TORONTO SOUNDS autumn wrapup n holiday plans

Winters are cold in Toronto. We know it's coming every year, but we like to pretend this time might be different. But time always wins.
The original plan was we'd be done by now (my DP reminds me). The Ontario Arts Council funding was budgeted to take us into September, when we originally planned to wrap shooting.
That the funding took us into the cusp of December is more a testament to my cheapness than to my money management skills. We got an extra season out of it though...and, oh yeah, we are not done.


AUTUMN...
has always been my favorite season. first kiss; my birthday; butternut squash soup...and I'm grateful to my crew who allowed me to capture it proper.
100302010 NUIT BLANCHE
Low on story but high on greater themes and apple cider. This night is my case in point for the unique interplay between technology; urban life; and artistic expression that form the crux of my film.
10102010 www.onedayonearth.org 
Although technically not a toronto sounds shoot. I was invited to take part in a global participatory media project involving all 192 countries of the world to document the events of a single day. It happened to be the day all the leaves decided to change colors in Toronto...and we were @ high park to see it happen. Taking part in this project allowed me to see what was really possible in storytelling - with the advent of technologies that bring artists closer together than ever before. Interesting possibilities loom on the horizon...
11262010 HushLamb with BRUNO PRONSATO
After Alicia Hush and Sarah Lamb came to the toronto sounds fundraiser in august (which was a bit of a flop), they reached out to tell me they believed in what I was trying to do, and that they wanted to help. The praise of an honest critic is worth more than gold to an artist. But the hushlamb family went one step further: they opened their doors to us last Friday night at thrush holmes empire - a unique art gallery/studio space on Queen Street West: allowing the toronto sounds crew to focus on making a movie while they did what they do best: throw amazing parties. 
The result was 3 cameras @ an event featuring Cee Cee Cox, Alicia, Talal & Zoi, Zaid, and Berlin's Bruno Pronsato which gave this city a glimpse of how electronic music can simultaneously straddle both the underground and high art. Here's a "little projection" I created for the event. A mashup (ahh - the 'm' word!) of Bruno's technified, minimalist music video for 'Lady Cab Driver' with Chris Marker's minimalistic story of time, love and memory: La Jetee


Preeminent Toronto documentarian Allan King once said: 80% of the story is captured in the last 20% of the shoot. With 2/3 of the project in the can...I'm simultaneously heartened, and terrified, by this statement.
For those who really want to know...My main work over the holidays is to write write write; edit edit edit; and sell sell sell. the 'shoot-shoot-shoot' is going into hibernation until the holiday fog has lifted (except for that little multi-location; multi-national; multi-camera synchronized shoot I'm working on for new years ;)


Its been a year. People in the scene grow tired of seeing me raise a camera to their faces everytime they wanna get a dance on...these holidays, maybe we can raise a glass instead. :)


happy snowflakes!
v

tomorrow's shoot rescheduled...(aka DID I SAY 1ST HALF DONE??)

the blog is becoming more and more one of those things that i get to only when other things get postponed or cancelled, giving me free time...
so, mom, dad, my 2 friends and the 1 random guy from melbourne...heres my production update

AUTUMN:

grant season: television broadcasters and film distributors like art council logos because it gives them credibility but they hate art council logos cuz they figure noone will really watch it...they'll just say they did and debate about the topic covered by the film they never saw...

its all a little complicated for me...so im just gonna dig in where i got my first glimpse of light - from the arts community. There apparently is a grant season. At least in Toronto, and that season is fall.

i dont think im a poor writer, but im a reluctant writer...but when motivated by film funding i turn into Dickens.

scotiabank nuit blanche (the translated double entendre was not lost on the bankers in the towers to be sure)...was an amzing shoot and a blessing to the city. 

We had at one point 6 cameras pointed in every which direction. I was the guy in the middle freaking out about how im gonna edit all the footage after. But if Art is worth creating; its worth celebrating; if its worth celebrating; its worth capturing in time. There is definitely something to be said about editors becoming the new 'creative voice' of cinema (bit that off DJ SPOOKY's remix lectures)

we're looking foward this season to using the camera to capture the shock when a drip of cold rain finds our necks; and the taste of hot apple cider at 11am...and other autumnal stuff.

REEL ASIAN intl film festival PITCH COMPETITION: we applied, and we'll find out on oct 12 whether we'll be pitching live at the november festival...exciting! we'll keep you posted.

ONE DAY ON EARTH: 101010 (binary = 42, ?) global project. thousands of participants. 192 countries, intl space station, every major charity...fun film project!!!!!

see u round xmastime! maybe b4 who is to know?

V

1st half - check...July 2010 update

hey everyone
we just wrapped up the first half of the shoot with an awesome interview with DEKO-ZE where we discussed everything from spinning records in grade 2 to the art of the decks. We all had alot of fun.

thank you Michael, my crew, my new DP: Jared Lorenz, Ken, Ann and the peeps at epique lounge (120 cumberland, 2nd floor - formerly YNot).

