Orange YVR Sound Session July 25th

Come down this Thursday to the Orange YVR Sound Session. This month will have Jason Lowe and Ian Schram. 

$5 donation in support of SingItFwd, a music foundation that helps kids in the DYES get access to music education. There will be some refreshments provided by ING Direct. Help support local musicians! #Tunes4Good

Check out www.1833Radio.com for more! 

That's a wrap on Crockett

We wrapped filming Crockett on last Sunday for the summer. We have one or two days to film in the fall with a small unit, probably up in Squamish or Whistler. 

I'm currently taking a "break" to work on some of my other projects and plan a wrap party for the cast and crew of Crockett. I also need to catch up at work as well. As my August isn't quite figured out yet I'm kind of scrambling to get things finished. It's also driving me nuts, I'm one of those people who have a plan well in advance, and I know this industry doesn't really follow that. But I guess that's what makes me organized. I like to plan at least two months ahead with wiggle room. I do have options right now but I'd like to figure which path to take. 

Here is a sneak peak of Ty Olsson in Crockett: The Legend Begins. 

That's a Wrap on ATLO?

This Canada Day long weekend I spent on the set of a short film, Are The Lights On? We had a small cast and crew work on this one. Sometimes I like doing these smaller projects because it's just about the fun of the project. We had three sets in total, one of them was a small build. Each day from prep to wrap was only 8hrs. And the best part was it was friends working together :)

Check out some pictures from set.

Nicole G. Leier and Laena Brown

David T. A. Warren, our sound guy

Director Janice Chow and DOP Ian Gustafson

Shooting at the home of Vagabond Players

Are The Lights On?

Are The Lights On? is a short film I am producing with a good friend from film school. Every few years her and I decide to make a short film. I enjoy making her stories come alive because they are usually quirky and metaphoric. The last film we made together was called The Cheese Container. Janice's films always stem from an object. A cheese container that symbolized the cheesiness of a couple's relationship struggle. And Are The Lights On? stems from the brain. It's a short about what happens when you zone out at school.

Almost everything is set to go to shoot the short June 29th and 30th. Casting is locked. The crew are all on board. Now we just need to find enough background people to fill a classroom.

Voting

This morning I got a phone call asking for help in which political party I thought would be good to vote for. Of course I gave the person some information about each party and which one has a platform to help our field of work. I had never been asked before about my opinion on the matter, I had always discussed the subject with my elders.

Now sitting here in the line to vote has me thinking about when I was a kid and for a very brief period I wanted to be Prime Minister of Canada. As a kid you think that if you look up to what a job stands for that its a something you want to do when you grow up. I can remember thinking that the person who is Prime Minister has the power to stop children from starving, save endangered animals, save the ocean and many other important causes out there. But as I grew up I became more and more aware that the person with so much supposed power really couldn't do all or any of those things.

In fact it's more and more I see that job I used to look up to, really doesn't care about saving anything. Instead budgets are cut, deals are made and the welfare of our country has been put in the hands of foreign affairs. Canada is a country with vast resources yet we sell our raw materials to foreign investors who then sell it back to us at a higher rate. This makes no sense to me. Even the city I live in is ranked as one of the most expensive cities to live in yet that could change if we stopped the foreign investors from buying up high rises. Or even the industry I work in has a huge impact on the economy yet funding programs have been cut which makes less jobs for people. The list goes on.

I hope my vote today will help change something.

1833 Radio

Over the past few months I have been designing a website for an online music hub showcasing indie and underground music. The goal of the site is to provide what FM radios don't and that is non stop music without any duplicate songs or commercials. Right now we've got about 10 hours of music.

The site will feature different genres of music, top 5 songs and albums of the month. Down the road we are hoping to also do interviews with bands.

We have also teamed up with ING Cafe to put on a concert each month where 1833 Radio will find the talent and ING provides the space. All the proceeds of each concert go to #SingItFwd which helps kids at the Saint James Music Academy. Each session will be filmed and uploaded to the website as well. The next show will be Thursday May 30th.

Please check it out and give me any feedback.

When it rains it pours

Well first off I know the above is true 'cause I live in Vancouver. But I'm talking about being given the opportunity to get my creative and multitasking sides going pretty hardcore. I was approached a week ago to come onboard as a producer of two projects a period piece and a superhero short. Which of course being me who can't say no I said yes. The period piece is in full swing. In under a week I pulled together some remaining crew and applied for a summer program that I hope will let us shoot a demo in May.  I've also begun prepping for another short as well. This is a contemporary short but with one set build, which I also hope to shoot at the end of May beginning of June. Aside from that my slate kind of looks something like this:


1 TV show in production
1 Concert series in production
1 Short film in prep
1 Demo video in prep
2-3 Feature films in development
3 Short films in development
1 Web series in development


Yes I know this looks scary but that's where timing and multitasking comes in.

