TVO Archives has all kinds of odd goodies. I enjoyed this interview with Cronenberg that starts around the 15 minute mark.
TVO Archives has all kinds of odd goodies. I enjoyed this interview with Cronenberg that starts around the 15 minute mark.
I’m taking a short break from doing screenplay breakdowns to bring you a brief post. Back in the mid 80s, after I my volunteer days at Cable Regina, I enrolled in the University of Regina’s Film Program. One of the films I did was a strange journey involving a ‘Driver’, ‘The Wheelchair Man’ and a character by the name of ‘Lindsay’. Though there is a linear plot about a killer on the road, driving a Ford Galaxy to destinations unknown, don’t ask me what it’s about. But there’s something about the film I still love, maybe because it’s a half-baked cocktail of ideas. Perhaps it’s my-then-art-school-nihilism combined with Ronald Reagan’s vague threats of a nuclear apocalypse. Mix those notions-up with a lot of hanging out at the University pub called ‘The Lazy Owl’ and you have this weird little number called ‘Outskirts’. It’s 19 minutes long, shot on 16mm black and white. As a matter of fact, it’s the only project of mine that I ever shot on actual film stock. Ever. And that was in 1987/88.
The other thing I remember was financing it myself after a car accident. You see I was driving a 1967 Monkey-shit brown Chevy Malibu that never let me down. On a winter day, a girl slid into the back of my car. The front end of her car crumpled and mine received a mere dent. Instead of fixing the bumper and a minor injury to my 400-dollar boat, I used the insurance money to make a film. Pretty stupid, but worth it to me in the end. How else was I going to buy film?
Anyway, long story short, I shot on film, had it transferred to ¾ inch tape and edited from there- cutting edge over 20 years ago The only remaining copy is now on VHS (so forgive the shoddy screen captures). Just thought I’d post this for a few friends out there since I’ve been on a bit of a nostalgia trip of late. A short ‘trailer’ is at the end for your viewing.
Cheers,
Trev
While going over a couple of scripts that have perked-up in recent days with interest from outside parties, I came to an odd conclusion. Maybe not so odd really. It had everything to do with landscape and geography that was showing-up time and time again in my writing. Now let me preface this by pointing out, it is not just my last two screenplays, but also the stories I’m working on for my book (and the visual components that will inhabit and hopefully compliment it). What am I talking about? Well, it’s the region of my formative years. My childhood to be exact. I was born in Climax, Saskatchewan and later my parents moved to Tompkins to work (later Regina). Tompkins was the town where I made my first friendships, tried to runaway from home by catching the next train through town and where I promptly fell through the ice on a fine spring day. It’s where I made my first friendships with Calvin and Percy (Percy died years later in a car accident near the same town). On weekends, my mother would take us to my Grandmother’s farm, where we’d visit. However, the farm and my Grandmother’s husband – Bill – is where I felt free. Free to use my imagination. Free to learn to drive just about every vehicle you could think of, and free to learn what a hard days work was when I was there during the summer. I also learned an awful lot about life and death.
The farm is not far from Cabri and just north of a town called Shackleton (now a ghost town). To the west were Leader and the Sandhills. To the North you had to drive the water truck to get H2O for the cistern. I traveled that road often with Bill, tagging along for the ride mostly. It was always a fun trip with more than a few perils that resembled Wages of Fear, except without the nitro in the back. If you take a look at the quick screenshot, you’ll notice the road seems to end at Cabri. Well, there’s road there, just not much of one if you value your vehicles axils or tires. From what I understand, the natural gas companies- who are pulling everything they can from the ground to keep all of us in the cities warm - are repairing the road (along with the taxpayer) so travel is less arduous.
Anyway, back on topic. What I’m trying to convey here, is how a region can seep into your stories. When your write, be it a book, script, music – what have you – where you came from invariably finds its way into the work. Creators who are able to tap into their environment, their cultural roots, are generally those who actually turn the work itself into a kind of character. Something with a ‘voice’. The land. The people. The weather. I believe, no matter your genre, projects that have some truth about where they come from and do not stink of research from afar, resonate. To me this feels more like a truth. Good and bad, the Southwestern part of Saskatchewan has influenced the way I write and see things. Most of us - especially those of us in cultural industries in Canada – really don’t recognize the gold mine when we’re in it. We stand there with our shovel, looking about to others for an answer, and though the walls glow brightly with strains of gold, we squint our eyes against the light, reach down and pick-up someone else’s coal instead of gold.
Now, there is another environment. The one in your head. The one that’s full of your life’s experiences, your passions and all those things that get you out of bed in the morning to create. Getting in touch with my internal environment, letting the delights and the disappointments of life seep into my new work – not only personalizes it – it has been a rich source. I don’t necessarily have to tell the truth – after all as creators of fiction – we’re all lairs. It’s telling the truth as you see it. Cut open the emotional apple and find the core, not the skin. It’s not the event, its how you feel about the event. If you can get there, you can interject these feelings into the work. This way you’re writing a lie, but you’re telling a greater truth.
What I’m suggesting here is environment as teacher. The one you physically live in and the one inside your hectic little bean. While the farm and this area of the country taught me things like driving, how to fire a shotgun without blowing your shoulder off, a hard days work and the delights of the Hell Drivers – it also taught me to fill the landscape with my own stories. And that landscape has always been there no matter where I live. It will always be in my bones.
PS. These are a few photos I snapped the last time I made out to the farm for a visit, including that old water truck.
