Take 2

I really intended to post something before this past weekend, but circumstances had other plans for me. Just your run of the mill 'not enough hours in the day' stuff.

This past weekend - August 15th to 17th - we did pick-ups and reshoots on "Beast..."



For the most part it was fun and at a relatively relaxed pace. Though the last day didn't quite work out as planned, but I'll get to that.

Friday we had a late morning start and spent a lot of the day at the park & beach picking up a handful of small shots that we've discovered in editing that would highly benefit the story telling within the film.

In the afternoon we moved over to Craig's apartment. The timing was less than ideal in that we were a dozen or so people crammed into a one bedroom apartment at the hottest time of the hottest day of summer so far (a record breaker, in fact) and we had a couple of 1K lights shining down upon us.
We got some coverage of Leanne and I for two differnt scenes, and then added some additional inserts and pyrotechnics that we'd been unable to shoot last spring.
The pyro was amusing. I had consulted David Barkes last year on the matter, and combined with some previous theatrical application, we'd decided to use flash paper in a metallic garbage can. There was a lot of paranoia about the effect, though I was confident - I'd used flash paper in my bare hand on stage, I knew it was as safe as could be expected. Nonetheless it was prudent to be extra prepared with extinguishers and other devices intended to contain the fire should everything go wrong. After all that prep, the initial problem was quite the opposite. Due mostly to technique the paper didn't catch fire - the matches were out by the time they got to the paper. When that issue was worked out, the first actual working shot was spectacular and got great oohs and ahhs from everyone. The flame had actually gone so high that it was a bad shot, so we had to do it a few more times. The last attempt - where we used some extra paper for longer burning time and shot it at high speed (for slow motion) - was truly spectacular. I did a dance of joy.
Burning things... fun.

We ended the day with shooting a scene we'd originally decided to cut.
Those of you familiar with Moby Dick will be aware of the chapters that I refer to as the 'documentary' chapters. They don't technically advance the narrative, but they do add something to the book. Chapters on the nature of the colour white, the variety of whales, the use and creation of marine rope... there are dozens of these chapters covering a huge range of topics.

To the best of my knowledge, no other work based on Moby Dick has ever tried to include this aspect of the book - which is one of it's more fascinating features. Granted, it's not such an easy task. The structure of our film allows us a unique opportunity to include an equivalent - documentary interview moments with fictional Ogopogo experts, who each provide a small tidbit of information or thematic layering to the whole. We cut the 'Sheriff Snider' interview during principle photography last year because of scheduling issues. But in editing we've discovered that we don't really have enough experts to sell the trope. So we added 'Sheriff Snider' back in. We also added a brand new expert to be shot first thing the next day...



Saturday began in the afternoon. In my Mother's living room, filming one of our favourite actors, Mary Black, who we've been trying to get into the film for ages, but it has just never quite worked. Mary was very funny, and she nailed her brief 'expert' monologue in no time.



From there we went to our editor's office to shoot a few inserts to existing scenes against his handy wall. David Nykl and I got to revisit our only two hander scene, though only for a very brief moment. Ironically the scene is dominated by a torrent of verbal effluvia from David, while I say almost nothing... but guess which character's arc is being improved by the new version? You guessed it, mine.



Back to Craig's for dinner and to wait for nightfall, as the rest of what we had scheduled was all to be shot in the dark. Dinner - put together largely by Elaine, Craig's wife, was as good as we had anytime on set - and we had a number of fantastic meals served up by Garner and Janet in the Okanagan or by Jill and Scott at the postal plant. We also got to show those who were present a small portion of what has been edited thus far. It was an unintended side effect, but everyone was pleased by what they saw and the already good mood was raised to genuinely high-spirits.



The evening was a mix of inserts of various props doing various necessary things as well as getting additional detail of both David on his own and Roger and I together for the 'wedding scene' so that we can better refine and pace the gags.

Saturday was a little extra fun for me as Jodie (my girlfriend) was able to join us on set and help out. She'd never been on set before so it was a novelty for her. She took all the pictures we have included.



Sunday morning we were back at the home of Brian Sizer, for the most part to get additional footage of Roger and I interacting again - this time for the 'going to bed' sequence, which is already fairly amusing, but with better coverage and more precise performances should play much better on screen.

The shoot up to this point had gone quite well. But it would stumble a bit in the next few hours. We were longer than expected at the Sizer house, and there were a small number of miscommunications in getting to our next location. The sunny day had brought far more people than anticipated to the location and parking became a nightmare. Noise was too much for the dialogue we needed to record, and as if that weren't enough... the sun which had been oppressive for two days began to disappear as we were approaching the last two scenes we truly needed it for. Argh!

We bailed on that location and went to our next one, crossing our fingers that we'd have a chance later in the day to finish up. Suffice to say that the weather didn't do what we needed it to do. We DID get what was intended to be the last scene on the schedule - which didn't need the sun - but we didn't get those last two scenes. Mark Redsky had come out to set and never got used. I hated having to do that to him, but he was good natured about it.

