Linda Matarasso's View

I used to be a Makeup Artist

2012-02-19T12:19:00.001-05:00

I used to be a Makeup Artist and for over 25 years I unknowingly used toxic products every time I opened my makeup kit. I learned makeup back in the 80's when they said know your ingredients but only taught us that some people were allergic to certain things so we were to do what is called a "skin test" which is applying the product to a small area and seeing whether there is an allergic reaction. In all my years of doing makeup I think only once did I notice an immediate change. I once applied makeup on a bride that was also pregnant and I used an eyeshadow that was a a light rusty brown but after I applied it and it set it changed color to a purple color. I couldn't understand it until I found out that she was pregnant so I realized it reacted to the hormonal changes in her body. I was using MAC eyeshadow which is not tested on animals and is considered the top of the heap in the Professional Makeup World but I realized that some people will react differently and are super sensitive to certain products and their ingredients. Over the many years I think the only thing that I know of that happened was the occasional breakout. I always cleaned my brushes after every use so I am sure that prevented a lot of the problems.

I found with myself on 2 occasions I realized that my eyes were sensitive to products. Once was with a sample that I got from a dermatology department, I used to do billing for dermatologists in a hospital so I had access to samples so I once tried one of them and had a red itchy eye reaction. I stopped using it and it went away.
Another time I had purchased a drug store product that I had purchased before and liked very much but I am assuming they changed the formulation because when I purchased a new jar I had another reaction on my eyes. It was a product that was cucumber looking discs that you put on your eyes for cooling and to reduce puffiness. The first time I purchased it I had no problems and recommended it to a lot of people. The second time I purchased it and had a reaction I contacted the manufacturer to let them know that I had a problem with it and they sent me a letter and discount coupons to buy other products which I never ended up using. I suppose my letter and possibly other complaints may have done something because shortly thereafter the product was discontinued. So I suppose they never corrected the problem and sales decreased forcing them to stop making it. That's why it's important to contact manufacturers when you have problems with your products. That is the one and only time I had to do that. Most products just don't do what they claim to do so I just stop using them. I have tried I don't know how many different shampoos and as it turns out the so called "Green shampoo" which may not be as clean as they say it is, but it worked horribly on my hair. I use "Tresemme" while I am pretty sure there are really bad chemicals in it I also know that it works the best on my hair so I would like to find an alternative to it that is totally free of toxic chemicals but I would prefer if the manufacturer would just swap out the toxic substances for similar ingredients that aren't toxic.

I would like to know that when I buy a product that I don't have to have a PHD to figure out what's in it and also have to risk my health in order to have "good Hair" days. I was trained as a makeup artist and have certificates to prove it but in all my years of experience I am finding out more lately about what I was doing all those years. I have officially retired from doing makeup in the past year because I lost the passion for doing it and wasn't earning a fair wage doing it so I have moved into concentrating my artistic pursuits to filmmaking instead but I wish I had known about some of the things I know about beauty products now when I started in the 80's.

I am working on a new Documentary that explores Eco waste and packaging and weight loss but in the research I am coming across a lot of connected information to other areas.

I just saw this David Suzuki Foundation report about Cosmetic Products even though I have been hearing about some of these things for the past couple of years and that has partly influenced my decision to stop doing makeup but it's pretty clear that even though I was a makeup artist and people assume that I am an expert there was no way for me to know what I was doing with the practices that are allowed in the Cosmetic Industry and their labelling practices and the laws that allow them to keep their trade secrets from the general public.
Have a look at this report and use it as a reference when purchasing any new Cosmetic Products. The only way to change things is to stop buying the Dirty Dozen toxic loaded products and shop the Clean ones. If you put the bad guys out of business it will open the doors for the good ones.
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/downloads/2010/DSF-report-Whats-inside-that-counts.pdf

There is also a book by Gillian Deacon called "There's Lead in My Lipstick" that will give you information about Cosmetic Products.

I have spent thousands of dollars trying new products and trying to find the best products to do the things I needed them to do. I can honestly say that if I had put al the money I spent on cosmetic products over the years into a financial investment it would probably have paid for a house by now. You don't know what the impact of something is until you look back 30 years later and can see the big picture. I can't take back what I did in the past but I can change what I do in the future. So I would like to pass on this information to you so that you can be informed and make better decisions for your future.

I currently know 3 women who are good women and have all done the right things in their life but they are all fighting cancer right now. I would hate to think that the act of washing their hair and putting on some lipstick was the cause of it.

We are living in a Toxic Soup of live these days. i would like to see manufacturers stop producing toxic chemicals, packaging, products and become Environmentally responsible. Health over Profits.
Products I would recommend and use or have used include KISS MY FACE and PHILOSOPHY. What I can recommend about MAC Cosmetics is their Eco Packaging and interest in making better products and doing good in the world by establishing their "Back to Mac" program where they will take 6 Mac product packaging back and give you 1 free lipstick or eyeshadow in return. It's a start and I hope they will continue to make positive changes. By the way in researching trying to recycle all of my old cosmetic packaging Mac was the only company in Canada that had this policy. Origins in the US will recycle all packaging but it isn't available in Canada. I would like to see these companies take responsibility for their packaging as well as the ingredients in the products.

Do what you can to influence the change. You have the power by the decisions you make when you purchase a product. I hope this information will help you make the right decisions to change the future for future generations.

Moon Point gets the point

2012-02-04T08:24:00.000-05:00

I went to see a new Canadian Movie last night at the AMC theatre at Yonge/Dundas in Toronto called MOON POINT. What's so important about that? Well the feat that it took for the filmmakers to get the film there was no small feat. Having raised close to a million dollars in funding and then losing the same funding before filmming they had to start all over again and get creative in getting the film made. They slashed and burned the budget down to what they call the price of a car. Avi Federgreen (One Week) the producer tried to shop the film and nobody wanted to take it on so he started his own distribution company to fight the fight he has been having over the years to have Canadian Films shown in Canadian theatres. His new company is called INDIE CAN. I have no connection to this film other than the fact that I did makeup on a short film many years ago with it's very capable and very personable director Sean Cisterna. I liked working with Sean many years ago as he treated everyone well and was very professional but got the job done. I worked on a bunch of short films with many different directors and Sean had a very easy going set but didn't waste any time getting the work done. It was a pleasure working with him then and I am happy to support this Funny and cute film.

So you are probably wondering why no funders would commit and why no distributors would touch it. Here's my educated film festival guess. It doesn't have any nudity...No Sex -check.... Nobody dies - No violence - Check, A few well known Canadian Actors but no Hollywood A List actors - distributors don't think Canadian Actors can get bums in the seats...ie. make them money. and last it doesn't have a pile of money tossed in for over inflated marketing. The marketing is done by super film fest and film experienced GAT PR who know what to do with a Canadian Film.

This film deserves your support and I brought a couple of friends that didn't know anything about the film to the screening and they loved it. Impartial spectators who had no ties to anything or anyone connected to the film.

You will see a lot of familiar canadian actors that you may or may not know the names of and some unknown Canadian actors you will fall in love with.

It's really important to support a Canadian Film like this in the 1st weekend because it determines if they will have second weekend and more screenings. Think of it like an extended theatre run. The more people buy tickets the longer they will keep it in the theatre...thus making money for everyone.
Canadian films don't have the Hollywood film budgets and they don't get the Hollywood film attention so we all need to support these films... especially the ones we like and want to see more like this one.

Please bring all your friends to a screening this weekend at the AMC yonge/dundas -TO.. and pack the theatre. The theatre manager said it was the biggest opening night crowd for a Canadian Film. Please continue to pack the house so they can get extended and move to other theatres across the country.

Here's the AMC info to make your planning easier.

Moon Point

Reviews - IMDb

‎1hr 25min‎‎ - Rated 14A‎‎ - Comedy‎‎ - English‎
Director: Sean Cisterna - Cast: Nick McKinlay, Paula Brancati, Kyle Mac, Kristen Gutoskie, Jayne Eastwood, Art Hindle, Boyd Banks, Kristin Fairlie, Linda Kash, Jane Moffat - :

As his cocky cousin Lars' wedding approaches, Darryl decides that the best way to prove to his family that he is not quite as worthless as they think, is to track down his elementary school crush - now an obscure B-movie actress shooting a horror film in Moon Point - and bring her to the more »

Showtimes

AMC Yonge & Dundas 24

Suite 402, 10 Dundas Street East, Toronto, ON

‎11:45‎ ‎2:00‎ ‎4:45‎ ‎7:00‎ ‎9:20‎

CB2 takes over the Big Bop

2012-01-20T22:51:00.000-05:00

I got a chance to go to a Sneak Preview before the official opening of the New CB2 store at Queen and Bathurst in the former Big Bop club. For those of you that don't know what it is it's Crate and Barrel 2 or in other words the hipper version of Crate and Barrel stores originally from the U.S. and now for the first time in Canada.

It was kind of weird stepping into a Home furnishings store and enter to a couple of people with clip boards checking your name on their list but it was quite the busy place so I suppose they needed to only let in guests that had rsvp'd. It felt more like a big cocktail party than a store opening in a way. Everyone was just sitting around in the chairs and couches having drinks and chatting away as if they were just at a regular party...forget that it was in a furniture store. I just went to give it a look see myself. Why was I interested? Well because when I first moved into my apartment I started from scratch almost and replaced most of the big pieces of furniture that I had and I would say it was split between Urban Barn and Crate and Barrel mostly and rounded out with a bit of Homesense, Structube and Ikea. But I got a lot of stuff from Crate and Barrel because it was made well, priced reasonably for the quality and it was classic pieces that would last a long time. If CB2 would have been open when I was doing my furniture shopping I may have chosen a few things from there instead but oh well maybe I will pick up some accessories or the odd thing when I feel like changing things up a bit.

I took a few photos of some of the things I liked there just in case some cash falls from the sky and I can go back and do a bit of shopping. Here's some pics of the stuff I liked.

What I realized is that I love simple design that is functional and a little whimsical. Just an added touch like a cocktail plate with a drawing of a figure with a hockey stick. Something fun and functional. Or a rolling file cabinet in stand out colors. It's all the little details that make something stand out. While my place is pretty neutral there is room to change it up and infuse color at any time.

My best advice is to buy neutral furniture but then punch up some color in one chair, some art or fun cushions to make the whole thing pop.

Have fun and mix it up when you get bored... think of designing a place like accessorizing your wardrobe. Good design and fashion is the same for the home as it is for your clothing. If you like to wear color then reflect it in your home. If you see my home it pretty much looks like my closet. Does yours? Your home/clothing is a reflection of your personality.. I guess mine says I like practical black a lot and some color color tossed in here and there.

What's your style? I would recommend going down to CB2 and seeing what you like and pick a piece you love and see what it adds to your space.

Happy Shopping.

EcoLosers - New Doc Project

2012-01-08T14:32:00.000-05:00

I teamed up with a couple of friends from my Toronto International Film Festival volunteer group to help them put together a new Documentary Project about the changes they want to make in their life over the next year. The project is called EcoLosers and the plan is for them to Lose Weight while Losing the packaging and waste they accumulate in their daily life. Their plan is to go Greener and Leaner in the next 12 months to make a difference in their families life. They have a 2 year old son and a dog and full time jobs so they have their hands full and now they will be turning their lives upside down and challenging the way they have been living up until now.

We began filming yesterday and will try and film as much as we can over the next year. The challenge will be that I live in Toronto and they live in Oakville but work in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton. Let's see if we can all coordinate schedules in the months to come.

If you want to follow along with Heather's Blog and see her comments on the challenges then check out her blog/website at www.ecolosers.net

Yesterday we began by rethinking the end of a home cooked meal by taken chicken scraps and turning them into a chicken stock to be used for future meals. We also began the process of purging unhealthy and expired processed foods from their pantry.

It will be a huge challenge to convert their daily routines so will see what stays and what goes.

2 Great Canadian Guys - Strombo & Hughes

2011-11-30T20:47:00.000-05:00

I went to a taping of George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight this week and have thought about it for the past couple of days. I am normally working some day job when most of these shows tape so I have never really had the time to go. I like watching Strombo's show because you never know who he will interview. Some of my favourite interviews are with people like Russell Peters and Jamie Oliver. He has the kind of charm that makes fast friends. I decided to go on monday to see Chuck Hughes who has one of my favourite food network shows "Chuck's Day Off" and the other guests were Bedouin Soundclash who Chuck plays consistently in his shows. They were playing with the Cougars and did a christmas song for George's Christmas Special.

It just so happened that the first show taping I attended of Strombo's show was also the first time ever that he had a food demo. Kind of interesting since Strombo has turned Vegan and Chuck Hughes brought Oysters and accompaniments. George ate the crackers and salsas.

Watching George interview Chuck was like watching 2 long time buddies have a deep conversation. I think that's the key to George's success. He has massive amounts of charm and grace and is interested in everyone he meets and gives them his full attention. You can tell by the way he practically leaps off his seat when he gets into the conversation.

I had a quick chat with George and take a quick photo after the show ended.

George impressed me so much by the way he made everyone feel like he was welcoming them into his home. When George says he's your boyfriend on his show he means it. He has a huge heart and tries to do good things in the world with poverty and hunger programs and other social causes. He cares about what's going on in the World.

What has lingered with me for the past couple of days has been how guys like George and Chuck make me proud that they are Canadians representing us to the rest of the World. Chuck won an Iron Chef competition against Bobby Flay and has gone on to do The Next Iron Chef and recently was in town for Bobby Flay's Chef's Challenge, a huge charity event for Mount Sinai. Chuck also does a lot of other charity work and has a reputation of being a nice guy.

I have seen Chuck 3 times in the past few months. I won a weekend stay in Stratford where he was one of the Big Celebrity guests of Savour Stratford so I was able to see him do a cooking demo there.
Then back in Toronto he did another demo at the Food and Wine Expo an interesting venue for a guy that had alcohol abuse issues but with his current insane appearance schedule he doesn't have too much time to even think about partying anymore.

The success of these 2 guys is no accident. They both have big hearts, intelligence, charm and they don't take themselves too seriously. They really do represent what Canadian men should be like.

This is a case of Good Guys Finishing First not last.

I wish them continued success and they deserve all the accolades they get because they remain Nice Guys.

My B Magazine Innovative Skin Care Article

2011-11-14T10:27:00.000-05:00

http://www.bmagdigital.com/#/oct_nov2011/26

For the past 3 years I have written the Events listing in B Magazine a beauty and health magazine available for free on newstands and around the ttc subway stations. I write the odd article once in a while and I wrote this article about Innovative Skin Care Products for the Magazine.

I personally use Philosophy products and can highly recommend them.

Check it out.

Occupying the World

2011-10-14T05:24:00.000-04:00

Normally I am not a person that supports protests as I just see them as disruptions to the general public. I spent 3 years working in an office that had a window on University Avenue in Toronto. I saw at least a dozen protests walk by or protest in front of my office building including the beginning of the G20 protests. What I never saw after all these protests was anything change. In the case of the G20 protests I think all it did was make our city look really bad and wasted a whole lot of money on police services which ended up looking bad across the world. Toronto is a great city and showing a bunch of 20 somethings torching police cars isn't going to promote tourism in Toronto which will bring much needed money into this city. It was shocking to watch what a bunch of rowdy riled up people could do to destroy the city in one weekend. I thought I was watching somewhere else in the world on TV.

While I don't support protests generally I do understand the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and in some parts of the world after seeing the Documentary "Inside Job". This film really showed what 2% of the population could do to destroy 98% of the population in the US and globally. After watching this documentary I got mad and wondered how could these men get away with what they were doing?

http://youtu.be/FzrBurlJUNk

I generally avoid conflict as I believe there are probably better ways to change the world, but there is a point where you just say "I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore". I believe that's what is happening in the world right now. People are mad as Hell and want everyone to know it. Some people just jump on the bandwagon without really understanding what they are protesting about which is what ruins the whole reason for the protest in the first place. While watching CNN news reporting the Occupy Wall Street in NYC they just showed a bunch of 20 something hippie looking kids standing around or just sitting there getting high. That doesn't show the purpose of the protest it just makes the whole thing look like a Party and a JOKE.
There are serious problems in the US and around the World that need to be fixed. Everyone needs to participate in the FIX. Whether it is by Voting or just becoming a better citizen. In Toronto in the past election less than 50% of people voted but some people are now trying to organize an Occupy Toronto for this coming weekend. What I don't understand is why people don't show up to Vote but they will show up to Protest. Once again it's the Party mentality. Why would you want to go and vote? It's just a boring inconvenience right? Yes it may feel like a waste of time when you vote and then the elected officials do whatever they want to do while in office. Well what if you decided to run for office in a provincial, federal or municipal government? Could you change the world? Bill Clinton has said that he feels like he can do more to change the world by not being in office and by making changes from the ground up.

What if you just started a company that had business practices that were fair and gave people opportunities to change their life? What if you sent letters to your elected officials while they are in office and told them you weren't going to elect them again unless they considered policy changes that were for the greater good? What can you do to make a change? Martin Luther King said "I have a dream" he wanted to change the world. He was one man and he had a message and a dream. The fact that the US elected a black President should show you that his dream was possible.

We need to find a way to Be the Change you want to see in the World.

Why do you think OPRAH WINFREY is the Queen of Television? Because she has tried to change people's perception one viewer at a time. She has pulled a hand up every day she was on TV. Her 25 years on television probably changed more lives than any politician could.

Use Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton as an example and create change from the ground up and one person at a time.

In the case of the G20. Destroying businesses in downtown Toronto wasn't the way to change what the members of the G20 do. It just cost local business who pay taxes and pay people's wages money. That's not the way to make things change for the better.

We live in a democracy that allows us the right to protest but that doesn't mean we have the right to destroy other people's property.

The change will come when people RESPECT other people and work together to solve problems in the world.

Wars could be ended if people would put down their guns and have a TEA..and discuss the issues to resolve the conflicts. Guns and violence do not solve anything. Discussion and working together to a mutual agreement does.

So what am I saying? I believe we have the freedom to protest but not the right to destruction in the process of getting our voices heard.

Will the fat cats on Wall Street give up their Mega Buck Bonuses just because people have taken over the streets of New York? I doubt it... so there must be another way to make the division of wealth change.

