Author Archives: Michael Korican

About Michael Korican

A long-time media artist, Michael’s filmmaking stretches back to 1978. Michael graduated from York University film school with Special Honours, winning the Famous Players Scholarship in his final year. The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video called Michael's first feature 'Recorded: Live!' "the first film about rock video". Michael served on the board of L.I.F.T. when he lived in Toronto during the eighties and managed the Bloor Cinema for Tom and Jerry. He has been prolific over his past eight years in Victoria, having made over thirty-five shorts, won numerous awards, produced two works for BravoFACT! and received development funding for 'Begbie’s Ghost' through the CIFVF and BC Film.

Looking for a French co-producer for your TV series?

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The goal of the Canada-France Series Lab is to encourage and facilitate the development of new relationships between Canadian and French producers and fostering the development of projects with strong international potential in a competitive environment and create new co-production opportunities.

From the media release:

“The Canada-France Series Lab will be a year-long initiative starting at Series Mania Forum 2023 and ending at the 2024 event. A selection of 15 producers from each country will be invited to participate in Series Mania Forum 2023 to meet their French/Canadian counterparts and form pairs. Four to five projects presented by these pairs will be selected by a jury of experts and invited to participate in a series of professional workshops. The first workshop will be held in person at the BANFF World Media Festival in June 2023. It will be followed by a virtual coaching cycle from September 2023 to March 2024. The program will end  at the 2024 edition of the Series Mania Forum with the projects’ presentation to potential international financiers.”

An informative webinar will be held on Monday, November 21st. Please register before November 18.

My take: Parlez-vous français? Do you have an idea for a series with strong connections between France and Canada? Something set in the colonial past perhaps? Maybe something set on Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the tiny bit of France directly off Newfoundland? This seems like a fantastic opportunity for series producers looking to build bridges to France, and through it, Europe.

Emerging Filmmakers: JETS deadline approaches!

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The deadline to apply for JETS is November 18, 2022.

The JETS (Junior Entertainment Talent Slate) Initiative takes place every year during the International Film Festival in Berlin and the EFM Market in Germany.

JETS will unite first, second and third feature film filmmakers with Canadian, German, Irish, Norwegian, Austrian, British, South African, and US producers, sales agents, finance and distribution companies during a day of pitching and networking sessions with the aim of encouraging co-production.

Producer/director teams can submit fictional film projects (features of duration of minimum 80 minutes; animation also eligible) that are still in the development or financing stages.

Apply here or email info@wepfilms.com .

Selected producers from Canada can apply to Telefilm for financial support to attend if they meet eligibility criteria.

My take: if your project could be an international co-production, you owe it to yourself to apply. See Telefilm’s CoProduction webpage.

The numbers behind Telefilm’s Talent to Watch 2022-23 projects

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Telefilm Canada has selected 16 Talent to Watch projects to share $3.5 million.

It’s quite revealing to look at the numbers in detail.

Let’s start with Genre.

Drama 7
Documentary 5
Comedy 1
Horror 1
Magic Realism 1
Mystery 1

Province?

Ontario 8
Quebec 4
British Columbia 2
Manitoba 1
New Brunswick 1

Let’s look at Language next.

English 4
French 4
Arabic 1
English/Arabic 1
English/Bosnian 1
English/Bulgarian 1
English/Farsi 1
English/Persian 1
French/English 1
Tibetan/English 1

And let’s finish up with Stream.

Filmmaker Apply-Direct 7
Industry Partner 7
Festival Selection 1
Industry Partner — Indigenous Component 1

In addition, if Gender is assumed from names:

Female 23
Male 15

Some observations:

  • Documentary is almost as successful as Drama.
  • Half of the successful projects are from Ontario.
  • Almost half of the successful projects include world languages in addition or instead of English and/or French.
  • Only half of the successful projects are from Industry Partners.
  • Finally women far outnumber men.

One might be tempted to conclude that Telefilm Canada is using the Talent to Watch program to over-correct its EDIA (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility) results, but that would be highly cynical.

My take: wow! This is quite a departure for Telefilm. This is the first year that filmmakers could apply directly and Telefilm has rewarded them handsomely!

The Rocky Horror Picture Show lives on!

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J. Gabriel Ware writes on SlashFilm that Tim Curry Felt ‘Sick’ When Watching The Original Rocky Horror Picture Show.

He quotes a March 1976 Interview Magazine interview of Tim Curry in which he says:

“I can’t really relate to the film very well. I still feel sick when I see it.“

The film he’s referring to is, of course, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Quoting further:

“For the movie, the producers hired Pierre Laroche, the makeup artist who worked for David Bowie and Mick Jagger and helped pioneer the androgynous glam rock look, to transform Curry into the future horror/musical icon. ‘He kind of adapted the makeup that was already in my case and did a very kind of high fashion version of it,’ Tim Curry told Interview Magazine. Even today, he was not sold on the glam version of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. ‘He got a little more high fashion,’ the actor elaborated. ‘I don’t know whether I like that or not.‘”

He concludes his article with a Bruce Campbell tweet:

One of those small indie theatres is Victoria’s Vic Theatre, which is playing TRHPS on October 28, 29 and 31, 2022.

