Pinch me, is this really my life?!

So… I just finished shooting my first feature film and I really don’t know where to start to explain how it feels.

When I was 14, I remember asking my parents for a family meeting during which I did my own version of a “coming out” which sounded a bit like: “Mom, dad, I decided what I want to do with my life. I want to be a filmmaker.” They were shocked at first, but I was fortunate enough that they were (and have been ever since - my mom just took care of the catering for the entire length of the film shoot while my dad was driving people around and picking up gear and equipment when needed. I truly have the best parents in the world.) extremely supportive of me. Fast forward two years later when I made my first short film (I was 16) and shortly after had my first film festival experience. Then film school began and with it came the dream of one day making a feature film.

I nursed that dream for many, many years, constantly coming up with ideas for projects that would never happen. For the past 6 years, I kept thinking, “next year will be the year I make my first feature”, but somehow, like most New Year resolutions, things didn’t pan out. Then, something magical happened.

I’m still having a bit of trouble rationalizing the series of events that lead me to where I am today. Some of it has to do with me finally embracing the cinematic genre I always loved (as opposed to trying to conform to whatever was popular). Some of it has to do with being at the right place at the right time, mostly thanks to my thesis project (the BloodyBreasts webseries). Some of it has to do with finally understanding how the indie biz works. And a lot of it has to do with meeting the right people who supported, encouraged and inspired me. Then, the final push came from watching two little gems of independent cinema, Ludlow (directed by Stacie Ponder) and Dead Hooker in a Trunk (directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska) which gave me the ultimate kick in the butt in the form of “if they did this successfully with no budget, so can I!”

And so the adventure began. In 2010, to be precise. Making my first feature became my #1 life goal. In 2011, I wrote the script. In 2012, I started a crowd funding campaign, gathered the cast and crew, and began pre-production. The wheels were in motion and there was no turning back. Sure, it took me longer than expected to get the film made, but in retrospect, I’m glad it did as it allowed me to gather the PERFECT cast and crew for the project; a lot of whom I didn’t know (or had just met) back in 2010.

And now, here I am. I just completed principal photography in 14 days (which felt like only 4 days went by). This is a dream that has been in the making for more than 12 years, so part of me feared or expected something to go wrong (after all, this is a project with a minimal budget…), but it didn’t. Apart from a delayed flight and a few artistic disagreements, everything went smoothly from day 1. You know what? This was the best experience of my life. It felt like coming home. It gave me a sense of purpose and was the culmination of all the efforts I had put in my shorts.

I’m on my way to achieving the biggest dream of my life and let me tell you, this feels fucking amazing (and a bit intoxicating).

I truly cannot wait to unleash Dys- upon you all! Now, moving on to the editing stage… Bring it on, 2013 and a sincere THANK YOU from the bottom of my twisted little heart to those who have stuck by me for all these years and have been there for me when I needed it most. You know who you are. I couldn’t have done it without you. <3>

Poster art for DYS-!

I'm proud to give you a little peek at the amazing poster art for Dys-, my first feature film!
I say a "little peek" as the credits, top billing, etc hasn't been added yet.

What do you think?

The artwork is by the sickeningly talented Irene Langholm. Check out her other stuff and drop her a line if you like what she's doing/hire her! :D

2012: Year in Review (part 4)

...better late than never, right?! I wanted to really take the time to wrap things up properly, but as most of you know, I'll begin shooting my feature in 5 days, so you can imagine I have a lot of other things on my mind!  Still, here we go for the last trimester of the year...

October: Ok wait. October was actually the quietest month of the year! (I know, I know, I said the same thing for August…) It was rather… uneventful aside from the fact that my day job contract got renewed for a year (yay!). I continued promoting my films, scored a few more festival plays for Red, worked on the collaborative script and locked down my crew for Dys-. Oh and it was Halloween – aka my favorite day of the year – so, as usual, I got all dressed up to party and do the time warp, again!

November/December: I'm lumping these two months together as this is the time of the year when the Dys- pre-production really took over my life. Still, I somehow managed to find the time to hop on the train to Toronto for the first ever Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival during which Red was screened. I met a bunch of awesome fellow Canucks, gathered a few reviews of my short and got to hang out with Andrea my non-sister brain twin. It might have seen like a bad idea to run away from everything when I still had so many things to do for the film, but this little weekend getaway turned out to be just what I needed to recharge my batteries! 