I don't have the answer but I know there is one out there and I know there are more people smarter than me that do know the answers. We need to find them and encourage them to have the power to make the changes we so desperately need.

Do what you can to contribute to the greater good of the World and the World will change.

Moving and Downsizing

2011-08-14T12:03:00.000-04:00

I have been slacking off on my blogging because I moved recently and my move was all consuming for months. Why? Because I moved from a 3 bedroom house to a 1 bedroom apartment. Moving is stressful already but add moving and downsizing at the same time and it just takes up all of your waking hours. It was my mother's house and she didn't like to get rid of old things so I have spent a lot of my time trying to sell or donate most of her things and also trying to pare down all the things I was able to keep in the house because there was the space to store it.

It didn't have a garage but had a fully loaded basement of stuff that didn't fit into the rest of the house..namely the small and inefficient kitchen. I always liked to cook so between my mother and I we had so many cooking utensils and pots, pans and gadgets. When you have to fit it all into a small kitchen without any extra storage areas you have to look at what the basic needs really are. My brother inherited my mother's pots and pans and some of the gadgets but what to do with the rest. I had to have a huge garage sale and that was what I call the first pass to downsizing. It was the first pass because I just skimmed the house for stuff that wasn't being used.

The second pass involved trying to sell furniture and things online. That was a slow process and still didn't liquidate everything.

The third pass was donations... I made many trips to my local Value Village and still have things to go there that really don't fit into my little apartment. It is great that they accept all sorts of household items and clothing so I was able to donate at least 8 car loads of stuff over the past year. Why over the past year... well this process started after my mother was placed in a long term care facility. I then began the process of purging all the things she wasn't going to need anymore. We could only send her there with basic clothing, nothing fancy and it all had to be washable in their laundry system. That meant all my mother's hand wash sweaters and all of her little collections of nik naks had to be purged. In a life of 80 plus year you accumulate a lot of stuff that really has no value when you become old, sick and frail and can no longer keep or use any of these things. So I had already started the slow process of trying to donate or trash anything she wasn't going to need but I still hadn't sold off her furniture right away. Then she started to get sick and I realized that I would have to start thinking about preparing the house for sale for when we were able to sell the house. She had it in her will that we couldn't sell the house until she passed away so that was the reason I had to hang on to the house with all her things in it. She started to decline and was in and out of the hospital since January and then passed away in April. The end of a long journey and the beginning of a long haul to prepare for the big house sale. It was an old house so the house had to be painted and all the minor little repairs and patching up needed to be done. With all the things in the house that needed to be done in a short time it was important to hire a team of people to assist in the process. I hired a handyman who was a friend who came in an prepped everything for the painting and even stripped and painted my mother's room to make sure things were done in time. We had to have the house on the market by June so there was a tight timeline to complete it all. Then the painter came in and worked his magic and painted the house the colors that the Professional Organizers I hired to stage the house suggested. They neutralized al the colors of the house and we had to pack up all the personal and extra things in the house to give them the space to work their magic. The house was transformed into a brand new looking house in a couple of weeks. Then we got it on the market and were able to sell it in a week. Personally I think the new owner got a pretty good deal as houses in the area were going for more money but we needed to sell it fast and I didn't want to drag out the sale for months. So then began the process of returning the stuff that was taken out and begin the process of purging all the rest that wouldn't fit into a one bedroom apartment. I never realized how much stuff I had accumulated until I had to think of it in terms of fitting into one large room. It's shocking how much stuff you accumulate over the years between impulse buying, changing lifestyle needs and interests and things you obtain by gifts and free things. I had a lot so it took weeks to sort, purge and pack. I decided to start fresh and try and get some new furniture that was comfortable and stylish and co ordinated with everything I had so I had to get rid of the stuff that didn't fit into that vision. So now that I have finally moved into my new place I am trying to make everything I had and everything new fit into this space like a puzzle. I am still working on it as I still have boxes to now go into storage as they don't have a place to fit in the apartment and I have to remove it all before the rest of my furniture is delivered. It has been a long process but I know it will be rewarding once the vision of my new living space has been completed. All the friends that have dropped in to take a peak at my new place have been impressed at what they have seen so far and I know that they will love to come and visit when it's all done. And then I can finally relax and enjoy it.

What did I learn from this process... Try to keep what you own down to things that you Love and Need... if you don't use it and you don't love it get rid of it. It will only become junk you have to get rid of later in life. At the end of your life all you really need is your health and food, shelter and clothing.... but to live your life well throughout your life you need to surround yourself with people and things you love. But excess clutter and things you don't need just become burdens in your life and take away time to do the things you really want to do like spending time with friends and family.

Enjoy your life and think about what you Really NEED..

Horoscopes and Psychics

2011-04-24T04:19:00.001-04:00

This is my horoscope for this week from horoscope.com Your horoscope - Week of April 25, 2011

	You feel the winds of change blowing. If areas of your life seem stuck, you grow more determined to change them as the days go by. Where you can make a great start is within, beginning with your thoughts and emotions. As you change these and use your power of imagination to visualize what you do want, you will begin to draw it into your life. You have an option this week - either stay as you are or do something positive.

I always wonder how psychics and astrologers can predict things about you when they don't even know you but this horoscope made me wonder about that.

I only read 2 horoscopes. This one is a weekly one that is delivered to my inbox and the other one is a monthly one that I read from astrologyzone.com. I always find it fascinating how accurate some of them are according to my life.

Why this one struck me? Well my life is about to change in a big way. I have been living in my mother's house taking care of her and the house because she had dimentia. I say had because she just passed away last week. My brother moved into the house 3 weeks before she was placed in a nursing home. She had many ups and downs while in the nursing home and recently succumbed to illness from infection, pneumonia and then finally refusing to eat. Now everything changes. We have to sell the house and liquidate most of her possessions and divide the money and move on. My brother is most likely to move out of the city while I will probably move closer to downtown where most of my work is. Just the fact that we have to sell the house and move somewhere else is a big thing because I have been tied to this house because of my mother's illness and other financial reasons.

So how do these horoscope people know that my life is going to change this month when it has been stuck for a very long time? And how do they know that I have to make a decision and visualize where I want to live and furthermore I will also have to look for a new job and wish to change my career path so I have been looking for other opportunities than what I have done in the past. How do they know? They don't know me or my life but somehow this horoscope seems directed specifically to my life. Is it not meant to cover a broad range of people specific to my horoscope sign but does everyone's life change this way THIS WEEK. It makes you wonder if you have free will or if things are pre-determined for your life and you are just following the tides of life.

I don't know and will never know for sure how they get it right so many times but it makes me think that there are many things we don't know for sure and many things we can't prove like what happens after we die? Nobody ever comes back to tell us what it's like, so does that mean that it ends or does it change to something else? We will never know just like we will never know how psychics and astrologers get it right?

Reelworld Film Festival Day 5

2011-04-12T04:04:00.001-04:00

The 11th edition of the Reelworld Film Festival has now come to a close. I have been to all 11 years of the Reelworld Film Festival and I can honestly tell you that the closing night film "I will follow" was one of the best closing night films ever shown at the festival. It was a co presentation from the Breast Fest Film Festival. I didn't read anything about the film before I went in to see it, which was probably a good thing. I didn't have any pre conceived notions about what it would be like or what it was about. It was a beautifully crafted story about someone caring for a relative with Cancer and the sacrifices made to care for someone through to the end of their life. It was an honest look at how one person's death affects a whole family after they are gone. Unfortunately I could relate to this film all too much. The main character was a makeup artist caring for her aunt. As a former makeup artist who has had a parent and aunts and uncles die of Cancer I can identify all too well with this story. Even though the subject of the film is very sad the film had many scenes of joy and had a great balance of what life is really like when someone has Cancer.

This year's Reelworld Film festival ended with a thought provoking and view of Real Life.

Tonya Lee Williams and Sasha Stoltz.

Thanks to Tonya Lee Williams (Founder) and Sasha Stoltz (Publicist) and the Reelworld Staff, Volunteers and Board Members for another interesting year of Real Films.

See you all next year.

Reelworld Film Festival Day 4

2011-04-10T12:39:00.000-04:00

I only attended 2 things on Day 4. I really wanted to support and see the Short Film Program for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that most people don't go see short films and short filmmakers like me struggle to get people to see their films so I know what it's like to want people to actually see your films after you struggle to make them. The second reason I went to see this program is because it was programmed by Kristine from Ouat Media who happens to be the person responsible for me getting distribution for my short film "Rockstar". I met Kristine while I was the volunteer coordinator at another film festival and she was a volunteer and then she moved on to doing distribution at the Canadian Film Centre and gained a lot of experience acquiring short films so she knows a thing or 2 about short films. So I knew there would most likely be a couple of interesting short films in the program. The ones I really enjoyed were "Made in Mauritus" and "Dirty Laundry" the were clever and very funny and very original. I think this short film program repeats again to day so If you read this now you may have a chance to see it but most likely by the time you read this the festival will be over but hopefully you will have a chance to see them again somewhere else.

The second program I attended was a Feature Film by Toronto Actor Walter Alza called Paid in Full. There were a couple of recognizable faces in this film with various Toronto people involved in the film. This was not the type of film I enjoy but I still support how hard it is to make an independent film in Toronto so I know the filmmakers need as much support as they can get.

Today is the last day of the Reelworld Film Festival and the Closing Night film is "I Will Follow" and will be screened at the Scotiabank Theatre downtown.

Reelworld Film Festival Day 3

2011-04-09T09:41:00.002-04:00

I didn't attend any of the film screenings on Day 3 but I did attend a panel and the music video program.

The industry panel I attended was "Are there any new funding sources"? The quick answer was don't count on getting a lot of government grants and funding because it's getting harder and harder to get it so you need to be more creative on how you raise money for your films. The new trend is to create "crowd sourcing" and raise the money yourself through the power of social networking using sites like "Facebook" and "Indie GOGO" to build a fan bas of people that participate in the making of your film. I haven't heard a lot of good news in the industry lately with the increase of downloading and the closing of video stores such as Blockbuster there are less and less ways to actually make money after you finish your film. So the message is don't make a film to get RICH.. make it because you HAVE TO.. and would do it for free anyway because you probably will.

We move on to the Music Video portion with videos by Reelworld Festival favourite Director X, and other notables like RT and Sarah Michelle Brown and Cazhhmere who showcased a brand new world premiere video of "Classified" and also had his previous video "Oh Canada" in the series.

Also there to answer Q & A's were Cazhhmere and Wes "Maestro" Williams who has had a long time association with the Reelworld Film Festival. He has been supporting the festival since the early years.

What was clear to me though is that hip hop needs a bit of a makeover. Classified is a great exception to the rule of having a guy just rapping to the camera while a scantily clothed girl jiggles in the background. I have grown tired of the same format of videos and want to see something different and more creative than that. Maestro is a good example on doing original videos. Back in the day his videos looked nothing like anyone else's. While some of them were very low budget they still had an original look and style.

Not every hip hop fan and viewer of music videos is a 25 year old black male so it would be nice to see some more diversity in more hip hop videos. To be fair there were other videos that were different and interesting, one of my favourites was one about Haiti that had a very good singer and showed images of the devastation in Haiti. That video had more power to me than most of the other ones because it was about something important in the world. Not all videos have to be about issues but they would be more interesting if they at least told stories.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Season 2

2011-04-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

Jamie Oliver has become a Rockstar Food Activist in his great new show Food Revolution now going into Season 2.

Jamie shows the power of one person's passion about feeding the world properly and what it can do to change the world.

Jamie Oliver mixes humor, fact, shock and education in an entertaining and heartwarming television show that is meant to start a REVOLUTION around the World.

You can join the Revolution with Jamie and bring better food to your local schools and towns and cities.

Sign Jamie's petition and join the War against unhealthy school lunches.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/activists

Reelworld Film Festival Day 2

2011-04-08T06:59:00.000-04:00

Day 2 of the Reelworld Film Festival was an interesting movie watching day. The first film I saw was called "My life with me" I sort of went into this film blind, I didn't know much about it or who was involved but was pleasantly surprised to find out it was someone I knew that made the film but I didn't know that until I saw the credits. Why pleasantly surprised? The film was about South Asian people dating in Canada and how their culture affected it. What I really liked was the characters that were chosen, they were very compelling people who had a lot of insight into the dating world they were living in. The other thing I really liked about the film was the technical part, it was shot well and really nicely edited so from a technical standpoint it was really visually appealing and paced very well.

The second film I saw was called "The Neighbor" It started off really slow but then a lovely child was introduced and a relationship between the neighbor child and the women next door unfolded into a beautiful look at what a child needs. The women who played the single woman next door was multidimensional and full of empathy. I couldn't take my eyes off the child in the film, she was beautiful and mature for her age and I think will become an actor that people will take note of one day.

The 3rd film I saw was called "Gang Girl" I missed a little bit of the beginning but entered when I woman was talking about her female child who identifies with being a male type gang member. The film was told through the eyes of the mother of the Gang Girl. Her daughter was a lesbian gang member who chose to rebel from her family home and participate in the life with other female gang members. This film was raw, truthful and thought provoking. The mother was there for a Q & A after the film and what was clear was that there doesn't seem to be an answer on how to prevent these girls from choosing to be in gangs. Do you cut off your child to save your family was the question of the night. What would you do if your child chose to be in a gang and chose to do bad things?

The best part of the Reelworld Film Festival is that you can see all of these diverse Real Stories that you may or may not relate to.

Tonight is the Music Video Night and Wes "Maestro" Williams will be on hand to showcase all the music videos and artists.

The Value of a Career

2011-03-26T07:46:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about the value of different careers lately.

Currently I am "unemployed" while I am still busy trying to create films and other projects technically I am without a job. My day job was a financial admin assistant job. My job ended because of government budget cutbacks. I am ok with that because I understand why. But being unemployed and thinking about what I want to do next has made me think about different jobs and careers. I have been spending time at Sunnybrook Hospital over the past couple of weeks because my mother was there. My day job used to be working at Sunnybrook Hospital and I worked there for 14 years.. collecting money for the doctors so I had a good view of what life in a hospital is like.

Since I have had time to reflect and look at what's going on in the media with the tragedy in Japan and the insane rantings of Charlie Sheen I realized that the value of a career is very skewed in this world.

If doctors and nurses and hospitals were funded or paid by preventing illnesses or getting patients healthier sooner or keeping them alive instead of budget constraints influencing the outcomes of how many nurses there are or how long a patient can stay in the hospital, would the health care system change? Is a doctor more valuable than a nurse who does the daily job of keeping patients comfortable and alive.

In contrast someone like Charlie Sheen who is an ACTOR who has addiction issues and is wreckless and irresponsible but is now going ON TOUR for a show that really isn't a SHOW but is charging up to $100 a ticket for these shows and will earn millions of dollars by the end of these ranting sessions.

Should he earn more than the nurse that has to feed ill patients or change their diapers? Which job is the harder job? Nurses work 12 hour shifts and will have to deal with abusive patients, heavy lifting and give compassionate care to help people who can't help themselves.

What is Charlie Sheen giving to the world besides a look at Insanity?

The man made/natural disaster in Japan is heartbreaking and people in Japan need help. When you look at who is helping them it's the DOCTORS, NURSES, FIREFIGHTERS, CONSTRUCTION PEOPLE, and then now there is help from MUSICIANS who have rallied together to put out a CD of Songs for Japan. People like U2 and Yoko Ono has provided a John Lennon song and many other artists have donated their music to provide money needed to rebuild the lives of people in Japan.

What have Charlie Sheen, reality tv stars, sports stars and other high paying celebrities done to change the lives of people in Japan or people that need help in the world?

Why are these people earning more money than Healthcare professionals and musicians and people that contribute to the lives of others?

Why does Paris Hilton make more money to show up at a club than a Nurse does doing CPR?

How did things get this way? While I believe no one is better than anyone else I also believe that the Value of a Career should be determined by the value of the work and the risk involved in doing that work.

The workers in the Nuclear Plant are now risking their own lives to prevent the deaths of people in Japan.

This is not a slag against all actors because there are actors that do contribute to the betterment of people in the World. Actors like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Sandra Bullock, Natalie Portman and others use their celebrity and their money to make a difference and they are the shining examples of what should be done with Celebrity.

So who's careers have the most value?

The Strange Animal (Gowan) returns

2011-03-17T07:44:00.000-04:00

Gowan at Fallsview Casino

Seems like a lot of things go in an out of style and popularity and happen in waves of decades. One of those things is Gowan. The Strange Animal is BACK.. and it's a good thing. The last time I saw Mr. Lawrence Gowan play was sometime around 1985.. yes I am old.. He was playing with 2 guys I knew.. One was Ray Coburn from Honeymoon Suite and the other was Steve Shelski from Coney Hatch. My youth was spent going to see various rock bands play local clubs in Toronto with friends. Gowan was one of the other artists that I really liked but he didn't play as many local shows as the rest of the bands did so I was only able to see him a couple of times for some reason. I never met him but feel like he is like the guys I knew from the other bands. They all had a connection... most of them were good ol' Hockey loving guys, and nice Canadian boys but they all had that connection of what it's like to play the same clubs and venues and go through the same music industry struggles and life on the road.

Gowan's "Criminal Mind" has always been one of my favourite songs. I always loved the great piano intro and his music videos were always creative and different.

He has been busy taking over for Dennis DeYoung in Styx over the years but he is BACK playing some of his own music along with his brother and some other great band members, one of which had a connection to Honeymoon Suite along with a few other bands I believe, Peter Nunn who plays keyboards alongside Gowan.

Gowan is a great entertainer who is also a master musician. He has this amazing rotating piano which he swings around and plays at the same time so you really do get a 360 degree view of him throughout the show.

The show I saw was at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls. The acoustics in there were fabulous. And the venue is a small and intimate theatre setting so you could see from every seat in the house.

What the new Gowan shows have are up to date technology. There is a really creative multi media show that is projected behind the stage with various photographic and illustrative images along with video and photos from shows in the 80's and current things as well.

I enjoyed the show thoroughly with the sound being great and the visuals really entertaining.

I hope there are a lot more shows to come and I am really glad that Gowan (The Strange Animal) is Back! better than ever.

Gowan in 1985 with Steve Shelski, Ray Coburn and ? not sure of the bass players name.

