I hope everyone had a great holiday break, and the new year is going well so far. My “Fav Film Friday” series took a break over the holidays so I could spend time with family and finish my latest short film, GIFTS. But no fear! Fav Film Friday will be back up and running this coming Friday with great short films!
As I mentioned, over the holiday I spent time working on GIFTS. At the beginning of December I completed the final edit of GIFTS, and sent it off to Dave Johnson who scored the film. Dave is based in Dartmouth Nova Scotia, and has lots of experience creating original music for films and video games. Throughout December, I worked with Dave on the GIFTS score, exchanging notes and drafts until the score was complete. GIFTS is a very visual film, ten minutes in length with only a one minute scene containing dialogue. So, it was really important that the film be supported by a great score. It was an absolute pleasure working with Dave, and I am delighted with the final score.
I would also like to sincerely thank filmmaker Colin MacDonald for connecting me with Dave. Check out the trailer for Colin’s newest film, Presence, on Colin’s website.
Over the holiday break I also did the remaining colour grading, and my Dad did some minor visual effects work on a couple of shots (to fix continuity issues), and then GIFTS was finished! After plenty of happy dance outbursts, we had a private showing at my house for the cast and their families. It’s fantastic being able to see my ideas and shots come to life as I imagined.
I will be entering GIFTS into a few festivals (NFFTY, TIFF, CIFF) so I cannot yet publish the film on my website. However, I will soon be publishing a trailer in a few weeks (also scored by Dave) which contains original footage, and that hopefully gives a sense of the main character’s struggle. So keep an eye out for the trailer.
We are now planning a local screening of GIFTS, date and location (in Ottawa) to be determined. If you are interested in attending, please contact me.
Here is a new production still from GIFTS:
GIFTS – Poster image
Finally, make sure to come back this Friday for Fav Film Friday #9!