Fact! are looking for. We’ll find out March 16 and if it is positive news you can bet I will update the blog with a self congratulatory post. If it’s thumbs down you can bet I will be drunk in the corner commiting seppuku.

SNUFFED
Our feature film Snuffed made it through a second round in a script contest and while we received an honourable mention we didn’t take any prizes. I blame everyone around me but myself. But it’s not about the prizes right? It’s about getting the script read…right? RIGHT?

Anyway, I think Eric and I are coming to the realization if we want to see the film as written we will have to raise at least $100,000 ourselves and shoot the film. So if you’re reading this and want to make a donation…just drop me a line! It’s worth it I tells ya…I gotta good feeling about this script.

BTW, we will also take 100 donors of $1000 each. We are not picky.

MOOSEJAW McKENZIE
Our short, Moosejaw McKenzie, may have to wait yet another year for shooting…we want an epic wintery opening sequence and I am not sure if you are local or not, but there hasn’t been a winter yet…and as the post title indicates, it’s bloody February!

ZOMBIE SURFING
And finally, once more, Eric and I will be reconvening on Sunday Feb. 19 to record final narration for Zombie Surfing, shot way back in Fall of 2009. It’s got some funny moments but in no way, shape or form is it three years worth of laughs.

Still, while it appears that we are sitting on our laurels, I will have you know our laurels are up and about and as busy as laurels can be.

A Life Worth Killing For? Well, that’s on hiatus for now. We were finally doing a film where we were going to have a budget, pay the actors and the stumbling block is locations to shoot. Seriously, wtf? Locations! Sigh.

ICFPE – or It Came From Planet Earth – Well the film has long been sitting there. We did a few tests and never progressed beyond that due to money/crew restrictions. We are going to try going for a grant for the film due in part to some of the success we have seen over the last few years with our shorts.

Moosejaw McKenzie – I hope when the snow comes we can get the few shots we need to move forward with this film over the next year. A pretty weird little movie parody script that’s been like the others, sitting waiting for us to get off our asses.

Zombie Surfing – Watched the rough assembly with a friend the other day and need to put some finishing touches on narration and then, ta-dah, a finished short…sort of. Shot 2009, finished 2011 for a silly 5 minute short seems…unnecessary.

and finally something for Project 10-x10 – A Toronto film club project where I will be directing one of the ten shorts expected to be compiled as a major piece. Knock on wood.

We finished our latest 416film contest recently, this time a 100 hour from writing to submission.

The task was to incorporate a lollipop as a prop, it needs to feature a button being pressed and the theme was broken. Those last two I think we nailed solidly enough, but we droppped the ball on lollipop including it only one shot and even then it being of no consequences to the plow it probably didn’t help us any.

The filme ended up being loaded up with 1 minute and 30 seconds to spare. It would have been earlier but at the first attempt to render the film, Eric decided it was time to take a break from the computer, and like a sitcom character, pulled the plug from the wall with his foot.
Seriously.

So there was a little panic but we were back on track in no time.

With a 100 hours to do this in we went a little overboard on the effects which makes Erics existence much more painful than mine. I was busy with sound and trying to make an interesting title that took way too long for what it is.

It’s done but we want to re-record some audio and make a few minor tweaks to the final version that we didn’t get a chance to implement.

Another step down the road into making a film that’s been in our stack for over ten years now, A Life Worth Killing For.

As always there were a few no shows, but all in all the day was pretty busy. We started at 8:30 am and managed over 30 auditions for the 2 lead roles and principal role in our film. There were a lot of really good people and we will be narrowing our list down over the next couple of days and letting everyone know by Thursday, May 19. I hope in time we will be able to bring a few of the others we are not casting into our big production expected in 2012.

And finally, on Wednesday May 18 we have our latest 24 hour short film Get A Life screening at the Bloor theatre at 9:30pm as a participant in the worldwide film race.

Come out and cheer us on if you can!

And special thanks to Heather Farmer for lending us her pic from our auditions.

This is exciting news on several levels…we are finally taking pre-production steps on A Life Worth Killing For. This is a script I wrote back in the late 90s. Eric Myles and I began reshaping it over and over and there it sat for more than a decade. I did have a round table read to see if it had some legs to it and the response was really good. That was back in 2002/2003…I forget which but the good response is now at least 7 years old.

Still as we began hitting the 24 hour film contests I wanted to start pushing for something bigger, something planned, something scripted…if only to show we are not just one trick ponies. Of course, maybe we are but I like to be proven wrong, over and over…

Anyway, this is our biggest budget flick since Harmonivore back in 1993.  And when I saw biggest budget I really mean, small, independant film budget…but still as we work our way towards doing a feature film, this is our intermediate step.

We started a casting call for A Life Worth Killing on Sunday and have seen a very solid 150+ resumes coming in. We will be going through every single resume to pare down the numbers for our auditions that will be happening on May 14. There are three main roles we are casting…

Here’s the breakdowns:

John: Male, Late 20s – Late 30s. A cold blooded, self assured killer without remorse. However, when A job goes wrong John becomes a shell of the machine he once was and is filled with self doubt and finds himself unable to kill when needed. Must be physically fit.

Jill: Female. Late 20s – Late 30s. Like John, Jill is a cold blooded, self assured killer without remorse. When John has a crisis in confidence it is Jill he turns to as a trainer, a mentor to bring him back to the fold of the killing elite. As a sinfully sexy and brutal business competitor she relishes the task of making Johns life insufferable.