ReelWorld Film Festival Press Conference

2011-03-17T07:14:00.000-04:00

I am going to try and post more now that I am out and about at more things again. This week's outing was at the Reelworld Film Festival Press Conference. Going to anything ReelWorld related is like going to a party with old friends. Everytime I turned around there was someone from a past festival that I knew. I have been at every festival every year since it started in one capacity or another. This year I hope to do a little more reviewing of films. Last year I was really sick so I missed out on a lot.

The festival runs from April 6th to April 10th, 2011 at Scotiabank and Canada Square.
http://www.reelworld.ca

This year the Music Video portion is getting a big push from Universal Music Canada. It's nice to see it get a little more focus this time around.

The Opening Night Film is SNOW at the Scotiabank theatre on April 6th.

The Closing Night Film is I WILL FOLLOW also at the Scotiabank theatre showing on April 10th.

There are always great industry panels to attend and of course there are parties too.

Reelworld features films from around the world including documentaries, short films, feature films and music videos.

No matter where you are from I am sure you will find a story you can relate to.

Go see some great and diverse films and hope to see you there.

Top 10 List of Good things about Unemployment

2011-03-06T19:01:00.000-05:00

I just finished a 6 month Government contract although I worked there for a total of 3 years but the rest of the time as a temp. So I have been working pretty much non stop for the past 3 years and now that my contract is over I am unemployed. I decided to make a list of the top 10 things good about my unemployment to remind me that it's not a bad thing. I may not like this list the longer I stay out of work but for now here it is:

1. I can wake up and go to bed whatever time I like.
2. I can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner whenever time I like.
3. I can bake a batch of cookies in the middle of the day or whatever I am craving when I feel like it.
4. I can take an afternoon nap if I need one.. Siesta's are a good thing.
5. I can surf the internet as long as I like and nobody will care.
6. I can watch TV shows I would normally miss like Breakfast Television and Oprah.
7. I can get errands done during the day when it's not busy.
8. I don't have to cram all my to do list in a weekend before going back to work.
9. I don't have to get annoyed by the ttc during rush hour.
10. I can do whatever I want whenever I want to do it.

Sounds pretty good doesn't it?

There is only 1 downside... 1. Lack of money.

so unfortunately the leisurely lifestyle won't last too long unless I win a lottery or something.

Jealous?

My 1st Sundance

2011-02-06T11:11:00.001-05:00

I did something very impulsive and probably a little dumb for me. I booked a very last minute trip to go to the Sundance Film Festival. Why? Well I found out on the saturday before Sundance started that one of my clips made it into the film Life in a Day which was premiering at Sundance. I didn't make the final cut of 20 people who got a trip to Sundance and I didn't know which clip made it into the film or much else so I really wanted to go and see it but I thought that would be a really expensive trip and would it be worth it? I then decided that it might be worth going to try and film Harvey my documentary subject who was there volunteering for the festival so at least I could so some productive business. So after thinking about it for 3 days I booked a flight. The big problem was that I had to take 3 days off of work and I am on my last month of my contract so losing 3 days pay and spending more money wasn't the best financial decision to make. But I thought it's not like this is going to happen again so maybe I should go for it. The next problem was that my trip was going to be for the end of the film festival. Why is that bad? Well by the time I arranged it all the ticket passes were gone and any accreditation was too late to get. Which meant that I couldn't guarantee to see any films and plan my few days until I got there. It also meant that I didn't have a media accreditation to film Harvey so I was limited on what I could do. While I was there his job was to stand outside a theatre and direct people to the lineups. Not all that interesting to film and the theatre wasn't that spectacular in Salt Lake City. So I only got minimal footage of him standing in front of the theatre. Because it was last minute I stayed in Salt Lake City because it would be cheaper and Harvey was volunteering in Salt Lake City so I thought it would be easier. Salt Lake City was great but not exactly the business hub of the Sundance Film Festival which mostly takes place in Park City, UT.

By the time I got to the festival the Premiere of Life in a Day and the second screening were sold out. The only ticket I could get was in Ogden, which was a 45 min drive north of Salt Lake City. I didn't plan on renting a car because I thought there were shuttle buses to Park City and other venues. But what I didn't know was that they were $30-$45 each way. So I didn't rent a car for a couple of days and stayed in Salt Lake City where I could walk or take the free Trax system which came in handy to pick up the 3 tickets I was able to get from the box office. By the time I got to the box office all I was able to get was 2 tickets to Life in a Day in Ogden. one for me and one for Harvey and a ticket for These Amazing Shadows at the theatre Harvey was working at that night.

I went back to the theatre and was able to get a wait list ticket to see Hot Coffee and then saw These Amazing shadows after that. So 2 Sundance films down on the friday and saw Harvey.

Oh I should back up to Thursday when I arrived the night of the Life in a Day premiere. So by the time I arrived at the hotel in Salt Lake city it was about 5pm so there was no way I was even going to make trying for wait list for the Premiere in Park City which started at 6:15pm so I had to try and watch it on the hotel computer..but only problem was there was no sound on the computer... I gave up about half way through and just went to bed. So much for seeing the premiere.

Ok back to Saturday.. I had the tickets for Ogden that night but how was I going to get there? I had to rent a car..but after going shopping for some things it was too late to get a car rental place nearby so the concierge arranged for me to hitch a ride with the airline crew shuttle back to the airport so that I could rent a car there. So that meant that I missed trying to see if I could get into Morgan Spurlock's film "The greatest movie ever sold" really wanted to try and see that but then I wouldn't make it to Ogden where I had an actual ticket. So i got the rental car from the airport and then made my way over to the Broadway Theatre to wait for Harvey to finish his shift so that we could drive to Ogden. He finished a bit early and we were on our way. The concierge told me to take I15 and head north and I should see it.. So I handed Harvey the map and started driving. The screening was for 9:30pm. We left his theatre at 6:30 pm with lots of time to spare I thought.

By the time I got on the highway it was dark and the more I drove the foggier and hazier it got. Then add some weird direction signs and it makes it a recipe for disaster. I kept driving hoping to see signs for Ogden but the signs forked into other things that didn't seem to be where we were going. I finally pulled off the road to a rest stop and asked some guy. He said go back to 215... after driving for a long time I realized i was back near the airport in Salt Lake City.. totally sent us back the wrong way. We asked directions about 5 times each time not really getting clear information on where to turn off and what direction we were going. Harvey even fell asleep at one point leaving me the blind to drive blind through this haze soup of unclear signage. I was so frustrated after driving a couple of hours and I thought we were close but still wasn't sure so I stopped at a Starbucks and the girl there told us we were close and we just had to turn at #25.. ok I found that and turned on there but then there was a road block so we had to figure out how to get around that to get over to the other side...so another detour. So by the time we got to the theatre it was 10 pm. Ok so the bad news is that Sundance's policy is to not let anyone in when the film starts because they have let the wait list people in by that time. Good policy but not for a CDN who was lost in Ogden. Harvey was wearing his Sundance vest and we spoke to a Volunteer and told him the situation.. I had to make a rest stop and while I was doing that Harvey spoke to the theatre manager who was a really nice sympathetic lady who must have felt sorry for us because we came all the way from Canada to see that film. So when I exited the washroom she told me she would let us in and we could sit at the back of the theatre..probably where the volunteers usually sit. I was so grateful because if I had gotten lost for over 3 hrs and had to turn back for nothing I would have been really upset. So we finally got there and got a seat. But guess what? By the time we got there we actually missed the part where my clip was in. The only reason I knew that was because I saw it online when I was watching at the hotel. But at least I could see the rest of the film with sound which was spectacular. I kind of feel a little bit ripped off though because by the time I sat the screening it was the second last day of the festival and the director and probably most of the filmmakers that were flown there were gone so there wasn't even a Q&A. Only the top 20 filmmakers that had the biggest percentage of footage were brought to the festival and since my clip was like about 30 seconds I wasn't included. So I didn't really feel a part of it in the end.

Ok I know long story. I probably should have filmed Harvey and I driving to Ogden and back.. because that's where the drama was. So by the time I made it back to my hotel at 1:30 am I was drained and didn't want to get lost driving to Harvey's Hotel in Murray and back so I had to give him money to take a cab to the hotel which we then had to wait for. So finally crashed at 2 am a bit let down by the whole experience.
The next day Harvey was already returning to Toronto and I was on my own. I had a check out time of Noon and my flight wasn't leaving until 9:30 pm so what to do? So after I checkout I went to Target to get a new piece of luggage to haul back my camera, boots I didn't wear and other stuff easily. Then I decided to drive to Park City and finally check out Main Street. I wasn't sure I wanted to drive myself in case I got lost and missed getting back for my flight but took the chance. It was a grey day very hazy again but the drive through the mountains was still amazing. Luckily Park City has very good signage and I found exactly where I wanted to go. Once I got to Park City I saw the Yarrow Theatre and stopped in to figure out what to see/ do. I realized I had a bit of time to see 1 film so they pointed me to the wait list line. While I was making my way there a very nice woman offered me her extra ticket. I was so happy to have a ticket so that I knew i would be able to see the film and she didn't even charge me for it. So we chatted in line and when we walked into the theatre I saw a friend from Toronto who was the Theatre Manager there so I said hi to her.. No I wasn't surprised.. there are a bunch of people that go from the Toronto International Film Festival to Sundance to work/volunteer. I just didn't know what theatre everyone was at. So I said hi and proceeded to a seat and the woman that gave me the ticket said "wow you are connected" I laughed because I thought after looking around it's the first time going to a film festival where I don't know a bunch of people sitting in the seats or around the theatre.
The film that I saw was called "Senna" about a race car driver that died in the 80's and the film was put together from news footage and family video. Very sad ending.

So then it was off to finally walk down Main street. Yeah.. but OHHH where is everyone? This was the last day of the festival so the box office was closed and there weren't very many people around but at least I got a chance to walk around and check things out. So I can say I finally made it to Sundance but it wasn't exactly how I pictured it would be. But I have to say that Salt Lake City is a really beautiful city and Park City and the mountains are spectacular. I hope to return again next year and do the whole festival as it should be done and maybe if I am lucky I will have a whole film in the festival that is mine. If all goes well.

A bit of my Life in a Day

2011-01-25T18:20:00.000-05:00

Way back in July 2010 I spent the day roaming around on a saturday with my video camera documenting my day. I spent most of the day by myself and shot what I could and submitted the footage to the Youtube contest/ Documentary "Life in a Day" Directed by Kevin MacDonald and produced by Ridley Scott.

Why did I do this? Well I thought it was an amazing thing to see what people from all over the world would send in as a view of their life on that day in 2010. What was the payoff? The footage was going to be distilled into a Documentary Film that was going to Premiere at Sundance this year. So this got my attention... worldwide, documentary, sundance, premiere etc. I wanted to see how all of this would come together.

A few months later I got an email telling me that they liked my footage and that I made it to the top 100 hours of footage that was then to be distilled down to a 90 min film but the footage was going to be posted on the youtube lifeinaday channel so that people could see it. Then I waited... I next heard that they had chosen the 20-26 filmmakers that were going to be going to Sundance with them to premiere the film. I was really dissappointed that I didn't make that cut. But about a week ago I got another email saying that some of my footage made it into the film. I don't know what clips and how much of it. I sent them about 10 minutes of footage but the chosen clip could be 2 seconds. I don't know but I am still happy to be included in this Global Experiment. I didn't get a free trip to Sundance but I decided to go there anyway and see if I could go see it there. I may not make it to a screening there but I am going to try. But even if I can't get into a screening they are going to be streaming the film online on Thursday Jan 27th at 8pm. details below. You can view it too and help promote the film.

Our local Toronto Star movie critic even noted that he cried and laughed while watching the film. It takes a lot to get to the Toronto critics who have seen it all.

I am also going to Sundance to film a little of my documentary "You Know Harvey" since my subject is working as a theatre rep for the festival. So i have a tiny piece in the festival and will be there making another documentary that I hope to show there in the future. So I hope you all wish me luck and enjoy this ground breaking project.

This Thursday, January 27^that 8pm EST, Life in a Day will be live streamed from the Sundance Film Festival and followed by a live Q&A with Kevin Macdonald and key contributors to the film.

Premiere link: http://www.youtube.com/lifeinaday

We also just launched a cool game on Facebook called “Where in the World” where you guess where a video was filmed. Check it out and tell your friends!

http://www.facebook.com/youtube#!/youtube?v=app_155834191136078

We need your help to spread the word! Write about it on Facebook.

Tweet about it and include #LIFEINADAY. Email everyone you know.

Tell all your friends. Tell EVERYONE!

And of course, we thank you so much for your help in supporting Life in a Day!!!!

LINKS:

http://www.facebook.com/youtube

http://twitter.com/YOUTUBE

#LIFEINADAY

http://www.youtube.com/lifeinaday

STREAM DATES/TIMES:

USA:

Thursday, January 27 – 8pm EST

International:

Thursday, January 27 – 8pm EST

Friday, January 28 – 7pm Local Time

Fame, Celebrity and Film

2011-01-09T08:19:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I took a trip down to the Eaton Centre to see Adrian Grenier who was signing autographs for his new DVD release of Teenage Paparazzo. I saw the film at Hot Docs last year and was really taken with it. Not only because he demonstrates what fame looks like from 360 degrees but because he shows what fame greed also looks like. I have been filming a documentary for over a year and I found myself relating to his experience in the film where he shines a light on a kid that is a paparazzi only to watch the kid lap up all the attention he receives because of it. The kid becomes a fame junkie and wants more of it and wants to become a reality tv star...but does he. In the process of filming I think both the kid and Adrian Grenier learned more about the price of fame and what a monster it could be. What I have noticed in filming my documentary is my subject is also starting to seek fame and all the trappings that come with it. But my subject is not a 13 year old cute boy he is a middle aged overweight man who doesn't have the social graces of a Hollywood actor but I think that's the point. I think that's what he is seeking from fame, to get all the attention a leading man in Hollywood would get.

There is only one good thing that comes from fame.. That is the ability to draw attention to social causes that can help people change lives. Look at what Matt Damon, Bono, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and a host of other socially concious celebrities do with their fame. That's what fame should look like. You know what the other side looks like and it's not a pretty picture. I would like to see more people become famous for doing a great job or doing good things in the world. I wish we weren't attracted to the other train wrecks that dominate the tabloids and the TMZ's of the world. While I admit I watch TMZ because it's entertaining and funny sometimes it is also hurtful and damaging in some cases and can have a bad influence on people that will do anything to just be famous. I wish media would focus their lenses on people that are just doing good work like Adrian Grenier and not because he is seeing this person or doing some sort of vice.

Teenage Paparazzo is a well made film that I hope people will go see and think about the view of what Fame is like from all sides.

This film and the Anvil movie inspire me to make my documentary as great and as compelling and thought provoking as theirs are. I have a lot of work ahead of me but I hope that I can make my documentary be as great as these films are.

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-02T09:18:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year where people are thinking or planning their New Year's Resolutions. I have been thinking about the past couple of years of what I have been through and where I want to be and have decided that I should do a New Year's Resolution List or List of Goals as what it really is. Over the past few years all my plans had to be put aside because of work and family commitments but this year I can finally try and plan my future and control my life a lot more.

From what I have learned from all the diet guru's and books out there it is best to broadcast or tell someone your goals to become accountable and you will have greater success because someone will be watching your progress. So if it works for diets maybe it will work for life. I might as well put it in black and white on my blog for all of you to review and bust my butt over the next year. When I took my Media Business Management course we had to do a 5 year plan at the end of the course so this will be my one year plan or New Year's Resolutions as most people call them.

So this is my list:

1. Lose at least 10% body weight (better than saying lose weight)

2. Pay off credit cards.

3. Get organized in my house and my life.

4. Change career paths towards a more creative career

5. Finish my documentary

6. Get fit enough to have energy to spare

7. Spend more time with people I care about and have fun with.

8. Do things that will make other people's lives better.

9. Make better food choices and take care of myself better.

10. Live a photo worthy Life.

So that's the big picture... most of these are general life resolutions. Maybe I will be more specific next year once I tackle some of these goals.

check back next year to see the result and next year's goal list.

What are your Resolutions/Goals?

Happy Holidays - Coldplay Christmas Lights Live

2010-12-22T07:41:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCM1iA8lbcY

Wishing you a Happy Holidays! with music from Coldplay

Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better

2010-10-30T08:15:00.000-04:00

I have been reading, listening or watching Tony Robbins on and off for the past 30 years. He always seems to pop up when things aren't going as well as I would like in my life. He always helps me put things into perspective and remind me to try and look at things from another angle. In this speech he talks about uncertainty. Right now I have a job that might be ending in 5 weeks and no definite job to move to next. I have a documentary that needs to be completed but I don't know anything else for sure. Nobody knows everything and I guess what Tony is trying to say is that life is supposed to be that way. It's supposed to be unpredictable and full of surprises but you need to accept that it's going to happen and deal with it. So I am going to just keep my eyes open and see if any new opportunities come up and just roll with whatever happens. It may be good or it may be bad.. I won't know until it happens. Tony Robbins is inspiring and funny and I need to watch him now and then to remind me that my life is no different from anyone else's life.

Nicholas Christakis: The hidden influence of social networks

2010-10-30T07:24:00.000-04:00

I always believed that the more friends you have the better you are. This shows that social networks can influence a lot of things. Their is value in Social Networks. I use this BLOG, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin and email to stay connected to people I know all over my city and the world which would be impossible to do any other way. I can be connected to people I haven't even met yet through some of these things. If it is used properly it has the power to change things in a positive way. You wouldn't start a war with people you thought were friends of your friends. So the more we decrease our degrees of seperation the better. We all need to be 1 degree from Kevin Bacon.

Can too much art be bad?

2010-10-03T19:01:00.000-04:00

Lower Bay station

Church on Bloor St.

