Before this past Wednesday, I had only directed one thing: a commercial, thirty seconds long, which I called Doritos® Intense: Snack Guru. It my submission to a contest which had a very attractive cash prize and I had been wanting to direct something for a while (you can read more about it here). Well, that’s all changed; I now have a short film shot and ready for editing! Above are early stills from the footage, that may or may not make the final cut.

Monday evening, I got news of a job happening Thursday morning, which required me to be clean shaven. At this point, I had quite the beard. In the feature Day Four, I was asked to grow a unkept, untrimmed beard, not shaving any part of it off. Well I have to admit, I was a little attached, and kept it since I got back from shooting in Ottawa. It went on growing of course, and to my recollection, it ended up being the most hair I’ve ever had on my face.

I didn’t want to let it “go to waste”. I thought, what could I do, that would involve me shaving it off in a short film? Ideas came to me, and finally narrowed it down to one. With such little time, I quickly made all the preparations needed and found someone to shoot it. Paul and Shalan Crivellari came through. Although fashion photographers, Paul used to shoot video and later decided to get into still images. His great eye carried through to photography (and very well I might add, see for yourself) and they’re doing great here in Toronto. However, since his high end photography camera also takes HD video footage, he was able to do this for me.

Not only did I shave my beard off in the film, I used this opportunity to show a side of me that almost nobody has ever seen; a side that I haven’t really been required to show in my short four and half year acting career. Well, at least not close to the extent seen in this film. I’m really happy and grateful (thanks so much Paul and Shalan) to have had the chance to once again, experience the amazing feeling of creating my own work. And this will be ongoing as I will be editing it over my free time, and hopefully have original music composed (as I want this film to be silent in terms of sound). I will be releasing it here when it’s complete!

Tuesday was my last day on set of “Day Four“. It involved shooting another scene in my car while we all, cast and crew, froze outside; which I have to say, helped deliver my first line of the scene in which I complain about the cold!

Despite the elements, it went great. And despite a few little hiccups here and there, shooting my part in this film has been a great experience. Not only, like I previously mentioned, that the script is great and this film is shot on a RED camera, but the cast and crew has been amazing. I had so much energy and so much fun on set because of the people I was surrounded with.

On the 7th of January, we shot two indoors scenes, which we were all thankful for. Both were in my character’s apartment and the day went pretty smoothly. Then on the 9th, we shot a lighter, funny scene where my character Brian and best friend Trevor have brunch. I won’t say how exactly, but it ends in a very comedic way.

On the 10th, the big pub scene. This is pretty much where the film starts… kinda (won’t go into details here either). It took us just over 14 hours from start to finish, but it was such a great day, with a lot of extras showing up and helping us out. Everyone did a great job and were all in high spirits on this one. Then the next day, I shot some voice overs for the opening sequence of the film.

Finally Tuesday came, and it was all over. The guys at Danger Cave Media were able to get my scenes shot early during the filming schedule in order to allow me to return to Toronto, but they still have another half month to go before they finish shooting the film. I wish them the best in completing the movie, and can’t wait to see it.

Did I mention they plan to have it completed by the Toronto International Film Festival 2010 deadline? I think they’ve got a good chance to get in with this film and hope they do! I’m really thankful to have been a part of this film, and to have shared amazing experiences with everyone involved!

On January 4th, 2010 we had the first day of shooting for the film “Day Four“. Back in mid October, I briefly mentioned my audition for a feature film produced by Parktown Production. Well, as you may have guessed by how I started this post, I landed a role in the film! I play Brian, the lead’s best friend and one of the lead supporting characters in “Day Four“. Also, writers/directors Kyle Connolly and Nick Lacelle along with Jith Paul (all of which I’ve worked with before) have formed their own company called Danger Cave Media. So officially, this movie’s now considered a joint production between Danger Cave and Parktown.

On the 4th, we weren’t able to get to my scene due to certain complications. Let’s just say the cold, which is somewhat necessary and part of the film, isn’t helping in terms of production. Sure is adding authenticity to the film though! So, I used the time to rehearse with lead actor Andrew MacFarlane. However, the next day we were able to shoot one of the car scenes.

As Trevor gets back in Brian’s car, where they share an intense conversation. I’m purposefully keeping things broad, as not to give anything away. What I can tell you is that we ended using my car (shown in the picture above) which ended up working really well. Nick and Kyle were happy with how the scenes were playing out, giving us feedback like “that was SICK” and “you hit it out of the park”. They talked to Andrew and I once we finished shooting the scene, sharing their excitement with how it went.

In truth, we’re all really excited to be a part of this production; both cast and crew. Did I mention it’s shot on a RED camera and that I think the script is awesome? Well, that too!

First of all I want to wish you all the best in the New Year! Hope you’ve enjoyed this holiday season! For me, last year ended well and this one is off to a great start! I’m very excited about the upcoming projects I have lined up… one of which is starting as early as next week! Will write more about that one once things get rolling.

Also, I’ve recently made a few changes to my website. Notably, I’ve included my Twitter updates which are now located on the right side of the page, beneath the most recent photos. I will be using it to write short updates more often and will continue to write the longer ones on my website. I plan to do more of a redesign later, but for now you’ll also notice now my Featured Item section now includes a “sliding” page that switch between more than one item. That and a few links on the top right, including one to my Facebook fan page and my YouTube account.

In addition, I’ve gotten into something a little different. Lisa Meuser, a friend of mine who also works in this industry, has kept in touch with me and has been sharing some of her scripts as she writes them. Well, one day I ran into her and a group of mutual friends, and started talking about one of her screenplays. I was saying how awesome it was, and even kind of played some of the scenes as the lead. It was getting laughs and I didn’t think anything about it. However, maybe a few months later, I get an email from Lisa asking me to help her pitch her script! I accepted and started helping her get it ready, emailing back and an forth with some suggestions, changes and a few corrections here and there. Well, before the end of the year, we had a sit down and for a few hours, went over it together in person.

It’s almost ready to go, and on my return to Toronto, I will be working towards finding a production company willing to turn it into a feature film… one who will hopefully like the idea of me playing the lead! I can feel it… this year will be a great one!