Last Updated on July 26, 2021
Yup, at the end of every year I like to share some personal jive about myself
and my life for you to get a feel as to the dickwad wad behind the site. If that
interests you? Swell! If not, all good, close this box and move on to the
next News Item.
2008 didn’t wind up being the year I was
hoping it would be. Although I still worked like a race horse on
Steroids, I lost some enthusiasm, writer’s block hit me hard in terms
of screenwriting at the mid year point and my day to day of
over-working myself finally caught up to me hardcore. Result, I was there, I was doing what I had to do
but yet, I wasn’t there. I guess “numb” was the word.
Seeking solace in nature…
On the upside I still managed to do the
things I cherish the most; see the world, bang Mother Nature, meet new
people, live new experiences and work on films. And its through that, when outside of Montréal, Canada, that I realized what was wrong with me this year: It’s time for change.
My life in Montreal is officially played out. The city bores me to tears, the film
industry here is basically dead and the routine I’m in while in town is
killing me. There comes a time in everybody’s life where BIG MOVES have to
be made in order to grow , challenge oneself, renew inspiration and be happy
and that’s what 2008 wound up shouting at me: TIME FOR ACTION. I gave
Montreal all the chances I had. It let me down, I’m done with the city.
Climb, climb, climb…
So now, we’re
at the end of 2008 and yes I do feel better since I figured out the
“problem”. I know what’s wrong and its up to me to fix it. Action/reaction
as they say. So its with anxiousness, hope and a take
charge attitude that I’m anticipating 2009. It is somewhat unfortunate that it took the whole of 2008 for me to
finally come to that conclusion hardcore but hey, it takes the time it
takes. Better later than never. So with that yapped, here are my TOP
POSITIVE and NEGATIVE moments of 2008!
ARROW’ TOP POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES
MOMENTS OF 2007
-POSITIVE MOMENTS-
“SHOOTING THE RED HOURS”
DOP/Co Producer
Donny Broussard and I on the RH set.
. As some of
you may know, I wrote a feature length screenplay called THE RED HOURS in the
year 2000. Eight years and mucho production company that couldn’t pull it off
later, I became sick of the screenplay. It was dated and I wanted to move on.
With that said, I still had some RED HOURS to get out of my system – so what I
did is write a mini version of it, with the goal of shooting the damn thing as a
short film. So the first step was a TEASER TRAILER I shot for it last year. Once
put together, I loathed it and scrapped it (yup a waste of 3000$).
This year
though, Co producer and DOP Donny Broussard and I prepped the short film up and
shot the sucker. It was a great experience. The people were
hospitable, my crew hard working and my cast on the ball. And even though the
shoot was filled with obstacles (what shoot isn’t); it was all good. When you do
what you love, all the bullshit in the world can’t bring you down. I actually
embraced the mishaps – I felt challenged by them and got off on solving
problems. Big thanks to Donny Broussard and his family for accommodating my
sorry ass and thanks to my cast and crew for all their hard work!
Me and actress Amy Wickenheiser on the RH set.
“SHOOTING RECON 2023”
On set as the improved and nuttier Cyber Merc.
.
One thing that I love about working films is that you’re always learning and
growing. Show me somebody that says they know it all – and I’ll show you a
blinded by ego fool. RECON 2023 was a perfect case of that for me. In 2007 I
co wrote RECON 2022 and tackled the role of Cyber Merc in it. My
contribution to the script were what they were and my performance was a
process of “discovery”. But by the time I got to RECON 2023 this year I felt
more confident as a writer (specially when it came to the comedy I had to
deliver) and as an actor in terms of the role. Where I only wrote 1 third of
RECON 2022, I pretty much wrote all of RECON 2023 (director and co writer
Christian Viel contributed to my final draft of the script once I delivered
it ). And where in RECON 2022 I was searching for Cyber Merc, in RECON 2023,
I had found him and played him up with glee. RECON 2023 wound up being a
great learning experience and lots of fun to do. Look for it at SCI FI
LONDON and on DVD next
year!
Teaching writer/director Christian Viel some
lessons!
“CANNES BABY, CANNES!”
Ahh the South of France…
.
This year’s CANNES FILM FESTIVAL was my fav of
all! Third time was the charm! Of course I was there for work first and all that jive, but this year I
pushed myself to partake in and enjoy the Cannes night life more than I ever
did. It surely helped that my buddy and often partner in film crime Deke
Richards was there with me to back my Cannes work up. he also wound up
backing up my party-hard goals. And man did we have a blast! We met so many
new and cool people, attended high profile parties (Van Damme’s shin-dig,
Tyson’s soiree) and relished the gorgeous setting we were in.
It was also
awesome to meet up with so many of my friends down there. Mike Hostench and
Angel Sala of Sitges, David Cholewa of DC MEDIA, journalist Alan Jones and his crew, shite even Christian
Viel and his girl were there! It was like a big movie industry family reunion!
LOVED IT! Straight up, that trip made me appreciate me working
this site ONCE AGAIN. I can think of worst ways to spend two weeks than by seeing
movies in the day and
partying up Cannes by night like nobody’s business. Awesome trip! Although I
doubt I’ll attend Cannes next year (wanna visit other places) – this year’s
foray made for a great send-off!
I love meeting new and cool peeps!
“PREMIERING THE RED HOURS”
Walking the Sitges stage to
present THE RED HOURS.
. After wrapping production on THE RED HOURS, I
shipped off to LA to hang with some friends and edit the film with editor
Michael Nouryeh (100 FEET). After three weeks of hardcore editing we had a rough
cut of the film. Not a final cut – a rough cut. And its with that rough cut that I then flew
to Sitges Spain to present it in its world premiere. Now Sitges has been very
supportive of my career (if you wanna call it that) over the years and I really appreciate
that. I presented DEADEN, RECON 2022 and 100 FEET (alongside writer/director
Eric Red) there.
