Short Film Cast and Crew Announcements

I am pleased to announce that filming on my short begins on April the 16th, to be wrapped on the 18th.

The short film stars Angelo Verucci, and will be photographed by Kes Tagney; Kes recently completed his first short film: Living the Dream.

Amanda Smith will be in charge of wardrobe, though to what capacity we're not sure, we'll have to see  what her school schedule allows. Laurence Bourgoin handling the makeup. Carl Blanchet will serve as lighting tech, with the soundtrack to be recorded by François Murphy. 

This short film also allows me to reunite with actor Simon Traversy, you may remember that he was cast as one of the lead roles in last year's doomed short film On Christmas Day. Simon, along with two yet to be cast actors will be stepping in for supporting roles.

That being said, the two last roles are still up for grabs, so if you're in the Montreal area during the shooting days, drop me a line and we'll talk...

Fear and Loathing... And Pirates

The fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise comes out in May. And while I don't consider myself a huge Johnny Depp fan, I have to say that I have enjoyed the previous films.

Yes, even the ones that most people didn't like. There was just something about them, it probably doesn't hurt that I have a strange fascination with tall ships and with the ocean. That being said, I also have a debilitating loathing for pirates, so I'm not sure how those can go hand-in-hand. Perhaps that's something I should talk to my analyst about, yes?

Now, the only reason I bring this up is because of something I read once, it was a bit about the writers of the past films, Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, and though I couldn't find the original article I read, this one here will have to suffice. Now, basically, it's an irrelevent article, blah, blah, blah, the part that I want to draw to your attention is the bit about:

"Rossio was responsible for work on the first four Pirates films, including the upcoming On Stranger Tides, but worked with a writing partner, Ted Elliot, who will not be joining him for the fifth outing."

But... why?

And more important is... will these effect his career?
I'd say so.

I mean, here you have these two writers, basically at the height of their career, a career spanning over 2 decades, and one just decides to up and walk away? Sounds a little crazy to me.

Now I don't know all the details, maybe it was family or something, who knows, I sure don't. But my point is is that they've been partners for so long, and successful, so when Rossio writes the 5th Pirates movie, and, it's a success and it will be, despite how much the critics or the audience pan it the 5th Pirates movie will still be a financial success. Are producers then, after seeing what Rossio was able to acomplish one his own, be still willing to pay a little extra to get Elliott back? Or are they going to see Rossio as the driving force and Elliott as an unecessary cog in the wheel?

I'm not that familiar with Writer's Guild rules, at least not concerning who gets paid what, but, I'm assuming that two writers would cost more that one alone, right? That's just simple math; though, I could be wrong.  

I'm not saying that's it for Ted Elliott, I'm not saying he's washed up, I'm just saying... is this really such a wise move?

A Second Attempt

Things are quickly falling together on my future short film: a date has been set, a cast and crew has been assembled, and my cinematographer, Kes Tagney, and I are just polishing up the storyboards.

I've remained reasonably mum regarding this endeavour, mainly because I've been fairly busy, and also because I don't want to jinx the whole project by announcing everything and anything as it comes in, and then being forced to recant the whole darned thing after when it all falls apart.

From what I can understand one problem with these little films is that because they're usually just joint ventures between like-minded individuals there are rarely any contracts or official documents between people, which can cause some stress or cause for concern, and can leave you without a star or a cameraman when you suddenly need one. (This being my first project, I can only assume this might be a problem.)

Fortunately for me, there have been few hiccups in this little journey, and I'm feeling extremely confident things will come together well.

Last year when I was planning on filming my short film, On Christmas Day, it was a small production, two actors and myself on camera, this time around however, mainly through Kes' guidance, we've assembled a fair-sized crew, and it's been interesting lining everything up, and a good learning experience.

Except for a few bit acting parts and locations, we're all set, and the filming dates are set for the middle of April.

I'll let you know how things turn out.

Rewrites, rewrites, rewrites...

I've been spending the last few weeks pulling together a cast and crew for my short film, and spending a lot of rewriting it, just trying to get it right.

You know, rewrites are never easy, one person will offer one form of advice and the second will offer something completely different, and the more you write it, the more you begin to see that you just can't please both camps.

What's worse is that you begin to find that you've strayed so far from your original theme that the story is almost unrecognizable. That's tough, but a risk all the same. There comes a point where you just have to sit back and stay your hand, stop writing, and finish the story your way.