Earth Hour

This year for Earth Hour I ended up filming a candlelit concert in a bank!

ING Direct Vancouver sponsored the space and the drinks for the show. 1833 Radio, found the talent. And I shot the show (on battery power of course).

We had the lovely Tamara Nile play an unplugged session on her guitar and banjo. It was the first of a series of concerts ING is doing in Vancouver to give back to the local music community.

It was funny mix of people from bank staff to a couple who came to use the bank's ATM and stayed for the session as it turned out it was their first date. And then some tourists who just arrived in Vancouver joined mid way through and couldn't believe that a bank in Canada would host a music performance and provide some drinks.

I would say my Earth Hour 2013 was a hit.

Find out more about Tamara's Band on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/tamaranile

Check out other local artists on www.1833radio.com

Follow ING Direct on Twitter for more info on upcoming shows @OrangeYVR

KMIA Season 2!

Season 2 of Kiss My Incoming Abs is back!

We have a new opening sequence for you all. Also please welcome our new nutritionalist Ainslie Grieg who will be hosting our product segments with Nicole. Don't worry we are definitely keeping the sexiness and the pink.

Take a look at the episode below on Youtube or tune in nightly on Novus at 11:30pm. Season 2 is going to be epic.

Day in the life of a Lifemaxer video

So lately I've been helping a friend with some videos for his work. The first one is A Day in the Life type video showing how he incorporates telling people about Mila for Lifemax in his daily life. This is for a contest at work. He has a pretty cool job rope access so we decided to film him hanging off a bridge and taking calls about Mila. I even repelled off the bridge!

As an extra curricular activity he would do after work we choose to go snowboarding up at Cypress. I think the final video incorporates being able to work for Lifemax on the go and still do what you love. The video was shot on the new GoPro Hero 3.

Here is the video and please LIKE it. =)

To check out more about Mila or to buy some go to www.dannymcphee.com

Beckstravaganza

The other night I went to the Rio Theatre in East Van to watch 47 talented musicians play their versions of Beck's new songs. Beck decided to issue 20 songs but the catch he only released the sheet music for them so the only way you can hear them is to play them yourself or get a group of talented people together and play them for you.

The night was sold out and rightfully so. Noah from The Broken Mirrors organized the evening and did an amazing job choosing songs for every preformer. Some of my favourites from the night were Paul Pigat, Hey Ocean, Hilary Grist and The Company Jazz Band. If you love music and want to hear some locals check these guys out!

The Waldorf

One of East Vancouver's cultural hubs is closing this month. The Waldorf will be closing its doors January 20th. It's a shame. The Waldorf has only been reopened for a couple of years and in those years it has created a great place to eat, dance, party, listen to local talent, look at art and even screen local films. Vancouver has been loosing its culture year by year. Last year alone we witnessed the last movie theatre on Granville Street close and one of the best theatre houses close, while other business tried to find new ways to bring people in.

We say we want local talent showcased but with venues closing how is that possible? This is in no thanks to our current city leaders. We should be focusing our efforts on culture, not bike routes. This part of the city is zoned for mix-use commercial purposes not condos. But in the last few months the Hastings and clark area, has had more and more residential developers plopping signs down advertising future condos. For example The Brave Bull House of Steaks, a restaurant that was frequented by port workers and still had $9.99 steaks was sold to developers. 

 May Robertson had this to say “The Waldorf closing is a big loss to Vancouver’s growing creative community … [The] city is exploring ways to support the Waldorf continuing as one of Vancouver’s most unique and vibrant cultural spaces.” But where was he when The Pantages was sold. That was the last vaudeville theatres from that decade in North America. But just because it was in the DTES nobody saved it. That was heritage. I hope someone from the city will speak up and stamp a heritage declaration on this site. The Waldorf's Tiki Bar had been around since the 1940s. The 1955 renovation of the 1947 structure is probably the oldest in existence in Western Canada.

As someone who was born in this city and has lived here my whole life I have seen what could of been a thriving culture turn into high rise condos. It's getting harder and harder for me to recommend fun cultural activities to tourists who are looking for "Vancouver" gems.

Cold Specks Concert

Last Night I had the opportunity to attend the Cold Specks concert at St. James Hall. THe sound in there is incredible. Cold Specks is the stage name of Al Spx, a Canadian singer-songwriter based in London, England. Her musical style is doom soul and with an influence of deep south gospel. The power in her voice is phenomenal. I also really enjoyed the fact that the group had a wood wind element from Bass Clarinet to Baritone Sax. The CBC was also recording the concert for CBC Music. 

Check out their new album "I Predict a Graceful Explusion".

Official Website

The Deep Dark Woods

So it was my birthday November 1st and part of my present from my mom was tickets to see The Deep Dark Woods concert. While I'm not a big fan of Plants and Animals who were the main act I love The Deep Dark Woods.