But this was the first time I came with something that I
had written, produced AND directed. The first screening for the film was for the
Spanish Press and they HATED it. I had never got booed before (apart from in
bed) so it was an interesting experience. It took me four hours to digest how I
felt about it and finally came to the conclusion that yes it sucked, but it was
okay. You put something out there, you have to take the good and the bad – its
how it is. Also, I’m not that sensitive.
Two days later,
the real RED HOURS screening took place. It was playing before EDEN LAKE in a
jam packed auditorium at that. I went up on Stage presented my film to the
mammoth crowd with actor Deke Richards and then sat in with the audience and listened to their reaction.
Once the film ended people clapped and EDEN LAKE director James Watkins even
came up to me to tell me how much he dug it. It went okay. So I hit the bar
after that for
a well earned drink and there more peeps came up to me to tell me how much they liked it (Troma guru Lloyd
Kaufman included). All that to say; the good, the bad – all of it – made for
wonderful experience. During the holidays I will be finishing up THE RED HOURS
in post and will push the f*cker even more come 2009.
Talking RED HOURS to the crowd with RH lead and
best bud Deke Richards!
“WEEK IN QUEBEC”
Canoeing down the river! MADE SENSE!
.
As per every year, when not working my ass off or partying hard, NATURE helps me
keep me sane and smiling. Thankfully my brother Pat feels the same, so we both
took a week off and went to Quebec for some camping, canoeing, kayaking, hiking,
dune-buggy racing and shite. Aside from crashing our Kayak into a rock while
going down some hardcore rapids and almost dying, the trip was amazing. Scenery
was awe inspiring, I got to hike up a mountain (that took 5 hours to reach the
top) and it needs to be said. 4 wheelers are a lot of fun, but driving a Dune
Buggy down some rocky trails was a hoot! I highly recommend it. So yeah, that
trip was a highlight. I appreciated the simplicity that came with living in the
wild with no phones, computers or naggy dames. I call it being in a “real”
reality as opposed to a society imposed one.
Dune-Buggies own!
“LA TIMES!”
So this is LA…
. Every year I hit LA up to hook up with my good bud Eric Red and
his family. While there I of course PR as much as I can and try to see
all my friends that live there. This year even though I didn’t get to see many folks
(I was editing RED HOURS every day), it was still a blast being there. I
can’t think of anybody else I like to talk films, film industry, screenwriting
and hookers with than Eric. Every year I look forward in hooking up with
the lad for some well earned stogies and some weighty man talk. Moreover while
in LA, I got to meet some new and pretty cool folks, partied a tad, saw some
sights, finally went on some rides at the Santa Monica pier and just enjoyed LA
for what is – f*cking LA.
Santa Monica pier – beautiful place!
—————————————————————————————
-NEGATIVE MOMENTS-
“DEATH OF THE FILM INDUSTRY IN MONTREAL”
Est tu Montreal?
. Getting
acting gigs in Montreal, Canada or getting projects off the ground was hard enough when the city was booming, but
it became a joke this year. The film industry here is pretty much dead for
varied reasons that I won’t get into but I will say this about it: I have never
seen a city shoot itself in the foot this severely. And I’ve never seen a city
have such a snobbish attitude towards genre films. Yeah I’m talking action,
horror, sci fi, exploitation…you know, the film’s that MAKE MONEY. It seems
that English Montreal is “too good” for those kind of films. And to that I
say… YOUR LOSS! Enjoy the crickets chirping Montréal cause that’s what you’ll
be hearing for the next what, 5 years, while the Vancouver film industry keeps
churning out projects and making dough.
THE BUGS CAME BACK! F*CKERS!
F*CK BED BUG!
I moved from my last apartment after 3 visits from
the fumigator didn’t rid it from f*cking BED BUGS. So I moved, to a bigger,
cleaner and more expensive building. All was well for half the year until I woke
one morning with rashes all over me, rashes I knew all too well. When I lifted
my mattress, I saw a BED BUG NEST with countless of them blood sucking buggers
going about their business. I lost it. You don’t get it. I lost it. THEY CAME BACK!!! WTF!
I couldn’t believe it. Was it my cologne? So once again, I went on a rampage with
my can of RAID, destroyed
my bed and threw it out in the garbage and called in yet another fumigator. The
bugs have since been MIA and I hope it stays that way. But again, that day they
came back, I LOST IT!
DEATH
One thing that sucks about growing older is that the
older you get, the more you get to witness people close to you die. This year
was no exception. I lost somebody dear to me and yes it hit me hard. I guess I
have to get used to it, cause the more the clock ticks forward, the more people
I love will pass on. Just the way it is…: (
—————————————————————————————
CONCLUSION:
With the JoBlo.com crew – Comic Con 08.
So that’s it for me and 2008. Looking back I actually had more positive
things happen to me than I thought.. On top of the shit listed above; I got
to have a blast with the JoBlo.com crew at the San Diego Con, saw some cool
concerts (Jew, Disturbed, Matthew Good, Motley Crew), did lots of outside
sports (snow mobiling, tree climbing, mountain climbing, skiing, horse back
riding etc.), scored some front row seats at couple of hockey games (yeah I
finally started liking hockey) and got to see some really nice places.
Moreover I got my groove back in November and managed to bang out a script,
one that I’m proud of. I wrote the first draft in a month, something I had
been trying to do all year. Yes, its
somewhat of shame that throughout 2008, I had a black cloud over my head so
often but what can you do. Onward and forward!
Feeling down, zip down a zip-line! You’ll feel
better.
Zoom-zoom….
KILL 2008 AND CHARGE 2009!
HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL!
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