Minus 1 Update

Things are getting rather exciting on the Minus 1 front. I have been lucky enough to collaborate with a great producer such as Michael Patrick, who has literally brought with him an army of contacts, each with their own amazing deals and additions to the Minus 1 family.

In December we confirmed Kar Wai Ng (http://www.karwaing.com) as the Director of Photography. Kar Wai comes with experience in the indie film scene here in Toronto with more than 20 films under his belt with several independent film directors and producers, including past classmates of his alma mater, Ryerson University. He was immediately able to connect to the sort of lighting and atmosphere needed for the film and is currently working on getting the right equipment for shooting for when we begin shooting.

Speaking of which, and seeing as the weather's cleared up nicely (and it's about time too! Who knew I'd immigrate to Canada just in time for its worst winter since the 1930s!), we've confirmed shooting dates in and around the Regent Park area of downtown Toronto for the weekend of May 10th to the 14th. So hopefully if the weather continues to maintain its nice and clear streak for the rest of the spring/summer, it should be nice and clear sailing until the end.

Also to maintain a smaller radius of shooting within the GTA, instead of going to the church originally intended for the shoot on Albion Road near Etobicoke, the church scenes will hopefully be filmed a few blocks away from Regent Park in the Metropolitan Church on Queen Street East. We are yet to contact the city about the use of this facility but hopefully they'll be supportive enough of the project as to allow us to film both internally and externally. Internal shots of Vicky's house, on the other hand, will be shot at my lovely girlfriend Carina's apartment another few blocks away from Regent Park, and it is now that I would like to thank her and her roommates for their support on the matter.

Recently, Michael Patrick and I have been hard at work at securing a good network of cast and crew for the film, and Michael was lucky enough to introduce the project to Eric Weigand of local postproduction company Producer's Choice. Eric has worked with Michael on several other projects and I was rather overjoyed that he felt the script had a powerful message and great aesthetic potential. Not only was he happy to be postproduction supervisor for the film's difficult post process (and believe me it's gonna be difficult, just you wait and see), but he's also very keen on editing it. This comes as a relief as logistics have not allowed us to insert into the budget enough money to send an insured drive by courier to the UK for my good friend Chris Smyth to edit. For more info on Eric, he's on iMDB! http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1496850/

In a meeting with Michael and Eric on Friday, April 4th, we looked at the work of a prospective animator for the film by the name of Ian. Currently working on a project for Disney, Ian promised us he'd come up with mock-ups for the animation we had in mind for the hidden character in the film and so we're waiting on the results. In the meantime, we have sent out a casting call to all agents and casting directors here in Toronto in hopes of finding our three principal characters. The casting will be taking place at the Producer's Choice offices on Queen West & John on Monday, April 14th.

Also, (and this is very exciting news!) we will soon be confirming an early acceptance for 'Minus 1' in both the Small Town Film Festival (http://www.stff.ca) in Chatham, Ontario for late 2008 and the Kingston Canadian Film Festival (http://www.kingcanfilmfest.com) for early 2009, with more festivals in North America to follow, and then hopefully to the rest of the world. STFF will post their confirmation some time within the next month and Kingston's is still pending, but Michael assures me that it's also a certain thing.

It fills me with a great sense of pride to know that I'm finally doing this and getting my name out there, even if it does feel sometimes that the scope of the film is sometimes a few bites more than I can chew, particularly the fact that I'm currently in the final 4 months of my postgraduate degree in PostProduction at Humber College. I feel, however, that I must do right by myself and prove to the world that I have the capability of sustaining myself as a filmmaker and director so that I'm capable of achieving my desired goal of getting my name out there as a film director.

This past Thursday (April 3rd), I got a chance to meet with famous Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan and, in the brief conversation that we had, he mentioned that I am at a vantage point at my age to be able to exploit my talents in the world of TV and Film production. Hopefully with enough exposure and PR this can be achieved, and so I'm hoping that past the two Canadian fests that we've confirmation of entry into is a wide horizon that spans the whole globe in terms of marketing and PR.

To all the readers, your support and networking capabilities will be needed and appreciated. And so I will leave you with a thank you for reading, and please do watch out for the completion of my website www.zaidadham.com in the coming weeks.

Cheers,
Zaid
(watching The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly on his TV)