Here and Doing Fine

Before I talk about Toronto, I have to say two thank yous:

Thank you to everyone who came to my send-off - great fun and everyone seemed to have a good time. Thanks especially to the filmmakers who loaned their films for the occasion!

And a huge thank you to Carrie and Chris for helping me get all my stuff out of my apartment - it felt like touch-and-go there in the final hours leading to departure, but thanks to you two, I was able to get on the plane...

And I did make it to Toronto! My first weekend was spent settling in, a process that isn't quite yet done as I have another set of boxes arriving today, and a few more items (like a cell phone!) to buy this weekend.

But have plenty of homework already to do this weekend too! The programme has been fantastic already. The first couple of days we had an overview of story structure, then went right into mapping out our characters for the mini-series we're going to write, and the beginnings of a story idea. The other participants are all creative and enthusiastic (and considerate and encouraging), and we each bring special knowledge and experience, and unique ideas and perspective to the table - a great group mind to work with as we hash out possibile directions.

And every day we have to watch TV of course... We compared the premiere of West Wing to the premiere of Studio 60. Everyone else seemed to like the new show, but I had major Issues with Jordan, the newly-appointed female president of the network. I admit I've been spoiled by the excellently powerful women characters on Battlestar Galactica. Given that she had several other posts under her belt, and was making strong decisions, Jordan was too smiley and saccharine and staring off into the middle distance for my taste. I will watch another episode to see if she gets teeth, and to see how Sorkin breaks things out now that we've gotten character introductions out of the way...

Music Video

When my sister and I were young(er), we watched Friday Night Videos, and then would talk about how we would make a music video for our favourite songs.

I'm finally getting my chance! I'm putting together the video for "Hurricane" by Sons of York, who loaned themselves to us for the band scenes in Rave Review. We got some very authentic rock-star video footage of them without my actor, and now I'm mixing in scenes from the film. It's a great way for me to dip into the footage without having to worry yet about synching sound, choosing best take, etcetera.

Exceedingly fun, though a bit tricky at first because we shot it all MOS. Memo to self for next time: slate and sound would be helpful to know where the heck in the song we are! There's probably a note in the sound log but that's buried in a pile of papers I need to get through. I admit my apartment is a disaster area as I pack up for Toronto...

I only got the footage back on Monday, as some of it went missing (a circumstance I did my best to put out of my mind until it was resolved). Andrew (my Director of Photography) and I downloaded it on Monday and started playing with it that night. No sound at that point, but Andrew doesn't care about sound! The amazing thing was I was able to transfer the whole capture to my new 30G iPod (which is fortunately not yet filled with songs) rather than dragging around a giant external hard drive!

The video will definitely be done in time to show Tuesday night as a teaser for RR.

I'd forgotten the rush editing gives me. Was thinking about taking a nap yesterday afternoon, but decided to do some quick cuts and the next thing I knew it was 3 hours later and time to go to the Symphony!

Great opening night at the WSO - kudos to soloist Chee-Yun, who had me fearing for her throat with her high sticking on Tchaikovsky's violin concerto; new conductor Alexander Mickelthwate and new exec director Dale Lonis. Only critique: no snackies at the reception?

Two Chances to See The Coffee Maker

The Coffee Maker has been selected to play at the 13th annual Salon des Refuses in Toronto on September 6. This is a brilliant event organized by LIFT (Toronto Indy Filmmakers group), where they present a selection of Canadian shorts that weren't selected by TIFF. I'm in good company with other films from Wpg Film Group members.

Wish I could see the other films (and attend TIFF, including the CFC's Barbeque dangit), but I won't be in Toronto yet, as I need to wrap stuff up here, including hosting an Evening of Winnipeg Short Films. This is a farewell to Winnipeg (for now) event; a tribute to my fellow filmmakers who took me in and taught me so much (I worked in some fashion on each of the films showing); and a chance to show a few of my own films, including The Coffee Maker. If you can't make the event, virtual tickets and DVDs are also available! My friend Jason has dubbed this a fauxial - faux Winnipeg social. I will provide pickles, but no cold cuts!

I need to post pics from the final day of shooting of Rave Review and will do so this weekend - after my last day at my Day Job! I have a 15 day weekend, then it's time to report to my first day at the CFC! They've warned me to be ready to work 7 days a week, so will try to catch up on sleep before I go, in between catching up on 24 and Galactica...