Yesterday I stayed home all day resting and hoping that I would try and recover from the nasty cough that was starting to creep up over the past couple of days. My friends started calling, texting to see what the plan was for Scotiabank's Nuit Blanche and all I could think of was how I could feel better. They seemed to take pleasure in dragging me all over town when I am feeling like I am about to pass out but I didn't want to miss out on what I hoped would be a fun night with incredibly creative art installations. But unfortunately I did not get that this year. It became an exercise in logistics all night long. Who wanted to see what and where and where we were going to meet and who we had to wait for so much time was wasted just waiting around for people to come and go. We started out at 7:30pm on Bloor St. hoping to get into the Royal Conservatory.. a friend works there and I was hoping to check it out and say hi but the line wound around the building and we didn't want to waste an hour waiting in line so we continued along Bloor. We walked into a church where we saw saw decorated balls. Ok.. then we proceeded to Yorkville to see some drag queen do something on the rock in Yorkville.. No drag queen just red lights and strange sounds.. apparantly the drag queen showed up at 10pm we left at 9pm. We then headed down to the lower Bay station to see a row of motion activated lights so people were in the dark screaming and clapping and doing whatever to make these lights go on and off.. Ok..

Yonge Dundas Bonfire

Next it was time to head down to Yonge/dundas square.. wait for 8 minutes to get on the packed subway and then arrive at the Square to see a Bonfire in the square.. that's it.. just a fire.. probably installed because of people complaining about the cold in the past.. would have liked to see some marshmallows on long sticks or something with that installation. Ok..onward. Then it was over to Ryerson were everything seemed to be projected on screens or walls. My friends seemed to like the swans but I was not as impressed and generally was underwhelmed with the projections. Then we spent a good 45 min trying to figure out what alley the Night Market was in and when we finally got there we got pushed through a gate by a security guard only to see things we didn't really need but only picked up some samosas and pakoras.. cheap food was the best part of that. A much better area for this to be located would have been the already closed area around Ryerson where the rock is where the streets are paved properly and it doesn't spill out onto Dundas and there are already tables set up for people who decide to purchase food. Sorry my event management training kicks in when I attend these events. Poor location is the killer of all events.

Night Market

Ok so then we were on our way to Nathan Phillips square and stopped to rest at the Atrium where there was a dancing with strangers thing happening in the middle of the mall.. kind of odd.. they had a camera just filming people dancing to Michael Jackson and popular dance music.. Ok some people had fun and we stopped to watch for a while. Some woman was there putting on her own little show.. she was in her own little world.

Atrium on Bay

We headed outside to see some Kraftwerk weird video display and then moved on to City Hall. Finally something that interested me. I am a huge fan of Daniel Lanois and was impressed by the quality of sound that was set up in the Square.. my friends were not so impressed.. No Daniel Lanois when we were there but i think he was there by the time I got home.. but I probably would have stayed longer to watch and listen to the videos if my friends weren't there wanting to go somewhere else. no photos..

Then we walked over to the Chevy Cruze Remix. another dance party in a parking lot where people could test drive the cars.. Not sure what this has to do with art but I guess the corporate types trying to catch the one million people attending the event.

Then over to the slowed down Beatles movie in another church with musicians playing really slow... not sure what the point of that was.. think people just wanted to sit down in a warm place without people yelling.

Then we tried to go to see something at Old City Hall and wandered around and by that point I had enough.. my legs were tired from wandering around for over 5 hours and because the subway only ran as far as Eglinton and St. Clair I had to leave at the regular TTC hours to get home so I wouldn't be stranded. This was the thing that I didn't understand.. You have an event that runs all night and you extend TTC service all night but if you live north of Eglinton you are SOL.. on getting home by TTC and yet there are no TTC lots at St. Clair or Eglinton Ave.. I don't even know about the Bloor line so I can't comment on that one. But since some major streets were closed down it was impossible to drive anywhere near there so you had to take the TTC ... which became annoying when having to wait for 8 minutes at times only to get onto packed and dirty subways with rowdy and obnoxious people. If the goal is to keep cars from going into the downtown core ending the Subway short of the full line doesn't seem to be very helpful. There are people that live north of Eglinton and East and West that enjoy Arts and Culture too. It became impossible to see all the areas and we totally missed out on the Distillery area and the Liberty Village area and I ran out of energy and time to go to the Lightbox and see some friends there.

So maybe my experience would have been different if I had chosen a different area and if I wasn't feeling a bit sick and exhausted but this year seemed really underwhelming to me. In past years I wouldn't stop taking photos of everything I saw but this year I had to push myself to try and find something interesting to shoot. Maybe I just should have skipped this years event but you never know if there are going to be great things to see and experience so I dragged my body out to see what I could. Can being too popular be a bad thing? Can too much art be a bad thing? Letting anyone create art for the public can get out of hand in this case. Should an event like Nuit Blanche be held in one central area maybe like the CNE or some area that is accessible and easier to accomodate so many people at one time?

I found it impossible to be everywhere to see all the things that I might have enjoyed and just found the process exhausting this year.

What I did see where rude and obnoxious people out screaming and looking to vandalize and disrupt a beautiful event in what they think is as a fun time. I love Toronto and I love that we have so many cultural and artistic events but are they getting out of hand? Should they be better organized by a planning committee that can look at all the city variables like construction, road closures other events and such. I found that during TIFF I wondered why there were so many closed roads and half finished construction around major areas of the festival when the Festival brings in so many tourists and people into the downtown core to attend TiFF events.

Queen St.

Well I don't know if my cranky rant is due to me not feeling that great or just the lack of great art and planning that I witnessed last night. I hope next year they learn from this year's event and can make it a whole lot more accessible and enjoyable or maybe I should create an installation of my own that would entertain and impress the people in Toronto... something to think about.

Gotstyle new store opening

2010-09-30T08:40:00.000-04:00

Because of Twitter I found out about a new store opening for the men's store Gotstyle in Toronto so I decided to go and check it out. It was billed as the Naked Briefs show. Bruce Turner Host of Style by Jury was the spokesperson for the briefs and Host of the event. I went down to Bathurst/King to check it out after work. I was there for a while and saw noteables such as Dancer/Singer Blake McGrath, Much Music VJ Sarah Taylor, and makeup artist Korby Banner. But unfortunately I got tired and hot and left before they brought out the naked models... well male models modelling the new Naked Briefs but I did see a couple of beautiful female models modelling the briefs as seen here.

The Power or Words

2010-09-30T08:21:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was the Word on the Street at Queen's Park in Toronto. Word on the Street is an annual event that turns Queen's Park Crescent into a pedestrian mall full of book and magazine vendors and things for the kids to do and see. It brings together first time authors with experienced authors and unlikely authors.
2 of the first time authors that I went to see were Mark McEwen owner of several highly regarded restaurants in the city and Canadian Top Chef judge and star of the show the Heat. The other first time author was Mayor David Miller.

Yes they are both first time authors but hard to believe with their long standing service and high profiles and great experience.

The hard part was that they were both speaking at the same time. I first went to see Mark McEwen do a cooking demo in the cooking tent but just as the food was starting to smell really tasty I had to go over to see Mayor Miller speak. I wanted to support Mayor Miller as he was gracious enough to do an interview with me for my documentary film so I wanted to do the same for his creative talents. But what I was surprised at was how funny the session was going to be. Mayor Miller poking fun at the host of the event and making references to the mayoral candidates. I decided to pick up his book after the session and stopped by the tent to get it signed and I told him how funny the session was and he told me that he takes the job seriously but not himself. He has gotten a lot of criticism over the past few months so it was nice to see him being well received as a new author. His book is about inspiring stories about some of the residents of Toronto. I think he has a promising career as an author if he wants to do that after his time at City Hall is done.

Since I missed the sampling of gnocchi that Mark McEwen was making and missed the rest of that session I was then able to go and see him speak at another booth. He spoke about some of the food trends and what it took for him to get to where he is now. He constantly has new projects on the go with a new restaurant recently opening in Don Mills called Fabbrica. I plan on checking it out soon. I didn't pick up his cookbook at Word on the Street because I was lucky enough to go see him once again the next day where he spoke to the students at George Brown College where my friend is a full time student. I was able to get his book there and get it signed. I asked him if he would ever open a place in my area and well the answer was not likely so in my book he signed it "you need to move downtown".. I think he is right..

Tiff Wrapped Up

2010-09-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year where I try and be in a hundred places at the same time.. Yeah it was Tiff time. The Toronto International Film Festival ran for 11 days this year so an added day of running around this time. Every year I do a blog wrap up so that I can remember what I did the following year. It all becomes a blur by the end of the week because you are busy non stop and start to forget what day it is after a while.

This year I only volunteered at Roy Thompson Hall for 4 shifts because I knew I would be busy with parties and other things going on so here is how the week shaped up.

Thursday -Opening Night I didn't have a shift and just went out to dinner in the new restaurant in the Bell Lightbox so it was an easy kick off.

Friday night I was at Roy Thompson Hall for my shift and busy running around the Hall most of the night. Saturday I had a matinee shift because I had a couple of parties on saturday night. The film was a french film with Marion Cotillard. There were problems with the subtitling so it took an hour longer to figure out what to do with the end result being that they showed the film in french and added an additional screening at another theatre with the film subtitled so people that didn't want to stay hustled over to the other theatre. Something invariably always happens with these films as it's Film and many things can go wrong. Let's just say it becomes crazy when you have to move hundreds of people around.

Saturday night I got an invite to the Telefilm party where I did some industry schmoozing and met a few new people and saw a whole bunch of people that I know and it was the first time I went to the Telefilm party so I didn't know what to expect. It was at Spice Route and the place was jam packed.

Then off to Empire in Yorkville for the Reelworld Film Festival reeption. I was a volunteer/volunteer coordinator for the festival in the past so I know many of the people that worked at the festival in the past so it's always like a reunion of friends at any Reelworld Event. I made my friends day by taking a photo of him with founder Tonya Lee Williams.
Then I headed over to Moroco with friends for some great frozen hot chocolate.

Sunday was the Block party for the Bell lightbox where they closed King St. down and had artist like K'naan and Fefe Dobson play live on stage. They even had a flash mob dancing to film music routines.
Sunday night I was back at Roy Thompson Hall for a busy night.

Monday I took the day off of work because it was a really busy day. I hit Reelworld's Indie Film Lounge for Brunch at Empire in Yorkville for some industry panels and some breakfast.

Then off to see the Danny Boyle film 127 hours where I saw Danny exiting the theatre while I was trying to get some footage of Harvey my doc subject who was working the shift that day.
The film was an amazing depiction of a real life story of a man trapped in a canyon. That's Harvey with the blue hat and headset.

Then off to the Raindance Canada Party at Spice Safar on King St. where I was shooting the video interviews of celebs and filmmakers attending the party.

Tuesday I had the night off so I was going to go see a movie but hit the Made in Canada Party at the Bond Hotel and then met up with a friend there and then headed over to Yorkville again for dinner at the Four Seasons and some people watching.

Wednesday it was back to another party at the Pinewood Film Studios for the Wift - Women in Film and Television at Tiff Reception. It was a Fellini inspired party with all kinds of wandering performers.

Thursday the pace of working and doing all these parties and films finally took it's toll and I had to take the day off of work and Tiff. I had pushed my body a bit too far and had to hit a walk in clinic instead of a party where the doctor told me I needed to rest to recover.

Friday I finally got to see another film at Roy Thompson Hall. It was The Beginners Guide to Endings. I was in the rush line when a friend rode up on his bike and handed me a pair of priority tickets. Thanks David because of him I got some great centre floor seats. I really liked the movie. It was a hilarious Candian movie shot in Niagara Falls with Harvey Keitel in it. The producer had run off of the mouth while doing the intro speeches and was left standing alone on stage while everyone else left the stage. After the film I met up with friends for dinner at the Red Tomato on King and ran into some of my Tiff team on their break. We a couple of us headed over to the Park Hyatt rooftop for drinks.

Saturday I squeezed in one rush film at the Elgin before heading over to my closing night at Roy Thompson Hall so I was back for my last Tiff shift with my Red Carpet friends. We got to see the film and stay for the closing night party after the film ended so it was a lot of fun with my team that night.

Sunday was the last day to pack in whatever movies I could see so I went to see The Conspirator at the Varsity and then ran over to Ryerson for the Viewer's choice film The Kings' Speech and then back to the Varsity for Peep World and then back down south to This is London for the Volunteer Party with more of my Tiff volunteer friends.

All totalled I volunteered for 4 shifts at Roy Thompson Hall, hit 7 parties, took 1 day off and watched 9 movies in no particular order.

1. Trust
2. Barney's Version
3. 127 hours
4. Beginners guide to endings
5. The conspirator
6. Peep World
7. The Kings Speech
8. Last Night
9. Never let me go

That's as much as I was able to pack in and still try and keep my day job.
Who knows what I will be up to next year.

Alan Frew -Believe

2010-08-31T07:37:00.000-04:00

Alan Frew singing the song he wrote for Nicky Yanofsky - Believe - performed at the Yonge Dundas Square Aug 2010

c2010

Colin James

2010-08-31T07:34:00.000-04:00

Colin James at the Yonge Dundas Square Aug 2010. Another Great Canadian Musician

Reliving my rock n roll days

2010-08-29T07:01:00.000-04:00

This summer has been a ride back in time for me. I feel like I am re-living my 20's but realizing that it won't last this time around. In the 80's i wanted to be a Rock photographer and would spend my free time going to see local Canadian bands and artists. Some were friends some were friends of friends and some we just really great artist that were on my radar. In the past month it seems that I have been given the chance to go see them all again but this time I have my video camera in hand so the experience of what I have seen will be forever lasting. In the past month I have seen Coney Hatch re-unite after 13 years apart. I have seen the Santers band also re-unite after many years apart. They all played one show together with my friend Ray Coburn ex of Honeymoon Suite who now performs his mulit media project Smash Hitley. That was all in one night. Yesterday I was also able to see 2 great free show from 2 amazing artists at Yonge and Dundas Square. First up was Alan Frew (Glass Tiger) who now has his own band. His voice still has so much power in it. Also on the same night was Colin James who I had only seen live once before at the Masonic Temple on Yonge Street in the 80's at what was one of the hottest concerts I have ever seen in my life.. literally... I was dripping in sweat by the time I left the place and thoroughly enjoyed Colin's masterful guitar playing. It seems like he was frozen in time because he doesn't seem to have changed much over the years. He is still an amazing musician and still looks as great as he did in the 80's. Coming up in the next couple of weeks are shows by Kim Mitchell and Honeymoon Suite. This rounds out my list of friends and bands that were all a part of the great times I had with friends oh so long ago. I have learned to appreciate every second of it this time around because one of those members of of one of the bands might not have been here today to play these great shows. Carl Dixon almost lost his life in a head on collision in Australia a couple of years ago. So he has been given a second chance and in turn I have been given a second chance to re live my youth.

What goes around comes back around

2010-08-15T15:27:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had things happen in your life that were similar to things in your past but had a different spin on them like a dream you have about things that happen in your daily life?

Well I have felt like that for the past couple of weeks. It started when I went to see old friends play in Coney Hatch, Santers and ex Honeymoon Suite keyboardist Ray Coburn. I used to go see all these guys in the 80's and would always have my camera in hand taking photos. The industry changed, people moved on and away and I stopped going to shows. Nowadays I shoot with a video camera as well as digital still cameras and when i went to the show this time I had my video camera. It felt the same only a bit different. I was filming guys I have filmed in the past but a lot of the guys had changed a bit and the crowd had changed slightly. Now instead of sitting in a bar getting drunk more people had cell phone camera and videos filming them play. I used to be one of the few people with a camera a the show. But shooting video of them still brought back memories of how much fun I used to have doing it and I am seriously thinking about bringing my video camera together with these Rockstar guys I once knew.

I received a heartfelt email from a Coney Hatch fan after posting some of the video I shot and yesterday I was able to meet up with Carl Dixon (Coney Hatch) and make a special video for that guy which I just sent off to him. Carl and I had a great time reminiscing about past events and hopefully I will be able to spend more time with all of these guys again soon. I still love seeing these guys all these years later and I am really glad that I was there to see them all in the early days of their careers.

Coney Hatch you aint got me

2010-08-10T07:12:00.000-04:00

Santers - You turn me on

2010-08-09T21:29:00.000-04:00

Rockers unite and rise at the Phoenix

2010-08-08T14:52:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH-JKq0ftyY

I went to see a Show at the Phoenix Concert Hall that I thought I would never ever see but you never know what things can happen.

This week a band called Coney Hatch played the Phoenix after not playing together since 1993. The band played through the 80's and then just sort of split and went their seperate ways doing their own projects. But something happened to change it all. Carl Dixon the lead singer of the band was in a life threatening accident in Australia a couple of years ago. He was in an Australian hospital for a couple of months before he was well enough to come home. The doctors said he was very lucky to be alive. Carl was always a guy who liked people and life but I think this was driven home to him and others who knew him. I guess everyone that knows Carl is extremely happy that he survived and can still do his music. So fast forward and I am not exactly sure how it happened but a Concert was put together with all the original members of Coney Hatch and then they added some more friends to the show. Not just any friends... they added the SANTERS band, 2 brothers Mark and Rick Santers and Rick Lazaroff. Mark played some shows with Carl before his accident. Santers are also a band that toured the same venues in the 80's that Coney Hatch did but they never ever played a show together. They also broke up but they may have done a show or 2 over the years.
And to top it all off opening the show was Smash Hitley. Smash Hitley aka. Ray Coburn ex of the other local Canadian band Honeymoon Suite added to the powerhouse of talent that was in the room on thursday night. Ray Coburn was one of the original members of Honeymoon Suite and then left to work with many other well known people such as Gowan and Alannah Myles. Ray re-united with Honeymoon Suite over the past couple of years to do a short stint with the band on their re-union tour. Ray is now doing his multi media production of Smash Hits using provocative images and well known media artists.

Why is the a big deal? Well for me it was a big deal because in the 80's I was friends with all of these guys and would take photos at their shows and hang out with friends all over Ontario. As I said they never ever played together so I had to go to a lot of shows all over the place to see them all. These guys were my 3 favorite bands in the 80's and I tried to go to as many shows as I could.

Back in the day I used a film camera and today I use a video camera and make films. I owe a lot of the practice of trying to shoot in different lighting conditions and moving subjects to these guys who always let me shoot their shows... before the days of banning cell phone cameras and such.. I was one of the few people in the clubs to take photos and I value those photos very much now in the days that everyone has a camera everywhere they go.

On a personal note. I have huge respect for these guys as people. They are all great guys and were always great to everyone. I have a lot of great memories hanging out with them and my friends back then. I hope they do more shows together because I will be there as I was way back then.

