2011- A behind the scenes review of the year
2011, our biggest year yet! I know everyone in the House’ grew a lot. I wanted to share 3 projects that I worked on and tell you a little bit about why they were particularly meaningful for me.
Saint John Youth Shelter – Shot Spring 2011, Released fall 2011
We’ve been working with the homelessness community for a few years now in Saint John. It’s always a great experience helping these guys spread the word about their cause.
This video could of turned out drastically different. We originally planned to shoot the whole film outside. We wanted to use the uptown brick as the backdrop but since we got rained out, we ended up using the upper and lower levels of the TRC building. The building was once a school that has since been vacant – the upper and lower levels are totally gutted. This lent itself well to the mood and atmosphere we were going for. The location only played a small part in why I believe this film really shines.
The talent we had was 100% believable. We told the TRC to gather a group of kids they thought would be ideal for what the script called for. The four actors nailed their lines – they were all extremely professional and used their personal experience to deliver incredibly raw performances. Without them, I don’t think this film would of had the impact it needed.
Everyone on this project donated their time and equipment. A big thanks goes out to Wayne White at RQ sound and Tim Davidson at Ripple Effect Music for hooking up the great sound for this.
We shot the whole thing on a Canon 7D with Canon glass. Most of the lighting is with just a a single soft box and one background light. We kept it simple – aiming for a clear dramatic feeling to help emphasize the urgency of the cause.
The video was publicly released in the fall at a press conference at the TRC. I have all the respect in the world for the people who work in this community. They put their heart and souls into everything they do – all to help other people in need.
Check out their facebook page and make sure to make a donation. We are now working with the youth shelter again to produce another series of videos to help with the cause!
Saint John Destination Marketing – Shot summer/fall 2011, Released Fall 2011
I remember Kevin telling me we had finally landed this gig and I was more then excited to finally showcase our city in the right light. My initial feeling was that I wanted people from Saint John to look at their city in a new light.
Being born and raised in Saint John, I know we have a lot to offer.
The scope of this project was huge! I think the final count was 9 videos with a mixture of French and English.
Greg Hemmings was to direct and I was to be the director of photography and editor. Like any shoot there are always a million variables. Since a majority of this shoot was to be outside, the position of the sun, weather and time were always our three biggest factors. The other giant factor (literally) was the camera we shot this commercial on, the RED ONE. This camera takes a 3 man crew to move it anywhere, the thing is built like a tank and is almost as heavy. The trade off? The incredible image, high frame rates and massive amount of room to make changes in post. Hollywood films are being shot on this camera!
We did roughly 2 and a half weeks straight of shooting for this commercial, sun up to sun down every day. We had to squeeze every moment we could of this camera as the window of the rental was short and the shot list was large. Poor Gregory had just had throat surgery a few days before the main shooting began, was constantly hacking up blood and feeling woozy. Some shoots took an hour to do (like the sequence off the top at the beaver pond) and some took upwards of 6 hours (like the swooping crane shot at 1:33). The most difficult shot in the whole spot, is the shot at Thandi’s restaurant at 1:13. (which is one of my personal favorites). The Ipad, actually has a miniature green screen on it with tracking marks, later in post production we added in the scene of the city market. The camera is on a giant dolly track and is moving backwards as the camera zooms out from the Ipad. The set up of the dolly, camera and lights was about a 3 hours then it took about an hour to get the movement right on the shot and finally another 1 hour or so of tear down. All for a 4 second shot. Next time you watch a commercial think about all the hard work that went into that small shot!
Overall the shooting went really well, everyone hauled ass as they say. One of my other favorite sequences is the kayaking sequence from 0:36 to 0:42. Sometimes you get lucky when shooting and this certainly was the case. We originally arrived at the jet boat terminal to shoot the zip-line which passes over part of the reversing falls but we got the days mixed up and the zip-line was closed. As we contemplated what to do next we saw a group of people drive up and start to pull out the kayaks you see in the shoot. Next thing you know we are down on the waters edge shooting the kayakers as they “surf” part of the reversing falls. This “surf” only happens for a short window each day so we arrived at the exact right time. Our luck continued as the jet boat happened to be ripping through the falls at the same time. The kayakers where never actually on the shot list, we just happened to get a cool shot of them. All of these shots wouldn’t of been possible without the extremely hard work of a few people; Mike Burchill, Patrick McGivery, Kevin Schyf, Steve Foster, Keri-Lynn Calp and many others.
I’m personally very happy with this project and how it ended up looking. I think we really put Saint John on the map as a really beautiful place to live and visit.
Save the Paramount – Shot Fall 2011, Released Fall 2011
Mike McDonald has been on the path of saving the Paramount Theatre here in Saint John for 2 years now. Mike and I have always had great dialogue about the project. Having experienced the theatre before it closed I knew of the importance of bringing it back.
Mike and I ran into each other while I was shooting for the Saint John Destination Marketing video. He told me of the fundraiser / awareness event he was planning for November of 2011. The idea of making a short film to highlight the long since hidden inner beauty of the building quickly came up and we formulated a plan to get into the property. A huge thanks has to go to; Mike Burchill, Tim Davidson, Patrick McGivery, Diego Bauer, Steve Foster, Rachel Caddell and Keri-Lynn Calp for volunteering their time on the shoot day.
The space has retained much of it former art deco beauty, but the lack of maintenance or temperature control has turned it into a “bio-hazard”. To avoid permanent mushrooms building up in our lungs we all took fresh air breaks every 15 minutes.
Being inside the building for the first time in many years seemed to generate a nostalgic feeling in all of us. Everyone was sharing stories of their time spent there. The 2 shot sequence around 1:32 is of a six year old cup and empty popcorn tray! We didn’t place them there, they were left from the final screening in the theatre. The whole place looked and felt like the employees on the last day just set everything down and boarded up the windows and doors. Kinda spooky.
The video was originally suppose to premiere on November 18th, at the Paramount event at the Kent Theatre in Saint John. I finished editing the video about a week and a half before the event. Mike then wisely decided, to set the video free a week or so before the event on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc. The response was amazing, I had over 500 shares on my personal facebook within a few days and messages from all kinds of people wanting to help out with the project. The buzz we got for the event and the theatre was huge and it translated into a packed event on the 18th. The fate of the theatre is still up in the air, but we are in the works for some bigger projects for the theatre! Check out the Uptown Saint John website for more information and how to help out!
Some of the my other favourite videos from around the Hemmings House Family from 2011 
Brunswick Square Commercial by Mark Hemmings
Beer or Palinka Short Film by Mark Hemmings
Cooke Aquaculture Chile Film by Andrew MacCormack
Pictures from the Paramount and Saint John Destination Marketing!
2012 is going to be full of great films, stay tuned…
