My most important films
The biggest projects I worked on this year would have to be my two short films that I made for the Digi60 Filmmakers’ Festival called “Familiar Strangers” and “Toi, Toi, Toi”. This was my first time entering the festival as a filmmaker. I was inspired to participate this year after making many short films for other challenges during the pandemic. However, I also felt a bit worried since I knew I couldn’t do it alone. Luckily, I found someone who was willing to collaborate with me and instead of making just one film, we made two!
The theme for Digi60 that year was “Possibility.” Oh boy, think of all the possibilities! Before the theme was even announced, I knew I wanted to make a film that incorporated dancing. I just didn’t quite know what the storyline would be. As soon as the “catch was released”, I already knew what I wanted the story to be about – a dance audition. I immediately got to work and started writing out a screenplay pretty much that same night. The story started out being about a dancer who has a big audition for a dance company but doesn’t make it in. Later on though, she gets the opportunity to train at some prestigious dance school. I wanted to showcase that even when one door closes, another one opens. However this story was a bit long and would push us past the time limit of seven minutes. So Brian, my fellow director and cinematographer, suggested we tweak the story a bit and focus just on the audition. We found a good (royalty free) song to dance to and, once again, I challenged myself to make a choreography that incorporated Dancehall, Hip-Hop and some Contemporary dance moves. We shot in a local dance studio that was luckily willing to let us film inside. My best friend from elementary school, Roa, also joined our team as a Production Assistant. Overall, it was a great experience and I’m happy with how the film turned out. I will admit, editing the film was quite the challenge, especially due to some audio issues that I was unable to fix. But I did my best and got lots of editing practice in. Brian is the one who came up with the title, “Toi, Toi, Toi.” It is an expression performing artists use to wish each other good luck, sort of like “break a leg.” It was definitely a good fit for the film. My goal of making a dance film has been achieved!
Since Brian also entered Digi60 as a filmmaker, we were able to make a second film under his name. I thought it would be fun to make a romantic comedy since I had never done one before. I thought of many “possibilities” and landed on the idea of having two people who had been “following each other around their whole lives.” Have you ever met someone who was at the same place as you several years before but you didn’t know it? Well, that was the gist of what I was going for in “Familiar Strangers.” I thought it would be really fun to perform this sort of encounter and I’m so glad JoJo, who played Dan, was on board too. It was a really fun shoot and we shot it entirely at Vincent Massey Park in Ottawa one (thankfully) sunny day. Brian, JoJo, Roa, Mitchell (our sound guy) did a fantastic job and I couldn’t have done it without them. What a great bonus it was to win the Best Acting award at the festival. I think deep down I was really hoping we’d get it since it would mean the most to me as an actor. I had (and still have) doubts about my acting skills, but getting this award gave me some more confidence and motivation to keep going. I am so proud of our wonderful team and of myself.