Ok, brace yourselves;
this part is so awesome I considered breaking it down even more so that each
month would have its own post. Are you ready? Here we go…
July: Oh dear July, what would my year have been
like without you?! So many great things happened;
I’ll try to only summarize the essential. At the beginning of the month, I flew
to L.A. for the Viscera Film Festival/MOHA launch. I was finally reunited with
Shannon Lark, Heidi Honeycutt and Lori Bowen in addition to meeting the rest of
the fantabulous staff who has since become “my Viscera family”. Staying at
Shannon’s place, I got a taste of the L.A. life: waking up, swimming, working,
swimming again, working, hitting the town, etc. I also found a great friend in
Jamie Jenkins with whom I immediately bonded (we were both staying at Shannon’s)
and finally met some of the people I’d been communicating with for years,
including fellow filmmaker Dave Reda. Of course, the Viscera Film Festival was
nothing short of spectacular (YAY, red carpet!) and to say I had a blast is an understatement. Oh
and I got to talk in front of 400 people at the legendary Egyptian theatre.
Yes, I’m still pinching myself. During this event, I also (finally) met Theron
Neel, a film writer I had been wanting to send Red to for review, but never got
around to (I did send it when I got back home and he ended up writing an
in-depth piece about all of my shorts!). We became fast friends and I found a
kindred spirit in him.
And then,
sadly I had to fly back home (I hate, hate, HATE leaving a place that feels more
like home than home). Lucky for me, I got back to Montreal just in time for the
Fantasia Film Festival where I met a slew of other amazing people (Derek from
DedFest) and hung out with fellow film freaks (Matt Garrett, Heather Buckley I
miss you both!), having philosophical discussions about horror on a bar terrace
until the wee hours of the morning. Oh I also reviewed films for Planet Fury
and was promoting my short T is for Toothpick which was playing as part of the
fest. Then, Izzy who I had briefly met last year in Boston and during Fantasia,
crashed at my place for a few days during the festival. Somehow, this magically
led to a beautiful friendship that I cherish more than anything! She has since
become my kickass partner in crime and it will take way more than the distance
between Boston and Montreal to stop us! Looking back, July really was the
magical month during which significant friendships formed and during which I
got to spend most of my time with some of my favorite people in the world! And then came August.
August:
Overall it was a pretty quiet month, which is good as I really needed time to
focus and recuperate after the OMGawesomeness that was July! This included:
enjoying the end of the Fantasia film festival, wrapping up a few Fantasia
reviews for Planet Fury, beginning pre-production on Dys-, and beginning my
first ever writing collaboration! Remember Theron Neel whom I met in L.A.?
Well, we kept in touch and started writing each other frequently, mostly
because he was working on a piece about me and my films.
Then, at some point
during a phone conversation, I had a crazy idea: how about we try to write
something together? I had never co-written something before, mostly because I
never met anyone who was into the same kind of things I was into, but I figured
why not give it a try. After all, it’s the first time I meet someone with whom
I have so much in common! I pitched him a script idea I’ve wanted to develop
for a while and he loved it! And so our collaboration began… There are no words to express how
mind-blowing it is to be working with someone who seems to be anticipating your
every thought and who always finds a way to complement your ideas! When I read
the first scene he wrote (you know, that crucial “this is when I’ll find out
whether this will work or not” sample scene?) I literally cried tears of
happiness. He understood exactly what I wanted and helped bring that little
something that was missing to the story.
And really, I can’t begin to express how excited I am about the script
we’re crafting together! This truly is a collaboration made in heaven! I won’t
say anything more about the project except that this will be a dark comedy and
this is one of my pet projects I’ve been wanting to write for a while, but for
which I always felt there was a little something missing. It seems like I found
it when I found the perfect writing partner!
September: In
September, I drove down to Boston to attend the first ever Etheria FilmFestival on Viscera duty and got to hang out with Izzy (yay!), Kayley and
André, as well as with my good friend Chris and Mike from All Things Horror. I
also met up with Theron again who flew in all the way from Texas for the fest
and for what ended up being the most intense/productive writing weekend of my
life! The progress we made on the script is simply mind-blowing (this
script/film is gonna kick ass!) On my way back home, I stopped by Salem (one of
my favorite cities) with the girls (Izzy and Kayley) for a day of trekking
through cemeteries and visiting cheap tourist traps. Really, the best way to
experience Salem is with two fellow horror freaks! Unfortunately, because all
good things have an end, I had to come back home, but at least, I was rejuvenated
and more motivated than ever!
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