Ten Years

I don't know if I've written about this on this blog at all, but even if I have, this is still an appropriate time to do so again.

Keith Provost 1960-2001

It was ten years ago this weekend that I was sitting on the couch in my tiny apartment in the West End watching a documentary on SPACE (the Canadian equivalent of SyFy).  It was a truly ridiculous documentary about sasquatch hunters.  These guys were so clearly beyond reason that the documentary was pretty much an unintentional comedy.  I knew that it was prime inspirational material for the film that Craig and Keith and I were working on.  I picked up the phone and called Keith.  There was no answer.  I left a message on the answering machine encouraging him to watch the show when it re-aired in six or eight hours, whatever the rotation was.

At that point we had developed the script to a fairly high-functioning treatment (basically a detailed outline with substantial sections of dialogue).  We had the interest of a local producer and things were looking really promising.

Several hours later the phone rang.  It was Janet, Keith's wife.  Janet and I were friendly, but my relationship was clearly with Keith back then.  It was instantly odd that she was calling - the last time she had called me was months earlier, to prepare for Keith's birthday.

Janet told me about the accident.  He was already gone.

I don't know what exactly I said.  "Oh my god, Janet."  Or something equally as shocked and empty.  She asked me if I would make phone calls to get the word out.  Naturally I couldn't turn her down.  That was one of the most difficult tasks I ever had to do.  I did a terrible job of the first call.  I approached it like any other phone call with small talk off the top.  The news totally blindsided the person I called.  I'm still sorry about that, T.  Sure the news was going to blindside anyone, but it was immediately clear that the only remotely "good" way of imparting the news was as immediately as possible.  I did tell one friend to call me when he was home, or at least not in public on his cellphone.  I'd recently been party to a pair of sisters getting bad news about their father on the bus on a cellphone.  The worst part of that experience was the sister who wasn't on the phone was getting the news the same way all us strangers who had unwillingly been pulled into the conversation as eavesdroppers were getting the news.

I called everyone in my phone book who knew Keith, then went into my bedroom and screamed into my pillow for god knows how long.  Somehow I managed to go to work and put in a full shift - though I booked off the next few days.

A friend of mine picked me up from after my shift and took me home to her place and held me all night.  We had been lovers, but that was not on the agenda at this time - we were beyond it.  This was strictly me needing someone to hold me until I was ready to face the first full day without Keith.  I didn't sleep that night.  I just lay in bed. methodically re-playing every moment of my friendship with Keith over in my head.

I still can't believe he is gone some days.  I definitely can't believe it has been ten years - more than twice as long as we were friends.  I am now almost two years older than he ever was.  I cannot look at a photo of him and see an older man.  That seems amazing and even a little impossible to me, but despite that kneejerk reaction, it is true.

I'm alone tonight, no one to hold me.  Jodie and December are visiting grandma.  But I think I'm going to try re-imagining those years when Keith was one of my best friends as best I can.  It has been ten years, it's time to honour him once again.

So what exactly IS on the DVD?

Hey, I am glad you asked. I'm pretty darned happy with the package we've created, and I'm itching to boast about it.

Of course the movie is on the DVD in full resolution and in the unbranded equivalent of a major stereo format.

Deleted scenes including:

     - The original end of the film.

     - A sub-plot line revolving around the character I played, Stewart.

     - A secret insight into the background of Lesley Morgenstern.

     - More of Stewart at the police Station.

     - Neville's encounter with a very frightening creature (played by my niece, Kaz).

     - Several extended sequences of Neville absurdity.
     - A nod to Canadian film royalty.

Two commentaries:
     - One featuring Craig and I having a lot of fun talking about the process of making the film.
     - One hosted by our star, David Nykl, featuring a discussion with the Science Advisor on The Beast of Bottomless Lake, Stan Orchard (who was one of several scientists involved as experts in one of the most famous Ogopogo sightings, "The Chaplin Film.") and Daniel Loxton, editor of Jr. Skeptic Magazine and a big fan of cryptozoology.  They discuss the history of Ogopogo sightings and other cryptozoological oddities, the relationship between ambition and science, the role of pseudo-science in society and of course just how accurate (and innaccurate) the science in Beast is.

Three 'making of' featurettes:
     - One highlighting the course of one entire day on the set of The Beast of Bottomless Lake.
     - One showing the highlights and hi-jinx from over 24 hours of behind the scenes footage that was shot during the filming of the movie.
     - One that is guaranteed to be the highlight of the bonus features.  I can't even say much about it, as to tell anything not only spoils one of the great moments in the film, but also ruins the surprise of one of the most ironic things that could have (and did) happen to us while we were filming on Okanagan Lake.  If you've been to a Q&A session with us you may have heard about this.  Otherwise get ready for some great footage of the best behind the scenes story we have about making The Beast of Bottomless Lake.

There will be other additional behind the scenes footage released on YouTube in the coming months, but the best will always only be available on the DVD.  The purchasing page is now live.  So go order your copy today.

The DVD Approaches....

The Beast of Bottomless Lake DVD is imminent.


Much of last week - between Stanley Cup Final games - was spent tweaking audio levels on commentaries and picking fonts for chirons in the featurettes. By now everything is out of my hands and we are working on plans for the release party while the manufacturing is completed.

If you are in the region (of Vancouver) on July 15th and you haven't had a chance to see The Beast of Bottomless Lake on a big screen this very seriously could be your last chance.

The party will be at the Denman Cinema starting at 7:30. We will be screening five short films that we have selected from a heap of entries and giving away a prize to the film that the audience deems the best.


We will announce the chosen short films in a day or two.