Since start of shoot in June 12, my crew has formed a production family who has seen this project grow before their eyes.
What was a film, has now become a feature film, a multimedia website, a CIUT 89.5 radio show / podcast, a soundtrack...
the ideas always seem good, but the key for me is to stay focused on nothing outside the final cut of the film...thats why im enjoying my time forming a basic teaser edit to show people what the film looks and feels like...
on editing/fx: fun but infuriating...working this software is like bumbling through a complex language well enough to compose poetry. but its coming together (the after effects just crashed my mac so im givin it a breather by doin this..)
meanwhile, look out for our 1ST AND 2ND OFFICIAL TORONTO SOUNDS FUNDRAISER. 1st one in august, 2nd at TIFF
- stay tuned for detailz...

thats it for now. back to the edit. i cant wait to show you.
;)
V

...Everytime i type up a DJ lineup i feel like im selling something...its weird

...but im not. This is a shoot update.

what a week. the first two shoot days went as well as can be expected. We didn't get rained on. Nothing broke. nice.

TO BOOT: we got great interviews with BENJAMIN BOLES (MUSIC EDITOR FOR NOW MAGAZINE), ALEKSANDRA AND AADIL 

...although it seems that way, no we're not going alphabetically :)...see, we also had HALI! see - H

These next two weeks is key for all the behind the scenes stuff...i cant wait for that part to be over...cuz in 10 or so days...

TORONTO SOUNDS

WILL

BE

ALL

OVER

PRIDE

TORONTO

2010!!!

check it out! 

WWW.PRIDETORONTO.COM

including: 

main stage with SYDNEY BLU FRIDAY JULY 2ND (with FOOTWORK'S BABY JOEL AND JON-JON)

SOUTH STAGE & INTERVIEW SHOOTS: ALL DAY SUNDAY!!!  (DEKO-ZE)

day 1 - SHOOT

hey,
im going into my first day pf principal shooting today, a lil nervous but not so much. i know what ive got in my head
i know its dope
i know i can run a crew
i know i can capture a shot
i know i can improvise
i know i can interview
i know we have nitin, jonny white, hali, todd synes, benjamin boles, aadil and aleksandra this weekend to shoot
i know they're confirmed
the rest...i just gotta stop writing this blog and show up.
let the film happen...
wish me luck

lookie what i found!

while working on my website i stumbled on this ol clip :)...it was the night of my first film premiere in 2007...an extended QnA session with JOHN MAY at the NATIONAL FILM BOARD

This evening gave me the encouragement to continue ursuing my art just when i thought it was not worth all the struggle.

http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/audience_comments_buzzed.html

hope u likie! v

oh m, why didn't i choose fingerpainting???

Im staring down at the sheets of paper I've laid out...the skeleton of a skeleton...just marrow...of what is to become a feature documentary.
they just lay there. They don't do anything. They don't tell any stories. And then, i stare at one long enough and an invisible thread connects it to the last one on the right.
quick switch. suddenly a web begins to form, it makes no sense, there's no way to tell it.
i can tell it if its one at a time.
I'm trying to find a way to put 23 or so people in front of the camera; and 7 or so behind the camera; over 13 or so different days; in 10 or so different places...before the funding run out.
If this wasnt hard enough...tthey have to form a story of a place and its musicians.
well, for now:
PRIDE IS A GO, WE'RE WORKING OUT PLANS WITH SYDNEY BLU AND DEKOZE (yay!)
we're still workin on you know who...and a couple of surprise you know who's (hint: we're goin right out to windsor...)
and the interviews are hurriedly being compiled.
one or two more ingredients and we'll have ourselves a pretty interesting brew.
stay tuned. v

shoot diaries - dear m

hey m,
im missin u tnight.
long weekend. right in the middle of it, plans for the rest of it were scuttled (original plans to goto muskoka started showed 0% chance of rain and 75% of raining sausages)...but i gotta say, there is someting really interestng about playing electronic music in the middle of  boreal forest / cotage country that i find is uniquesly Toronto, if not Canadian. and this place must be filmed to be believed.
anyway - tonight i shot at 2 clubs at the same time.....
sadly, without the power to be at 2 places at once, i just pretended i had the power...which left me ragged and sweaty
met Tim Patrick.CZ regular and cool cat. (someone who knows him wanna tell him i'll get him those shots i got whenever he needs)
got good ol boys KEVIN CHEUNG, ADAM NICS and friends as they held up the top floor at MOD CLUB (video shortly)
everyone needed a piece of me (or my camera)...had a friend from winnipeg i met in thailand came by this wked and i just had one hour with him because i had to be pulled away from club to club...
its what i asked for.
But when the lights go out and everyones looking for cabs, or the next party, i pack my gear in the care and miss you for a while.

anecdote of the day:
local movin-shakin Producer KOEN MUSICA there jabs at me in the loud room, "DUDE, ONE OF THESE DAYS IM GONNA TAX THAT CAMERA YOU'RE HUGGING AROUND YOU"
"DUDE I LOSE THIS CAMERA MY FILM IS OVER...NUTHINS INSURED. STEALING MY CAMERA IS LIKE STEALING THE FUTURE OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC!"