We finished up the weekend with pizza and beer back at my place. It had not been the plan to finish there. We'd hoped to be in the park! But that same damned weather ruined that plan at the last moment too. We watched the rain from my balcony, knowing we'd have to all reconvene yet again, but the mood was positive.

Everyone had seen a good chunk of the film in it's current state and could appreciate how the good work we'd done in these last three days would improve it manifold.



We're hoping to shoot those last bits next weekend - or as soon as possible thereafter. But Craig is going in for surgery next week and he's going to be largely unavailable as a director for a bit. We'll pretty much have to temporarily forge on without him. Sooner the better to finish up is the philosophy. The needs of the remaining footage to be shot is fairly self-evident and we already have the template of the existing footage to go by.

Hope for sun.

Goodbye Hitler of Green Gables

It’s the day after. Time to take down the tents and sweep out the cages.

Last night around 2AM, Craig declared “Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s a wrap on
the Beast of Bottomless Lake!” I had a very brief moment of emotion – sadness and relief – but I had somehow expected it to be more. I figure that I had anticipated that moment so many times that I had, by the time it actually
happened, already processed those emotions. We picked up our things and headed for the cars. Shook some hands and said “see you in the morning” or “see you
on Sunday” – depending upon who was talking.

I ordered Craig to take today off. So far all evidence suggests that for the most part he has.

Today we inventoried equipment and returned the various bits and pieces. Lights and grip equipment, mics and of course our equipment trailer.

We got a great deal from U-Haul on a trailer. You may be familiar with the current U-Haul corporate image: each of their vehicles has a painting on the side of it, each one representing a landmark from some place in North America. Wyoming: Devil’s Tower. The VLA in Virginia; the CN Tower in Ontario and… as appeared on our trailer… Anne of Green Gables, except a previous renter had spray-painted a Hitler moustache on her — something which continued to amuse us right through to the end of shooting. I hope someone has a photo of it [image below right courtesy of the author].

I drove Gordon out to the ferry, and on the way home had a little chat with Keith. I’d had a chat with Keith on my solo trip to the Okanagan which made me cry. It had been a good way to start the production. I figured I end it the same way. It wasn’t as emotional as the first talk had been. Not even close really. I suppose that we managed to finish pretty strongly — I am sick as a
dog, but apart from that, strongly – and while there were inevitable issues to deal with along the way, we feel really good about most of what we accomplished in this past month. The fact that things have gone well perhaps makes this less emotionally charged than the uncertainty of the beginning was.

But there we go. We are done. …shooting.

— Kennedy
Writer Dude

The World's Biggest Steel Welded Building!

Or Vancouver's biggest postage stamp helicopter landing pad? David/Fabrice had a few more descriptions...

I was lucky enough to be able to help out with the weekend shoot at the Vancouver Post Office building, so I thought I would throw down a few notes about my experience.

First a little background on who I am and how I fit in this picture: I have been writing screenplays and short stories for too many years to mention. I have shot many short films/videos since I was a teenager and have always dreamed of working in the film industry. My first passion was for makeup effects, but that soon turned to writing… fast forward many years to 1995. I met Craig through our mutual friend Martin Conde, with whom I had written and shot a few shorts. Craig and I hit it off and we started writing together (Craig - remember the script about three friends that decide to smuggle drugs to fund a movie about three friends smuggling drugs to fund a movie idea? Still has legs baby!)

Anyway that script was a bit too ambitious, so Craig and I wrote Jerry's Day, a feature about a guy turning 30 who is having relationship-family-friendship issues. We shot the movie over the summer of 1999 with Craig directing and me operating the camera. I didn't have much camera experience and the equipment we were using wasn't very good so the sound and picture quality wasn't quite there, although the actors gave fantastic performances, the crew was great and the story itself was pretty solid. I was stressed out the whole time thinking that I was not doing a good enough job for what the project deserved, and by the end of it Craig and I were barely speaking (my fault…). Even with all the problems we had, the experience is still one the highlights of my life.

The only advice I can give everyone that is working on this project is to keep going and stay as positive as you can, even in high stress/problem times. You will look back at these weeks with a HUGE amount of pride in the future, so keep going!!! As for Jerry's Day, we made a preview/trailer but that was as far as it got. I still have the digital tapes waiting to be edited in case anyone out there wants to give it a try - contact me through Craig. Really. I'm serious!

When Craig and Kennedy started working on this project, I was thrilled and jealous at the same time. I offered to do whatever I could to help out, except I was broke and was working full time so I didn't have much to offer. My wife Kerry did manage to get her Dad to donate the use of his house for part of the shoot, so that was something. But then Craig said he was shooting on the weekend! Yeahoo! I could help out after all!!!

