My Blog

Banff, VAFF

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:18:55 -0800

I got to spend a week under the wonderful instruction of two masters of storytelling Keith Partridge and Michael Brown at the Adventure Filmmakers Workshop at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. The workshop, attended by students from around the world and included such big names as kayaker Trip Jennings and rock climber and TNF athlete Renan Ozturk focused on the business side of film including what needs to be included in a pitch.
Banff was put on hold for half a day while I flew back to Vancouver to attend a screening of THE CaN’Tswer at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival at Cinemark Tinseltown. This was by far the biggest screen that my film has ever been shown on and played to a very large audience who were very engaged during the Q and A session.

Whirlwind of a month for PocketBunny

Thu, 8 Oct 2009 09:03:05 -0700

Well, September sure has been a whirlwind and October has started out just as busy! No sooner was I back from the Alaskan Stikine River trip, did I find myself in Seattle at a workshop put on by Warren Etheridge of The Warren Report on filmmaking and storytelling. The workshop was great and looked at a number of classic and contemporary films to examine their choice of camera angle, edit points and sound. On my way home from Seattle, I was called and asked to work as 4th camera on a shoot for the Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN) . They were shooting a documentary called “Back in the Day” to air next year in the bush just west of Hope for a week. Luckily I was available and found myself shooting yet again. It was really neat to work with a large(er) crew and seeing the dynamics of working with so many cameras. While on the shoot, I received a call from the Banff Centre to let me know that I received a scholarship I applied for earlier this year to attend the Adventure Filmmakers Workshop there in November.

The Victoria screening of THE CaN’Tswer occured two days after I got back to a full house for the first screening! The film was very well received and over $400 was raised for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada through donations at the door as well as DVD sales. Soonafter the screening, I was contacted by A Channel News, a Victoria based TV station associated with CTV to do an interview with Ryan on the making of THE CaN’Tswer. The piece aired the following Monday. Links to the piece will be posted soon.

I arrived back from my TV interview in Victoria to go right to the Vancouver Film and TV Forum, part of the Vancouver International Film Festival. A great line up of speakers talked about everything from distribution in todays market, sharing their creative process to pitch sessions with various international Commissioning Editors broadcast TV. The most exciting thing for me was being able to sit down with Knowledge, a BC Based station and pitch my idea for Road to Maquis. While at the Adventure Filmmakers Workshop in Banff, I hope to make some changes to the storyline and will be submitting the pitch to Knowledge for production funding soonafter.

Anyway, that’s enough blabber for now. I am just on a plane to Flagstaff Arizona to attend my screening of THE CaN’Tswer at the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival.

Stay Tuned!

That’s a wrap on the Stikine

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:34:56 -0700

The Stikime River trip was amazing. The people on the tour were great and Scott from Alaska HDTV was a great guy to work with. Filming purposes were twofold- Scott will be creating a travel podcast on the trip itself (brought to you by Alaska Waters) as well as gathering footage for a feature piece on the people of the Stikine River itself. Watch for the podcast coming soon at www.alaskahdtv.com

Stikine River Adventure Film Trip Starts Tomorrow

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 19:33:40 -0700

So tomorrow I embark on a fun little adventure with my friend Scott from Alaska HDTV. A few weeks ago he asked if I would come along with him on this trip and shoot a B Camera for him. We both use the same equipment and I jumped at the chance for a trip up the Stikine River in the Alaskan Panhandle.
We start in Wrangell Alaska where we will spend tomorrow night before embarking on a jet boat and power up the Stikine River for two days before getting to the town of Telegraph Creek BC. We’ll do a day trip into the Stikine River Canyon, also know as Canada’s Grand Canyon before heading back to Wrangell where we will spend the night before a flight back to Anchorage on Monday next week. My bags are packed and I’ll have my steadicam with me for what I hope to be some awesomly stable jet boat shots. I will have my SPOT GPS transmitter with me sending out a signal of where I am so be sure to click on the GPS tab at the top of the page to see where I am.
I’ll post when I can!

Back home from Anchorage and Next Steps

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:14:43 -0700

So I’m back home now after the third of many of Mitch Kitter’s Maquis shoots. This round found us at a farm in Wasilla- about an hours drive north of Anchorage in the MatSu Valley. The first night consisted of scouting out the property for Mitch to plan his shots. It was raining and we were all pleasantly surprised the next day when the sun came out for the shoot. I was able to get some rocking footage with my steadicam. That was such an awesome investment. The model that Mitch used was excellent and Mitch seemed really happy with the pictures that he took.
On my last evening in Anchorage, Mitch and I drove up to Independence Mine at Hatcher’s Pass for a shoot of Mitch’s self portraits. It was neat watching him work at night with flashlights and long exposure times.
Totally unplanned this trip, was a meeting with Scott Slone, the president of Alaska HDTV. He approached me looking for a second camera man for an adventure shoot he has planned at the beginning of September. We’re going to fly on Alaska Airlines to Wrangell, Alaska where we will hop on a jet boat and motor up the Stikine River. This is the fastest flowing navigable river in North America. We’ll wind up in Canada in the BC town of Telegraph Creek where we’ll spend more time in the Stikine River Canyon. The trip will last 5 days in total and I’m totally stoked. The Alaskan Panhandle and the Aleutians are the two regions in Alaska that I haven’t been.
I’ll be leaving for Anchorage again likely on September 7 and will return to Vancouver again on September 16 or so. Mitch will be holding another Maquis shoot on the 14 and 15 so I will be well placed for that.
The next few months are going to be busy traveling months with the Alaskan shoots plus the screening of the CaN’Tswer in Victoria in September; the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival in Arizona in October and the Banff Adventure Filmmaker’s Workshop in November.
From a funding note, I am waiting to hear back from the BC Arts Council Project Assistance Funding that I applied for at the beginning of summer for the Road to Maquis project. That funding will assist me with remaining travel expenses plus post production. I’ll let you all know as soon as I hear which should be around the second week of September.
Cheers!