Hey, here are some videos! I’m having a lot of fun goofing off on Instagram, but you can see here some evidence of my 25+ years experience as a producer of film and video
Timelapse Sketching
Whose Skull is it Anyway?
The Darth Maul Basketball Cake Part 1
The Darth Maul Basketball Cake Part 2
Here’s a video I produced years ago as part of a series on mental health in the classroom for the Ontario Ministry of education, for which I also created this infographic:
thesubstream.com
For 5 years I made a living that included creating several 5-10 minute web-bound videos per week, which meant shooting, editing, graphics, animation and music – mostly all done by me. Many of these were on-the-fly video reviews but we also released at least one pre-planned documentary or DIY filmmaking guide under our THE FILM LAB imprint every week for 5 years.
THE FILM LAB (weekly)
What's So Great About Batman?
I wrote, produced and directed this documentary about Batman - Why is this character so damn captivating to movie-going audiences?
One of the best little docs I was able to make while working with thesubstream.com. I spent the day with Josh Pelham and his crew of grip/lighting techs and got some great material - these guys are quite the cast of characters.
thesubstream.com had a partnership with William F. White International Inc. which allowed us to get our hands on some pretty cool gear (and subsequently show viewers how it works and what it's used for).
Building an Elevator - Part 03: Set Dressing/Visiting a Prop rental House
After I helped our friend Matt brown build his elevator set for a short film he was working on, we brainstormed several set dressing options. This led to a fun field trip at Lock Up Props, a magical place not unlike the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Matt's elevator is built so now comes the shoot. Luckily, the gang in The FIlm Lab got a great deal on an equipment package from their partners at Whites Interactive. What a great opportunity to show a DOP in action using affordable gear and lighting a complicated set while ALSO making a cool live-action short?
Are comic book superhero movies here to stay, or are we knee deep in what will end up being nothing more than a fad? This debate was held 2 years ago in thesubstream.com's Film Lab - the discussion is still relevant today!
As part of thesubstream/com's On Location documentary series I followed location manager Jed Metzger around for a day. One of my favourite projects of the past 5 years!
As you can imagine this took a lot of planning and more than its fair share of thinking on one’s feet, and eventually a fair bit of pre-programming too. Being part of a young upstart company allowed for the creation of several video series unique to our site including my baby, 2 MINUTE CRITIC which featured a stopwatch and everything. Having an established template for each video helped us get in an efficient groove and made our ambitious output attainable.
REVIEWS ‘N’ SUCH (weekly)
2 Minute Critic: Brave
I came up with this easy-to-shoot and fun to watch movie review series featuring some quick-on-the-draw critics giving you the goods in an unedited 2 minute blast. Complete with timer and a buzzer.
Every friday for 5 years thesubstream.com published an episode of Watch This Instead - a video movie review with an alternate viewing suggestion tacked on the end. These reviews would be turned around at breakneck speed - we'd often shoot, cut and publish within the span of an hour or so.
RIDLEY SCOTT - The VERY IMPORTANT DUDES and DUDETTES of FILM HISTORY
Every once in awhile we Masterpiece Theatre'd the shit out of our studio and Matthew Price of the long-running MAMO podcast would give an analytical overview of a film history hero.
Every season our pals Matt Brown and Matthew Price from the long-running MAMO podcast gave us the lowdown with their TIFF Bell Lightbox programming preview. Who better?
Oh, also, I pushed myself to the brink every September during Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival – I was shooting and editing a 10 minute video every night in order to upload content mere hours later. We also covered HotDocs and the Oscar race this way. Fun times! Busy, but fun.
EVENT COVERAGE (daily)
Midnight Madness 2012! Night No. 10: John Dies At The End
Every year for 5 years thesubstream.com covered the Midnight Madness program of the Toronto International Film Festival. This means that every year for five years I stayed up for 10 days straight, shooting, cutting and publishing these videos a mere 12 hours after the fact.
We're pretty lucky to live in a city that not only has the Toronto International Film Festival but a world class documentary film festival as well. Every April thesubstream.com covered HotDocs which sometimes gave us the chance to talk to filmmakers like Morgan Spurlock.
Every year at Oscar time the substream.com predicted the winners and to do so we turned to our resident numbers guy Mike 'The Greek" for his special insight.
