Back on the Filmmaking Train

Long time since I posted on my blog I know but things have been wicked busy this past month! My roommate Marc-Anthony and I have since put together a group of like minded filmmakers/actors/etc who are tired of waiting for opportunities to fall into our laps and actually make something of quality for ourselves on our own resources.

The focus of the group centers around a web series that we have been developing (more on that to come) with many other side projects branching out from there. Yesterday we had our first warm-up shoot were we filmed a scene from a play in a downtown nightclub that we got permission to shoot in.

The shoot went amazingly well! We ended up shooting 25 pages in one 7-hour day. Those who don't know what that means: television usually shoots somewhere from 8-10 pages a day, and feature films anywhere from 1-5 pages on a 12-16 hour day! So no small feet on our part at all.
It all came down to the spectacular group of people that we have working on this shoot.

We are still in process of getting a website up and running that will have information, bios and links to all kinds of great content but I'll make sure to keep my blog updated from here on out to keep everyone informed as to the new developments.

Here's to the beginning of a great thing in making. Cheers!

Veer Towards Support for the Local Boys

My buddies from the band The Veer Union have finally got their first CD released nationwide!

I highly recommend you get yourself a copy! And easily enough, you can find it at Amazon.com
(direct link).

And if you really wanna help out, but are just short on funds at the moment, call into your local rock stations and request The Veer Union's soon-to-be hit song Seasons.



Spread the love and all the best to TVU. These boys have been on tour since forever, let's make their blood, sweat and tears worth it.

Respect!

Memoirs of the Blue: Vancouver Shoot

"Marc-Anthony Massiah prepping on set of MotB"

I may or may not have blogged about this before, but there have been some pretty big developments in the way our mini-feature, Memoirs of the Blue, which we shot the majority of last year in Antigua.

We ended up doing some rather drastic script revisions and altered the storyline quite a bit through the editing in order to work out the kinks and altogether make the movie flow a lot better dramatically have a much more powerful dramatic arc to it. In doing these storyline changes we had some interior pickup scenes that we had to shoot. So we flew a few members of the cast and crew out to Vancouver in order to get these final revisions in the can so that we can push this thing out in editing as soon as possible.

I took this last Monday and Friday off work and we shot through the weekend at our buddy, Alijan's apartment, which we set-decked to look like a hospital. We're pretty well don't all the shooting that needs to be done here in Vancouver and the only thing that remains is a few insert shots that will be done today and some voiceover recording and ADR that will be done tomorrow.

After that, we'll be hitting the post production stage like a freight train and some really exciting things are going to be happening as this project finally comes closer to completion. Stay tuned and I'll keep everyone up-to-date on how Memoirs of the Blue is coming along.

Peace!

One Script Isn't Enough

A few fun updates:

Marc-Anthony and I just started fleshing out yet another script. A vendetta-inspired action flick. We've got the story line pretty well hammered out over the weekend and what was originally planned to be an episodic web series of 3-5 minute segments morphed into a full feature story. We really like the storyline and the twists we came up with for the script and are putting pen to paper now.

In other news, we have an independent producer looking at our script Patches in Perfection -- a highschool based dramatic comedy sort of in the vein of Superbad meets Breakfast Club -- and she seems to really like the script and story so far.

On the front of our Antigua film Memoirs of the Blue, director Luke Hansen-MacDonald started meeting with our editor today to start some mentoring and editing to clean our rough cut up to a fine cut for special FX and sound to look at.

All in all it's some pretty exciting stuff and time will tell where things go from here.

Until next time, stay safe! ;)

New Camera Gear!!

I just got myself some pro gear to start shooting with!

It's used and it's a little bit out dated, but it's broadcast quality and was top-of-the-line for its day; and I got a really friggin' good deal on it, so I can't really complain about that!

Check out my new toy bellow:

Panasonic AJ-D700 DVC Pro Camera

Sexy, isn't it!?
=D

So now that I have that, I'm going to start doing some camera tests with it, seeing how everything works and looks and how to tweak it; and from there I'll be able to start preparing for some projects that I have in mind.

......

Well I'm excited if you aren't!

Anyways, that's it for now, I'll keep everyone updated with the how the camera tests and future projects are coming along. And in the mean time,
Peace!

Update on Life

It's been a long time, I know, and I feel really bad for leaving all of my avid blog readers hanging for so long, so here is a quick update on what is happening.

I'm getting a raise/"promotion" at my job at the Dueck Downtown car dealership, which means that I'm going to be able to start banking some money and not just scrape by as I have been doing for the past few months now. And on top of my pay raise and more hours, I'm going to be getting monthly bonus incentives, which will be nice, and will help me prepare for India.