Andy Curran and Carl Dixon Ray Coburn

Santers - Rick Santers and Rick Lazaroff

Coney Hatch NOW

Santers NOW

I will post a couple more videos of Coney Hatch and Santers as soon as I edit the footage.

Chaka Khan in TO

2010-07-04T20:26:00.003-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUN9f-Wu6DE

I went to see 2 free female legendary singing Divas do free concerts in Toronto both on the same day. The second one was Cyndi Lauper which i will post in the next post. The first one was legendary Chaka Khan who doesn't visit Toronto very often that I know of but did a free outdoor show for the TD Jazz Festival at Yonge and Dundas Square. The show was good and bad... The Good was obviously Chaka Khan who can still belt out songs like she did 20 years ago... and who is a class act. Also the good was the crowd of respectable attentive fans who respected each others desire to see the great Diva and made way for each other to find their place in the crowd..... then there was the BAD.... the Yonge and Dundas Square.. I really hate that place as a venue for large crowds... It doesn't work in any way shape or form. The technical qualities of the sound is usually horrendous and the placement of the stage is ridiculous. What do I know? Well I learned a lot from watching friends who were roadies in the 80's and in various capacities in the entertainment industry to this day. I spent a lot of time as close to the stage as I could get to photograph the various artist that I went to see. Well this is where Yonge and Dundas fails. The stage is designed so that only the first few rows of people directly in the centre of the view of the artist actually can see them doing their thing. Anyone in the middle, or on the side of the stage either sees the back of people's heads or sees huge draped monitors on either side of the stage. What makes a show great is the ability of the artist to connect with the crowd. That isn't possible if the crowd can't even see the artist. That is the whole reason you actually get off your couch and go and see a live show so that you can SEE the artist, otherwise you might as well stay at home and listen to their music on you IPOD. So what's wrong with this stage...well first off the actual stage that the artist stands on is too low. they need to be a lot higher than the crowd so that people can see over the bodies in the crowd. Secondly the speakers... There has to be a better way to design that set up, either to have them suspended above or to pull them further back on the stage or extend the stage so that the artist can move closer to the crowd and out of the way of the speakers.

Now that wasn't the only thing wrong with that venue. CEMENT... you have to stand on Cement the entire time making it very uncomfortable when you get trapped in a large crowd. And finally the vendors tents which further obstruct the view from way at the back. Why couldn't the vendors be moved to the outside of the venue closer to Yonge Street during concerts so that you create a little walled in and intimate space to view these shows. I have seen a few things there that were very dissappointing. I saw Russell Peters twice and could neither hear half of what he said or could hardly even see him. One time I couldn't see him at all. Iggy Pop... that was a whole other matter... A bunch of rowdy overly self medicated young individuals that just pushed and shoved their way through the massive crowd while Iggy belted out years of his Punk legacy. It makes it very hard for people like me to want to go see things at that venue when all I want to do is go and enjoy a musical act, comedian or whatever the show may be and be entertained without struggling to not be pushed and shoved around in the process.

I hope that one day someone realizes that the design of Yonge/Dundas does not work and spends some money to make it right.

Please make this venue right if you have the power to do so... Free concerts in the heart of the city are a great thing but the venue isn't.

Keep Calm and Carry On at City Hall with the Mayor

2010-06-23T07:16:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went to City Hall to interview Mayor David Miller for my "You Know Harvey" documentary. Of all days it was a 93% humidity day and I had to go solo because my friend who usually assists me had to work. So I had to haul all the gear and try and multi-task a full crew at the same time and do it in 20 minutes. I had 2 video cameras and 1 still camera to try and shoot all 3 in the 20 min and still make sure I got all my interview questions in and a release form signed. I looked like a sweaty mess and I think the Mayor thought I was a crazy nervous wreck. I wasn't nervous...just rushed because I knew how much I needed to do in a short time span and it didn't help that I was so hot and sweaty from the humidity all morning. So of course today is a beautiful clear day with no humidity. Anyway... when I took a photo of Mayor Miller he held up the book "Keep Calm Carry On" a message to me I guess....so I did that...I tried to keep calm and carry on. I got all my questions answered and footage on all 3 cameras although one of the cameras hard drive got maxed out half way through but luckily I got it all on the other camera. I am sure that was probably one of the crazier interviews he has done... as they told me when I arrived usually there are 2 people... nope not in my life... when you don't have money to pay people you learn to try and do things yourself.... I don't always want to but sometimes you got to just walk the walk alone and keep calm and carry on.....

G20 GO somewhere else.

2010-06-08T23:01:00.000-04:00

Well I am not one for protests as I have witnessed many on University Ave over the past year or so and I haven't seen any direct results from any of these protests but I see where so many people want to protest over the G20 summit. It will affect so many people's lives. Some politicians believe it's great for the city... well are they going to lose income because they can't get to work because of the blockages or the closed businesses? The city suggested that they hold the meeting at Exhibition Place but that was denied. Why couldn't they have gone to Centre Island if they wanted a secure area and a Real Lake? Why in this past year of financial stress for the majority of people in Canada and Toronto would they spend $57,000. for a FAKE LAKE... when we have a Real One for FREE only a few km away from the Fake set up. I would be debt Free if I had that $57,000 dollars and could live on that money for a YEAR. It's actually more than I make in a year and what some families live on. The amount of money wasted on this summit is criminal when there are 85,000 people that have to go to food banks each month just to get by and 40% of them are children. 1 Million dollars for security.. fence building, cameras, and all the events that are closing for the weekend just as Tourism in the city kicks in.. CN Tower...no go, AGO no go, Blue Jays, no go, Theatre no go. So families that save their money for their great trip to Toronto will be extremely dissappointed to find out they can't do anything if they visit Toronto that weekend.

Why am I ranting... well I have a certificate in Event Management and one of the first things you do is consider your VENUE and how it impacts the whole event and the logistics of it all and any contingencies that need to be taken care of. In my office we have to get new ID just to be sure we won't be hassled getting to work. They say it will be minor inconvenience... for WHO? This event is a high risk event with protestors that could possibly do anything at anytime and a nut jobs greatest opportunity to create more chaos. All this waste could have been avoided if they had only moved the summit meetings away from the Core of the city. Go to Downsview... not as exciting but not as dense in businesses and population. Go to the Island... go to the CNE... anywhere but smack in the middle of the most congested part of the city and the centre of tourism in Toronto.

I want to know what the total cost to the Government is going to be for this summit? All these temporary installations like fences, walls, fake lakes, cameras that all have to be taken down and cleaned up. Could they not just build something that is needed and can stay after they leave? A wall where one is needed and not where it becomes an inconvenience.

While I am not going to protest because I believe it would be a waste of time I am not happy about the fact that the residents of Toronto were not given a vote on the location of this event and that some people will be at the mercy of the disturbances that it will cause.

The Federal government says they will compensate affected people but how long will that take to get and how will it be determined who should be compensated?

In these times where people lose their jobs, homes and credit and the government claims to always be running a deficit budget I think it would give the Country a better PR spin and image if they operated it will only necessary costs and keeping in mind the ecology and economy.

I hope that this give the city worldwide recognition for the right reasons and not the wrong ones but we will have to wait and see what the results will be.

Because I am short

2010-06-06T21:11:00.000-04:00

Well because I am short and make short films I think it's appropriate that I do a Worldwide SHORT film festival wrap up.

I was all over the place at this years festival. I went to Atom Egoyan's Actor/Director Master Class at a packed room symposium and heard some pretty funny stories about the making of the film Adoration.

The festival kicked off with a Great Party at C Lounge and it was a hot night out on the back patio where people from Worldwide short and many other festivals kicked off the festival in style.
Harvey my documentary subject had me be his official photographer taking photos with him and people from the festival. I also ran into many people that I knew so it was nice to see everyone again. There are over 70 festivals in Toronto but the festival community is quite small as many of the people that work at festivals also work at many different festivals so there is a small group of key people that know everyone.

I also checked out the Celebrity Shorts Program and did some skipping in and out of a couple of other programs and got to see a weird little film called Chloe and Attie which was made for a film challenge. It was a creepy little film who's actors are nothing like the characters they play. The actors are a couple of mature as they say twin sisters who were a big hit at the festival. Everyone loved their energy and spirit and they really brought out the creepy in their film.

I was trying to do as much of the documentary as I could while still trying to get in as much of the festival as I could so I attended the filmmaker's reception and a couple of Happy Hours, some industry symposiums and of course the film screenings and then wrapped it all up today at the Big Awards presentation at the Canadian Film Centre. They got lucky and the rain stopped before the party started up and the skies became Picnic friendly just in time. One of the filmmakers made a very memorable entrance when she went on the stage to receive her award. Her film was called Slip and she won 2 awards but on the first award she SLIPPED going up onto the platform and everyone gasped but she was ok and she handled it very well and now everyone will remember the filmmaker who had a SLIP while receiving and award for SLIP. I am sure that will be a story for her for years to come.

Once again thanks to all of the Staff and Volunteers for doing a great job at this year's Festival.

The shorter the better.

2010-06-06T20:32:00.000-04:00

Today was the final day of this year's Worldwide Short Film Festival and the awards for the festival were presented at a BBQ Picnic and the Canadian Film Centre this afternoon.

These are the list of winners for this year's festival and the prizes they received.

The Bravo!FACT Award for Best Canadian Short and a cash prize of $5,000 was captured by director Jean Malek for the visually arresting LES POISSONS (FISHES) .

Special Mention goes to Theodore Ushev’s LIPSETT DIARIES (LES JOURNAUX DE LIPSETT) a technical masterpiece that transcends genres.

J.B. Sugar received The Jackson-Triggs Award for Best Emerging Canadian Filmmaker and a cash prize of $5,000 for his documentary WOOD IF.

The Deluxe Award for Best Live Action Short was awarded to Hamy Ramezan (Finland) for OVER THE FENCE (VIIKO ENNEN VAPPUA), garnering him $2,500 in cash and eligibility for the 2010 Academy Awards®.

The Deluxe Award for Best Performance in a Live-Action Short was awarded to actors Noni Hazelhurst and Anthony Phelan for their raw, believable and honest interpretation of a couple facing their own mortality in A PARACHUTE FALLING IN SIBERIA (Australia) along with a $2,500 cash prize.

The Kodak Award for Best Cinematography in a Canadian Short was presented to Cinematographer Maya Bankovic for the visually stunning SLIP along with $2,000 in 35mm stock and goods valued at $500.

Best Animated Short honour and a Panasonic digital video camcorder went to Joanna Lurie (France) for THE SILENCE BENEATH THE BARK (LE SILENCE SOUS L’ÉCORCE).

The Best Experimental Short honour along with a Panasonic digital video camcorder went to Chelsea McMullan (Canada) for SLIP.

Best Documentary Short honour and a Panasonic digital video camcorder went to Vance Malone (USA) for THE POODLE TRAINER.

And finally, the Screenplay Giveaway Prize, a package of goods and services worth over $50,000 was awarded to Geoff Redknapp for his script The Last Christmas. The prize includes post-production services at Deluxe Laboratories and studio time at Cinespace Studios, along with film stock from Kodak, two programming passes to WIFT-T, legal advice from Heenan Blaikie Barristers and Solicitors, and story editing services by Marguerite Pigott, creative development group leader, Super Channel.

10 Days of Hot Docs

2010-05-26T10:34:00.000-04:00

Hot Docs is quickly becoming one of my favourite film festivals in the City. It’s still accessible even with the increased growth of the festival it still feels like a small community of people interested in documentary films. This year’s festival had some of the highest quality documentaries that they have ever had. There are some brilliant documentary filmmakers that showcase their work at Hot Docs and this year was stellar.

This year I tried to do it all, I tried to see as many films as I could and still go to some of the panel sessions and even made it to a party or 2. What I really enjoy about Hot Docs is that it is truly about the films and not the celebrities. There were a couple of films about celebrities, Adrian Grenier and Joan Rivers who were not in attendance but that didn’t matter because the films were so great that their presence may have drawn too much focus away from the films so I thought the films stood up on their own without the push of their subjects.

You know you are at the point of attending a lot of festivals when you go to every screening alone but end up seeing someone you know that you can sit with. I was able to choose all the films I wanted to see and still was able to sit with a different friend at each one. That’s the mark of a good festival when film lovers can jump in and out of screenings at any venue in the city and still have that familiar feeling.

The festival is run so efficiently at this point that it becomes a seemingly seamless operation but there are many hard working staff and volunteers that have the passion and knowledge on how to get the job done smoothly. There were a few freezing cold and rainy days and the hardworking staff just kept getting the job done.

I saw as many films as I had time to squeeze in but these were my top 10 favourite films that I enjoyed immensely.

Waste Land
Teenage Paparazzo
Rush Beyond the Lighted Stage
Gasland
Joan Rivers a Piece of Work
A Small Act
The Story of Furious Pete
Cooking up Dreams
Dish Women: Waitressing and the Art of Service
Shadow Play: The making of Anton Corbijn

I hope to have one of my films be included in this fantastic group one day.

Fat discrimination is unacceptable!

2010-04-24T08:00:00.003-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMxyZQfMmM4

This is an ad by Lane Bryant in the US for their lingerie. Fox and ABC will not run this ad saying it's too racy and they want it edited. What is wrong with this ad? The only difference between this ad and a similar Victoria Secret Ad is a little more weight. This model is not FAT she just weighs more than the typical size 0 models. She is beautiful and the ad is attractive and respectful to plus size women so why is it not ok to show on TV?

There are far worse things that are shown on TV. MUSIC Videos show far more than this ad does. Violence in prime time shows is far worse for children to view than mommy in her underwear with a life. Come on people there is nothing wrong with this woman she is not unhealthy and she is not doing anything wrong or obscene she is just wearing lingerie.

There is a slow and acceptable practice of Fat Discrimination in North America but at the same time the average size of women is size 14 and North Americans are getting fatter every year. The percentage of size 0 models is about 1% of the population so why is it ok to discriminate against 99% of the population. Even fat people are discriminating against Fat PEOPLE. Discrimination is unnacceptable in ANY FORM. Fat, black, short, old, physically or mentally impaired.... It's all Wrong and NOT Acceptable.

I have been noticing a trend in Malls over the past year. There may be only 1 store in a mall for Plus sized clothing and it is usually in a hidden corner of the mall. If there is a plus size section in a regular clothing store it will be located at the back of the store and limited to a couple of racks of low quality and UGLY clothing. Fat people have lives and taste so why are these manufacturers making all this cheap ugly stuff that nobody wants to buy. If you build it they will come. If a smart person out there created a store like Lane Bryant in Canada and put it in the middle of the mall and made beautiful high quality and high value clothing that people could wear to work or in their real life's events then they would be RICH because Plus Size women would have a reason to go to the Mall and pay their hard earned money for something of VALUE to them.

Why does this bug me? Well I am one of these people that is tired of wearing black clothing only because nothing else is available that looks decent. Most people are Fat not because they are lazy but because they are Stressed Out or have low incomes and can't afford to buy fresh food every day so they eat highly processed high calorie foods to get by. They can't afford to go to the gym or they are so busy trying to make a living because even in the working world they are discriminated against so they have to work twice as hard just to keep up or they have emotional issues and depression that contribute to their weight issues. Most fat people are Not fat by choice but by circumstances.

It is NOT OK to discriminate against FAT people!! Walk a mile in their shoes and you will see how difficult it is.

EARTH DAY - Perfect day

2010-04-22T20:03:00.003-04:00

Today was Earth Day and I celebrated it surrounded by the Beauty of Nature at High Park. I went to High Park after work today to take photos of the Full Bloom of Cherry Blossom trees but I think everyone else had the same idea. The park was packed with photographers, teenagers wandering around, cyclists and runners all trying to share the Cherry Blossom space. It was like a photography convention with so many photographers but I did manage to snap a couple of good shots... check them out.

What did you do for Earth Day today?

Reelworld Openin Night 10th Anniversary

2010-04-10T07:50:00.009-04:00

I was lucky enough to attend Reelworld Film Festival's Opening Night Gala for the 10th year Anniversary. I have made so many friends over the past 10 years at Reelworld so it's like a bit of a reunion every year when I attend the festival. This year I brought my video camera to shoot a bit of footage for my documentary. I also shot a few pictures which you see here. I missed the past 2 days because I was sick but I am hoping i can make it out for the last 2 this weekend and film a little more for the documentary and see Harvey at the festival volunteering as well as check out a couple of films. Reelworld is about inclusion of people that normally wouldn't get seen so this is a festival that has been part of what I believe in for many years. There shouldn't be one ideal for beauty and art is no exception. There are as many stories as there are people and they all deserve to be told and receive attention.

Reelworld's 10th Anniversary

2010-04-07T08:06:00.002-04:00

Tonight is opening night of the Reelworld Film Festival at the Scotiabank theatre in Toronto. It's their 10th Anniversary and I can't believe I have been around the festival in various capacities since year 1. Tonight I will be there as a guest and hope to do a little filming for my documentary as well as catching up with friends. I have met a whole lot of great friends from participating in the Reelworld Film Festival over the years. It always feels like a reunion every year when all the busy people that have worked for Reelworld in the past all come together at the festival. It seems to be only time we can all come together. I am looking forward to seeing a few great films this year and seeing a lot of great people. Go see some films. www.reelworld.ca

TUFF x 4

2010-04-03T05:55:00.006-04:00

It's that time of year again when my brain tries to spill out onto video in creating 1-minute silent short films for TUFF - Toronto Urban Film Festival It is now year 4 and I have submitted films since day 1. This year will be no exception since I believe in this festival because it appeals to everyday people. You don't have to go out to a film festival with Tuff, you can be involved in the Film Festival by just going to work, school or anywhere else you need to go to. That's because this ingenious little festival is shown on the TV monitors on the subway platforms in the Toronto Subways and the BEST Part is it's totally FREE. You can watch up to 80 films for free when you have a ttc token/metropass. All sorts of films, black and white, animation, experimental, comedic, diverse and cool. I have had 4 of my films shown at Tuff so I am a little biased on this but I thought it was a great idea when I first heard about the concept and I still think it's a great idea. I would love to see something on buses one day even. You can make it interactive even. There is an online voting component. You can watch the films on the subway and online and you can vote on your favourite films and the filmmakers like me can win prizes for the most votes. You don't have to vote for my films but I hope you like them enough to plunk a vote down for them. I will be trying to come up with some new ideas for this years festival so if you have anything you would like to see send me your thoughts and who knows maybe i can incorporate some of your idea into something new this year. The submission deadline is July and the Festival runs at the same time as the Toronto International Film Festival in September. So keep checking back and I will post details of what I submit.