Although it took a little persuading to get my wife and kids to agree to lose me for a weekend… I was able to help out at the post office.

How was the shoot? In on one word - HOT! Temperature, quality of work, some of the crew… it covers it all. The dolly shots using a mail cart were very cool. I actually got to be an extra for a scene!

As a crew member I only managed to screw up one take by being caught by the camera, so the damage was minimal. Unless of course, that was THE TAKE, and I'll feel guilt for the rest of my life.

Big thanks to Jill and Scott for being so amazing — Scott arranged for the locations, helped out with everything as a crew member (and extra!) and Jill and Elaine provided four star meals for everyone. I like food. I spent lots of time on Sunday snacking, but mostly during the scene in the meeting room where the temperature was hovering about 110. I'm sure some people sweated-out a few pounds over those hours! Well, I gained them back to balance it all out.

I'm excited to be able to help out again on Wednesday, and I'll be the first in line at the theatre when it comes out!

GO POGO GO!

— Kevin Bennett

Jedi Master Sound Technician Speaks

I sleep in the living room and I try to wake up before the majority of the populous awake for the day. This particular morning I had no such success. So I awoke to people talking and eating their morning bowls of cereal. I attempt to shake off the tiredness while Pat laughs at me from the breakfast table. I reach up and drink the glass of water above my head. This makes Pat laugh even harder as I am hidden behind a couch and all he sees is an arm grasping for a glass of water.

After breakfast and packing all the gear we need for the day of shooting, we depart the ranch, (which is particularly beautiful this morning) and head down the road to the Summerland Yacht Club. The lake today is calm and quite. A lake of glass.

We arrive and begin to set up along the dock. Luke and myself unpack the sound gear and begin the set-up. After the gear is ready, we do some stretching and kicking (we're Jedi Master sound technicians).

When I originally signed onto this project, I was assigned to "do whatever needs to be done Production Assistant" and I did some random things near the beginning, but eventually I became the "boom operator" and I have to admit that it got very old very fast. My saving grace was a few days after Luke arrived for the second time. After endless compliments on how "Fantastic" my "Boom" skills were, he decided that he was a "Jedi Master Sound Guy" and that he was going to train me in the ways which are right and just. I gladly took this challenge upon my shoulders. Within a day or two, I had become what I had always wanted to be: "Extreme Shaolin Jedi Boom Master Extraordinaire" [photo, right].

Anyway, where was I…? Oh yes: We had everything set up, we had finished our stretches, and we were ready for the day. We blew through all the scenes before lunch, and then got to partake in some delicious cake for Bronwen's birthday.

After the fine meal we went back to work, and everything went smoothly until Melanie Blackwell, who is playing the peg-leg princess, lost her tiara in the lake after casting it out into the water on the end of a fishing line in an attempt to catch the Ogopogo with it. We all had a good chuckle over that and moved on.

When we finished all the shots for the day, a bunch of us were standing around waiting for Captain Bob to show up in his slow-ass boat. He was supposed to be at the marina at 1:00PM I believe, and I think he actually showed up at 4:30 or 5:00. The plus side of this situation was that I got some hilarious footage of the gang goofing around and playing games. And Kennedy killed me with his mind powers (I forgot to mention that I have taken it upon myself to shoot the unofficial behind-the-scenes ‘making of…’. Although I do hope that it'll get used for something, like… uhhh… I don't know… on the DVD… huh, Craig? What do you say? I guess we'll have to cross that bridge after I've finished editing it). Needless to say, Captain Bob did show up in his boat eventually, and we all took off back to the ranch. I rode with Kennedy and I got some superb driving shots of him rocking out to music.

Before I get into the events that transpired in the evening, I have to say that staying at the Jevons' Ranch with all the crew and cast is by far one of the best experiences I've ever had. It's like summer camp, but we get to drink lots of beer, and we laugh a whole lot more. Every person on this project is amazing, and I feel very privileged to have met them, and even more privileged to get to hang out with them on a daily basis and share this experience of making a movie.

This particular evening I was feeling a little more tired than usual and after dinner I had a shower and was taking it easy, — I should've started writing this blog — but I was beginning to fall asleep on the “La-Z-Boy®” and the dream world was calling my name. In the back of my head I start to hear a commotion; could I be dreaming? Hardly. Raised voices, yelling, the heavy beat of horse hoofs, you know, the usual, (horses running outside is common place since we're on a horse ranch) but then Pat comes running into the house.

"Kevin, get your ass up, where's your camera, this is ‘E.P.K.’ stuff."

Or something like that, I'm still half asleep. I drag myself up, not bothering to ask questions and grab the two cameras in my bag. I hand one to Pat and we make our way outside.

The details begin to filter in. Apparently a lone horse had come running onto the ranch and through the back yard, fully saddled, and sweating like it'd been running for awhile. There was just one thing missing: a rider. PANIC MODE ON THE RANCH.