In fact, it’s playing in hundreds of cinemas around the world.

Dig into all the B-Movie references in Rocky Horror.

And see how it’s appeared in other movies and TV.

My take: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of my favourite cult films. The Big Lebowski is another. Oh, and The Room, of course.

p.s. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is currently on Disney+. Huh?

How to come up with movie ideas

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Ever get writer’s block, or need a movie idea quick?

Script Reader Pro suggests 5 proven ways to unlock original movie ideas.

1. Turn off your phone and get outside. (Let your mind wander. Cue “Fixing a Hole.”)

2. Study other writers’ loglines. (My favourite: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.“)

3. Plunder real life. (Omg, that weird thing that happened to you or your relative might be the genesis of a great story!)

4. Focus on what moves you. (Your expertise will make your protagonist interesting.)

5. Forget “what if?” and relax. (Not sure about this one. “What if?” is one of my favourite questions.)

My take: lol! I only come up with one killer idea once every 1,000 days!

Spreadsheets you must befriend

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Rick Castañeda guest posts on No Film School, revealing The 73 Spreadsheets You’ll Need to Finish Your Feature Film.

He kindly shares:

“If you’re thinking about making your own feature film, I’m hoping this gives you an abridged, table-of-contents-style sketch of all the different parts of filmmaking. So many articles and interviews are all about writing, working with actors, camera choice, and the other creative aspects of the film, I thought it might be useful to get into the actual nuts and bolts. We absolutely loved making our film. All these spreadsheets helped us to get there.”

He discusses each one from the perspective of his second feature “All Sorts,” and includes some examples.

I like his advice for Credits:

“Just for keeping track of all the lovely folks who participated on the film. I know you’re thinking this should be in the post-production section, but start this on day one and just add people as they start to come into the life of the film. It’s easier than sitting with a blank slate all the way at the end of the film.”

Here are the titles of most of the spreadsheets Rick used:

Pre-Production Spreadsheets

  • Budget spreadsheets
  • Team spreadsheets (possible producers)
  • Location spreadsheets
  • Contact spreadsheets
  • Casting spreadsheets
    • Background
    • Auditions
    • Confirmed Cast
  • Scheduling spreadsheets
  • Art/props spreadsheets
    • June’s Diego vs Anthony spreadsheet
    • Calendar spreadsheet
    • “Go June” signs spreadsheet
  • Costume spreadsheets
  • Investor Spreadsheets

Production Spreadsheets

  • Call sheets

Post Spreadsheets

  • Footage spreadsheets
  • Editing spreadsheets
  • VFX spreadsheets
  • Credits spreadsheet
  • Master Rights Grid
  • Music Cue Sheet
  • QC Notes/Fixes

Crowdfunding Spreadsheets

  • Targets/contacts
  • Reward lists

Distribution Spreadsheets

  • Distributors
  • Deliverables spreadsheets
  • Screening invitees/attendees

PR/Marketing Spreadsheets

  • Social Media
  • Marketing
  • Email lists
  • Film Festivals
  • Published Articles

My take: Wow, that’s a lot of spreadsheets! What this actually reveals are the myriad jobs indie filmmakers routinely take on. With more money, each of these activities might be accomplished by a specialist in that one field. When you’re truly indie, you just do it all yourself. No wonder Rick resorted to these spreadsheets to track everything. You should too.

Where the money goes on short films

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Josh Jacobs invites everyone on No Film School to Learn all the behind-the-scenes secrets of [t]his $4,000 short.

He begins:

“Hi, I’m Josh, an LA-based filmmaker. I work as a writers’ assistant and script coordinator on TV shows, and I direct my own short films. By far, the most valuable thing I’ve learned about storytelling from big-budget shows and indie projects alike is that just two elements—the actors and the script—are way more important than everything else.”

Here’s my list of his important things to consider for indie filmmakers:

  1. The actors.
  2. The script.
  3. Don’t over-crew; have some crew do two jobs.
  4. No walkie talkies.
  5. Keep insurance costs in check.
  6. Be willing to walk away from too-expensive crew or locations.
  7. Some cities have cheaper gear than others.
  8. Join a writers group for feedback on your drafts.
  9. Devise films with locations that you have or can secure easily.
  10. Write for actors you personally know.
  11. Use costumes you have.
  12. Use equipment you have or can rent cheaply.
  13. Buy your crafty at Cosco.
  14. Save your costumes in case you need to shoot pickups.

Josh’s one day plus pickups shoot cost him $4,343.06 and he kindly shows the full breakdown.

My take: Thanks for sharing, Josh! One thing to note is that post-production actually cost more than double production. Oh, and nice short too!

Darth Vader to be voiced by AI

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Chance Townsend reports on Mashable that James Earl Jones signs over rights to voice of Darth Vader to be replaced by AI.