Dr. Barbara: Late 30s – Early 60s. Dr. Barbara has been treating John for years, believing all his stories to be just that, flights of fancy from an ordinary man. When the truth is uncovered he/she is not prepared to deal with John.

Synopsis:  John is the perfect assassin; professional, emotionally detached and happy in his work. That is until his trigger, his reason for being, is destroyed by his own hand and he suffers a crisis in confidence. John must turn to his nemesis and business competitor Jill for guidance if he is to return to the avocation he loves so much.

Neil Bennett (foreground) and Pat Williamson (bkg)

That headline isn’t an insult…well, yes it is, but I don’t mean it, it’s just the ever-so-clever title of our latest 24 hour short film. This one was for the worldwide film racing contest.

Sadly we couldn’t rangle our whole team from Book Club but we did manage to pull in Neil Bennett, Pat Williamson, Pamela Tophen, Eric Myles and myself for a pretty solid team. Despite missing at least one of our regular crew we managed to muddle our way through yet another 24 hour brutal test of sleep deprivation. The main lesson learned from this one? Two 24 hour film contests within one month is a) too much and b) makes one punchier than they expected.

Going through my notes I have this breakdown on Get A Life:

Stage 1: 10 pm. Receive our assignment. Theme: Identity Theft. Prop: Noodles. Action: Pouring a Drink. Brainstorm begins.

Stage 2: 12:30 am – script written, loving the idea.

Stage 3: somewhere around 4:30 am. Realizing despite having a one page script, it’s written incorrectly and probably should have been in point form and expanded to at least three pages.

Stage 4: 5:30 am. We are going to be heavy on footage for something that is only supposed to be 3 minutes and 30 seconds long, not including credits. Already cutting in our heads we decide not to shoot a gag that isn’t necessary and helps get Pat and Neil wrapped ASAP…

Stage 5: Pat and Neil are wrapped. Eric is digitizing footage, not loving the idea as much as I did at writing stage. Going through the typical shooting depression where everything is awesome and next minute, everything is horrible.

Stage 6: Working on picking out music and SFX  while Eric edits. The first rough cut is 4 minutes and 10 seconds. Exactly 40 seconds too long and it seems to move at too much of a breakneck pace. Eric begins cutting back.

Stage 7: Eric lops off 33 seconds off without damaging flow…still moving at a fast clip…how to lose another 7 seconds without seeming like just a series of shots.

Stage 8: Eric has a cut running at 3 minutes 26 seconds…oddly it seems slower than the 4 minute + version, but the film now seems like it is working. I begin working on credits which can run for 30 seconds but we hate long credits so the briefer the better…run back to one of our locations to grab a shot with the Nikon D7000 to try and utilize it in the credit crawl.

Stage 9: We are ahead of our usual schedule for a 24 hour film contest but Eric and I are both punchier than usual…laughing at things that are not funny. In fact, this is easily our least funny film…but it’s shaping up to be something different.  Different can be good…right?

Stage 10: We complete the film and begin uploading 2 hours prior to the end of the contest.

We can’t post or link to the film as of yet but there will be a screening on May 18th at the Bloor in Toronto…so come on out and see it if you can. I think it is one of more interesting and tonally different films…and it is something Eric and I have always, especially me, wanted to do…make a completely silent film (dialogue wise) and I think we mostly pulled it off!

It was a little reunion of sorts.

There was Paul French and Aimee Normore who starred in Keychain of Events. Also, Neil Bennett and Pat Williamson who starred in Psycho Susie. Newcomer Robin Cunnigham helped fill out our team of 8. That includes Pamela Tophen and Eric Myles and myself.

We completed the Toronto 24 hour film challenge and it was the smoothest one we have done.

The film screened at the new Toronto Bell Lightbox centre and while we didn’t win anything I have to say it was very cool to finally visit the building for the first time and see a film that I was involved with up on the big screen.

So without further ado, go on, check out our latest short Book Club!

Gearing up at 416film.com for our latest production…Moosejaw McKenzie.

The script is done, Eric and I went and scouted our opening scene location and did the ol’ Dollarama prop trip. A quickstop over at the equally trusted Canadian Tire and we have the basics for next weekend. It should be a few good shoot dates, we have some returning case members.

Next Saturday is a rehearsal with Neil from Psycho Susie and then on the Sunday we are shooting the big action-packed, comedy-filled, hyperbole-ridden scene. Paul French from Keychain of Events and ‘Egypt Me will also be there.

As always, excitement abounds.

Quick postnote: Zombie Surfing, after more than a year, has seen some solid progress. Final narration and music is the only thing standing in the way now.

Well, what were you expecting from there?

Been awhile since I posted anything up here, and that stems from a few things. Actually busy working on a large-ish project but still I should find a little more time to come out here and update, n’est pas?

First…Zombie Surfing is still unfinished a year later (boo!).

Second, Psycho Susie played at the 2010 Barrie Film Festival and was received very well…still went home empty handed but remember, it’s the laughs that matter.

Third, this past weekend went out to Guelph on Friday night (Oct. 15) to contribute to Paul French’s efforts for the Halloween contest at Eds Video. Sadly I didn’t have the full time to help work on the entire production entitled Dino-Man From Uranus. I haven’t seen the final cut but Paul did record a cameo/Rod Serlingish narration with me and I did provide two title cards which you can see off to the left there, but not sure if they made the finished film.

The screening is tomorrow night, and I am betting I won’t be able to make it out to that but hope all goes well and it is received uber-cheerfully.

Good luck Paul!