Next thing I know I'm running down the road filming or next plan of action. We have people in cars driving around, we have people on phones, we have people being split up into search parties, as our fear is that the rider was thrown from the horse and is lying broken in the hills of Penticton.

Chaos ensues. Then, just as fast as it all started, it all comes to an end as the lost rider comes walking down the road; admitting, to her embarrassment, that the horse had spooked and ran away while getting ready to go out riding. We film the joyful reunion of rider and horse, and head back inside.

The adrenaline of the hunt dies away and I feel tired again. This time I lay in my bed and watch some cartoons with the gang until sleep takes me over again, this time fully until morning, when I wake up again to the hustle and bustle of the morning breakfast rush. This time Pat doesn't laugh at me because he's still asleep. I laugh at him instead.

— Kevin Roberts
Production Assistant / Jack-of-All-Trades)

Delicious Silence

Usually I have the words to say, but tonight I don't. This project is something that I never thought I would be part of, the cast and crew are amazing… dedicated and professional (yet, without pay).

When you take a legend and put it on screen it is a special thing. Thank God the project has already put it in tongue in cheek… never before has $20 gone so far (who thought I was a Druggie?).

I feel blessed that Janet and myself can be part of this. Yes, we are only extras and cooks for the crew, but we have met the most creative and talented people that would dare to be an independent film company. It is refreshing to see a group of people who believe in what they are doing, and where they are going. Despite the sunburns and being dead tired, this group of actors and crew keep going… and going…

It has been our pleasure to try to feed this group and keep them nourished. Thanks to David, Craig and Kennedy and everyone else for letting us be a part of this. I want all of your autographs and eventually a DVD , if the movie sucks or rocks, I will have a great momento… lol.

Believe in what you are doing; we believe in you.

By the way, watch out Penticton: we are the un-official tour guides for the night crew (Sat 19^th) and only trouble follows us… lol

CHEERS!

— Garner and Janet Stone (your cooks)

Jinkies!

The Secret believers would have me think that I brought this on myself, maybe I did…

Before we began principle shooting, the cast got together for a read-through in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago and then rehearsed some scenes. Fabulous idea. A great opportunity for us get to know each other and work out some of the technicalities of blocking (which will potentially save some time on set). We made some great discoveries, one of the biggest being the parallels of the Beast story to that of one of our greatest television series of our generation: Scooby-Doo.

Cool. Except I don’t wanna be Velma!!

Today on set, these Scooby-ish parallels began to show. We started off our day shooting the arrival of the team in Kelowna. The Juanabees van (‘The Mystery Machine’) rolls up to the resort, stops and the team piles out. Great, nice easy shot. Stewart (‘Shaggy’, played by Kennedy Goodkey) drives the van, hits the mark perfectly, we get out of the van and hit our actor marks. The van doesn’t understand that once it hits its mark, it is to stay in position. No. It wants to be the center of attention and pull focus from the actors so it starts rolling backwards. David Nykl [below, wearing hat] stays in character as Paul (or is that Fred?) and simply points out the rolling van to Stewart, who saves it from rolling into the hotel guests’ parked cars. Umm, no need to try to recreate this golden comedic moment for our other takes – it happened every time. The Juanabees van just didn’t ‘juana’ stay put.

Then we moved inside the lobby of the Manteo Resort (soooo beautiful!) for our next shot of the day. Paul runs into some problems with the team’s room reservations and pisses off the wrong hotel clerk (played masterfully by Rebecca Coleman). The scene starts with Paul, in line to check in and the rest of the team enters part way through the scene. So Stewart, Sondra (‘Daphne’ played by Leanne Jijian Hume), Neville (‘Scooby-Doo’, no acting required by Roger Haskett), Ernie (sharing the role of ‘Scrappy’, played by Fabrice Grover) and Leslie (moi) enter into the scene just when Paul is losing our room reservations. While waiting for action, Fabrice and Leanne were chatting with one of the employees of the Manteo. I stepped in to join the conversation only to have this resort employee turn to me look me up & down and say, “You must be the ‘Velma’ character.” Jinkies!

Lesson learned. Spend less time wishing I wasn’t cast in a role reminiscent of the unattractive, closeted lesbian character from a ’70s cartoon, spend more time manifesting a fabulous experience in B.C.’s stunning Okanagan with an unbelievably fantastic assembly of crew, cast, and countless volunteers. No need. It’s already manifested!

— Bronwen

P.S.: Check out my cat Hornhine on www.cutewithchris.com, he's a guest star on episode #115 and his name is mentioned on this week’s episode #120!

"Next!!" — A tale of two hats (part deux)

Well, here it is, the big day. The day I have been looking forward to all these months. Today I get to shoot my scene.

We were shooting today at the Manteo Resort (www.manteo.com), which is — to quote the script — "gorgeous". Right on the lake, beautiful buildings, and our holding is in a large upstairs room with a massive deck overlooking the resort and the water. A far cry from yesterday's holding — this felt like the lap of luxury.

