By Shane Belcourt - writer/director/dp
July 23rd, 2007

Well, things are just flying by now. Last I wrote I was telling you how exciting it was to even start the film production. Here we are a couple months later and the film has been shot, edited, and now we're moving onto the finer details of post-production. Jordan is doing some sound things, I gotta do some image tweaks, and we got Amanda Strong doing some posters and all of that promo kind of thing. It, we, are trucking along.

CAST & CREW Report

I just want to tell you about two things with the film. One, the credits so far. The movie stars Melanie McLaren as "Jolene". She flew up from Los Angeles to take part, I got wind of her from her sister, filmmaker Nadia McLaren. Ya know, in like 3 minutes after the film comes out her cell phone is going to start ringing. She's going to break your heart, it's good.

Duane Murray, my brother in arms, took the other lead, "Ray". Duane didn't want to act in this. He wanted to co-direct and co-write, the things we usually do together on productions of ours. This time I just told him he had to do it, no choice, just do it. He did. He's amazing. He's going to break your heart a little too.

The other main part went to Lorne Cardinal as "Max". Lorne was ace to work with. He flew in while shooting Corner Gas, the big hit show he's on, among many other things he does, and just spent a couple days with us nailing it out of the park. Like his brother Lewis Cardinal, who the character was inspired by, Lorne is an amazingly generous human being. His wife came in also, Cheri Maracle, who plays his on-screen wife, "Linda". Cheri is outstanding. She had a small part, but you'll talk about it after you see it.

Speaking of great performers making so much outta small parts let's round this up: Mike McPhaden and Jeff Geddis are going to make you laugh yer ass off as the "I love Aboriginals!" TV people. Rae Ellen Bodie plays a tarot card reader and again, she just took what was on the page (not much) and made it real special. We had some others come in and do even smaller parts memorably. Suffice to say, the cast was amazing - kudos to Duane to put it all together, to choose the perfect people for each part. (we didn't have the time to "cast" per say, we just had to trust who Duane knew and suggested and cast them on the spot more or less, via email if they said yes.)

The Crew was small, VERY small. We had the crew MVP David Hannan - First AD, Boom, Art Director, Set Dresser, Wardrobe, driver ... I'm probably leaving something out ... oh yeah, one night he made curry for everyone. Oh, he was also the spiritual guru of the film, but I'll get on to that in the end.

We had Wayne Peltier, my brother in law, working as the First Camera Assistant. He was amazing keeping the camera clean and off my shoulder whenever I didn't need it there (it came in at 30lbs so it just about broke my back by the end of things).

We had Matthew Neufeld on as gaffer/grip ... and cat wrangler. (Every house we shot in had cats in it ... next time, since 80% of the cast and crew were allergic to cats, we gotta build some sets or something.) We had Katelyn Lutman doing hair and make up. We had Amanda Strong doing set photos, driving around, and other lousy PA work ... like dropping her cell phone in the toilet ... long story, but it still works. We also had Mike Corbiere and Jordan O'Connor swing by set a day here or there to help out as well, fixing small problems and offering some solutions when my back was against the wall. And that's it ...

Except for the food and some other paperwork which was taken care of by Bridgette Murphy and Amanda Greener (my lady friend). The film was paid for by my line of credit and access to extra overages from my same special lady friend. Which means, um, we're really broke right now ... and our basement just flooded last weekend ... ah ... she's seven months pregnant ... she wins most understanding partner of the world award, no?

Let me just say this, everyone was amazing. I was lucky. As we wrapped up I was sad. I was thinking how amazing all these people are, how small and close the cast and crew was. Don't know how many times we'll make a film this way in our lives. It was special for me.

THE SMUDGE

One thing we did do everyday was smudge. For those that don't know, it's a cleansing or centering ceremony that Aboriginal people do in different ways, but the purpose is always the same in a way: just get a grip, open up, come together. David Hannan led us through each day, burning the sweetgrass and sage and bringing it to each of us so we could smudge in the smoke of it, wash ourselves in it so to speak. Each day we all gathered in a circle, cast and crew, and smudged together.

Talking about smudging seems really ridiculous right now, to be honest. How do you relate something so personal, so powerful, in a little internet blog? I'll just leave it at this: each time the shell came around I asked to have it open my eyes, to open my ears, to say kind words, to stay balanced through the stress of it all, to be open to everyone I was working with. What I wanted was to open my heart, my living source, to the film we were making at hand. The funny thing was, it wasn't satisfied with just the hours of the shoot. The daily smudge started to open me up after working hours and even now, well after the shoot it still lingers. I'm reading this Henry Miller book right now and in one essay he suggest that we all shut up, turn the TV off, and for one hour each day, all together just sit quietly, talk, come together, just put it all down and think about who we are, where are, where we want to go, what it is we should really be doing with our lives, how we should be doing it, how we can do better, just ... think about it and sit quietly. Mr. Miller wonders where we'd be if we allowed for that hour each and every day. We smudged for, what, about 15 minutes together each day for 17 days? Well, that little amount has shaken me up, in the best way, it's woken me up again to when I was younger and full of wonder, not sarcasm and other protection. If I could ever be man enough to allow myself an hour to sit in that place ... hmm ... I better go now ...

FINAL WORDS ... for now

As you can possibly tell from this entry, I'm under the run-around gun right now. Lots going on, lots still to do to get this film "done". But here we are, in the post-production of my debut feature film. If it weren't for friends, family, and everyone mentioned above, well, I'd be sitting somewhere dissatisfied with my life. It's pretty cool to have done this, in so much as it's something I always wanted to try. So, thanks everyone, much more to come ... like the finished film itself. I have to give back so much to the world now, it has given me too much already.

Chi Miigwitch