Here are a couple of pics from the Press Conference where TTC Chair Adam Giambrone was in attendance to launch this year's festival.

World of Comedy

2010-03-10T07:25:00.004-05:00

Ok so I posted these photos and never got to the explanation of them. This photo on the left is Actor/Comedian Paul Dooley and his wife. This was the 7th World of Comedy Film Festival in Toronto. I have been involved with this festival for a few years now. First as a volunteer and now as a Volunteer Coordinator. I did a bit of double duty this year by also filming a bit of my documentary while at the festival. No you won't see Paul Dooley in my film because it's about Harvey the film festival volunteer so you will see Harvey, volunteers and people that know Harvey. But you never know ...you may see the odd celebrity here and there and future celebs in the making so you will have to watch carefully to see who you can spot in the film. When will it be done you ask? Well since I am a team of one it will take a little while because I am still filming some things but I am working on the trailer which I hope to post here when it's done. I am hoping to get a bit of help soon so hopefully I can complete it sooner than later. So keep checking in to see the updates.

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food | Video on TED.com

2010-02-14T12:07:00.000-05:00

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food | Video on TED.com

Jamie Oliver has accomplished a lot in his young life.. only 34 years old he is on a mission to start a Food Revolution in the USA. He hopes to change the world starting with changing the Childhood Obesity rates in the US hoping to spread it throughout the world.

I can relate to this mission because I understand the effects of Childhood Obesity. When I was a child I started gaining weight when I started to hit my teens. I was considered chubby but now that I look back I was probably only 5-10 pounds heavier than most of the kids in my school. There were heavier kids but most kids were fit and thin back then. Most of the kids had a mother at home that cooked their daily meals for them. In my house it wasn't normal to get fast food but at the same time my mother worked from home and had little time/energy to devote to cooking. She did not know much about nutrition and would make high fat and high carbohydrate meals. My mother showed her love through food. Making sugar cookies and sweet things to please people. When I was a teen I started to help my mother in the kitchen and learned about food and cooking. My mother had limited food knowledge and I was interested in more. I was always a very inactive kid who spent more time watching TV and thinking about artistic things but when I was a kid I would ride my bike and play tennis and run around with friends and at some point it all stopped and the weight started creeping up instead. My lifestyle shift probably affected my whole life. My self esteem was affected by my weight. I was never considered attractive so I had to over compensate in other areas. Now that I look back I think that if I had focused more on an active lifestyle and eating proper nutritionally balanced meals I might have had a different life.

I find it very sad to see kids that are 200 pounds because I see a life of limited opportunities and a whole lot of pain. We NEED to make FOOD and EXERCISE Fun for kids and make them all interested in being FOODIES and ATHLETES.

I am trying to shift my preference of high carb and convenient foods to high quality organic and local super foods. I want to increase my Vitality and increase my quality of life. We need people like Jamie Oliver to inspire kids to take an active interest in changing the futures of their lives.

I worked in a hospital for 14 years and know that obesity affects so many areas of healing and life. Obesity is a drain on the health care systems and we need to be able to spend more money on prevention instead of trying to fix a problem that becomes impossible to fix.

Please buy local organic seasonal food and cook as many vegetarian meals as you can. Be creative.. cook something that tastes amazing and teach someone else how to do it. Inspire through Action. I hope to BE the Change in myself by getting my body healthy again and hopefully inspiring others to do the same.

My life has been about Surviving but I want it to be about Thriving.

World of Comedy Film Festival

2010-02-12T06:06:00.004-05:00

I am returning to the World of Comedy Film Festival to Volunteer Coordinate once again this year. I have been the Volunteer Coordinator for the past few years but this year I am going to be Multi-Tasking. Since I am still working on my documentary "You Know Harvey" I am going to combine my producing and Coordinating skills and film the documentary while coordinating the festival. Harvey the subject will probably be a Volunteer Captain at the festival so I will film him in action and film the other volunteers doing their duties. If you want to be in the film too come out to the festival and come see a screening and you may be seen with one of the great World of Comedy Volunteers. But even better.....if you want to come and Volunteer I would be happy to have you included in the team. If you want to join the fun group of Volunteers you can sign up on the World of Comedy website. Just send Carla Nolan the festival director a note and she will pass the information on to me. If you know me you can also contact me directly and I can add you to the group.

The Festival runs from March 5-7th at Innis Town Hall in Toronto. just down the street from St.George subway station.

Come see some funny movies and have some fun with our Festival team.

Why do we carry so much baggage?

2010-02-07T07:11:00.004-05:00

I haven't posted anything in a couple of months because I have been busy organizing my life instead of living it as I should. But I had a thought while I was riding the subway to work last week about how life has changed over the past 20 years.

It seems to me that everyone carries around so much personal baggage these days, whether it's emotional or physical it just seems to take up more energy and space.

When I was a kid I remember the only time you lugged stuff around was when you had to carry books to school or when you came back from the grocery store.

Kids only carried stuff when the were in school and when they weren't they just left the house with a key and some money at the most. Women carried small hand bags that contained some money and a lipstick and maybe some kleenex or some gum and maybe a couple of personal items. Men carried nothing but put all their essentials in their pockets, wallet, change, keys. and off they would go.

Now when you get on to a bus or subway you have to manoever through a sea of Baggage. Everyone is carrying something. People have gotten larger physically and the stuff they are now carrying is also bigger. One person now takes up the same space as 2 people in the past.

Since I am short I have noticed that I have to do a lot of backpack dodging so that I don't get whacked in the face as someone throws a backpack on their back without looking who is behind them. When I have to exit the subways or buses I have to dodge through oversized purses, backpacks, computer bags, and shopping bags. People seem to think their belongings should have their own seat on the bus.

You would think that with the invention of technology and electronics getting smaller and more functional that we would have to carry less but more information.

Now people don't leave the house without some of these items:

Purses containing any of these possible items:

Gum

wallet

makeup

paper

pens

Ipods

cell phones

glasses

sunglasses

work items

bills

gum

water

personal items

food items

multiple keys

and depending on their life and job anything else is possible.

That's a lot of Baggage... No wonder we are exhausted all the time.. We carry around way too much of it. Will we ever go back to leaving our houses care free and ready to live without Baggage? Is it even possible?

Christmas Eve and time to reflect

2009-12-24T20:13:00.002-05:00

The busy pace has finally slowed down for the next few days as tonight is Christmas Eve and I have a few days off to reflect on the past year. I do not have any plans for the holidays so I am going to take the time to rest, recoup, reflect and recover from the past year's hectic pace. It's been a crazy year for me with multiple film projects and a life constantly in flux. I think it's time to slow things down for 2010 and focus on what is important. What is important to me is to take care of my health and happiness and taking care of myself and spending time with friends that make my life enjoyable. I want to focus on my documentary and only do projects that either matter or make a difference. I spread myself very thin in 2009 and hope to make some corrections in 2010.

2009 was full of challenges and I hope that the New Year gives me more time to think and create and stress less.

I am ready to start a new year off fresh and hope that it is a good year for everyone close to me.

I wish anyone that is reading this now a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope to have great things to blog about in 2010.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year.

Scene Card Contest - Spare Change

2009-11-23T19:57:00.002-05:00

http://directorschair.scene.ca/en/gallery.html?v=2009112112903329363862875041_1290332937086287508252593&id=377&sortBy=recent&page=1

This is 1 of 2 different 15 second spots that were created for the Scene Card Contest. The other one was written by my friend Gerald.

We need your Votes so please spread the word and VOTE..

we want to win prizes!!!

Movie fun

2009-11-16T05:37:00.003-05:00

A bunch of friends and I had some fun and created 2 Scene Card Contest entries at the Scotiabank Cineplex theatre yesterday. I wrote one 15 second spot and my friend Gerald wrote the other one. They were totally different and I can't wait to cut them together and see how they turned out. It was a great shoot. We only had from about 10am to about noon to get it done before they got ready to open the box office so we had to work pretty quickly. Definetly teamwork in action. I haven't titled one of them yet but when I have something done I will post again. I love working with my friends, you get things done fast and have fun in the process.

Blogging before Breakfast

2009-11-12T07:25:00.003-05:00

It seems like my new habit is becoming Blogging before Breakfast. Think i need to change that. I woke up at 6am and instead of taking a shower or having breakfast I have been busy blogging. I really should be doing the other things first but it seems as though I have more energy to blog in the morning. It's kind of like writing your thoughts as soon as you get up so you can get them out of the way before you start your day.

Well today's blog is about the night after the Reel Asian Film Festival. Last night I attended the Opening Night of the Reel Asian Film Festival at the Bloor Cinema. I went to film Harvey for the Doc I am doing on him. I saw a lot of people I knew at the Opening and it was a packed house so that was great for the festival. Harvey was a FOHA, front of house staff for the festival instead of a volunteer which means he didn't have to wear a volunteer tshirt for a change. He actually showed up wearing a suit and had the official looking headset to go with it.

There was a party afterward but unfortunately my life seems to keep getting in the way of me enjoying parties because I wake up so early in the morning and am busy all day long that by the end of the day I am too pooped to party. So off I went home while everyone else went to the party. I guess they don't have day jobs... Well I must now do the shower thing and will get breakfast later and then off to work to make some money to fund more documentary filmmaking.

Breakdown on a Bridge

2009-11-06T06:11:00.004-05:00

Hey, check out my latest 30 second short film "Breakdown on a Bridge" and Vote for it on the www.lovethephone.com website.

This is for the "You're Breaking Up" contest.

I need your Votes and Comments for this film so that I can WIN a TRIP to SUNDANCE. Why is this important? Because I am trying to win a trip for Harvey "You Know Harvey" to go to Sundance so that I can film him there for the Documentary. So this film was made to try and get him there.

So i need YOUR HELP!! PLEASE!!! VOTE and Pass it On...

There are lots of entries that have been on the site for a while so I need to catch up so please forward the link to all your friends..

If I win you will see what your Votes did in the You Know Harvey Documentary...so consider yourself a Producer when you vote because it's like money invested in the film if we win.

thank you all for supporting my projects.

Fame versus Success

2009-11-04T10:03:00.001-05:00

Do you want to be famous or successful? Anyone can be famous in the 20th century but only a small percentage of people are truly successful. What’s the difference between fame and success? Andy Warhol said everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame. Fame is defined by people knowing who you are but that doesn’t necessarily come from doing something successful. Recently people have achieved fame by creating sex tapes and scandals, creating a fake event like Balloon boy and gaining widespread media attention. Other people have cheated and lied their way to fame. Others have failed in the glare of the spotlight because of addictions, indiscretions or excess. People that achieve fame at the expense of success become famous for a short time and do not get the respect that true success brings.

A good example of fame versus success was demonstrated by the Osborne family when they had their first reality show. Ozzy Osborne’s success and Sharon Osborne’s management skills created the reality show but the family paid the price that fame brought with it. Kelly and Jack Osborne both became the famous offspring of Ozzy and Sharon because of the reality show but neither one of them was prepared for the fame it brought into their lives. Both Kelly and Jack suffered under the glare of the spotlight with both developing serious drug addictions in front of the television cameras. They both became famous just for being the children of Ozzy Osborne and without earning or demonstrating any sort of talent or success. But success and stability came later for Kelly and Jack when they both had success at rehab and turned their lives around. Jack has gained success and respect from challenging himself to perform extreme sports for his own tv show while Kelly has been demonstrating her dancing abilities and her passion for performing on the Dancing with the Stars Show. They both have success with their fame now and the credibility, respect and happiness that goes with it.

People such as John and Kate Gosselin, Octomom, balloon boy and others only achieve fame and the misery of judgement seems to go along with it. They are being judged by the general public at large who are shining a very hot and bright spotlight on them. They will never achieve success and respect because they did not earn their credibility through accomplished goals.

There are others that have sustained success and fame in sync and those are the people that have the most power and respect. People like Oprah Winfrey who is famous but has achieved her fame through hard work and good deeds and in turn has the power to influence a whole generation of the public and her peers. Richard Branson has achieved business fame and success by creating credibility in his business and challenging ideas and the limitations of himself and others. He has built a huge corporation, broken some molds and given back to the world in the process.

The ultimate fame and success is president Obama who has achieved fame through his campaign for change and has influenced a generation of people that seek a new direction in their lives. He has achieved the ultimate goal of inspiring people that were apathetic and thought that there was no hope and he has achieved the goal of becoming the first black president through positivity and sheer determination.

So do you want fame or success? I believe we should all strive for success and if we achieve fame in the process we should use it to influence and assist others to change the world. If we ALL strive for success we can achieve and change anything for the better.

Urban Zombies at Mobifest

2009-10-29T06:57:00.002-04:00

I haven't had much going on to Blog about lately since I have been busy with just random things and working on my documentary.

Yesterday i attempted my first pitch session. I pitched to CBC's Doc Zone at Doc Org's Marketplace. Although I was turned down I was told to try the Documentary Channel so I will pursue that avenue next.

Better news was that my short film "Urban Zombies" was chosen as a finalist in the Mobifest Film Festival. The films and awards will be presented at the Revue cinema on Nov 17th.

Nuit Blanche 2009

2009-10-04T10:45:00.012-04:00

Nuit Blanche 2009 - I was downtown all day but waiting around until 8pm to meet up with my friend to check out Nuit Blanche. Seems like everyone was scattered all over the place. We finally hit our first place at 9pm where we checked out the Monopoly game. I didn't find it very interesting watching it on a screen outside the building. We moved on to the How to win the lottery lecture where we listened to stuff about palmistry. After that we met up with a friend who had her face painted and we moved on to the next thing which was the Avalanche ride on Bay street. After that we met up with another friend who ran into another friend so the group got even larger. We headed over to the Scotiabank tower to do an interactive music installation that was the coolest thing of people jumping around and waving hands creating music. After that we we met up with another 2 friends and headed over to City Hall to see the Text installation and some friends when over to say Hey Dave to some guy at Old city hall. From there we went to some boring thing at the Atrium and then headed over to the Bus Station for some Blindfold Boxing.. i don't think they were all that blinded from what I saw.. then we hit a pit stop for Pizza where I finally started crashing... so unfortunately my steam ran out an I bailed before they headed over to the AGO. I could hear the music but knew it would be at least a half hour before we got in and it was already 2am. I was downtown since 2pm so 12 hours hanging around downtown was enough for me. The went to the AGO and then I think the went to College and Spadina and from what i heard when to the Reference Library to do some dancing.. I wish I had the energy to do more. I managed to snap some photos and shoot some video so lugging cameras around becomes tiring quickly. Most of the crazy stuff is on video but everything became a Nuit Blanche installation including my friends so here are a couple of Snaps.

Tiff Wrap Up

2009-09-26T06:36:00.009-04:00

I am still trying to recover from a busy 10 day of the Toronto International Film Festival. 5 Nights were spent at Roy Thompson Hall volunteering with my "Entourage" team.

This is the wrap of the rest of the 10 days.

Parties - I know you want to know. I didn't go to many.

1. Reelworld Indie Film Lounge at the Pilot Tavern

2. My own little Tuff Subway Screening Party

3. Wift - women in film and television party at the Bata Shoe Museum

4. The Canadian Black Film Festival Launch

5. Tuff - Toronto Urban Film Festival Awards

6. TIFF - Volunteer Party.

I walked into the Cole party or a whole 5 minutes. I stood outside the In Style Party and saw the guests arrive.. but that's about in on the party front.

Movies

at Roy Thompson Hall I saw:

Creation

Precious

Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Young Victoria

at other theatres I saw:

Ondine

Leaves of Grass

Cooking With Stella

Now what you really want to know is which celebrities I saw:

Oprah Winfrey

Mary J.Blige

Mariah Carey

Tyler Perry

Sherri Sheppard

Vern Troyer

Terry Gilliam

Michael Moore

Christopher Plummer

Colin Farrell

Ewan McGregor

Edward Norton

Keri Russell

Don McKellar

Woody Harrelson

Bill Murray

the Dutchess of York Sarah Ferguson

Emily Blunt

Jennifer Connolly

Paul Betteny

George Clooney

Matt Damon

Colin Firth

Rachel McAdams

Trey Anthony

and I am sure there must have been a few others that I can't remember at the moment.

I do this list because I will probably forget by next year. It all becomes a blur after a while.

The nicest person that I got to talk to was Sarah Ferguson. She shook all of the hands of a few of my Entourage team and said "you must be exhausted" I said "does it show" and she replied "no I am projecting" I said "I feel your pain" and she laughed. She was very gracious.

I was able to see Q&A's of Colin Farrell's and Edward Norton's films. I love Colin Farrell he is so cool.

and I did some eating and chilling at the Windsor Arms, Four Seasons, Park Hyatt and One.

I just missed seeing Bono who was at the Elgin but I was on Queen and he was on Yonge street. I also saw the crowd of people snapping photos of the band going into the Hazelton Hotel. That would have made my Tiff if I would have seen Bono up close but at least I did in the 80's when I saw U2 at Ryerson theatre and then again at Massey Hall so I guess I am ok with that.

I got to see some of the hottest actors so I am good for the year. Who knows what I will be doing next year.....

Tiff, Tuff and a Doc

2009-09-26T06:13:00.005-04:00

Last week I was trying to juggle Tiff, Tuff and the Harvey Doc. For 5 nights I volunteered for Tiff with my Entourage Team at Roy Thompson Hall a few of the guys from my team in this pic on the Tiff Red Carpet. When I wasn't volunteering for Tiff I was busy with my Tuff films "Renaissance Men" and "60 words" which were playing on the subway the week of the festival. I had a small subway party to watch the films with a few friends.. see pic on subway platform. Then the day after the festival was the Tuff awards. Unfortunately I didn't win but the party was nice and I got to hang out with my cast/crew Collette Browne and Robert Nolan so free party for us. On top of all of that I had to still squeeze in a little bit of shooting or organizing for the Harvey documentary I am working on so I had to visit Harvey at Ryerson and I took him to the Salon during the week and then saw him at my subway party and then finally at the Tiff Volunteer Party. So needless to say I am recovering from a very busy week. I was still trying to work my day job in between all of that and still find time to hang out with friends so it was non stop for 10 days straight. Now I am going to turn into a bit of a hermit for a while and only work on the documentary and whatever else I need to take care of. I will do my Tiff wrap up in a seperate blog. Are you tired? I know I am..