The first shot of the day was of “Paul” and the gang (henceforth known as the Scoobys), entering the resort in their van and getting out at the front entrance. The second scene takes place inside the resort, at the check-in counter, and I am the check-in clerk. Unbeknownst to Paul, however, there has been some sabotage, and the check-in does not go smoothly.

Because we were shooting at the actual check-in counter of the actual resort, we had to actually stop, fairly often actually, to let the the actual check-in clerks do their actual job.

I went to set around noon, I think, complete with my funky, green Manteo uniform. The scene was further complicated by the presence of background performers; necessary for sure, but adding an extra layer of work for our Director, Craig March [photo, right].

We wrapped up the whole scene around 4:30. There was no way we could stop for lunch, because the Manteo people were being so great letting us use their space, we needed to get the shot and get out of there as fast as possible. So we just pushed through. I was pretty pooped by the end of it. I think I had only had a bagel for breakfast, and then some kind of power bar thingy, so by the time we got to the end of the scene, I was tired and hungry, and we were all getting a little punchy.

Still, it felt great. The work was good, I think, and we had so much fun. It was amazing for me to be there, on set, with the other actors, to take my place there, to rightfully belong.

My favourite part of the day, however, had nothing to do with acting or being on set. It was after, at the ranch, eating dinner, having a glass of wine around the big table outside with the gang. Talking, telling stories about our days and our lives, just kicking back and hanging out.

We also stayed up to watch the 11 o'clock news together. CHBC aired a story on The Beast of Bottomless Lake.

Pretty perfect day.

— Rebecca

The Beast Un-Leashed (Tuesday Crew Report)

It's this time of year that the Ogopogo sightings start each season and old timers (including myself) will confirm this.

I never imaged that there would be an Ogopogo-based movie in the Okanagan and I would be part of the crew. Day Two was a scorcher with the temperature at 30°C [or 85°F] on the rocks over-looking the lake. What a location: the landscape highlighted with the burned-out trees from the 2003 big burn in the Valley.

I am up this second day of the shoot with Kennedy Goodkey and actor Mike Antonakos (the bad guy in a comedy?) in a VW van named ‘Little Miss Jaunabys’ or some such.

On the way up we stopped for supplies in Westbank B.C. and said ‘hello’ to veteran actor John B. Lowe, who was just leaving town for back east. On the set in east Kelowna, we had to pack in the ‘jib boom’ and other camera-related equipment. The set is only about 200 acres, but we are all over the hillside with Okanagan Lake as a back drop [image right; ©2007 Fabrice Grover]. You got to see this movie just for these views.

I helped with camera crew in am then set up jib boom and then back to the "Circus" or craft area. Today is media day as well, as the local TV station sent out a crew and then the local radio station interviews Rebecca our publicist [check out her post about Media Day below]. Actor Mark gives us the native pronunciation of the Breast which sort sounds like “Na Hi It” (please don't write me letter about that).

Back to the "ranch" and crew headquarters with David Jevons who fills in today as 1st AD. Everyone is red with sunburns and dog tired. Me too.

The picture below I personally took about 10 years ago, in Okanagan lake [click for big version]. Who knew?

Night all.

— Ted Farkas

The Heat Was Hot, We Nearly Froze

It was Tuesday the 15^th of May.

We started early due to the inevitable first day jitters of "wow, did we bite off more than we could chew?"

Other than that, all of us were stoked for the new day of shooting.

We arrived to the location around 9AM. It appeared to be a great day for lighting, with barely a cloud in sight.

However, it's best if you're used to being in desert-like terrain with little shade in sight. If you are, then you'd already understand that the morning is deceivingly slightly cool which, as the day goes by, grows in intensity to a temperature at which heat stroke is nearly impossible to avoid.

I, myself, suffered the wrath of such a merciless terrain. Yet I, nor the crew or cast was about to be beaten by sickness and fatigue of the blasted heat.

We carried on following the ideal which had been laid out by a man who did so much for the independent film community. As a result of his example of dedication, that for us to be attempting the near impossible — to go far beyond just a simple harsh terrain, a budget that most would laugh at, or nearly being shut down due to a ignorant Union — nothing could stop us.

— Devin Schule

A tale of two hats

If there’s one thing you learn in a hurry about making an independent feature film, it’s that everyone pitches in. The name of the game is getting the job done, and if that means that the star of the film has to schlepp equipment, well, then so be it.

I am no exception to this rule. I wear two hats in this production — I serve as publicist, and also as an actor.

Tuesday, it was publicity. We sent out a media call to the press, inviting them to come by and get some footage of us shooting the film, and interview some of the key players. It was very successful. CHBC showed up to shoot footage for the evening news, Shaw showed up to get footage for their magazine, the Kelowna Daily Courier sent a photographer, and then CKOV showed up to do an interview for the radio.