Rah Rah opened the night. They are a band from Regina, Saskatchewan that play the accordion, fiddle and have songs about being from a small town. My favourite song of theirs is Art & a Wife.

The Deep DarkWoods were great. They played from their new album. Mellow songs with a great rhythm. And lead singer Ryan Boldt looked so much like a lumber jack, I loved it. If you haven't heard of these guys check out my favourite album of theirs, Winter Hours.

Aidan Knight Concert

Last night I went to the see Aidan Knight in concert at The Rio. This was an all ages show and normally I hate them but us shorties managed to get a good spot and the sound in the room was great.

The opening act was one man band, who is a cross between Charlie Winston and Ray Charles, his name is Leif Vollebekk and boy does he have chops. He played the Rio's upright piano for us, hunched over and breathing in every note which was amazing. He even tuned his guitar mid way through for a special song. He had a great awkward comical presence. http://leifvollebekk.com

Aidan Knight was awesome. A experimental-folk quintent from Victoria, British Columbia. The concert was more of a comeback from touring and a soft release of their new record Small Reveal, released just on Oct. 23. Margaret Downe is my favourite song from their new album. http://aidanknight.com

Crazy8s

This year my friend Brandon and I decided to register for Crazy8s. Crazy8s is a short film contest where you send in a video pitch your 10 minute film. It gets narrowed down to 40 projects and from those you pitch to a panel of judges, who narrow it down to 12. The 12 then get to work with story editors to help perfect your script. One more time the judges narrow down the script to a final 6 filmmakers. A few friends of ours have won in the past which gives us hope. I think we'll do well based on the info session we went to. Our story is character driven and pretty cute I just hope the theme this year that's what the judges are looking for.

Becoming Redwood

My friend Ryan and I met at Shu Raku on Granville to discuss finishing a feature doc he shot quite awhile ago. It's a coming of age story about a young man who goes on an annual canoe trip down the Fraser River. After dinner we were able to get in to the screening of Becoming Redwood at VIFF (the Vancouver International Film Festival). It's actually the first film I've seen at the festival this year (thanks Ryan) :)

Becoming Redwood it's a cute story about an 11 year-old boy in the 70s who's father has just been arrested and extradited from Vancouver back to California. Redwood moves in with his mom, hostile stepfather, two older stepbrothers and a "delusional" grandpa. Redwood's dream is to beat Jack Nicklaus' (the best golfer in the world) golf record and win the "magical green jacket"that will fix his troubles. Redwood learns a great life lesson that magic cant fix your problems but if you try you might get what you need. It's indie, there were some slow moments but it's worth it.

Festival show prep

Met with co-director Jessie today to discuss plans / strategies on our development for a one show focusing on the pride festival. Our plan is to shoot the international pride festival in 2014 which will be held in Toronto. This is going to be the biggest production I have ever tried to put together so far. Jessie is actually taking some documentary classes to help get first hand experience on how we can approach this size of a project. I'm talking a multi cam shoot of a parade shot on an independent budget. We are currently in the process of writing grant letters to help raise funds. We will be needing a lot more in the form of in kind donations and such later.

Our plan is to showcase one of the funniest and historical parties of this century. We both have been to the Vancouver Pride Festival for the past 4 years and not only are we "Allies" in the community I know I want to support everyone. We not only want to showcase the big party but also the history behind the festival. Our grant is due on October 1st and I still need to make a budget and buff up my resume.Wish us luck.

Pyros Season 2

Not long after my contract ended with Ice Pilots NWT my boss called me to see if I was still around to do some work for Pyros Season 2. It works out great I was able to see my Gran and I still get to go to Calgary to visit my best friend in September. The first night shift went well, I think mainly because I'm a night owl. It's actually an easier system than the one I was using on Ice Pilots. I just have to learn all the GFA's name on the show. Pyros airs on the Discovery channel.

Grant writing

My friend Jess and I have spent the last 2 days writing a grant for a documentary about the Vancouver Pride Community. We still have a long way to go with budgeting and writing about artistic merit towards the project. I find that every time I start writing a grant I need a dictionary to decipher what fluffy words the application asks for. With all our research done we now have to focus on writing our narrative for this documentary, which is the hardest part. How do you write something you don't think you can predict. But the truth is you can. About 75% of what's on screen in documentaries is written ahead of time. I mean we are still in pre production but we can at least break up our doc into points and begin there.

Since we are "co-directing" this doc it's been easier to bounce ideas off each other, from the visual look to the educational and historical facts. It also helps because we have different strengths which does not conflict on our priorities we can divide the tasks at hand. I'll be doing the budget and she will be focusing on the "detailed description". Then we'll meet up, give our input and finalize the rest. This grant is due in October so we don't have much time left.