My mother's hands in the Toronto Star

2009-09-13T12:00:00.003-04:00

In the The Toronto Star saturday edition there was an article about the seniors day program that my mother goes to. They did a photographic series on the clients hands and wrote stories about what they were doing and their backgrounds. My mother's hands sewing is one of a few of the seniors they profiles.

Globe and Mail article about me and my documentary

2009-09-05T08:34:00.004-04:00

There is an article in today's Globe and Mail Toronto Online about the Documentary I am working on called "You Know Harvey". The reporter Anthony Furey met with me and then met with Harvey the documetary's subject seperately. It is my hope that this article assists Harvey in his goals and helps the film gain momentum and some much needed attention.

please pass this along to anyone that can help.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/everybody-knows-harvey/article1276788/

TuFF takes 2

2009-08-08T14:27:00.002-04:00

2 of my short films were accepted to this year's Toronto Urban Film Festival (TUFF). The films are "Renaissance Men" orginally created for the MOfilm film festival and a newly created film for Tuff called "60 Words". This will be my third year having films in the festival. The festival was founded in 2007 and my film "Rockstar" was chosen and was awarded the Best in Category Award for that year. Last year my film "Urban Zombies" was chosen as a finalist and this year you will be able to see 2 very different films at TUFF. One with actors and one without.

The films will appear online in a couple of weeks for an online voting competition portion of the festival so please make sure to Vote and tell your friends to Vote. From Sept. 11 to Sept 20th the films will be shown on the TTC subway screens around the downtown Toronto Subway stations. Every day will feature a different category. 77 films will be screened and on the last day the online voting favorites will be shown again. Help my films win some prizes and get some face time in the subways... VOTE< VOTE VOTE.

The past never goes away.

2009-07-31T20:00:00.003-04:00

I got a call today from the wife of the founder of the Tint King franchise. We went to High School together. She told me that her daughter found this old commercial that we did when I was working for Tint King. My friend Keith Penner directed and shot this commercial. We all thought it was funny then but looking at it now is even funnier. She is the blonde woman in the ad and the founder is the guy playing saxophone. See if you can spot me.. don't blink. I have no idea who the lead guy was.. I don't even remember him.. So be careful what you do now because you will hear or see it again in the future. Good thing you can't really see me so it's ok.. This was cool in the 80's... weird looking at it now.

Tint King Commercial on You Tube

1st Radio Interview

2009-07-30T06:17:00.003-04:00

Today I am going to CIUT FM to do my first radio interview for the show Take 5 with Michael Yarde. I go way back with Michael to my days of volunteering at Rogers Television when I was doing makeup for the shows Goldhawk Live and Auto Talk. Michael is going to interview Harvey Lalonde and I about the Documentary "You Know Harvey" that I am working on about Harvey's life as a volunteer at film festivals. I think this is Harvey's first radio interview as well and I hope it's not his last. He is becoming very media savvy so I can't wait to see how things go.

It is a pre taped interview so it will air in August just before Tiff. I will post the date and time as soon as I know when it is.

Images

2009-07-25T21:40:00.006-04:00

One thing that has remained consistent in my life since High School is my love of photography. I can always count on a camera to help me focus in on something i wouldn't notice otherwise. I love to take photos of friends, nature, musicians and the odd found in real life shot. I don't photoshop my images and prefer to just see them as they are but maybe with a closer look or a different view. Photography is the one thing in my life that I never lost interest in it was always there when I was bored or feeling creative. It's easy to just pick up a camera and just wonder around taking photos. You don't need anyone else to do it. Just you and a camera. I guess that's why it has always been consistent for me. It doesn't require planning a meeting time with anyone or waiting for someone before you can start. Just pick up a camera and shoot something. I always have something that can take a photo with me...whether it's my cell phone, my pocket camera or my bigger camera. It doesn' t matter sometimes...all that matters is that you capture great Images. In the end al that matters is a GREAT SHOT. Photography is an art that you can share but you can do it for yourself. I like to do it by myself and then share the images with friends. When people ask you what you want to be when you are a kid my answer when I was in school was a photographer. Nobody thought I could do that for a living so I was re-directed into another direction, but all the while with a camera in my hand. Now I make my own decisions and I am finding that I am happiest when I have a camera in my hand... either a still camera or a video camera. It doesn't matter as long as I am being creative and capturing beautiful images whatever they may be.

So I will continue to take Images wherever I can. I took some of these today while waiting to do an interview. You can be creative anywhere. You just need to have a camera in hand and your eyes wide open.

It's been a while

2009-07-19T20:49:00.002-04:00

Well it seems like it's been a while since I posted anything here but I have been busy blogging on my other 2 blogs. My Integrity Films Blog and on the Blog I created for the Documentary I am working on Film Fest Addict. I have been really busy trying to wrap up 5 short films for a submission to the Toronto Urban Film Festival. It's my 3rd year submitting to the festival. I hope I get in again this year. While working on the shorts I have also been working on a documentary about a film festival volunteer. The title keeps changing so who knows what t will end up as. i have done about 25 interviews with people in the film festival world and I still have a few more to do. I am trying to get as much done before the Toronto International Film Festival madness when sleep, free time and energy become the thing you want the most. I will be waiting for some answers from festival submissions soon but keeping busy in the meantime. Seems like there is something to do every minute of the day these days, and when I am not doing something I feel like I should be. Hopefully it will all pay off with a great film that other people like too... Only time will tell.. keep checking in to see what happens.

Reelworld Networking Night #1

2009-06-26T07:05:00.005-04:00

I had the pleasure of attending Reelworld Film Festival's 1st of it's monthly networking series at Harlem Restaurant in Toronto. It's a great idea to get people out on a regular basis and hopefully connect people that can create future works for the festival. Tonya Lee Williams the founder of the Reelworld Film Festival was on hand to launch the monthly event. Each networking evening will feature an artist that will talk about their experiences. The first artist was Music Video director RT who has worked on many of the big Hip Hop artists music videos and has been nominated for MMVA awards. Some of his clients include Cardinal Offishal and Danny Fernandes. He spoke about living life and looking at things differently through the lens of a camera. Something I can relate to. The networking evenings will be held on the 3rd wednesday of each month at Harlem restaurant so I hope you can check it out next month.

Some filmmaker friends in attendance were the talented Charles Officer and Ada Wong and also there to support was filmmaker Suds Sutherland. I met Charles Officer at Reelworld many years ago and run into him every now and then at Reelworld and other festivals and events around town. He is a beautiful man who I am happy to see get some great attention paid to his film Nurse, Fighter, Boy. Although I haven't had a chance to see it yet I hope to see it on DVD soon.

Support Filmmakers and these events and they will return the favour by providing you with some great entertainment in the future.

Worldwide Short Film Festival Wrap Up

2009-06-26T06:33:00.006-04:00

Well it's a bit late but this is my quick wrap up of the Worldwide Short Festival. The festival wrapped up last week and this year seemed to be a very successful year even with the recession people still submitted their short films...myself included. They received 3900 festival submissions this year. That's a lot of short films to watch. I wasn't able to see as many films as I would have liked so I won't review them but I can tell you that a couple of films that stuck out for me on opening night were First Floor because of the masterful technical work. It was beautifully shot and the technical expertise of the shots was amazing. On the opposite end was a heart tugging film called Gone Fishing with a surprise ending that was truly sad and heartwarming. I also got to see the celebrity shorts program and saw the legendary Lauren Bacall who is still beautifully graceful.

The fun part of the festival for me was the Opening Nicht Party at C Lounge. I looked around the lovely patio on a warm summer night and realized how connected the film festival industry is and how many people it takes to support the industry. I was a volunteer a few years ago for the festival and I realized how many people I met through the festival over the couple of years that I volunteered. I had the great job of volunteering at the symposiums one year and met so many great industry people at that time who I have run into at many festivals over the years. One of the people I met at the symposiums when I was a volunteer was Jamie White from the Colorado Film Foundation who remembered me from when I was a volunteer and then on to the World of Comedy Film Festival. It was great to chat with him at the fun Quebec Party. I also met Shane Smith who now programmes for Sundance and also works for Spafax but he was the Executive Director of the Worldwide Short Film Festival when i was a volunteer. I met so many great people while volunteering way before I even thought of becoming a filmmaker myself but I am happy to say that I was inspired and learned a lot from volunteering at film festivals and I know I wouldn't be making films now if it wasn't for the experience I got while I was a volunteer.

The wrap up of the festival was the Awards BBQ at the Canadian Film Centre. It was a glorious and sunny beautiful day at the film centre and some lucky filmmakers were awarded some amazing prizes for their work but I think more than the awards I think they made a lot of friends and future connections at the festival so I know that it will generate more fabulous work in the future. Although my films weren't accepted into the festival this year I will keep trying to submit films because it is a great festival with lots of opportunities for Short Filmmakers.

I hope to attend as a filmmaker next year.. and hope to say I went from a volunteer to a filmmaker at the festival one day.

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett are gone

2009-06-26T06:20:00.002-04:00

I wanted to post some thoughts about the passing of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. I will start with Farrah Fawcett. She was a beautiful woman that inspired many hairdos of classmates of mine when I was in high school. Sadly my hair wasn't long enough to do the Farrah Flip. She lived her life with grace and left her life with the same grace. She had the courage during her illness to decided to document her journey through Cancer treatments and I hope that her documentary will help others going through the same terrible disease. She was very strong and had a great attitude and I am sure will be missed by many people. I hope she is in a better place where there is no Cancer or pain. Her spirit will be remembered.

Michael Jackson, I first remember Michael whenI was a kid.. he is only a couple of years older than me so I remember when he was with the Jackson 5 and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show with his brothers. The show immediately caught my attention and I was only a kid but I remember how amazing Michael was and I thought he seemed so professional and amazing at such a young age. I thought he was so cute and talented. I wish Michael had stayed the way god had made him because I think he may have had a different life if he could have accepted himself the way he was. He influenced generations of musicians, Usher, JT and a host of other talented artists were inspired by him. He has a huge fan base around the world and appealed to so many different people. People have been saying that he is on the same level as Elvis was and I think he may have been the King of our generation.
I hope is soul is happy and settled now and if there is a heaven I hope that he is making music in heaven.

It's sad that he wasn't able to do his final shows in London but I think he also went out the way he entered ....With a Huge and Surprising Entrance and Exit the way a showman would.

My heart goes out to his family which is large and close and I am sure are all mourning the loss of Michael. I wish them peace and love.

They will be missed and are both truly loved.

Code Revival and Simeon Ross shows

2009-06-19T07:33:00.007-04:00

Last week I had 2 shows I wanted to go and check out because I wanted to support the 2 artists that appear on my latest film Homeless Yoga. Kind of tricky trying to be in 2 places at once though.

First I went to Supermarket in Kensington Market...a bar not a grocery store.... to check out Code Revival. It was a charity event for Eva's Initiative. I ran into my Reelworld film festival friend Sasha Stoltz who was doing the publicity for the event so she introduced me to the other artist playing that night. Matt Black opened doing a solo show and then Code Revival took the stage playing tunes from their new CD Moments in Motion. It was great to see them live again and I now support them 100% because they helped me finish my film with their great music. After Code Revival was Sean Jones who looked familiar but I couldn't figure out why until I found out he used to be in In Essence. He is now doing a solo album/tour with some heavier rock music. He has a great voice and is very charming so I think he will do very well as a solo artist.
So as usual I took a few pics of the event so check them out.

After Supermarket I headed over to the Drake to try and catch Simeon Ross. Unfortunately I missed his show but got to say hi at least. I will go see him at Neutral lounge at NXNE on June 20th.. so come check him out. He also has a new CD so check it out.

TTC shoot wrapped

2009-06-10T23:27:00.006-04:00

I finally wrapped the TTC shoot "Rudeness doesn't discriminate" for Tuff

It was a Crazy Train with my cast/crew on board the TTC yesterday.. We had the TTC supervisor laughing all the way. This shoot got rescheduled 3 times.. I was almost ready to scrap it so I am glad we finally did it with a little help from Jonathan another producer that assisted with the insurance so we could do the shoot.

Here's a look at some pics from the set...or should i say TTC subway train.

Renaissance Men

2009-05-31T13:30:00.005-04:00

Renaissance Men is the latest short film from Integrity Films to be submitted to the MOFILM film festival for the Renaissance Hotel Brand. These are mini movie/commercials that will compete at the Cannes Lyon Advertising Awards in June.

Renaissance Men is about 2 business men, one American and one Canadian. They complete a business transaction in Canada and then the Canadian decided to show the American around town. The 2 men enjoy all the sites in the city as if they were seeing them as a child would. They are let loose in the city to play all day. The American gets a taste of Toronto in One Day.

The film stars Robert Nolan and Corey Henry.

3 G's

2009-05-19T15:21:00.008-04:00

Yesterday I broke out my video camera to shoot a new short film in the beautiful sunshine day. I gathered some of my best friends and told them my concept and we had a little fun making a short film called "3 G's" for the MOFILM NOKIA Brand contest.
I will also try and do a silent one minute short cut version for the Toronto Urban Film Festival

Mofilm has a contest to come up with films for 12 different major brands. While I would love to shoot films for all of them I don't have the time, money, creativity and energy to do as many as I would like. Not to mention the fact that my health keeps getting in the way. I felt sick all weekend but pushed myself to complete the shoot because I knew it would be fun. So today I only went to work for half a day and now I should be resting and recuperating but I am typing this message for you so that you can see what I have been up to lately.

I have a lot of projects and ideas in the works but I am still trying to work around a full time job so I am not able to do as much as I would like to do.. but nevertheless I am working away slowly on whatever I can invent.

Have a peek at a few of the still we took on set yesterday..

Homeless Yoga Trailer

2009-05-01T09:48:00.002-04:00

This is the Trailer for my latest short film "Homeless Yoga"

IMDB Votes

2009-04-25T08:16:00.003-04:00

Hello to anyone that is reading this.

I just got my last 2 films onto IMDB so there are now 5 of my films listed on IMDB along with other films I have done makeup for. Each film needs at least 5 votes to be counted in the rankings. So if you have seen any of the films please go to the IMDB website. link here- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1228224/ and VOTE.

I realize that you won't be able to see POTLUCK or HOMELESS YOGA because they are over 15 minutes so they aren't posted online anywhere but they are going to film festivals so if anyone is able to see any of them at a film festival please VOTE.

You can see some of the other films on either MOBIFEST.. http://www.mobifest.ca under Integrity Films or some are also posted on You Tube and other sites include http://www.torontourbanfilmfestival.com and http://www.shortsnonstop.com and MOFILM .

A couple are also on here somewhere or on my Myspace page.

films somewhere on the Net are:

Rockstar
Urban Zombies
Getting the Boot
What do you want to be?
Fishman
The Tree Killer
Jeannette's Alzheimers Movie Review.

Not all are listed on IMDB but you can check out whatever films you would like to see somewhere online.

I am working on a trailer for Homeless Yoga so hopefully I can post that soon.

So please Vote.. and I will be your friend FOREVER..

Earth Day

2009-04-22T08:55:00.002-04:00

Today is Earth Day!! It makes me think of all the things I should be doing to preserve the Earth. I made a little one minute short film called Random Act of Tree Hugging where I had all of my coworkers hug a tree to show how much we appreciate the Earth.

This morning I made sure I unplugged everyting I could.. I took the TTC and I haven't had any meat yet.. I am not sure how well I will do all day but I will try and do what I can. Unfortunately I am addicted to bottled water even though I know it's one of the worst offenders. But hopefully I can somehow balance things out or maybe even shift the balance to more good than harm. That's the goal everyone should be trying to achieve today and in the future. MORE GOOD THAN HARM! my new motto I guess..

Here is a cool link in the meantime to check out on Earth Day.. Breathing Earth

Diversity adds a different perspective

2009-04-19T07:55:00.004-04:00

Reelworld Film Festival is celebrating it's 9th year running a film festival that celebrates diversity. I have been to the festival every year since it's inception and have participated in many different ways. I started out as a volunteer doing all kinds of things in the first year as it needed someone to show up and get the work done so i pitched in where I could. In year 3 I became the volunteer coordinator and did that for 2 years. In the second year that I volunteer coordinated the festival it inspired me to come up with a project that would give the volunteers an opportunity to be involved in the making of a film instead of just volunteering for the festival. I wanted to elevate them to creators as well as volunteers. So I decided to put together a film and have them participate. All I wanted to do was facilitate this project but unfortunately I ended up taking on the writing, directing and producing roll as well as many other roles to complete the project. It's been 3 years but I am finally finished the film and I am finally happy with the results being the short film called "POTLUCK". I realized that being a part of Reelworld changed the course of my life. I had spent the past 25 years as a freelance photographer/makeup artist and now i merged into the roll as a filmmaker. I have always been interested in different cultures as in how other people eat and think and speak. When I was a child my mother used to take me to an annual event called "Caravan". We would go to churches and community centres around Toronto and sample the food of many different cultures and view their arts and music and dance. I always found it fascinating and I especially enjoyed trying all the different kinds of foods. So I guess when I look back now it makes perfect sense that I would make a film like POTLUCK. Potluck is a film about a potluck party that celebrates diversity and different foods are brought to the party and everyone mixes together into what is sometimes referred to as a "Melting Pot". I have 2 melting pots in the film.. I like fondue so I illustrated it that way.