Despite being run off my feet, it was great. A great success by any standard.

It’s a big deal for us to be getting this kind of coverage. We are a small production, low budget, and in order for us to be successful, we need to build a buzz. And the press is a big part of that.

Woo-Hoo!

Add to that the fact that we had a great day of shooting, despite the fact that one of our crew got heatstroke. It was freakin’ gorgeous here today, 28°, hot and sunny. Did I mention the spectacular scenery? And the incredible work?

I love this.

Tomorrow’s hat: actor. Bitchy hotel clerk lives.

Check back.

— Rebecca

International Affairs (and Break-Ups)

There are times when you say things and times when you don't say things; I don't often know the difference, which can be charming at times, and at times it can get you (meaning me) kicked out of countries (meaning Canada) on the day before I was supposed to join fellow Beasts on the travel to the (only mythical, to me) land of Kelowna, to assist crewing on this great motion picture, which I stumbled across last year on the internet and have been intrigued by ever since…

Basically what happened is — after four hours on a train and four hours on a bus — I said too much to the Canadian border guard(s) about my prospective activities, who told me I couldn't enter without a work permit, made me walk back across the border in shame, only to be harassed by the American border guards who thought I was trying to sneak in from Canada… then wait three hours for a bus, during which time I made the embarrassing call to Kennedy to let him know that I would not be making it to the shoot, and after which time, I had to board the bus last, due to my ‘thug’ status.

I was somewhat delirious by this time, as I hadn't eaten much and had almost been kicked out of two countries, so it thankfully all seemed kind of funny.

Sitting near me on the bus back to Seattle, there were these two teenage Canadian boys who were all excited about moving to the States; sad that they wouldn't be able to go to bars, happy that they could still buy cigarettes, wondering where all the enormous road signs were (?), laughing about gallons and miles, and suddenly one of them became very panicked that there might not be any Tim Hortons in the U.S. (which there are not, except for a few on the East Coast). The other one assured him that this was preposterous, ‘of course there are Tim Hortons everywhere!’ I almost opened my mouth, but I thought, this just might be one of those times when you don't say something.

So I practised not saying anything. And now there are two teenage boys wandering around Seattle searching for a Tim Hortons that doesn't exist. But that's how it rolls in international travels, boys. That's just how it rolls.

Anyway, I wish everyone the best of luck on the shoot and thanks for allowing me to be a part of it… you have my support from the lawful distance of bordering lands!

— Brie Williams

Wrestling, pants, “Big-Me”, and drawing

In the film, I have to wear short shorts, but I didn’t have any. So my Mom cut off my jeans with the hole in the knee and made them into short shorts. I started singing: “Who wears short shorts? I wear short shorts!”

Also, to pass the time while I was waiting to film, I drew a drawing of me wrestling three tires and a hockey stick. Then Craig March — the director of The Beast of Bottomless Lake — saw my drawing and put it in the film! Finally, my other “art” has been put on display!

When we were filming, I had to go into freezing water with socks and sandals and wrestle three tires and a hockey stick (Ogopogo). It was fun because I got to make all these weird, funny faces in front of a camera!

Since I play the younger version of the main character ‘Paul’, I had to look like David Nykl, so I loaned him the necklace I wore during the shoot. Now he looks just like me! We call ourselves “Big-Me” and “Mini-Me”!

Thanks to Craig, Kennedy, Keith, and the rest of the Beast… gang for this great experience!

See you on the big screen!

— Thomas Fournier

Union Tale Finale

Oh this is precious.

I’m really just going to let this one speak for itself, with the minimal amount of set up.

An email from a few days after we submitted our package to UBCP:

From: Lesley Brady
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 4:18 PM
To: Kennedy Goodkey
Subject: Beast of....

Kennedy:

We will require the completed list (appendix A) with all partners listed and signed off before we can counter sign to accept it. How soon will you be able to get that? Also, when do you go to camera?

Regarding your insurance, will you please provide, when available, proof of your insurance?

Thanks,

Lesley Brady
Business Agent, Film & Television
Union of BC Performers

And my response:

From: Kennedy Goodkey
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 4:32 PM
To: Lesley Brady
Subject: RE: Beast of....

Lesley,

Partners list... oh crap... we've had a miscommunication then. From my understanding of your's and my previous conversation, the real concern was the UBCP members - and the rest could wait.
Umm, I will look at it first thing tomorrow and get a realistic guess. With so many of the partners in the Okanagan<>th,

Insurance... I understand that it was paid today - I will make arrangements to have proof send ASAP.

Kennedy

The day I dutifully got those additional signatures in was Monday May 7^th. That day Lesley and I had about email exchanges and again the next day. The specific content is rather dull and boring, the important point being that we talked several times back and forth about the details of the additional signatures and nothing else – I have these emails, but I’m not going to bore you with them.

