The audience favourite, Post/Mail, is clearly the most developed and substantial of the four award winners, and I expect that some or perhaps many viewers will wonder how it was left out of the top three cited by the judges.

#OIFF72 Q&A with Filmmakers – Part 2

By Vera Grbic

February 25, 2014

What does it take to come up with a script and shoot a film in three days? We got some answers from this year’s hearty souls of the OIFF 72 Hour Film Challenge.

In Part 2, we hear from Curtis Dickie of “The Proposal,” Andrei Zubok of “Mikhail” and Ray Besharah of “Domino.” Check out Part 1 for more #OIFF72 interviews.

What were some of the unforeseen quirks or funny occurrences that happened in the process of filming?

CD: When shooting, Astrid (super cat) kept attacking Nate's (stunt dog extraordinaire) tail. The rock paper scissors sequence was impromptu on the day. We thought it was a funny tribute to our entry in last year’s challenge (The Players). Cory’s [Thibert] line, "I gotta call my mom," had everyone on set in stitches.

AZ: When it turned [out] that the cafe where we planned to write the script closed at 10 [p.m.], we went looking for a 24-hour McDonald’s, which ended up closing at 10 [p.m.], since two of their people didn't show up for work. Then it was across town to find another 24-hour McDonald’s.

RB: In the film, I get dragged across a dirt road on my stomach and my shirt kept riding up. It was tremendously hard to allow the gravel to shred my skin while pretending I wasn't affected. In fact, in the short, when I'm dragged off camera, you can hear the faintest moan just at the end of the dragging. That's me, unable to contain the pain any longer, though the concept of the film makes us think it's the other actor who is grunting as he's pulling me. With a little more time, I would have planned that whole thing much better.

Music is one of the wildcards and so much to choose from too (10 songs this year). How does music figure into your film?

CD: Music and sound is a huge part of film (not just ours). The right music at the right time can be the difference between a hardy chuckle or a mournful tear. We (Team Awesomesauce) were blessed with not only 10 great songs to choose from but with a rocking Post Audio guy, Andrew Huggett, who not only took care of our audio woes, he brought in a whole new dimension of sounds that I couldn’t have dreamed of on my own.

AZ: We were fortunate in having someone to work on a score – we had a couple of original compositions as well as three of the songs from the list. Ten isn't all that much to choose from when you're trying to match it to the mood of the scene.

RB: Music was the sole inspiration for Domino. Music is such a powerful tool in film, so knowing we had to incorporate three songs made them the natural starting point. The first few hours of concept development time was just me sitting and listening to the music again and again until I pictured what I wanted to do. I don't do it all the time, but I love working that way.

It's a three-day whirlwind. Tell the truth, how much sleep did you get?

CD: Sleep is for the weak. We finished tweaking the script Saturday morning at 2 a.m. and we started rolling at 8:45 a.m. [the same day].  

AZ: In total, probably about nine hours over the three days – mostly on Saturday night when we had a break in filming from 11 p.m. until 9 a.m. After that it was round the clock until the film was submitted (although I managed to get a couple of short naps in). My editor worked non-stop for over 24 hours.

#OIFF72 Q&A with Filmmakers – Part 1

By Vera Grbic

February 24, 2014

What does it take to come up with a script and shoot a film in three days? We got some answers from this year’s hearty souls of the OIFF 72 Hour Film Challenge.

In Part 1, we treat you to answers by Eric Escaravage of “Sister” and Gavin Simone of “Winter Yard Sale.”

What was the most fun and most challenging part of doing #OIFF72?

EE: The most fun part of #OIFF72 was definitely getting together as a team and brainstorming ideas while writing the script. It was really interesting to see and hear everyone's opinion on where the concept should go. Filming the stunts was also a personal favourite of mine. This cannot be understated, the most challenging part was most definitely the time limit and coordinating everybody's schedule to fit filming times. It was difficult but we certainly pulled it off with some late night shoots.

GS: One of our main actors had to leave for hockey halfway through filming. We brainstormed a way to transform him into someone else by using the soap that was one of the props provided.  The new actor was much shorter so all the clothes were baggy on him.

What was the decision process on how to use the wildcard criteria? Did you build a story around them, or already have a story and just sort of plug them in?

EE: We were very fortunate that a few of the wildcard elements fit in perfectly with regards to our general idea we had planned before the competition. On the other hand, implementing the objects in a manner that was both subtle and natural was one [of] our big discussion points.

GS: We already had a story that included a garage sale scene, so as a last resort we could put all the props on display there. It was a stroke of luck that [we] already had a mailman scene so integrating that line was a cinch.

How does the fact that it's the middle of winter factor into this three-day project?

EE: Minus a few car shots, “Sister” was shot entirely outside. Many of our shots required us to be out late into the night or to be outside for extended periods of time. Needless to say, I don't think that any one of us expected to go from freezing our faces off at night (Timmies [Tim Hortons] runs notwithstanding) to getting a

sunburn the day after. Winter definitely influenced, helped and hampered the film all at once.

Jackpine Co. - POST/MAIL - 12 mins

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The #OIFF72 films are up NOW!

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