WILDsound Feedback Film Festival

When I started my filmmaker's page on MySpace a couple of years ago, one of the first "friends" I made was WILDsound Film Festival. I was intrigued by the concept: have your film screened at a monthly festival and then get feedback both by industry professionals and audience members. And if you can't be there for the screening, they'll send you a DVD of that feedback. So I was glad that I finally had something to submit to them. They've accepted "Coda" and it's going to be screened on Saturday, August 23rd at the National Film Board Cinema in Toronto. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend but Jeanette Lee, a musician friend of mine (who I've actually known since high school!), lives in Toronto and she'll be attending the festival in my stead. So maybe I'll get to find out what doesn't get included in the feedback DVD!

Great Northern Arts Festival

I just got back from Inuvik where I attended the Great Northern Arts Festival. The visual art at that festival is amazing (I'll be talking about that on Limes with Orange in the next few days). I was fortunate to have an opportunity to show both "Coda in G Minor" and "Persephone" in a screening with "Whipped," the film produced at the festival's film workshop in 2007 and a few other films, including a couple by my father. One that was made before I was born and one that he made recently. Seeing "Nothing to Fear," the film my dad made while he was in grad school, I realize that it's not just filmmakers like Deco Dawson and Maya Deren who influenced "Coda"... part of my influence was definitely genetic!

Unfortunately, there was no film workshop at the festival this year as Dennis Allen, the Yellowknife filmmaker who organized the workshop previously, was occupied with the launch of his CD "Wayward Son." But if he organizes another workshop for the 2009 festival, I think it might be fun to head up north again and take it.

Fear No Film Festival

"Coda in G Minor" has been accepted into the Fear No Film Festival, part of the Utah Arts Festival. The tantalizing nearness of the festival to the Sundance Institute (where the June labs will be in session) makes me want to travel to it, but I just can't really justify the time or expense at the moment. (And there's not exactly enough time to apply for a travel grant, but maybe next time.) So if anyone attending the festival happens to stop by this blog, let me know how it's going!

Emma Claire Miller

I first met Emma Claire Miller when I was casting for my 16mm Film School project, "No Time Like the Present." I'd held auditions all day and had videotaped each of them with the assistance of my cousin, with whom I was discussing each of the actors after their auditions. It was all going smoothly… until we blew a fuse. (I hadn't taken my electrics course yet; that's my story and I'm sticking to it.) We managed to figure out a way to get enough light to keep taping… then the camera battery died… and then my cousin had to leave to start his job…

INT. CSIF SOFA CINEMA - LATE AFTERNOON

A woman sits in a dim room, no camera, all alone, with one last audition. She'd seen some good auditions and some talented actors but hadn't had any clouds parting, ray of sunshine moments saying 'here is the lead for your film'. She isn't defeated but her body language indicates that she doesn't expect anything to change anytime soon.

Enter Emma Claire Miller.

DIRECTOR (V.O.)
She has a fun personality. I can picture her as Jane (although the hair's a little too glamorous). Ooh, listen to her read; her voice is perfect for the voice over.

The director pauses as she considers the irony of talking about voice overs within a voice over. Then her attention goes back to the audition as she puts Emma Claire through a series of Sonia Moore improv exercises that had weirded out many an actor that day. But not this one.

DIRECTOR (V.O.) (CONT'D)
Frack, this grrl's got some mad improv skills!

Cue the clouds and the choir.

FADE TO BLACK.

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I'll admit that I had a few moments of doubt about my judgement before we started production, simply because that was the ONLY audition that I didn't have on tape and that was the ONLY audition that no one else had seen. You can imagine how relieved I was on production day when I realized that my gut instincts had been right on the money.

So when I had the idea for "Coda in G Minor," I knew exactly who I wanted to cast. Fortunately for me, Emma Claire was willing and able and so production began.

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ABOUT EMMA CLAIRE MILLER

Emma Claire Miller is an actress living and working in Calgary, Alberta. After completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre at the University of Victoria, Emma Claire spent nine months performing as part of the Chemainus Theatre Festival before moving to Alberta. Since arriving in Calgary almost two years ago, she has performed with many different companies in the city, including The Shakespeare Company, Alberta Theatre Projects and, most recently, Quest Theatre. Emma Claire is a co-creator and Artistic Associate of Sandbox Children's Theatre, currently touring an educational based show around Southern Alberta (http://www.sandboxtheatre.ca/). An avid improv artist, she has had the chance to play with both Loose Moose and the Kinkonauts. Earlier this year, Emma Claire was selected as one of the Devon Stars of the Future, highlighting emerging artists in the ATP season. She has had the pleasure of working with Cara on a couple of different pieces, and loves the opportunity to explore with new artists in every medium.

