Here is a fun piece that was recently released by the client on Youtube. Last May, as I was ramping up production on The Spirit of Nihonmachi, author and friend David Goodfellow pitched an idea to me to make a video trailer for the release of his new audiobook, Raven Bramblebutt and The Feral Children. Although I’m primarily a documentary filmmaker, I love doing narrative film too, for the control and creativity of it, and I really enjoy when actors bring my scripts to life. So Dave and I hunkered down and came up with a script together for this three-part cliffhanger and got to work on casting. Production was two days of shooting, one with the girls (Natasha Smith, Kenya Kennedy, and Ashley Siddals), and one with Juelian Jones (Ludi Yuen) and our stylist/assistant (Nikolina Suric).

The idea of the ‘fan video’ was the inspiration for the use of iPhone cameras to show the perspective of the two teens. We used iPhone on-camera audio and backed that up with a proper recording from a shotgun mic – but used mostly the iPhone audio in the end. The “pro” setup for Juelian’s passion project faux-doc shoot was done with a 5D Mark II with dual system audio (Dave’s cameo – he looked so much like a sound guy that I neglected to properly train him with my gear, the consequences of which I discovered later in the editing room – ARGHH).

The problems with the audio had me back in the woods recording foley and we had to bring Ludi back in for some ADR work too. While we had Ludi, we set up a little studio to get some stills of Juelian Jones ‘perfoming’ on stage for the pop-star magazine covers… and thanks to my stint shooting stills for a now-defunct fashion magazine many years ago, these turned out fairly well. Then, during a visit from my nephews we went back to woods yet again to record some ‘feral children’ calls. For music, I called in a favour from the talented Connor Robinson (who just returned from SXSW with Teens), and he scored the whole thing in record time. All said, I delivered the final vids to Dave on schedule – July 31, 2011 – in time for his planned August release… but delays in production of the audiobook led to delays in the release of these films, and they were finally unveiled to the world…. in March 2012. Enjoy the videos then please go buy the book!

I was browsing Vimeo the other day and stumbled across Arsy-Versy (director Miro Remo), a delightful short I saw at Hot Docs 2010, and wrote about in this post. It’s now available to watch in its entirety on Vimeo. Check it out!

It’s not often I pull out the ol’ DSLR to take STILLS these days. Usually it’s only for a film or some artsy photo production, especially now that I have my new X100 around my neck wherever I go. I do have an outstanding view from my apartment, don’t I?

I am pleased to announce that Surviving In The Cracks has been selected for the 2012 program at the ReFrame Film Festival in Peterborough, Ontario. ReFrame has featured exceptional documentaries such as Burma VJ and Wasteland. A little more about the festival: “ReFrame celebrates the latest works created by film and video makers from our [...]

My iPhone told me it was 31 West Hastings but I didn’t know it wasn’t until Carrall that East turns into West. So I parked in front of the Balmoral and walked. I must be kidding myself if I think I’ll ever be able to tell it like it really is in the Downtown Eastside. [...]

Dispossession will be opening a ‘solo’ show in the Lobby Gallery of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia on Tuesday, November 15. I will be there for the opening (4-6pm, food and drink will be served) to give a brief, informal artist talk and to chat about the next [...]

From the 2010 vault: Here’s a fun little piece that spawned from what was (and probably still is) the most stressful four days of my film career. Check out the musical talent that answered the call in less than 24 hours… and we had to turn away a few too! We drove all over the [...]

I am pleased to announce that the DVD and VOD (rental) of my documentary Surviving In The Cracks are finally available. It’s been two years since I wrapped shooting on this project. It’s seen the big screen a couple of times and gone through some tweaking but it has finally reached this point. I envisioned [...]

A new show Grant Mercs | For All Our Entropic States + Branko Djuras | Black and White With(out) the Grey opens this Friday, April 8 at the Gallery Gachet at 88 East Cordova in Vancouver. The showing of my piece, Dispossession, is enjoying its second extension and will be viewable in the salon area [...]

Well Kizuna is now complete. How times flies… but fortunately, Dispossession, the piece I created for Kizuna, will live on as it travels next to the Downtown East Side’s Gallery Gachet (88 East Cordova) to be shown for the second of three communities that helped make it possible. Dispossession will be on display in the [...]