whining and bellyaching

i will reiterate a promise i made to myself that i cant manage to keep this time around...
the next film i direct. i will NOT produce.
the next time I produce, I will NOT direct.

its out there now - it has to come true

hotdocs - I AM DANGEROUS WITH LOOOVE

we had a choice.
adrian grenier (ala entourage)'s new doc about a teenage papparazzo (i was curious); or a film about a man who beat heroin addiction magically with a root derived from the bwiti tribes in Gabon, Africa.
it wasnt a choice for me, really.
very different type pf documentary than what i would make i guess. bt it does a great job at what it does. the camera searc into the lives of broken and healing people, through the eyes of his main subject - a cross between a doctor and a drug dealer. The story worked, we overcome obstacles and reach a resolution. i was a bit dismayed that it took him 3 years to make the thing.
i wanted to ask filmmaker MICHEL NEGROPONTE: "i hope you had other gigs during that time cuz thats a long fuckin shoot!" but instead i asked him: "uh when you took the african root, was what you saw like the animations on the screen? duh? (or sum like that ;)
i find myself back in school-like. a documentary is a very different beast than the fictional narratives i am used to taming.
But both beasts feed off the same food: story and meaningful images.
if we start from there, the rest are just production matters, i suppose...

i gots to schmooze more

thats pretty much it. i gotta schmooze more if im gonna get more support for the film from the film community. No question the music community seems on board ina  big way. But without festivals, without distributors, without bradcasters. This will just be a well-produced fanfilm the DJs can show their grandkids about how they used to big time.
not my intention.
those guys, i hear, like to frequent parties. much like music people, but at different prties it seems.
ive been making films since i grauated university, thats 8+years, and i've booked artists and directed artists and taken artists to the next level in my work as a manager...the truth is i cant remember the most talented person standing in front of me who does not make a positive imprssion right away...and what better place to make yourself a better impression than to go where there is copious alcohol etc.?
this weekend there are closing parties for hotdocs, and yes. i will be there. wallflowering. i hope they like weed. im bringin some :)

RE: WE DON'T CARE ABOUT MUSIC ANYWAY

I was starving, i was itchin to go home after a looong day at traffic court, pickin up cameras, etc etc. it was 11:35pm. then i remembered there was a set of midnite screenings playing at this year's hot docs festval for $5.
i could make kd at home. and am i glad i did (watch the movie, not the kd)

the film by two french expats in Japan about Tokyo's avant garde noise music movement treated its characters with intimacy and allowed their film style to be a visual counterpoint to the dissonance-driven, speaker smoking improvized sets driving the film. The thrust of the film is that many will continue to not get the music, but they will get the artists. The meanings f the music is inherently dissonant as a reaction against the commercialized noise of the tokyo soundscape.
For me, the best thing the film did was affirm for me in living color that some of the approaches i'm planning in my own film can and will work (using the image / sound relationship to make the relationship between electrni music and the digitized nature of our daily lives). But it also gives me pause that these filmmakers managed to weave a very good 75 r so minite film out much fewer locations and artists. Toronto Sounds plans to work with many more artists in many more places...and the question of budgets arise...anyway, food for thought, i got in touch with the director last night and hope to have a dialogue with him about these questions.

The music of a city is not the music about a city...it is a reaction to the realities of that city, for good r ill.

im gonna transcribe a bunch f notes i took in the dark, cuz right after i do this, im chucking that ol program:

• event / studio shoot in a garbage dump? still sick sounds...with smart miking any space will add to it. every shoot requires 1 track music, straight from the line...1 premixed track (several mikes if nec), or several time-cued tracks w separare mikes (well-documented)
  
• gaspar said he just kept clean and controlled miking and had a sound designer pull it all together, thats what i thought would be best as well
• use BW for discussion sequences. it works cuz the space was probably shite (said it was behind a club super hot)
• the film found artists who has profound insights on the nature of music, of their society, of their place in it and their goals as artists...articulately. without this, my film runs the risk of being seen as a bunch of inarticulate party ppl...which this film dows not want to tread. FINDING THESE SUBJECTS WILL BE CRUCIAL
• what is a FUCKIN CONTACT MIC? its sick! buddy had a contact mic ad stethoscope taped to his heart...mixed into a board and a software that translated his midi signal into electrical pulses that turn on a bunch of lightbulbs...every heartbeat the lights flash. very very cool.
• the film lacks humor, but so does corporate imperialism and urban decay...so understandable
• any city has a million faces and symbols. they focused on the urban decay and homogenizing asets of the city (and any city, but tokyo++). for toronto maybe the approach is that it has many faces, shown indepednently through each essay
• I GOTTA SHOOT THE TIME LAPSE SEQUENCE AT 6-8AM. they had a subway sequence that was righton. this is the face of the city electronic music ppl see