Cheers,
After listening to various CRTC Hearings today, getting caught-up with its fumbling machinations and various political hacks opinions on the matter, it was good to hear that the dunder-headed decision will be reversed. What strikes me most? The dusty division between residential and businesses. It was like Canada is somehow doing business like it's 1974. Folks work from home, small businesses, health care (and just about anything you can imagine) uses the Internet to communicate to and from various places. Konrad Von Finckenstein shows the CRTC's hand by saying it's more about heavy movie and video users. If there was ever a sure sign that he (and his ilk) are out of touch, it was that statement. They seem to think it's just about Netflix coming into Canada and proving to be a burden. A burden to only Bell, Shaw and Rogers. They're worried about the competition and the CRTC has just tipped its hand and proved that it still makes decisions in favour of big telecoms that gouge the customer. It smells of collusion. While the film and television community in Canada has had its frustrations with the CRTC, it is my hope that other Canadians (reduced to terms like consumers) now realize how frustrating and inept the agency can be.
However, I've had my fill for a few weeks. There's nothing more soul-sucking then watching suits, corporations and politicians argue in committees, no matter your inclination. Jim Henshaw says it better than me and has a wonderful entry on the matter and it's worth your time to read here. Now, onward to work.
I'm still waiting to hear if this 1st AD gig is greenlit. I joked on facebook the other day that nothing's greenlit in the film world until lunchtime on the 20th day of shooting. And as a friend pointed-out, even then the cheque has to clear. Boy do I know that. I was burned last year on a gig in Saskatchewan and have been more than once. That's a post for another time.
But I'm ending this on an up note. I wrote the first draft of this very quick blog entry using some software called Ommwriter. Give it a try. It's free and blocks-out the bullshit for however long you like. You can chose it's somewhat new-agey sounds, music and backdrop - or put on your own tunes and block out those distractions that seem to slither in the corner of your computer screen (in my case I put on the winter backdrop with some throbbing Tangerine Dream). You can use complete silence if that's your bag. The email bleeps, twitter feed, facebook alerts and all the other excuses not to write get kicked out the door. I'm enjoying it so far. I love the simplicity and clarity. It's just about you and the text you're laying down.
Cheers,
It’s a deep-freeze with a record amount of snow in the Ol ‘Peg. February has started with a cold snap and general crankiness with shoveling on my part. This can be the tough month, but it tends to be one of my busiest for some reason. For those you putting together various proposals for March 1st deadline for funding, you know what I mean. I have a project I would like to put forward, but I’m waiting to hear about a gig, and that answer will come down tomorrow (Wednesday). If it goes ahead, then my proposal will have to be put on the back burner for at least two months. I don’t mind because it’s work. And work means money. I don’t mind my can of beans cold, but they’re better warm when you can pay the electric bill.
Today I listened to the CRTC Hearings and was amused by the Internet-throttling, the Hearing’s odd buffering problems, and swore at my slipshod knowledge of French (since for no reason at all the French channel would bleed in to the English channel). As most of you know, there is a stink over the CRTC’s incredibly stupid decision to allow extra billing for Internet usage. A petition was signed with over 200, 000 signatures and now everyone on Parliament Hill was roused from its winter coma to agree with pissed-off Canadians (as much as Canucks do get pissed-off, which usually entails a stern letter to the editor, followed by an afternoon nap).
Anyway, updating my CV offset the general crankiness and the onset of becoming another Winnipeg winter somnambulist. It was a reminder that I actually work. Try it some time. It can be a real ego-boost. The CV was updated to reflect my professional life on LinkedIn, so that it would feed to http://flavors.me/trevorbcunningham#_">my new site. More importantly, this exercise was a chance for me to take-stock of where I am. I’ve worked on a lot of stuff, especially as a 1st AD. I’ve written a few things that have gone before a camera, and some that still wallows in development hell – projects I still like, but victims of various fates.
Going over my last 14 years can also be a bit like opening an old diary. A teenager’s diary to be exact, where some of your preoccupations, crushes, old partners and teachers can make you wince. However, all of them have taught you something valuable. Even the bad ones. So what did I conclude? Well, I feel I’m still learning. I feel I must go forward with my crazy micro-budget project this year. I feel I must get my book done this year as well. I have solid starts on both and they push me in new directions creatively and technically. And both scare the hell out of me. I’m liable to lose my shirt, my sanity and open myself-up to ridicule.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Cheers,
Trev
H/T to Chuck Wendig for finding this. I think it’s good for all of us in the dark-days of winter...now if you’ll excuse me, I have to answer a Producer’s email about doing another version of a shooting schedule.
Well here we are. My first entry using a new tool. I have used Blogger in the past, but found the templates and look of the thing to be unappealing. I tried a paid hosting site called Squarespace, but found it expensive for what I was getting for my buck. Squarespace’s Gallery was buggy and the final straw was the jumpy, inconsistent nature of its blog entry function. If something as simple as writing text and posting an entry becomes a chore, you can bet your bottom dollar (especially in January after Christmas) that it will get the boot. It was an easy decision. So I have made Flavors.me my hub. I love the design and the ease. I plan on staying here a long time. I apologize to those of you following me on other sites, but I had to do it. I hate crappy hosting and limited design that is not pleasing to the eye. I hope you stick around.
So come here often and feedback is welcome. If you’re into what I’m up to, from the mundane to the useful, checkout my Twitter Stream and my Facebook updates at the top of the site. My work and CV are also available. In the lower left corner you can Contact me, or make your own Flavors.me site.
As of this Sunday, I’m taking stock of a few projects (one a book, the other a video project) that will go ahead this year. The book should be ready by October and the video project will be ongoing until November. A couple of First AD gigs have been rumoured and bandied-about, however both features have either pushed or gone quiet. This year I look forward to more music video work using my Canon 5D and Mr. Maddin always has something up his sleeve.
So poke around and come back regularly. I plan on updating at least twice a week (sometimes more) and don’t be a stranger.
Cheers,
Trev