Even if no one else gets it, even if no one else quite feels the same way as you do, ultimately it's still your story, and you have to do it justice. You can't please both camps, but you can please yourself. You have to do right by you.

My personal thoughts on filmmaker Terry Gilliam* aside, he makes the occasional good film.

And I stumbled upon this interview with him, and it spoke to me a little.



It doesn't necessarily apply to my situation at hand, but that whole thing where he's comparing his movies with Spielberg, I don't know, my long winded attempt at coming full circle I suppose.

              
             *I like 12 Monkeys, I like Fear and Loathing, I liked Brazil, his other films? Not so much.

According to the Internet Movie Database, screenwriter and pseudo-filmmaker Kevin Williamson is quoted as saying:

"I'm not a real writer; I'm a screenwriter."

Now I don't like claiming to be a writer, sometimes I say I am because quite frankly that's the only description that explains what I do. (I can't exactly call myself a astronaut, now can I?) But I don't think I'm a real writer either, all I can say is that I hope, after the end of the day, after all is said and done, I'm at least more real a writer than Kevin Williamson.

The Pessimist Dies Alone

Published today in Weirdyear is The Pessimist Dies Alone...

I'd tell you to enjoy, but that might seem a little sadistic of me.

Upcoming Story: The Pessimist Dies Alone

On the 8th of March, I invite my readers to swing back over to Weirdyear to check out my latest bit of flash fiction entitled The Pessimist Dies Alone. It's a depressing little tale, but, I suppose most of my stories are, aren't they?

I've never been known for writing anything cheerful really, perhaps I should work on that. Maybe I'll write a children's book one of these days, something involving rabbits or the like and sunny meadows.

A mixture of Beatrix Potter and Richard Adams...

Though I haven't spoken about this in the past, I feel like today is a good time to bring it up. I've remained mum on the topic of traffic on my site because, well, quite frankly the numbers are nothing to boast about, usually it's a hundred hits a month, sometimes less, sometimes more. And more often than not I'm sure it's some poor fool wondering in delirious and lost out of his mind.

That being said, I'm happy to report that today marks a bit of a milestone because I recently hit the 1000 visitor mark. That's exciting, though, a more detailed analysis would reveal that out of these 1000 visitors few of them actually are individual readers, and an even fewer percent dropped by because of my writings.

I know that in the month of February I received almost 400 hits but that was only because of Amanda and the Telio contest, it seems she has a bit of fanbase, more than me in any case.

Anyway, I just thought that it was all worth mentioning, keeping you updated on how things are going.

Oh What Violence

I have a confession…

I don’t like neighbours. Just the idea of them seems strange to me, I’m not sure why. Maybe somehow I just don’t think that people -strangers- should live in close proximity. I don’t trust them, don’t want to know them, and I usually don’t like their taste in music. (Or their bass that vibrates through the floorboards keeping me awake at night and annoyed during the day.)

I think somewhere deep inside I believe that living in cities is somehow unnatural, but that might be something I should talk to my analyst about, that is, if I went.

My short story, Oh What Violence, is essentially a story about neighbours, but it’s also about so much more. It’s about feeling alone, overwhelmed, desperate. In a big, big city.

I wrote this story when I was living in Edmonton a few years back, inspired, in part, by real events and my own overactive imagination… and my neighbours… I live in Montreal now, a city of close to three million people, I don’t know about the rest of you, but that’s a whole lot of neighbours… and a whole lot of crazy.

Oh What Violence is published in Death Head Grin #21.

JP the Nihilist

Years ago, I worked at a Southside liquor store in Edmonton, there I met a young man from Quebec, he, in a way, was the inspiration for this story, and though the real young man was not a nihilist, like in the story, he did not believe in love.

I worked with him for a number of months and then he moved back home, back to Châteauguay, and that was all I ever heard of him. A year and some months later, I too found myself moving East, and as luck would have it, I too moved to Quebec, to Montreal. (It's a small world after all, isn't it?)

I don't know what became of him, I've never bothered to look for him, never bothered much to bother really.

I wrote this story shortly after meeting him, sometime in 2007 my guess would be, and though the entire story is fiction, the character of JP, at least a part of him anyway, isn't.

JP the Nihilist appears in this month's The Cynic Online Magazine, Volume 13 Issue 3. I hope you enjoy it.