My Demo Reel

Recently, I put together a quick demo reel for my directorial work. So far in the past 2 years I’ve directed a number of things, from a sci-fi trailer and a fairy tale adaptation to a demo reel about a struggling rock band and a web-series about a Christian youth group. It’s been a wonderful journey thus far!

Over the summer, the realization that I would soon be graduating from Ryerson in the spring hit me square in the face. I would need to support myself. There would be no excusing myself because I’m a full-time student. I would be… a no-time student. A graduated student. A full-time fill-in-the-blank.

I knew exactly what I wanted that blank to say — director. The profession I’ve dedicated everything to. In order to get jobs as a director and be able to fill in that foreboding blank space, though, I needed a demo reel. So! I pulled together the best of the best shots I have taken in my career, which ended up being mostly “Thorns” and “Knuckleball”.

You’ll see a variety of shots in my reel, from violence and hinted nudity to your basic discussion and walking scene. I’m quite proud of this baby, all said and done. I’ve already applied to a few positions, linking potential employers through to it, and it seems to impress.

Ideally, I would love to hire an excellent editor to compile a fresh reel for me every year in the business, but here’s hoping I get that starting position as a full-time director in order to afford that

Enjoy!

All About Thorns

Thorns is the web-series I’m working on for Practicum- it’s an irreverent 11-minute pilot webisode about a group of 7 teens of the St. Aloysius youth group. I blogged all about it here: http://www.film.outlittstudios.com/2011/10/thorns-accepted/#more-279 if you’re interested in the back story!

As of Friday evening, we wrapped production. Pre-production all of October and production all of November was ridiculously exciting, fun, busy, and enlightening. I learned a ton from working with my fellow students who turned out to be just as dedicated to and enthusiastic about the project as I was. I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is to work with a team that brings 110% everyday. Every member really stepped up and proved to be extremely professional and talented. The art director Natalie Fung lugged a huge red suitcase to and from set everyday to make sure we had every single prop on set for continuity. She was always totally dedicated to getting the best possible look for the web-series and goes above and beyond her own role to help with marketing and other aspects! I hadn’t known her at all before Thorns but now I know that her sense of humor is amazing and that she’s a really deadpan but optimistic person

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Thorns Accepted!

Last Friday, I managed to overcome my fear of public speaking to pitch an idea for Practicum. To give those of you who aren’t in Ryerson’s Radio & Television Arts program, Practicum is an intensive 6-month collaborative project. Every student in our 140-person year has the opportunity to pitch an idea to a board of 4 advising professors and their fellow students.

My idea was a web series called Thorns, about a Christian youth group. The web series is fast-paced, quirky, and irreverent, like other quintessential Canadian TV series and films. There are 7 members of the youth group, each with their own background stories and spunky, distinct personalities.

After the pitches were all said and done in a nerve-wracking 8-hour class, the professors went away to decide which would be produced. Luckily, mine was chosen, and I proceeded to assemble a kick-ass team.

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Practicum Pitch

Myself and the rest of Ryerson University’s Radio & Television Arts class of 2012 is about to enter their fourth and final year. Besides graduation, the greatest thing about this year is Practicum. For those who don’t know what Practicum is, it’s an intense 8-month-long project. Many people seem to pitch ideas to the board of industry folks and professors, but only a few are actually produced. Seems to be about 5-10 per year, by my reckoning.

Most people look forward to Practicum for their entire first 3 years, as we are allotted budgets for each project and it’s considered a full class. I can definitely see why it’s a big deal to most students. It’s become a huge deal to me over the summer. I’ve tossed ideas out from left, right and centre, and refused to stop until I found something I really thought could by viably produced, be chosen by the board, and that people could feel passionate about. After two months of brainstorming, I finally settled on a webseries called, “Youth Group”.
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“Alien Strain”

A couple days ago, I posted about the potential feature film demo I’m involved with called “Knuckleball”. I figured since I blogged about one of my huge projects, might as well write about another.

A few months back, a writer/director fresh out of film school in LA named Kerry Hower critiqued all my short films. I had no idea at first why someone would volunteer their opinion and suggestions on each of my individual films, but I went with it and took into account what he had to say. Any critique is good critique if you can learn from it. Next thing I knew, he was telling me about a script he had written called “Alien Strain”. Apparently he already had investors for it and was getting some pretty big name actors to be involved. Seeing as there were some grammatical and spelling problems with the script, I offered to give it a once-over with fresh eyes.
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