A year in the life of someone who works (almost) non-stop in film
2022.
A busy year. At the end, I remember asking, “what craziness will 2023 hold?”
A lot it turns out.
Despite the SAG/AFTRA and WGA strikes (long overdue industry recalibrations), I somehow found myself working an awful lot. Sometimes smaller projects, sometimes higher positions than union world. Here’s the productions I remember working on in 2023.
TV SHOWS
SO HELP ME TODD — SEASON 1
BUCKETHEADS — EPISODE 2
THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES — SEASON 1
GOOSEBUMPS — SEASON 1
DEAD BOY DETECTIVES — SEASON 1
I hit the ground running to start 2023. SO HELP ME TODD came about, as work often does, last minute. I was vacationing in Rome for New Year’s and got a message the day before I was to fly back to Vancouver, they were looking for someone to start the first week after Christmas in Richmond.
It was nice to work with wonderful Assistant Director colleagues I hadn’t seen in years, Tammy Tsang, Haley Lauten and Eileen Dooley. I might’ve been able to stay longer, but I was booked on a slew of tandem unit days with the best AD team in the city (more on them later) to finish DEAD BOY DETECTIVES.
Sandwiched around my week on TODD were a few days filming the next chapter of the STAR WARS fan series BUCKETHEADS, created and directed by Andy Brown and Marco Bossow, a couple of wildly energetic filmmakers who bribed me years ago into being Location Manager with promises of fortune and glory.
A day or two later, I was in my dentist’s chair, my jaw knocked out with anesthetic on what I expected to be a rare day off when my phone buzzed- “Could you come in to finish the last week on SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES? In fact, could you start today? Right now?” Maybe a day had gone by after I finished it when I was whatsapped asking if I could fill in the last week on GOOSEBUMPS. I wasn’t familiar with the lore of SPIDERWICK (books just after my time) but I knew GOOSEBUMPS and it was a nostalgiabomb reliving those high school page-turners.
SHORT FILMS
FAMILY DESCENT
THE SORROW
MY FAT CAME ALIVE
RAKSHA
HEATSTROKE
QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD
Right after knocking off TODD and BUCKETHEADS, a couple of classmates I graduated Capilano University with, Producer Josh Farnworth and Writer/Director Brodi-Jo Scalise, rang- “would you be free next weekend on another volunteer short?” For them, anything. Josh and Brodi always have something fun cooking and they work with good people like DOP Jeff Zwicker and Production Designer Julia Evans. We filmed FAMILY DESCENT in a giant, creaky manor on the outskirts of Pitt Meadows.
THE SORROW happened because I randomly messaged Director Thomas Affolter, about a cool location in New Westminster called Breezehurst. It had sold and the new owners were encouraging new filmmakers. “How’d you know I was looking for a house to shoot in?” Thomas asked. THE SORROW, produced and starring our mutual friend Nhi Do, premiered November 11th at the Scotiabank Theatre downtown for the VANCOUVER ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL.
MY FAT CAME ALIVE began prep in January as a Crazy8s finalist. Written and Directed by Jaymee Mak and Kevin Ang, we succeeded getting into the Top 12 out of 200 applicants. When we didn’t make the Top 6, we decided to shoot it anyway in late May, enlisting actresses Jana Morrison and Gabrielle Jacinto. Producing MY FAT CAME ALIVE proved challenging. We lost key crew and equipment 48 hours before filming due to COVID. But we got it done. Marc Yungco came in to save the day as our DOP last minute. Keep an eye out for it in 2024.
RAKSHA was the brainchild of mad genius Tesh Guttikonda, who I’ve been lucky to work with and hope to keep working with. Tesh dropped hints for months he was keen to shoot when the time was right. The timing worked out great. RAKSHA (as a non-union, Canadian, indie) was the first project I filmed during the strike, in late July. Filmed at a high school in Langley, it had lots of moving pieces- singing, dancing, SPFX monsters- its delightful ambition reunited me with amazing talents, DOP Jaryl Lim, actor-producer Praneet Akilla (who co-starred in FAMILY DESCENT) and choreographer Christian Lagasse. RAKSHA was released on youtube in September, a good turnaround for proof-of-concept.
HEATSTROKE filmed on the heels of RAKSHA. Conceptually, it was almost the opposite. Director Nolen Scott emailed me a script by his friend, Keegan Bartel, about one cast member in one location- a woman trapped in a car on a hot day, played by Marci T. House. Reteaming wih cinematographer Srini Madhavan, we filmed on the hottest weekend of the year and, unbeknownst to most of the crew, next to a forest fire in Maple Ridge.
QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD came up because I shared the finished cut of RAKSHA with Writer/Director/Actress Stephanie Izsak. Steph and I had worked together on her stunning Crazy8s debut CONSUMER (and later VIRGIN RIVER) and she was keen to do a followup. Armed with a tight, eery script and a good team of CONSUMER alumni including producer Nic Altobelli and DOP Robert Zawistowski. It was the last thing we made before the strike ended and starred enchanting actress Morgan Taylor Campbell.
MOWs (MOVIE OF THE WEEK)
MY CHRISTMAS HERO
A CHRISTMAS FOR THE AGES
I’ve been very blessed to work with an exceptional AD team, lead by the great Riley Walsh, Ashley Sawyer and Kunal Keram. We’ve made many shows together. After we made DEAD BOY DETECTIVES, these Christmas tv movies, MY CHRISTMAS HERO and A CHRISTMAS FOR THE AGES, were the last projects we filmed back-to-back before the SAG-AFTRA strike began. Both Directed by the talented and funny Martin Wood. They starred Candace Bure and her daughter Natasha Bure. Both released end of November Thanksgiving weekend.
FEATURES
FAKING IT
THE CHINATOWN DINER
While on prep for RAKSHA and HEATSTROKE, I attended Joel McCarthy’s 2023 Run N Gun finals and loved connecting and reconnecting with the stew of emergent punks in Vancouver filmsphere. One of the Writer-Directors I met was the singularly Ava Maria Safai. A month later, I got a message asking if I could parachute for a few days onto Ava’s next movie, FAKING IT. I could do it, but only for a few days, I was filming HEATSTROKE that weekend. Her Producer, Sahil Arya, had coincidentally been Location Manager for us on RAKSHA, and I later stole him for THE CHINATOWN DINER.
Thomas, who directed THE SORROW, reached out again in fall with an exciting offer. Our mutual friend, Lawrence Le Lam, had been cooking a magical hip-hopera feature with Telefilm called THE CHINATOWN DINER and they had to shoot it this winter. I met Lawrence years ago on the set of Joel’s Crazy8s feminist serial killer comedy I LOVE YOU SO MUCH IT’S KILLING THEM and liked working with him and Thomas. It was a dream project to work on something so ambitious with local filmmakers. Scouting and locking “the diner” location in Chinatown was a highlight this year, as was getting to collaborate with exceptional DOP Leo Harim and Production Designer Jacqueline Miller.
And that would be the last project I worked on in 2023…
tl;dr It’s a small town. May not know what you’ll work on in a year, but it helps if it’s with people you trust.
I wonder what exciting adventures 2024 holds?