Deco Dawson's Influence

"Coda in G Minor" began as a spark of an idea during a Director's Eye Talk when I saw Deco Dawson's "Knout" for the first time. The high contrast black and white imagery and the surreal subject matter captivated me. I knew I had to make a film in that style.

In case you aren't familiar with the 29-year-old surrealist Winnipeg filmmaker Deco Dawson, he's "the Enfant Possible of Canadian Cinema" (FFWD Magazine). From 2000-2003 Deco collaborated with fellow Winnipeg cult-filmmaker Guy Maddin, acting as Editor and Co-Cinematographer of such projects as "The Heart of the World" and the feature film "Dracula: pages from a virgin’s diary," on which Deco also served as Associate Co-Director. Selected for the prestigious 2005 Berlin Talent Campus, the 2004 Talent Lab at the Toronto International Film Festival, named one of the top 25 young independent filmmakers in North America by New York's Filmmaker and one of the top 10 Canadian Industry Trailblazers by The Reel World Film Festival, Deco Dawson has been achieving international acclaim for his film work for many years. Deco Dawson is currently completing post-production on two new full-length projects and a feature film script. (I don't know about you, but I'm pretty impressed by all that!)

In the fall of 2007, Deco was the artist-in-residence at the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers. Being in the process of completing a short film inspired by one of his films made it especially exciting for me. I participated in Deco's editing workshop and even had an opportunity to sit down with Deco one-on-one in an editing suite and have him offer feedback and suggestions on the editing of "Coda."

It very satisfying to come full circle on this project, starting with the films of Deco Dawson and finishing with Deco Dawson himself. The cherry on top for me was Deco's passing comment that "Coda" reminded him of the work of Maya Deren. The appropriateness of that comment will come clear when I blog about the development of the narrative in this film.

Premiere Screening

"Coda" had its premiere screening at the $100 Film Festival this past weekend. The screening went well, even though I realized after the fact that it had run at 24 frames per second rather than the intended 18 frames per second. But the only way I knew for certain was from the 30 seconds of music left over at the end, so it didn't seem to affect the viewing experience. Although many people did say that it felt shorter than 2.5 minutes, but we all attributed that to the fact that it followed a 20 minute experimental film that was completely silent and somewhat repetitive (although technically brilliant). So to all those people who said it felt shorter… you were right! (1 minute and 55 seconds to be exact… I did the sums as I lay awake in bed after the screening.)

Having said that, I liked the way it looked at that speed (my skip printed sequence actually looked skip printed rather than simply sped up). So I'm toying with idea of going back to the editing suite and speeding it up a bit but inserting a couple of my flashback scenes to take the film back up to the 2.5 minute mark. Must mull…

P.S. Alas, no awards for this film at this festival. But I really liked the film "Grass" by Scott Amos, which ended up winning for Best Super 8, so I don't mind. Plus I got really good feedback from other filmmakers, which means more to me at this point than any award. (I know that sounds cheesy but it's true.)

FFWD Magazine

We had the press pre-screening of a few of the $100 Film Festival selections last Saturday. "Coda in G Minor" was one of the dozen or so films shown, so I was quite excited to see my first "review" when FFWD came out this week. Alas, I realize that a "preview" doesn't necessarily mean a "review," i.e. no opinions necessary. Here's the blurb:

Coda in G Minor explores the concept of finality, borrowing from a classical music term, and writer-cum-filmmaker Cara Mumford says she was inspired by the work of Deco Dawson, the Winnipeg filmmaker who was CSIF’s director-in-residence last fall.

So I have no idea whether the journalist liked my film, was bored to tears by my film, didn't understand my film, or any of the many other scenarios I could think up. But press is still press, right? Here's the link for those of you who want to read the full article: Low Budget, High Returns... $100 Film Festival marks its 16th year of shoestring filmmaking.