Upcoming podcast with Casey Ryan!

I'm delighted to be invited as a guest for a 4th time on Casey Ryan's podcast The Cutting Room Floor! October is "Massacre Month" which, you probably guessed, means he is focusing on indie horror.

What will I be talking about? Only one way to find out! Tune in on Friday at 10pm (EST) HERE for a live stream of the show! There will also be a live chat, so feel free to send me questions on there, I'll try to answer them on the air. :)

And, for those who missed them, here's the mini Casey Ryan archive:

Audio Recording: 'EP.81 - Maude Michaud 2' From 'Cutting Room Floor'
  
Audio Recording: 'EP. 135 - Maude Michaud Vol. III' From 'Cutting Room Floor'

Alas, #1 is nowhere to be found :(

See you all on Friday!

HOLLYWOOD SKIN in Tokyo!

Yes, yes, you read right! (and yes, I'm still pinching myself!) Hollywood Skin will be playing in Tokyo, Japan as part of the ScreamQueen Film Fest!

The film is part of Program B - scheduled for Sunday October 27th at the Uplink Factory - and the program also includes two of my favorite shorts of recent years, Karen Lam's The Meeting and Doug Mallette's Beautiful As You Are. Needless to say, I wish I could go!!!

I am beyond thrilled and honoured to be included in such a rad festival in the country with the cinematic history that had the biggest influence on me and my work. Many thanks to the Viscera Film Festival Tour Department who helped make this possible and to the amazing Mai Nakanishi who organized the event!

Check out the film if you can and give this kickass event some love!

Here's the Facebook page and the FB event. :)

P.S.: Yes, I'm totally fangirl-geeking out about seeing the film description in Japanese.

RED at Mascara & Popcorn

I'm glad to announce that, after screening two of my shorts in 2011, including the lesser known Complex Model, and helping me fundraise Dys- with a retrospective of my shorts in 2012, I'll be back at the Mascara and Popcorn festival in my hometown with Red which will be in the official short competition!

The film screens tomorrow night, starting at 6:30 PM at Théâtre Ste-Catherine:
264 Sainte-Catherine Street East, Montreal. I'm beyond honored to be playing alongside dear friends and fellow filmmakers Andrew Shearer, Lori Bowen, Jovanka Vuckovic, Mae Catt and Izzy Lee among others! :)

Check out this awesome festival trailer and try to spot Red!

Here's an interview with yours truly from the press conference! :)

Dys- Day #4: A teaser and a horror icon

First off, I apologize for again going on hiatus for the Dys- Day posts. The last month has kept me fairly busy with a trip to L.A., the Viscera Film Festival and the Fantasia film festival.

BUT, busy is good as it also means I got a lot more work done on Dys-, which in turn means that I'm one step closer to being done!

One of the main thing I worked on, which I've kept under wrap pretty much until shooting day, was the shooting of two extra scenes for the film starring horror cult icon Lynn Lowry! Yes, working with her made me as ecstatic as you can imagine! :D

Our amazing L.A. crew!

(photo by Lori Bowen)

Me directing Lynn

(photo by Lori Bowen)

The second big thing that kept me busy was the first Dys- promo teaser-trailer which premiered at the Viscera film festival before being release online a few days later.

Check it out HERE! :D

It has already received some positive buzz from two awesome gentlemen, Mike Snoonian (HERE) and Justin Hamelin (HERE). Thanks for the constant support, guys!

Char Hardin was also kind enough to give us a shout out and play the teaser trailer on the air (around the 01:20:00 mark), which you can listen to right HERE.

Thanks everyone for the constant support! YAY!! :D Can't wait to unleash Dys- upon you all!

(photo by Lori Bowen)

DYS- Day #3: There's always something that is a little more demanding...

For the third installment of Dys- Day, I'll be answering V-Man's question: "I know filmaking and the filmaking process is your passion but are there parts of the filmaking process that you like or dislike more than the others?" 

This is a tricky question to answer and, even if I love every aspect of filmmaking, I must admit that I do find the whole producing/financing aspect to be draining and time-consuming. And I absolutely HATE negotiating. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do love producing, but constantly having to switch “hats” between thinking like a producer (business) and like a director (creative) can become quite overwhelming.  On the flip side, producing is also great because that when you’re actively planning your film and setting things in motion to get started shooting. I did produce a few of my friends’ projects and it’s always easier (and more fun!) to produce when you’re not the  filmmaker as well.