"India? What did he just say? What's going on in India!?"
Well it's funny you should ask, because I've been given an opportunity to work on an action film that is set to be filmed in India, working under the 1st Assistant Director, Shawn Griffith. Basically, the project is on hold right now for various reasons, and they are in the midst of script rewrites and hiring a new director, but it sounds like I'm in as soon as things start to come together! And I'm psyched! =D I have to thank Lauro Chartrand, whom I worked with on the Chemical Evil promo that he directed, as he is working on this film, entitled "Hands of the Devil," as a Stunt Coordinator and Co-producer for lining me up with this insanely awesome opportunity though!

In order to get properly prepared for the film in India, I've decided to take some weekend workshops at Vancouver's own Cineworks (a society for local filmmakers). Luckily enough, they've got some courses coming up that are right up my alley! And I'm pretty stoked about that as well!

In other news, I've been writing a couple short films that I hope to get into production for sometime not too far away, and I've been helping my roommate, Marc, edit the script for a feature film high school movie he's been writing. So with that in mind, if the India gig doesn't start up soon than June 8th, there is this Screenwriter's Summit being held that weekend that I would LOVE to attend! This feature that Marc has written honestly has a lot (and I mean LOT) of potential, and we're pretty gung-ho about getting it producer (with me attached as director, hopefully) one way or another!

As for Memoirs of the Blue, we're slowly conquering some technical difficulties and starting to get some rough cuts rolling along, as well as collaborating with some musicians and such for the score, so all-in-all it's a pretty exciting time right now! We've also got a temp website up, and should hopefully be getting a teaser trailer on there some time in the near future, so check it frequently!

I'll try to keep more up-to-date from now on with my blog, and I hope you all the best!
Peace!

Scoring a Big One for the Team!

Big things are starting to happen with our post production for Memoirs of the Blue, especially since we recently got an offer from a man named Torsten Stenzel to give us a hand with a wide range post production sound, ranging from music scoring to foley to mixing and mastering!

Ever heard of a musician by the name of Moby? How about ATB? York? All Saints? DJ Taucher? Faithless? DJ Tatana? What about Tina Turner? Stenzel has working with all them!

With 16 years of experience in producing and composing, coupled with a lifetime of classical music training, and a culmination of over 3 million records sold worldwide, I don't think that our post production sound needs could be in much safer hands than his! Check out his website for some samples of what he has done.

* * * * *

In other news, we've finally got all the footage captured and everything organized and ready to edit. Right now we're just waiting for our counterpart, Luke to send the harddrive with all the footage to Vancouver so that editing can get under way and I can begin cutting together a mind-numbingly extraordinary teaser trailer for you all to drool over!

We're currently in the process of setting up a website for film; a launching point for us to market the movie, hype it up, and get people interested and excited for it! Things are finally starting to really fall into place in post production, so we're going to try our best to keep momentum up and let it snowball from here.

Stay tuned! Big things are sure to be happening now!

VFS Final Accept to Online Film Fest

The day has finally come! My Vancouver Film School final, a 10-minute short film entitled Prometheus, has been officially selected from more than 2000 other submissions to be a part of the Babelgum Online Film Festival, which is being hosted by none other than the influential and prolific director and filmmaker, Spike Lee!

So of course, I encourage all of you to download the Babelgum TV program here, so that you can create an account, view my short film and if it's not asking too much, vote very graciously towards the film so that I might be able to win upwards to €20,000 as well as meet Spike Lee at a gala luncheon in Cannes, France! The other bonus is that for every advertisement that accompanies my film, I get a share of the profits. So help me out and watch my film as many times as possible so I can make a dime in the process. Trust me! I promise not to forget all the people that help me work my way towards fame and fortune! (*Fingers crossed*)

********************************************************

I would like to preface, however with a few thoughts and explanations about my short film. For me, this was an attempt to "break all the rules" of cinema; an attempt to get across a concept that was possibly too complex for the short film format; but most importantly, it was an experiment to see how far I could push the envelope in questioning traditional cinema conventions and to try and employ the use of special effects and compositing to explore the problem of translating internal conflict onto the screen.

In retrospect, I would probably have gained more from doing a simpler film, but I'm all about the challenge, and now that I've experimented so vastly on this project, I'm ready to focus my talents on a more story-driven and more 'conventional' approach to film.

Thank you all for your support and please find the embedded site below.

Prometheus
**I'm not sure if this is working for anyone else, but if not you can use the following links:
-Prometheus on Babelgum
-Babelgum Online Film Festival
-Download Babelgum TV

The Coming

Boy, oh boy!
Do I have some sort of treat for you guys!!!

Chad Costen, one of my instructors from VFS has just finished shooting his first feature film! Something that he's been working on for the last 3 or so years now.

The Coming is an epic science fiction film "about man's fear of himself."
I was lucky enough to read the script when it was still in the preproduction stages of development, and I can tell you first hand that if the written word and the recently released trailer are any indication, this is going to be a solid film, through and through! independent

So without further a due, please enjoy the trailer for Chad Costen's The Coming!

OFFICIAL WEBSITE!


I'm also going to be linking it permanently on the right side of the site, so you can go back to it later.