I now attend the Reelworld Film Festival and am able to just appreciate the festival and the beautiful films that are made by people all over the world. I haven't had much time this week but I was able to see the Opening Night Film "Gospel Hill" by actor Giancarlo Esposito based on a true story it tells of a small towns fight to keep their town away from developers looking to build a golf course. Yesterday I saw 2 vastly different films. The first film I saw was "SKID ROW" a documentary film starring PRAS from the FUGEER It was a look at Pras living in SKID ROW for around 170 hours and seeing the reality of what people deal with on a daily basis. I brutal and raw look at life on the streets. I then saw a beautiful, smart and funny film called "SHADES OF RAY". I really enjoyed this film. It was about a guy that had interratial parents and wanted to marry a white woman until his father set him up on a date with a woman that had the same cultural background as him. He struggles between what he thinks he wants and what he really feels is right for him. This film had a great cast and very witty dialogue. If you get a chance to see these films somewhere please check them out and support them so these filmmakers can continue to make stories that don't follow the hollywood stereotypical stories.

I realized this week that being a part of the Reelworld Film Festival which has been one of my favourite festivals has inspired me and changed my path in life and has also brought some of my best friends into my life.

Embrace diversity and it will expand your world.

Festival time

2009-04-09T07:29:00.003-04:00

Now begins the Festival madness. I finally completed "Homeless Yoga" and revised "POTLUCK" so the festival submission process begins. Yesterday I sent Potluck to the Big Sur Film Screening Series in Big Sur, California because they sent a request for me to submit it so I figured it was worth a little makeover and try and get it out there and see what happens. Yesterday I also filled out my TIFF submission form. They ask a lot of questions and require a lot of stuff which I am still pulling together so I need to send them the film today as it must be postmarked by tomorrow. No rush or anything.. I don't know if the film will get into TIFF but it's like a lottery ticket, you can't win unless you buy a ticket. So i am buying my submission fee to get into Tiff and then I will wait and see what happens. I am not an edgy filmmaker, I just reflect life so who knows if it's something the Tiff programmers will like or not. All I can do is try and wait.

So i am very relieved that both films are now completed and now it's time to jack up the state of my health to get ready for festival season. Upcoming festivals include: Reelworld, Hot Docs and the Worldwide Short Film Festival which I submitted 2 films to. So I will try and attend as many festivals as I can and then pray that I get my film into Tiff so I can attend as a green room volunteer and also as a filmmaker this year.

So will have to wait and see..... more to come.

Putting things off for a Rainy day

2009-03-29T08:00:00.003-04:00

Well you probably know the saying of "Putting things off for a rainy day" well it's raining today so I guess that means I have to tackle all the things I have been pushing to the side for the past few months. That means paperwork and taxes. It's that time of year I dread where I have to sort through the past year of my life and look at all my financial mistakes and make sense of it and try and explain it to the government and justify that I am worthy of more.

I have spent the past year working on about 8 short films and various other projects so I have let other things pile up in the wake of putting my energies into the films. So since today is a rainy day I think I have to tackle the clean up and begin the process of spring cleaning my life. As you can see I am doing a little stalling by writing this blog. I have spent the past hour updating all my social networks but I think I can't stall any longer but before I jump into the deep pile of paper and clutter I wanted to put out some info about a couple of my films.

I have gone back to my beginning and resurrected my first film "Potluck" and reworked the into and juggled and deleted some stuff and added a new additional ending to make it all flow a lot better. My editor is a genius and takes my ideas and his and takes it up a notch. I dragged the film back out because I got a request from the Big Sur Film Screening Series to submit it. So since Woody Harrelson, Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson are judges I figured it was worth a revisit. I am also changing up some of the music. It's getting a bit of a makeover now because after making so many films this year i was able to look at it with a new eye and see where I could make changes because I can look at it more objectively now.

So sometimes you need to distance yourself from things to gain perspective. And sometimes you just have to jump in and do the dirty work. Today is my day to jump in and do the dirty work... So I am off to jump into the pool of paper now... I will resurface when things are all clear.

Keeping Up

2009-03-26T06:11:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted in a while because I have been having a hard time keeping up with all the films and the work that is involved with each one and taking care of my life at the same time. Each new project is like adopting a new child. So in essence my films are my babies. Each new film requires preparation and then nurturing and then promotion and then you set it off and see where it goes. Like having a child there are some sleepless nights and stress and worry attached to each one at any given time. I am currently juggling 10 short films though not all in circulation and not all demanding of my time and energy. But like life I have to squeeze in my life as well. I have neglected my home and my body so I have been trying to do some spring cleaning of both. I am trying to prepare for a busy spring filled with lot's of film festivals and promotion. I have hired a new publicist to help me get the word out without me burning out trying to do it all myself.

I am trying to finish up "HOMELESS YOGA" in time to submit it to The Toronto International Film Festival. Waiting on music to complete the film is very nerve wracking when you have an editor waiting to complete the final product in time for a deadline. I think we will make it but it will be down to the wire.

All these little details in building a film or growing a baby take up lots of time so my energy levels have been taking a nose dive because i have been putting myself last. I hope to clean up the little details and have more time to take care of myself and get ready for all the festivals coming up.

Life seems to be going at the speed of light so I am trying to keep up with it.

More to come soon.

Success and Self Destruction

2009-03-17T06:48:00.003-04:00

I have never understood why people spend their whole life trying to be successful and then when they get there they self destruct using booze and drugs to screw up their lives. Why don't people see that there is never a good end to this practice.. ie: Elvis, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, John Belushi...
I could go on and on..
So I don't understand why some celebrities don't get it. Lindsay Lohan could have had a long lasting career but she blew it before she got started.. She is a Beautiful girl so messed up that she ruined her own career. Maybe in her case she got her fame when she was too young to understand what real life was outside of the Hollywood bubble. Nothing is real in Hollywood.. the women the talk the image of life. So why do so many people that rise to the top take themselves out of the game? Is it because they have a fear that they are not as good as people think they are or are they afraid of someone else taking it away from them?

I have been watching a few of the episodes of Sober House and I guess I will never understand what they have gone through, but I also don't understand why you would put yourself on TV knowing that it will affect your career and you sabotage yourself. It makes great TV but does it help the person trying to get SOBER.

I am by no means perfect...my drug of choice is food...but unfortunately I can't live without food.. so I can only control my addiction and never give it up. I know all the right things to eat and do, but for me it's stress and lack of time and energy that prevent me from eating properly. Eating a well balance diet is very time consuming and expensive.. It costs more money to make a healthy meal than it does to go to the drive-thru at MacDonalds. Why can't someone create a healthy fast food restaurant.. I would be there all the time.

I guess the reason Rockstars and celebrities become addicted in the first place is because of all the enablers.. the people that invite them to parties with unlimited booze or personal assistants that go and get them their booze and drugs...(look at Howard K.Stern for Anna Nicole Smith) Anna Nicole Smith was a beautiful (Marilyn Monroe) looking girl at the peak of her beauty and she destroyed it with the excess use of drugs and alcohol.

Maybe what people that reach the top need are Real Friends, the kind that will kick them in the Ass if they start on the downward spiral. Not enablers.

So I guess my message for this post is Be a Friend...kick a successful person in the ass if they follow the path of self destruction. They will thank you for it later.

Spring makeover

2009-03-14T18:09:00.002-04:00

It feels like a lovely spring day in the city today and it give me energy and hope that spring will be great. So since I finally had a free day to do what I wanted to do i decided to go and get a new haircut finally.. It's been months since I got my haircut so it needed it. John did a great job of cutting off all the winter damage. And lovely Emily gave me a complimentary makeup app.. it feels nice when a makeup artist gets someone else to do their makeup for a change.. She also took a photo for me so check it out... it took a while to get one that wasn't too blurry...but here you go... what do ya think?

Uncharted Sounds Interview for Urban Zombies

2009-03-06T17:51:00.003-05:00

I did this interview with Fernando Fernandez last September when Urban Zombies was in the Toronto Urban Film Festival. Also appearing in the video interview is Danny Cavanagh who is one of the actors in Urban Zombies and who is also Fishman.

TC3 Childrens Choir

2009-03-06T16:44:00.005-05:00

I shot this video footage in January for a friend of mine who is a board member and volunteer for this Group. It's a great organization that teaches kids arts and tutors them on saturdays. They also perform at various events. It's a great way to keep at risk youth focused on positive things and it increases their involvement in the community and raises their self esteem. They are very talented and I am sure you will see them go on to careers in the entertainment industry.

Mofilm Finalists Announced= Urban Zombies is on the list.

2009-02-17T06:42:00.001-05:00

Mofilm announces 11 finalists for short film festival

Eleven finalists for the Mofilm mobile short film festival were announced today at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Kevin Spacey, actor, director and founder of Triggerstreet.com will host the film festival, and present the category awards in Barcelona this Thursday, 19th February. The eleven finalists include drama, comedy, documentaries, animation and science fiction categories and are competing for the festival grand prize of a brand new car and five cash prizes of 2000 Euros each.

Hundreds of short films at five minutes or less in length were submitted to the competition from over 100 countries around the world.. In January, 26 films were short-listed in advance of today’s list of eleven finalists. The finalists are:

Pushkin – Trevor Hardy
Animal Instincts – Cameron Edser & Michael Richards
Enough – Tor Kristoffersen
Linus – Julius Onah
In Search of a Perfect Line – Luiz Menegaz
Rockwell – Lisa Mills
English as a Second Language – Jocelyn Stamat
Moon Shot – James Harris
The Science of Attraction – Claveski
Star Chicks - .Jay Lee
Urban Zombies – Linda Matarasso

Wayne Brannon, Executive Director for Chevrolet Europe will present the festival grand prize of a Cruze automobile to the Grand Prize winner. The original 26 film shortlist including the eleven finalists can be seen on www.mofilm.com

The GSM Mobile World Congress runs from February 16th to 20th with the actual Mofilm film festival being held throughout the week.

URBAN ZOMBIES makes MOFILM shortlist

2009-02-05T21:00:00.002-05:00

http://www.mofilm.com/2009_nominations.php

I just found out that URBAN ZOMBIES made the Shortlist for the MOFILM online Film Festival. This is Kevin Spacey's film festival. There are 26 films chosen in a few different categories. Zombies was put into the SciFi category.. ok...not sure if it's sci fi but why not. It will be shown at the MOBILE World Congress in Barcelona in a couple of weeks. I wish I could go there but at least my film is having a great life.

The Big Prize is a Chevy Cruze... not sure how that works with international filmmakers...but should be interesting to see who wins..

So check out the website and hopefully Zombies will get a little bit of exposure out of this and some cool people will get to see it..

World of Comedy Film Festival

2009-02-02T07:12:00.005-05:00

I am back again at the World of Comedy Film Festival this year. Last year the festival was cancelled due to many reasons but it's back this year and i am back Volunteer Coordinating. The Festival runs from Feb. 27 to March 1st. If you want to attend or volunteer check out the website or join the facebook group. I will post the volunteer recruitment session on the facebook group as soon as it's confirmed.

Hope you come out and have a laugh with me and the great volunteers of the festival.

Come check out some funny flicks this winter and have a laugh.

http://www.worldcomedyfilmfest.com

Why are you Weighting - Book Launch & coincidences

2009-01-24T03:39:00.003-05:00

I have been listening to Oprah's soul series podcasts lately and one thing she keeps saying is that there are no coincidences so here is a story for you to ponder.

This week I went to a book launch because of an invite from my publicist friend Glenda. It was for a Book called "Why are you Weighting?". I liked the title.. then I checked out the website and since I like health, food and motivational books it got my attention. Then I thought it may be of interest to B Magazine readers.. Since I write articles for them sometimes I thought I should check it out. So the interesting thing was that when I walked in the door my friend announced my presence and stated that I was an "upcoming indie filmmaker" I think those were her exact words.. anyway a few of the people were impressed for some reason.. Anyway..this story is not about that...but I guess because Glenda announced my name and sort of pointed me out I guess Stacey the author took notice. When I was introduced to her she immediately said she thought she knew me and was trying to figure out where she knew me from. I did not recognize her..since she has gone through major weight loss and transformation over the years. As it turns out we figured out that we went to makeup school together in the 80's.. Wow. I didn't have a clue who the author was and as it seems we had a connection from many years ago. We are both the same age and it seems as though she has had a varied career path. She didn't continue with the makeup as I did though. She became a Massage Therapist. In her struggles with weight loss she learned a lot about the mind/body connection and that brought her to write her book.

I just found it interesting that on a cold tuesday night in January when I decided to go to a random book launch that i actually knew the author from a class many many years ago. Is that a coincidence or something else.. Why I say this is because one of my 3 goals for this year is to change the way I eat and hopefully start doing yoga regularily. I want to get healthy and lose weight but I want to do it the right way so I can maintain the lifestyle and be consistent. I don't believe in Yo Yo dieting because I know the damage it causes on the internal organs. You are almost better being fat than going up and down rapidly. Sad but true. Another coincidence that evening was that a woman that I knew but hadn't seen in a couple of years was at the event. I was going to go say hi but started talking to a woman that owned a Water Shoppe.. we talked for a while and I didn't notice that the woman I wanted to say hi to had left. But when I finally moved over and finished the conversation with the other woman she came back in because she wanted to get a copy of the book to write an article. Then she saw me and was really surprised to see me. A little face time as we say.. So many relationships take place online these days..(as in you are reading this now) it's great to connect with people face to face.

So in case you were wondering what my other goals are for this year... The first one is to get organized...in my home and in my life so that I can juggle all the things I do and still find the time for my other goals. My second goal which should be my first is to work on myself...my health, my weight and my energy.. so I can keep up with my life. Now the third goal i waiver on from day to day.. Because I want to earn/save more money and take care of my finances but I also want to spend more time having fun and spending time with friends as apposed to sitting on this computer and typing conversations with them. I also want to have more time to be creative and have time to jump on any creative ideas. Be it in photography or in film..or even to cook up some fabulous recipe.

My first goal is starting to take shape.. I hired a professional organizer to help me speed up the process of organizing my house so that it functions better and so that I can carve out a space in my basement for a film production office. For times when Starbuck's just won't do. I have also organized my contacts, videos and photos onto my Ipod so that I can have them anywhere I go. Better than business cards for me. This is supposed to be the Year of Change. That theme comes up a lot so I hope this is my year of change as well.

Here is a picture that I took just before my battery died in my camera. It's Stacey Grieve the author of "Why are you Weighting?: from the Book Launch.

TC3 -Toronto Children's Choir

2009-01-05T18:03:00.007-05:00

This past weekend I did a favour for a friend who has a neice in the Toronto Children's Choir - TC3.

This is a cool group of kids that spend every other saturday as part of TC3 - Toronto Children's Choir and Performing Arts Company.

Teens get together and have dance classes, african drumming, singing and they also get tutored and they get to go on excursions such as doing shows for corporate events and while I was there on the weekend they had a special outing for them to go bowling.

I shot video of the group while they were rehearsing and doing there thing and they will be using it for fundraising efforts. This is a great way to give teens in Scarborough something to do that is artistic, productive and self esteem boosting.

It's a great organization run by Reverand Denise Gillard. She does a great job teaching these kids artistic skills and interpersonal skills.

You can support these kids by making a donation. For more information check out their website at http://www.tc3.ca

Support these kids so they can lead productive and healthy lives in the future.

New Year - New Hair Color - New changes.

2009-01-01T16:53:00.002-05:00

I am glad to see 2008 end because it was a very hard year. The weather was rough and times were tough.

I wanted to have a fresh start to 2009 so I decide that since it's a New Year that I would start with a NEW Hair Color. This will be the year for Change as was started by Obama. I hope to continue with great new changes in the New Year. I started with my hair but I am going to tackle organizing my life next and organizing Integrity Films to be prepared for some project juggling in the future..

I decided that it was time to change my old headshot with the golden copper hair and do my own updated version. So this photo is actually a self-portrait. I usually make other people look good so it was time to turn the camera around and shoot myself and have a photo that represents what I look like now. So I hope you like it.

I have a few little ideas that I am working on for January so if all things fall into place I will be posting some more updates very soon.

I wish everyone PEACE< HEALTH AND SUCCESS in 2009.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-25T07:36:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukkah and Happy New Year to all of my Blog Readers and friends. May 2009 bring you Health, Wealth and Happiness... and Lot's of Fun and Movies.

Best Wishes.

Linda

Getting the Boot - short excerpt from Homeless Yoga

2008-12-10T21:07:00.004-05:00

Getting the Boot is a teaser short film that I edited from footage from the film Homeless Yoga still in production. It's a story that lives independently and within the expanded film.

B Magazine for December

2008-11-28T07:23:00.003-05:00

In December's B Magazine I have written an article to get you ready for all the holiday parties after work in an article called Holiday Magic - 5 after 5.

Pick up a copy at any Dreams Box and gateway newsstands. It's Free. But won't be around for very long.

Here is the cover and article.

Mike Celia at the Cameron House

2008-11-14T21:34:00.004-05:00

Mike Celia (Mike) in Homeless Yoga played at the Cameron House this week.

Mike Celia at the Cameron House

2008-11-14T06:41:00.003-05:00

This week I went to see "Homeless Yoga's" own Mike Celia play at the Cameron House for Songwriter's Night. He only got to play a few songs but he was amazing. He has a great voice and is a really great guy so I am really happy to have him in my film and would like him to get the props he deserves.

You will see and hear him soon.

Day 4 of Homeless Yoga - the Reshoot

2008-11-03T07:37:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we spent a freezing cold day in the park for the reshoot of Homeless Yoga's park scenes. It was a crazy day with some people off in the distance providing gregorian chant choir.. weird.. It was cold, fast and dirty.. but I think we got it done this time. Lot's of new people on set and lot's of good friends pitching in. It made the day fun and crazy so I hope it all works out well in the finished film.

Here are a couple of photos of the day.

Homeless Yoga Day 3 and 4

2008-10-22T17:57:00.005-04:00

Day 3 of Homeless Yoga was crazy. One cast member cancelled the night before the shoot and another one on the morning of. Others were late and others could only be there at certain times and others wanted to leave early. So the whole day was a scramble. I didn't get everything done so I am going to shoot the rest on Nov. 2nd. We ended up using a lazy boy that was sitting in the park as a prop but unfortunately it's now gone.. so we can't reshoot that prop anymore. Too bad it was funny.

I am hopeing the weather cooperates so that I can shoot all the scenes needed. This location is the most complicated so far. We had an insane day of distractions. A Russian Family picnic beside us, cars, ice cream trucks, kids, aeroplanes and craziness. I hope all goes smoothly on Nov 2nd. so that I only have one more day of shooting to do after that at the yoga studio.

Here are a few photos from Oct. 12th.