I’m someone who is crazy organized and I actually love scheduling, planning, problem-solving, etc. But, my creative side is the complete opposite: a post-apocalyptic, chaotic wasteland! On Dys-, I was super lucky to have an awesome production team that really helped relieve some of the burden and allowed me to put all my energy and focus on the creative side of things.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a control freak, but I always find it really hard to let go of this role, even if I have a love/hate relationship with it. I’ve had a few experiences in the past when someone else was supposed to take on the producer role, only to drop out or only do half of what they signed up for. In all those cases, I had to step in at the last second and fix everything which meant that this is where all my energy went instead of being focused on directing and it ended up hurting the shorts. Because of this, I’ve always been wary about relying entirely on someone else to produce. I kept repeating the following motto: “If you want something done well and done your way, do it yourself.”

However, I am hopeful and I’m ready to keep my mind open for the future.  My 100% positive experience on Dys- taught me to trust other people and it helped me grow as a filmmaker. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to completely let go of the business and logistics side of filmmaking, but I’m definitely hoping that one day I’ll find a like-minded producer to work with and who can help me push my own limits as a filmmaker. 

Don't forget! You can always ask me your question(s) or suggest a topic by commenting! :)

DYS- Day #2: Financing. Producing. Shooting. Post. Everything. (part 2)

I know, I know, the Dys- Day posts were supposed to be weekly occurrences... but I was pulling an editing marathon so it’s a good reason for the delay, no? 
 
To pick it up where I left off in the first Dys- Day post, whatever your financing situation is, it’s gonna end up having an impact on the rest of your production.  There’s an old saying that goes along the lines of: “No matter what your budget is, you never have enough money.” So it’s always good to keep this in mind from the start. The chances that you’ll get exactly the amount of money you need for your project are unlikely, so be creative and work within your limitations from the get-go!  

Producing: Given the limited budget, I ended up producing the film with the help of a great supervising producer who had previously produced/directed a 35mm feature film on a really small budget, so he was really helpful and instrumental in helping me find ways to work within the limiting budget without sacrificing quality. We were assisted by a completely dedicated production manager who somehow manage to make everything work and kept the production on track throughout shooting.

A lot of aspects worked in our favor: we had access to the main location for free; secondary locations were found through networking and were, for the most part, also given to us for free; my mom and grandma supplied home-made catering which got rave reviews from the crew who would often go for a second serving. Despite the limited budget, we were able to pay everyone a daily wage which, even if it wasn’t a lot, contributed to making their contribution feel valued. Plus, I got to work with a lot of long-time collaborators who had worked for free on a lot of my shorts, so it felt great to finally be able to pay them for a project. 

Shooting: We had two main shooting limitations: first, we only had a limited number of shooting days for budgetary reasons and shooting dates were limited by how many days off work (my day job) I managed to get and the dates during which the lead actress would be in town. Fortunately, we had unlimited access to the main location and the rest of the cast and crew was incredibly flexible and worked around our insane 14 days shooting schedule. Aside from a few miscalculations in pre-production which lead to a 20-hour shooting day with special effects (i.e.: you can really stop otherwise it will mess up continuity), balanced out by a 4-hour shooting day the following week, everything else was smooth-sailing during the production and I am forever grateful for that!


Post: The production is the long part that is often filled with joy, wonder and frustration. Since I’m about halfway through this process, I can’t say too much except that, just like the rest of the film, editing is going very well! We now have a first rough cut that clocks in at 135 minutes for an 80-page script. It’s still too long, but hey, better too much content than not enough! That cut still needs to be refined and then will come the exciting next few steps: sound editing, scoring, sound mixing and color correction!

Now, it’s hard to answer the “everything” part of the original question as I could probably write 500 pages on the whole experience! I tried to summarize and I hope I did a semi-good job of answering your question, Lori! If not (or if you want more specific details), remember that you can ask me your question(s) or suggest a topic by commenting!

And yes, I promise a regular, weekly Dys- Day post from now on. :)

DYS- teaser to premiere at the Viscera Film Festival!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read right! The Dys- teaser will premiere on July 13th during the Viscera Film Festival at the legendary (and gorgeous!) Grauman Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in L.A.!

I will be making the trip to sunny California and will be attending the festival (among other really exciting activities), so make sure you stop by to say "hi", check out the teaser and cheer the best new horror shorts by women filmmakers! It's an event not to be missed! Check out this page for all the info.

Excited to see the first images of the film, but can't make it to L.A.? Fear not as the teaser will be released online a few days after the premiere. Keep your eyes on the film's FB page for all the updates!


Saying I'm excited is an understatement! :)

If you're wondering, yes, the film will also have a trailer, which will be released later this year.