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Working with Massive Travesty on Joan & Jonas

By On February 7, 2011 In BLOG, FILMS, POST-PRODUCTION With No Comments Permanent Link to Working with Massive Travesty on Joan & JonasPermalink

As preparations for our next feature continue, we also thought it was important to work on some shorts locally.

Lucas Madigan did some nice work in his short film Bloor Street Cinema, and we thought we could help some with his next film Joan & Jonas, also written and directed by Lucas.

It navigated through post in September and we are delighted that the Beloit International Film Festival has invited the film to play the fest February 17-20th.

Also, another Ardent short written by myself and directed by Christopher, The Danger of Secrets has been invited to play the festival as well.

It was a pleasure working with Lucas, who is currently hard at work on his documentary feature about comic writer-performer Greg Thomey of This Hour Has 22 Minutes fame.

As a Second City alumnus and an admirer of Thomey’s work in comedy and in the drama The Boys of Saint Vincent, personally I can’t wait to see it.

Nothing To Declare – photos as props

By On September 3, 2010 In BLOG, PRE-PRODUCTION With 2 Comments Permanent Link to Nothing To Declare – photos as propsPermalink

I had an idea for a photo to be used as prop or a piece of set dressing in the next movie, Nothing To Declare.

We’ve been talking to 2 actors we know about playing a pair of Canadian ex-pats in Mexico; Phil Luzi and Jessica Hinkson. I proposed we take what is meant to be a shot of them in their ‘old’ life before Mexico, when they ran a florist’s shop together. The actors were game and had a good sense of humour about doing this, so we agreed – if it didn’t work or we didn’t like the shots, nothing lost.

If you look at this series of images, in order to end up with one that we liked, it does tell a funny little story.

Pansies Are Here! sign; My brain adds an exclamation mark.

Phil and Jessica, as a couple, standing underneath the sign in front of the florist’s.

Perhaps Jessica has realized something about Phil.

This made us all laugh, and gave us something to work with in terms of giving the graphic designer some material he could use.

This is simply candid; I took my chance to shoot Phil and Jess in between poses while they were laughing at themselves. They look lovely here and I just like the photo.

Here is the final art that Craig delivered:

I didn’t tell Craig what the purpose was, but when he finished putting it together and looked at it as a self-contained photo, it made him laugh suddenly.

So it works I think.

Nothing To Declare

By On July 29, 2010 In BLOG With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Nothing To DeclarePermalink
Nothing To Declare

Nothing To Declare one sheet

So, of course, since the creation of a dedicated website for The Devil’s Tail, this poor Ardent Pictures website has appeared neglected.

As we worked hard to get the Devil’s site implemented and keep it up-to-date, we continued showing it at various film festivals in the US, which is of course, another full time job in itself.  The entire DT story can be found on its site, and is still ongoing.

Meanwhile work began overhauling this site and on the script for the new movie, thus far called Nothing To Declare. Continue Reading →

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