Since then…

Not a word. Not a thing. We have waited by the phone for the call saying “Alright! Go ahead!”
Today is the last business day before we go to camera. Still nothing. With two hours before the Union office closed I sent the following email as a response to the thread that inquired and provided a response to our first day of filming – so all of that information was included:

From: Kennedy Goodkey
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 2:30 PM
To: Lesley Brady
Subject: RE: Beast of....

Hi Lesley,

Just checking in to see where things are at on your end in the MIP?

- Kennedy

The response: (I have redacted the names of the innocent.)

From: Lesley Brady
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 2:30 PM
To: Kennedy Goodkey
Subject: RE: Out of Office AutoReply: Beast of....

Thank you for your email. Please note that I am currently away on vacation and will not be returning until Monday, May 28^th.

If you require more immediate assistance please redirect your email to Txxxx Cxxxx, Manager Film & Television at txxxx.cxxxx@ubcp.com.

If your inquiry is regarding our Ultra Low Budget Program, please forward your inquries to Lxxxx Lxxxxx at lxxxx.lxxxxxx@ubcp.com.

Thanks and have a great day.
Lesley Brady

Do you think she ONCE mentioned that she was going away? No.

I sent the following email to the redacted ladies mentioned above:

From: Kennedy Goodkey
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 3:21 PM
To: lxxxx.lxxxxxx@ubcp.com; txxxx.cxxxx@ubcp.com
Subject: RE: Out of Office AutoReply: Beast of....

Lxxxx & Txxxx - (Apologies I'm not quite certain which of you this should be addressed to.)

We have a MIP application in to Lesley Brady (Submitted April 23rd) and we have not heard back on it. We go to camera on Monday (May 14^th) which she was explicitly informed of on April 25^th, if it was not communicated earlier. I.E. Today is the last business day. We even emailed each other as recently as Tuesday of this week - and I felt all looked well so I did not worry.

Until today...

I sent her an email inquiring about the status a few minutes ago and got the Out of Office Auto-Reply directing me to each of you in various circumstances, and I'm not sure which applies.

Sorry that this is very 'last minute' - the folly of my being too patient.

My number here is 604-xxx-xxxx. Or via email at this address.

I'm not sure what the prudent way to proceed would be.

- Kennedy Goodkey

Now, there IS a happy ending to the story. Redacted Lady #1, Lxxxx (which is not pronounced the way it is spelled) phoned the Provost Pictures office around 4pm with news.

Long story short: The person who is signing off on the application was not available before Lesley left for vacation. The application will likely be signed off on on Monday. If not it will be shortly thereafter. Lesley just neglected to inform us.

“So, let me get this absolutely clear, Lxxxx. We can go ahead with impunity, despite not having official word.”

“Yes.”

“Thanks Lxxxx.”

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go find a squirrel to shit upon.

— Kennedy

A Bird Shit on a Squirrel

This may be my last entry until we are finished shooting. It almost certainly will be until we return from K-Town.

We've taken to calling the Okanagan portion of the shoot 'K-Town' which is a bit of a misnomer. We are shooting in Kelowna — which has a store called 'K-Town Souvenirs', so I suppose Kelowna is K-Town. But in fact we are shooting more in Summerland (home of the late — and arguably first great — Canadian playwright, George Ryga) than anywhere else.

Craig has left for K-Town this evening. I am left here. My 'to-do' list is by now very short and can be summed up by the single word 'pack.' Saying that all I have left to do is 'pack' is a bit specious though. What I have to do is pack a fully ordinanced army and get them to K-Town by Saturday.

Sleep? Whatever. I remember what sleep tastes like. It IS something that you taste… right?

I soldier on.

I don't know who it was who first said something to the effect of ‘commit to your shooting date and all the problems will solve themselves.' I should point out that anyone who can't make that claim is a failed independent film-maker and has no credibility to take seriously. So far we've had a lot of luck in the 'problems will solve themselves' department. Especially in the past three days. A lot of ulcer-makers have in fact solved themselves.

For example, 45 minutes after our third (yes, THIRD) special props builder who was building the 'Ness-Sled' called to bail on me, my upstairs neighbour — entirely unaware of my plight — knocked on my door to tell me about a friend of his who he works with who… do I even have to finish this sentence?

The list goes on. And I think a lot of that has to do with the act of soldiering on, not caring about the crap that comes your way.

Late last week I was on the phone with Craig — we must talk more than he and his wife have this month — and was in the middle of explaining some situation or another to him (it's truly irrelevant what). As I was talking, a squirrel was walking along the fence in front of the office (oh, how I long for the day when I can call it an 'apartment'… 'MY apartment' again) when suddenly out of the blue, swooped a bird. And the damned thing shit-bombed the squirrel! Dead on, too! The squirrel kept on walking.

