Hello and welcome to my blog. This will be the production diary for my films including comprehensive notes on the production of Minus 1 (2008) and some personal reflections on the journey towards my dream career. Enjoy!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Hello everyone,

I'm gonna make this a quick update because it's 2.40am and I'm exhausted. The shoot last week went great aside from a few bumps along the way with the settings (nothing too bad, no worries). The shoot started off at the Church, moved on to the internal scenes at the house, and the next day went off to Sterling Road in Toronto to do more of the outdoor shots that we finished the movie with. Everyone's contribution was fantastic and I'd like to personally thank everyone who was there to help out on the film.

There will be professional photos soon, courtesy of our photographer Darren Kennedy. Until then, keep your eyes peeled for more updates on how postproduction works out. We've got some B-roll footage to shoot at some point in time (when it gets cloudier, weather permitting) and then Eric Wiegand will be ready to work his magic in the edit suite.

Keep watching! See you later!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Shooting Today

Wow....has it been a hectic week of running around or what. Still, I love doing this no matter how stressful it is.

Yesterday, 1st AD Jason McLeod, Grip Kiran Singh and I went out to several production service places around Toronto, driving a giant HINO van to pick up all the lighting, location support equipment and the big prop of the fancy coffin. It was a fun ride that ended up with all three of us being extremely starving in the sun (which thankfully came out again just in time for the shoot!). We topped off the day with a nice little meal courtesy of Popeye's on Yonge. What a meal that was! :-P

At 6pm we had a small dress rehearsal for Michael and Claire at Carina's place. Art Director Sonia Hong was on call to help me determine what is needed for hte wardrobe. With that out of the way 2 hours later all that was needed was to keep a clear head and a smile on your face and you're ready to start shooting.

They tell you it's easy? Boy do they not know what goes on in one's head 12 hours before a shoot!

So here I am, it's 10.36am in Toronto by my watch. We're due to meet up for our first location shoot, the Metropolitan United Church, in an hour and a half. I'm excited, nervous, and impatient. I really hope this works out both for my sake and for that of all the people who've had faith in me over the past few months to make this work.

See you on the other side :-)

Monday, May 5, 2008

Things have been picking up rather well on the Minus 1 front as we prepare to start shooting at the end of the week. As a matter of fact the time now is 13.08 on Monday afternoon and at 4pm Eric, Michael and I have a meeting with the top production team which in the past few days has evolved from just being Kar Wai Ng to art director Sonia Hong, production manager MyLy Pham, as well as 1st AD Jason McLeod.

MyLy's been fantastic at organising the shoot schedules and call sheets and her contacts with the related parties, and it's definitely made my faith in the production stronger still. Apart from contacting The Metropolitan United Church and the Regent Park Council for us, MyLy's been great at getting our priorities set with the permits from the City of Toronto so as to keep the work running smoothly.

Sonia came in a few days later by reccommendation from Michael and I liked the fact that she was in tune with the production's visual aspects from the start. Sonia is now attempting to buy more props and additions for set decoration based on our limited budget from flea markets and discount shops. I find that rather a fun concept actually since it's just a reflection of how dedicated people are to finding the few bits and bobs the production needs to secure the authenticity of its look and how bare-bones the production is. Hehehe...

We had a bit of a kerfuffle with the Regent Park Council a few days ago when they refused to let us shoot on their grounds without paying an exorbitant sum of money per day for the production (for the sake of not embarrassing both them and us, no numbers will be given here). However I believe Eric and Michael have come up with a solution that would probably satisfy everyone and keep us on the go for the time being until it is necessary to find a contingency plan and shoot elsewhere in the City, which I hope won't be necessary at all.

Apart from that everything is hunky-dory. I'm hoping that Humber College excuse me if I become a bit pre-occupied with the film over the next fortnight or so as classes commence again and I find myself trying to balance between the two facets of my life. Once everything clears up I'm hoping we can start to send out letters to film festivals worldwide in hopes of attracting enough attention to the film and possibly get our names out there as writers and directors and established filmmakers. This should be a good opportunity for all.

And now I have to take the family car out for an oil change. I'll see you all at the next update! :-)