 After that, well, there was my birthday, then the holidays - which comes with the mandatory family dinners/late-night gift giving/running around being stressed and not getting enough sleep. As if that wasn't enough, a few unfortunate circumstances forced me to do a lot of introspective thinking while I was trying to wrap up pre-production. But those who know me know that it takes more than that to throw me down and, like a phoenix, I picked myself up, grew as a person and channeled everything back into what I do best. 

Even though the year has been very good for me professionally, 2012 has also been a total bitch for certain things on a more personal level. However, I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and I see all this as a preparation; as a test for what's to come. And it helped me learn more about myself. A LOT. And now, here we are in 2013 as I'm about to embark on the biggest adventure of my life so far. You know what? Bring it on, I'm more than ready for it!

I wish you all the best for this new year - I have a good feeling about this one! ;) May your craziest dreams come true and I'll see you on the other side of Dys-!

Here's to 2013! 

Love,

2012: Year in Review (part 3)

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! 

 

2012: Year in Review (part 2)

...and heeeeeere we go for part 2! This one is shorter, but I guarantee you that part 3 will be EPIC!

April: During a snowed-in weekend in a cabin in the middle of the woods with my high school best friends, I came up with the idea of what became the DYS- promo teaser for the crowd funding campaign. I immediately wrote, shot, and edited the scene and officially launched/announced DYS-! The wheels were turning and there was no turning back at that point; I finally went from saying “I’ll be making my first feature film” to “I am making my first feature film”. Let me tell you boys and grrrls, it’s one of the best feelings in the world! 

  

May: I was reunited with my old lover, Academia, for a short but passionate weekend during which I drove to Niagara Falls (Ontario) to present an overview of my thesis project Horror Grrrls: Resistance and Agency Within the Interpretive Communities of Women Horror Filmmakers as part of the Popular Culture Association of Canada conference. Again, I was reminded how much of a nerd I proudly am and started shopping around for programs where I could do my PhD as well as pitching my thesis to various university presses for publication. Then, I launched the crowd funding campaign for DYS- and rushed back home for the local auditions! It took two weekends of auditions and the whole film was casted! I had taken one more step toward making the film happen and could barely contain my excitement!

June: After finishing the massive rewrite needed for DYS-, I shot a short gory segment (kinda like B-roll footage) that will be used in the film. I was starting to have serious withdrawal as the last time I had shot anything (beside the DYS- promo) was in October 2011 when I made T is for Toothpick. Thankfully this worked as a temporary fix that would tide me over until the beginning of DYS- for which pre-production also began in June. This is when the project started feeling like it was finally happening! I also had my convocation ceremony and received my diploma! YAY, I’m a Master now! ;) 

2012: Year in Review (part 1)

As I get ready to lock myself down for the production of my first feature film – oh my god, pinch me! I still can’t believe I’m making one of my biggest dreams come true! – I feel the need to take a moment to look back at the past twelve months. Sure, 2012 has been an intense roller-coaster ride (like most years are) and has had its share of bad stuff, but overall the positive outweighs the band and it’s been one of my most important, self-affirming year so far. I feel extremely lucky and thankful for the series of events that have brought me to the point where I am now and for the amazing people I can now call friends that I want to share everything with you. Are you ready? Here we go…  

  

 January: Fresh from having defended my master’s thesis, I was getting ready for my post-grad school life. It was a strange time as this was the first time in my life I did not have a definite plan nor knew where I was going or what I was going to do. All I knew with complete certainty was that 2012 would be the year I would be making my first feature. To do so, I would need money, so the search for a job began. January was quite beneficial as I finally got around doing a lot of things that had been lingering on my ‘to-do’ list for way too long, including FINALLY launching the Quirk Films website! I also started working for the Viscera Organization as the director of operations for the Mistresses of Horror Alliance (MOHA), its brand-new service!

February: I landed my first full-time day job at one of the places where I’d always dreamed of working. Needless to say, I was ecstatic, but oh boy that was quite a radical change of schedule! I ended up spending most of the month adapting to this new reality and trying to promote myself and my work, especially my shorts Red (which played twice in Europe) and T is for Toothpick which was being programmed as part of various Women in Horror Month events.

 

March: I kicked in the month by teaching a class on William Castle (which I created from scratch after reading his biography and watching his horror filmography over the span of three weeks!) at the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies; it confirmed that yes, teaching is something I really fucking love and want to do more of! Oh Academia, I already miss you! I also finished the first draft of DYS-, my upcoming feature film, and was featured as part of Dread Central’sIndie Horror Month. I also contributed to a cookbook featuring recipes by women horror filmmakers which came out around that time. Yes, it gave me the idea to make my own cookbook, which I’ll start working on… eventually.