Whatever sentence I was in the middle of saying was immediately high-jacked by the exclamation "A bird just shit on a squirrel!"

How unlikely is it that a bird would try that, let alone actually hit? And the squirrel just kept on going along the fence.

Craig suggested that that should be our motto: "A bird shit on a squirrel." No matter how bizarre or unlikely the mishap, keep soldiering on, just like that squirrel.

And it seems as though there is nothing left that can stop us.

Well, there IS the union thing again.

"Again?", you ask, "What ‘Union thing’?"

Well, we didn't talk about it before for any number of political reasons. But it's now too late for it to be an issue. Last Summer when we postponed, it wasn't quite as our official story has been, that “the forest fires in the US blew too much smoke into the Okanagan”; which they did, but we COULD have shot through that, as unpleasant as it would have been. It was the actors’ union. OUR union. They refused to let us make the movie. I'm not going to get into it in detail. Suffice to say that with less than two weeks to go, they disallowed our low-budget waiver. Our waiver which clearly met all the stated stipulations of the low-budget program.

Over the past months they provided us a new option - a new option which we are the pilot project for. The MIP - Member Initiated Production. We've done our best to help them identify the issues with it, and again we've met the requirements… which was not easy, as they several times told us one thing, then turned around and told us that they had made a mistake and that the 'other thing' was the case. One of these cost us nearly two weeks… ending only earlier this week! The other was solved in a day… ALSO this week.

I may elaborate later, but I've got an army to move.

For the record, the union requires that you submit TWO weeks in advance. We submitted in advance three weeks to the day.

We shoot on Monday. Five days away from my writing this. They still haven't said 'yes.' And when they do, we still have to make offers to our cast's agents… uh, WHEN am I doing THAT? Remember I have to muster the army?! Craig is already in K-Town with David.

The fact is, we've committed far too many resources to this project already; resources we can't get back. And by now, all our Union actors are producers of the project. If the Union happened to say 'no' right now, do you think there is a labour court in the country that would agree with them and say "You can't be in this film THAT YOU ARE PRODUCING"?! I doubt it.

But let's say that anywhere between tomorrow morning and Monday when cameras roll and no-one is here in 'Provost Pictures’ Office' to take the call, that the Union calls and says "Sorry!" Not that this is how they did it last time; last time they left voice mail just as they closed their office for a long-weekend, the cowards!

It just doesn't matter what kind of shit bomb they dump on us, we're going to keep walking along that fence.

In any case, it's fucking asinine that we've now TWO business days before the shoot and we haven't heard from them.

— Kennedy

A Good Start

Kennedy asked me to write a little something about our first few days of shooting. Overall, it would appear we are off to a good start on the production. The crew all arrived in Penticton late on Sunday night and set-up to film the actor playing Buck being attacked by the Ogopogo. Through the dense clouds of smoke from the fog machine and ‘special aquatic effects’ (i.e.: buckets of water) the first scene of The Beast of Bottomless Lake was finally filmed.

After only a few hours sleep we were all up the next morning and off to Kelowna to visit our friends at CATO. Further interviews of potential crew transpired. We even had one résumé with "Pyrotechnics (self taught)" listed. It was nice to catch up with familiar faces from the casting last year.

Shari, our excellent DP decided on sushi for lunch and we managed to find the slowest take-away in the Okanagan.

We visited the Kelowna Princess and looked around, chatting to Bob the skipper. We found out that over 25 weddings have taken place on the boat, all on the same day! It was then off to see the Summerland yacht club where we found they have had a new bar put in. They must of known I was coming.

The next day saw us at a marina to film the real Buck and his news interview. Despite cold temperatures the crew soldiered on. Patrick, our slightly eccentric sound guy insisted the sub-zero weather was nothing and wore a T-shirt. He then removed a sock to help fashion a furry! The more sane members of the cast and crew grabbed whatever was near to hand to keep warm, be it other crew members' clothes or the crew themselves. Kennedy, our illustrious writer, found that his raging heart was all that was needed to keep him toasty and proceeded to flirt with our glamorous newscaster Dorothy. Obviously, as I run an equal opportunities production, I will now be insisting he flirts with all our actors, both male and female, for the rest of the shoot.

The search still continues to fill our final crew positions. We were hoping to hire more locals from the Okanagan but it seems they are all still hibernating from the cold. If anyone out there is interested please contact Provost Pictures, you never know you may end up part of the dream team. There are only a few weeks to go till production starts.

In the afternoon the sun came out and we filmed Chief Bigsky (pronounced Big-ski). It was a beautiful moment that reduced our sensitive director to tears. An eagle even soared overhead watching the set with a keen eye. That reminds me: I really must cut the craft services budget.

We are still looking for a van for the film. If you or anyone you know has a VW camper-style van, please get in touch. There are also the last few shares in the movie available for sale. I’m sure investment analysts around the world are rushing for these, so act fast.

— David Jevons, Producer