Category Archives: film

Introducing moovy.ca

Posted by on October 15, 2008 2 comments

I’ve been working on this project since last November when I made my first trek back to St. John’s to begin the development stage. Now, a year later, quite magically (and through a lot of hard work by a lot of great people) moovy.ca is alive – Check it out!

Thanks to the ladies at the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival, Pattie and Svea at Catapult Media, Loc and Lu Randomlink and to all of those early adopter moovers out there now joining this online film community.

Tonight is the official launch party happening (of course) in St. John’s at the Festival, which just kicked off yesterday. I am sad to miss all the fun and festivities, but I’m flying back in a few weeks for a different kinda party. Alas, horray for moovy.ca! Below is a short videoblog created by the one and only “Babs”, the Festival’s official roaming vlogger. It’s a quirky little introductory snippet touching on a few of the beautiful sites of St. John’s, with one of my favourites near the end – ahhhh, The Duke. How I love thee.

Web Strategizing For Women In Film

Posted by on November 14, 2007 No comments

St. John's, NewfoundlandI spent last week in Newfoundland with a great group of people, conceptualizing and strategizing to build a web portal for women in film, to be extended further of course to include *both* genders. We’re starting with women, as the client is the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival; a festival that has been successfully operating and growing for 18 years.

I was at the festival last year speaking about marketing your film online, social media and web 2.0 tools. Word on the street is it’s the best small film festival going. Well, given the locale alone, of course it is! As a side note, this comment is not surprising. I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t rave about Newfoundland after visiting. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a story (of people who have visited for the first time) that ends in “… and now they’re moving here.”. I could go on.

Building Online Community For Women In Film - The Strategy SessionsWhat’s surprising for me to learn while in this process of working with Pattie from Catapult Media and Kelly and Lynn here at the festival HQ is that for most of the calendar year, this festival is run and operated as a one-person show. What gives? Kelly Davis does an amazing job each year, and continues to do so, and this year was able to hire Lynn Kristmanson for a short contract to assist and take control of certain aspects, but where are the funds to support this amazing arts community and this festival that has international attention and acclaim? If it is to grow and continue to build on its successes and reputation, the people and staff behind it must grow as well.

This is a pretty common tale in the arts right across the country. Federal and Provincial governments have long been held accountable for a lack of funding for the arts community, and in this case, I think it’s a miss on supporting the culture and heritage sector as well.

I’d be interested to hear from anyone who shares the same conundrum as Kelly Davis and the Film Festival in St. John’s. More people working on this project equals more outreach equals more industry participation equals more local contribution and tourism dollars pumped into the local economy, all with a reputable, successful, in this case international, artistic, cultural event at the core.

Victoria: Marketing Your Film Online at Media Net

Posted by on March 20, 2007 2 comments

This week I am heading over to lovely Victoria, BC, to conduct a workshop on marketing your film online at Media Net. Last fall, I was invited by Telefilm Canada to spend some time in Newfoundland at the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival, where Pattie Lacroix and I spoke to the film participants about promoting their work online. To a large degree, it was essentially an introduction to social media, showing the internet-curious audience how to tap into softwares that are easy and accessible to help promote and share work online.

One of the participants of the workshop in St. John’s was Passia Pandora from Victoria. She and I have continued to stay in touch since the festival, as she quickly became excited and addicted to the online space, once she witnessed the power of it all first-hand! Passia has since connected me with Media Net in Victoria, which is where I will spend an afternoon this week, as a part of the Pacific Festival of the Book.

I’ll also be joined by podcaster Scott Amos. We’ll each spend about an hour introducing some technology and showcasing tools, and then all participants will spend some time getting their hands dirty on computers, online!, setting up profiles, becoming familiar with the various softwares and interfaces and walking through the features.

Looking forward to meeting some more internet inspired creative people!

Lost: The Sequel? From The Beaches Of Vancouver?

Posted by on February 20, 2007 3 comments

Getting Up Close And Personal With A Plane Wreck – Thankfully, This One’s For The Big Screen

Seeing movie trailers, cables, cameras, lights and crew members with walkie-talkies in hand has long been a common occurence throughout the streets of Hollywood North. Every person living in Vancouver has either been on a movie set or knows someone who is “in the business”, so this ain’t no novelty.

But stumbling across the wreckage from a plane, hunks of metal puked all over the beaches of Point Grey on Vancouver’s west side, was a spectacular site to behold. Eerie in fact. Once the initial shock is over, after about 3.7 seconds, one can quickly decipher, “Oh, this must be for a film”. Phew. The movie Passengers is shooting here in Vancouver until mid- March, starring Anne Hathaway, and this on-location film set took up residence along the Spanish Banks for the last few weeks. (Just around the corner from the burned out 747 is Wreck Beach, the infamous year-round hang-out for hippies and nudists with hot pizza, cold beer and plenty of herb.)

The film industry in Vancouver has had its’ fair share of ups and downs, but this set was a strong reminder, and was as in-your-face as it gets, that movies are made here: Made In Canada. And Vancouver’s sophisticated film studios and flexible outdoor backdrop aren’t just attracting feature films. The television series Smallville has long been a Vancouver-shot mainstay. Anne Heche’s new series Men In Trees resides here as well. And let’s not forget the days of X-Files, Dark Angel, X-Men, the list goes on and on. From the BC Film Commission list, there are currently 9 features, 12 televisions series, 5 MOW’s, 3 short films, 8 animations, 3 documentaries, and a handful of pilots and mini series. And this is the SLOW season!

So for all of us in Vancouver, when we’re slaggin’ the back-up of traffic and the no parking zones due to movie trailers and film sets, smile and remember that this industry keeps many Canadians employed and north of the border. And, hey, one of these days you may get lucky and stumble across a gnarly plane crash, or two.

I hope I never get that close again.