#outoftimeseries

[fieryraptorcreative]

“The Hawke”

(Digital Art)

Fanart of Solomon Hawke.

(from the “Out of Time” series by Nadine Brandes)

How can a character not be amazing with a name like Hawke?

[fieryraptorcreative]

“Jude-Man”

(Digital Art)

Okay, I guess I’m going on a “Out of Time” fanart series. (It’s an amazing book trilogy, so it deserves it).

Here’s Jude Hawke.

[outoftimeseries]

Screenshots from episodes of Out of Time featuring Northgate Security.

[outoftimeseries]

Toast of the Town

We've hit the ground running with TIFF 2013 being our third year.  Last year we spent in development of the series and this year has been all about production, so jus talking to people is quite an eye opener.  They remember the project because I was talking about it last year and now this year we've wrapped, so it's an actual real thing and the responses are significantly different.

As usual I'm hitting the fest with Catalina Yue who plays our "shapeshifter" character "ANGIE" and coming along with us this time has been a late addition to the cast, Tommy James Murphy.

Here's where it all gets interesting.

Tommy James happens to bear a very close resemblance to James Franco.  So much so that the first night he came down to the fest, we went over to Studio on King St West and as we're waiting outside, Tommy James texting his friend for directions, the owner comes out and looks at Tommy James and says "James?"  to which of course he looks around since it is his name.  Next thing you know we're being ushered inside to the VIP area.  Bizarro world began in earnest from that point since we quickly found out it was one of the parties being hosted by James Franco himself. 

Photos are no doubt circulating around the web at this point, most of them from that first night where people came up, all asking if it really was James Franco.  The more we denied it, the more they believed it and so I ended up having to play bodyguard so Tommy James wouldn't get swamped.  

When James Franco's people arrived they pulled us over and we actually ended up having quite a nice chat.  THe producer of the film Vince Jolivette has been absolutely awesome about the situation and he's an all around great guy.  And that's how we got invited to meet James Franco on the Sunday night after party for Child of God.

Tommy James is a great actor of his own style and its been cool to show him around TIFF since he's so enthusiastic about the whole thing and a really nice guy.  Definitely out there to network and promote himself and the series.  On Sunday we even got a good chunk of the cast together at the lightbox for a photo, so that was awesome.

But everywhere we've gone, we've been invited in to places because he looks like James Franco.

Now for the rest of TIFF2013, more adventures to come and a ton of great pictures from around town.

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[caribbeantales-blog]

The Power of the Film Festival

I came away from Caribbean Tales 2011 and TIFF 2011 with my eyes completely opened.  Every filmmaker or every wannabe filmmaker needs to go and be a part of a major film festival at least once in their lives.  

Caribbean Tales offered that opportunity and it is part of the beauty of how the festival is set up to be so close to the Toronto International Film Festival.  In terms of location (Harbourfront Centre in downtown Toronto) and in terms of timing.  I hope that proximity is something that the participants of the incubators will take full advantage of since that is exactly why Frances-Anne Solomon has organized the festival in this manner.  She genuinely wants Caribbean filmmakers to come and yes, of course have their films showcased and screened at Caribbean Tales, but also to step out onto the wider stage and into the great wide world of the entertainment industry.  Once any filmmaker does that, there is no going back.  

I'm almost embarrassed to say it, but I've been working in the entertainment industry for over 10 years now and TIFF 2011 was my first major international film festival.  I had entered a couple of festivals previously, but actually physically attending a festival, especially one on the scope of TIFF, was quite an eye opener.  

Caribbean Tales is the festival that gives us Caribbean natives (I'm from Barbados) a voice in an international arena.  It is entirely up to participants exactly how much they take advantage of that.

Look at it from this perspective: for one solid week, participants are invited to share their marketing strategies and to work on perfecting their pitches and presentation of their projects on an individual basis.   The group structure helps to expose the flaws and the strengths since there are different point of view and no presentation is ever 100% perfect.  The filmmakers are almost literally groomed to prepare for interaction at TIFF and to fully utilize every opportunity that will be made available over the course of the festivals.  And for those with films screening at the Harbourfront Centre, they have options to invite any potential partners for a screening (and of course having a screener DVD never hurts).  

Everything that is offered and is made available is to showcase the filmmakers, but more than anything it is to prepare them for the world stage so they can approach it with confidence and preparation... and with the knowledge that their fellow filmmakers are cheering them on.

Nobody else does this and it's why I'm particularly glad for Caribbean Tales.  It exposes all of us fimmakers to the true power and potential of what the film festival can be.

[outoftimeseries]

I don't trust time travel. You can never tell when it's going to bite you in the ass.. or if it already has bitten you.

Rodney V. Smith, Writer/Director/Editor