Also there will be music by The Pucks who have two songs of their CD Martha in The Beast of Bottomless Lake.

There will be door prizes, 50/50 draw and of course beer and wine and popcorn.

Tickets are available at the Denman, online at Stubmatic or if you happen to know one of us, we have tickets available too. They are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

They Kicked Ass Again...

We clearly brought the right guys on as crew.

They just won the Telus WSSF Filmmaker Showdown.... AGAIN.


Poached Earth - 2011 Telus WSSF Filmmaker Showdown - BEST IN SHOW from Patrick M. Henry on Vimeo.


Well done guys!

DVD Pre-orders

It was going to happen eventually - you knew it.

We are currently working on the extras for the DVDs with the intention of having them available for purchase in late June.

What do we have planned for the added features?

(With the necessary disclaimer that any of these planned items could fall through before we get to the final authoring of the discs for any of a variety of reasons.)

We are working on two separate commentaries.  A whole bunch of deleted scenes, including an alternate ending.  Several short "making of" featurettes.

We do not yet know the sticker price on the DVDs as it in part is a result o the cost of making them - which of course we are not finished doing... and as with the cost of Mastering tapes, the price of DVDs is unstable right now due to trickle down from the fact that Japan is where most DVDs are made.

As soon as we have the price fixed we will make orders available on our website, but for now, you can do us a big favour by letting us know if you would like a DVD - the closer we can match our demand the better we can price the final product.  Send us an email at ogopogodvd@gmail.com and give us an email where we can let you know the details as they come in (IE. When DVDs are available we'll tell you precisely how to secure your order and how to pay.)  If you can also let us know how many DVDs you would like and the format (NTSC, PAL, or even Blu-Ray).  We will assume NTSC region zero on all orders unless specified otherwise.

And for those of you in the Vancouver region, we have plans for a DVD release party which should be a lot of fun!

How Surreal....

Well, there we have it folks!  Not that The Beast... can't do more, or go further than a Canadian cable broadcast - indeed we hope it will and are working on possibilities, at least one of which is essentially a certainty.

Last Wednesday night - almost late afternoon here on the West coast - Super Channel had it's first screening of the film.

I had taken my family back to my hometown on short notice to see my father who had recently had knee replacement surgery.  It was good timing.  While we were there, Dad and his wife ordered Super Channel and we invited some of their other grandkids as well as the band that lives in Prince George that plays two songs in the film - the Pucks - to come over and watch the film with us.

I must admit that it was kind of odd.

On one hand, I've seen the film on TV before... or at least on A TV.  So in that sense there was nothing remarkable about the viewing.  Indeed, I sat in the kitchen (still in view of the screen, but very off-axis) and drank beer and listened to people's reactions.  But on the other hand there was the knowledge that at the same time there could be people in Halifax and Montreal and Kenora and Moose Jaw and Kamloops all watching the same broadcast.  It's something I could really only grasp intellectually - it didn't really feel any different than watching a DVD screener.

I grudgingly suppose it is now only a matter of time before the damned thing is available in pirated form for download*.... sigh.


*THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION!

BIG News!!! ...that is pretty much out of the bag already.

If you are a member of our Facebook group or are connected to us by just about any other means but this blog you already know this...

The Beast of Bottomless Lake has been purchased by Super Channel!

The first showing is April 6th with over a dozen and a half showing scheduled for April (and possibly beyond.)

Obviously this is very cool from our perspective.  Rewind in time to the first post of this blog.  Back then we were just a couple of guys with a big dream, no budget and a lot of heart.  We are now just two weeks away from being film-makers with a broadcast history - which is a BIG threshold to have passed.

I've mentioned the idea of the "four Everests" before... each stage of making a film is like climbing Everest.  Pre-production; production (shooting); post-production and distribution.  Over this past month I have really had to face that metaphor.  Distribution has been a rough road.  We "finished" the film in early 2010.  (The quotes are because we had to do more work on it to close this deal.)  It took a long time, more than one aborted attempt, plus sucesses at film-festivals and so on to get to this sale - and I for one had all but given up hope.  But getting a first sale, makes secondary sales much more likely.  When the call came from our sales agent we could hardly believe it.  Fortunately we had just asked one of our investors for assistance with his business acumen on a number of things (most of which are still up coming), and he was indispensible to have available through the last month.

At some point I may write about the sometimes Kafka-esque process of getting the film ready for broadcast, but to be perfectly honest portions of it were simply too emotionally exhausting for me to want to revisit it so soon... which is also part of why it took so long to get around to posting this announcement on the blog.

Back to the fourth Everest...  It occurs to me now, that as arduous as these past few weeks have been, and how satisfying it is to know that Beast is going to be on TV, and that that represents in a sense the scaling of the fourth Everest... the reality is that the fourth Everest either never ends, or only ends when no one wants to see your film anymore.  Sobering thought.

I will share one small funny story about un-anticipated issues...

When I say "funny," I should be clear - I do NOT mean "ha-ha funny."  Not in a million years as in this case the background to what makes it "funny" involves the deaths of thousands of people.

In order to prepare the film for broadcast the movie had to be mastered to HD-SR tape.  There is one factory in the world that makes HD-SR tapes... in Sendai Japan.  Since the factory was severely damaged ten days ago there has been a worldwide run on HD-SR tapes - check this out on eBay, the price is outrageous.  Our budget for tapes practically doubled as trickle down from the earthquake.  Which compared to the chaos in Japan is nothing - beyond insignificant.  And to be doubly clear... the couple hundred dollars extra we have to pay is really nothing even compared to our own budget.  We suck it up.  We move on.  We hope the best for people in Japan.