Second Chance Caveman

Back in 2005, I was an Associate Creative Director with Tribal DDB. We were working on an online milk campaign for BC Dairy. Working with another ACD, Alex Beim, we came up with a great concept in support of the print campaign, "It's Always Been Survival of the Fittest". We decided to focus our online efforts on a 'real life' caveman who'd been thawed and was given a second chance to make better choices - the implied message, milk is a better choice. These were aimed at young kids and teenagers so the humour was more raw and slapstick.

I wrote and directed a series of short videos that would go with the website. Unfortunately the site's no longer live. But below you can check out a few of the videos from the series. I hope you enjoy.

Precisely Claire

Here's the next post of one of my old films, Precisely Claire. Written, shot and edited over two days, this was part of a 48 hour filmmaking contest. We didn't win. Though at a later film competition, it took First Prize.

This was the first time I'd worked with many of the actors in this film. The lead actress, Skye Matheson, I met her the night before at a cold reading. She was impressive onstage and I needed a lead for a script that hadn't been written yet. A lot of pieces just seemed to come together with this band of actors and crew.

The first evening was spent writing the script. After a brief brainstorm session, I stepped away to write it. When I presented it to everyone, people were generally pleased. With one exception. Larissa was originally cast as an aerobics instructor..the confidante of the main heroine. She hated the role. Found it obvious and simple. And she was right.

With little time, I quickly decided to switch roles. Our badass gun runner would become the aerobics instructor. Larissa, would be the gun runner. And with that little change, both actors found their groove and created vivid characters that went beyond anything I'd originally given them on paper.

As a side note to all this, while shooting the film we realized that George Lucas was across the street watching us. Yes, that George Lucas. He watched for about 5 minutes, and all the while I exaggerated my actions conveying the unspoken message, 'Look at me, George! I'm directing! Just like you!" Yes, I have my pathetic moments.

But in the end, I introduced myself to George and followed up with a phone call to Skywalker Ranch. That got me a great story and a signed letter from George Lucas. That's kinda cool, isn't it?

Georgie & the Golden Egg

I was reviewing some of my films and decided it was time to get them online. Long overdue really.

First up is a short called Georgie & the Golden Egg:



This was shot in 2003 as a quickie project. All invited filmmakers to the LA Short Film Fest were asked to make a short film for an informal contest they were running. Your film needed to be 5 minutes max and include the following:
-an egg
and
-the phrase "Life is short"

We only had about a week to write, shoot and edit but I'd already done enough 48 hour film projects that it felt like reams of time. So I put a call into a troupe of actors and filmmakers I often work with and we all met up one weekend to make this thing happen.

We shot this in Vancouver and I have to say, working with these guys was always some of the greatest fun I had making films. I now live in Montreal and I miss the excitement and energy we shared during these projects. Here's a quick rundown on the core team I usually worked with:

Louie Chirillo provided the fantastic narration to this and other films of mine...as well as the great performance.
Matt Johnson another amazing actor and writer who could always be counted on to help pull together the impossible
Dik Yazedjian was our tireless cinematographer who's worked closely with me on countless projects
Skye Matheson with her sharp instincts and great comedic timing
Jennifer Silvertand, my beautiful wife who is also an exceptional set decorator for every one of my films
And Patrick Redding, Georgie's editor. This was the first time I'd worked with Patrick on a film and I'm only sad that we haven't done another film since. Interestingly, he's the one guy from this whole team that also moved to Montreal. Patrick is in fact the reason I came to work at Ubisoft Montreal.

I'm going to post more of the films we did. Some I'll give more background and commentary. Georgie was one of those fun ones that felt a bit like a scene from a Mickey Rooney film..."We don't need a theatre! We can make it right here!" So not a lot of background info on it. Just something to enjoy.