James Earl Jones (8516667383)

He refers to a Deadline article by Caroline Frost, titled James Earl Jones Signs Over Rights To Voice Of Darth Vader, Signalling Retirement From Legendary Role.

She in turn refers to a much more interesting Vanity Fair article by Anthony Breznican titled Darth Vader’s Voice Emanated From War-Torn Ukraine.

The real story here is about Respeecher, the tech company that has managed to make computer-generated voices sound human.

From their FAQ:

“Why is STS (speech to speech) different from TTS (text to speech)?

The difference between the two is significant. A few important limitations text to speech has:

  1. In most cases, TTS provides non-natural, robotic emotions. AI doesn’t know where to take emotions from, so it tries to generate them based on the text alone.Very limited control over emotions. Some TTS can make the converted voice sound sad or excited using text annotation. But it is hard to manually encode intricacies of human acting using these annotations alone.
  2. Words only. TTS are based on dictionaries. Unknown words and abbreviations pose a significant problem. Natural speech contains lots of non-verbal content as well. TTS struggles to render that.
  3. Most TTS systems face challenges with low-resource languages due to higher data requirements.
  4. The Respeecher voice cloning system works solely in the acoustic domain. We convey all the emotions and sounds of the source speaker while converting their timbre and other subtle variations into the target speaker.“

Audition the almost 70 voices in the Voice Marketplace.

They even have a program for Small Creators and will accept pitches from interesting projects.

Here’s a glimpse of their online interface:

My take: well, that’s it. Along with deep fakes, now you can’t trust anything you hear either. I guess that leaves “real life” as the one thing you can trust — most of the time, that is. Maybe we are living in a simulation after all….

Screenwriter Jeffrey Alan Schechter loves the number 4

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The excellent Film Courage interviews Jeffrey Alan Schechter who claims Every Great Story Has A Main Character That Goes Through 4 Archetypes.

He explains the six Jungian archtypes:

“The most concise and well constructed version of this came from the book “Hero Within” by a person named Carol S. Pearson…. She was a psychologist who wrote a self-help book with the idea, and the hero within I think it’s like six archetypes we live by. Her idea was that you can define yourself by one of these six archetypes which was like warrior, wanderer, orphan, martyr, innocent, magician, there we go I actually got them all.”

Jeffrey is big on the number four. To him, every film answers four questions, in four acts:

He reviews movies on his website, mystorycanbeatupyourstory.com, and illustrates the four questions and four archetypes well. Just click on any film you know to see what I mean.

The four questions:

  1. Who is your main character?
  2. What are they trying to accomplish?
  3. Who is trying to stop them?
  4. What happens if they fail?

The protagonist will move through four of these six archetypes, one state in each of the four acts:

  1. Orphan
  2. Wanderer
  3. Warrior
  4. Martyr
  5. Magician
  6. Innocent

Jeffrey’s book, “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story: Ten Ways to Toughen Up Your Screenplay from Opening Hook to Knockout Punch”, is available on Amazon.

My take: fascinating! As someone very curious about storytelling, I love all the various theories on structure and the various rules and edits around screenwriting. Oh yeah, he also says there should be 44 plot points.

 

Telefilm Canada releases new 18-month corporate plan

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Telefilm Canada has just released its new 2022-2024 Corporate Plan.

“These strategic priorities are guided by Telefilm’s determination to provide a public service that reflects Canada in all its diversity. To this end, Telefilm will introduce nine initiatives in the coming months.”

The nine initiatives are:

  1. Evolve our funding allocation approach by delivering a continuum of success for filmmakers, by increasing access for underrepresented groups and by enabling eco-responsible productions.
  2. Act as a partner and ally on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and eco-responsibility by adopting an evidence-based approach to our funding and corporate decisions.
  3. Promote Canada’s unique creative voices and initiatives that set the example for a sustainable and inclusive screen-based industry.
  4. Empower Telefilm’s teams and encourage internal growth and development.
  5. Streamline our programs and processes to avoid red tape, ensure a simplified workflow, improve our services, and consolidate our partnership with the Canada Media Fund.
  6. Develop and maintain user-friendly tools and systems that optimize data management.
  7. Build on the trust achieved with the government to solidify the increase in our funding.
  8. Develop relationships with public and private partners to create synergy and attract additional sources of funding.
  9. Attract donations for the Talent Fund.

In the “Performance Indicators” section, Telefilm proposes to invest in:

  • 34 Projects with production budgets greater than $3.5 million (61% of funds)
  • 38 Projects with production budgets of less than $3.5 million (28% of funds)
  • 27 Theatrical Documentaries (6% of funds)
  • 15 Talent to Watch micro-budget features (4% of funds)

Telefilm also commits to:

  • 50% gender parity for women in the role of Producer, Director, Writer
  • At least 16 projects with “a Black or people of colour” key creative
  • $4 million to Indigenous stream projects
  • 33% French-language funding
  • 20 co-productions.

Read the PDF here.

My take: With a budget of $188 million, it works out to about $5 per person in Canada. Not a bad deal.