and then there was SONDERBERG's iphone7 shoot for UNSANE - but not cheap after all

The fim Unsane shot by 8 dop's usig iPhone 7 was Soderbergh entering into a completely new era... sort of.
Those of us who are low or no budget filmakers viewed digital as our miracle creative helper - we could get access to the equipment through the Film Co-op for a steal of a deal or buy it at a very reasonsble price, and make movies for peanauts and some chicken feed. Which for some of us meant no more chasing the beaurotcrats at various funding agencies pleading for money to make our films to create our dreams, thoughts and ideas of Canada to Canadians... how novel, eh?
For we low/no budget filmakers the film, Unsane became our flag raised high. Here was a great director making movies with an iPhone 7 or so I thought. Ok, making films with 7 iPhones and 7 camera people but making them for a million dollar budget...well well.
I was saddened when I found out on IMBD that the financing for Unsane is 1.5 million budget. I was disppointed because a million bucks in Canada means an enormous budget that few of us ever manage to raise to make our films.
Soderbergh of course has such a great track record and the fact that he’s a US filmmaker means that he has financing and distribution  and promotion with one phone call. Something that would never happen to a Canadian filmmaker since we never get the opportunity to create a track record of such huge proportions .... we don’t have Hollywoody North only beaurocrats and a very diminished NFB. We don’t even have talk shows where independents can voice their creative projects while the US has hundreds of promotional shows that highlight creative people.
I wondered, how did Soderbergh use all that money since he was using rented iPhone 7’s? Since much of the money for digital is in post and I can’t find out how all that money was spent on post. I surmised it was probably locations, actors, crew and post but a million bucks, that ain’t chicken feed.
Anyway you look at it, being famous before going for money is very helpful, being UNfamous like most Canadians isn’t. How the hell are we ever going to convince Netflix to pay taxes and support Canadian films which I think would be good for everybody.
That’s not INSANE that’s UNSANE...

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my life B.C.. i.e. before cancer ....COURAGE &. CREATIVE LIVING WITH CANCER is my LIFE

O f course like so many others i was hoping my elder years would be spent in a reasonably healthy manner creating my legacy ..... so to speak i.e. doing creative work for the love of creative art.

Well the best laid plans of 'mice and men' as that adage goes- cancer has taken over a major portion of my life as i find it more and more difficult to make movies .... most are on standby.

Instead i've returned to my writing and my photography creating Marveous Realism with my partner H.L. - a series of very unique art  works are made where both hi tech and tradional methods are used to  give the viewer an outstanding way of seeing the worl around us.

Of course my spinal cancer and lower back cancer isn't making things easier.

I no longer can hold my larger camera outstreched to get a shot so i've purchased smaller ones that allow me to continue shooting but slower and less often than when i was healthy i.e. B.C.

Depression is a hard journey and one must work hard not to fall into that terrible state - i keep exercising and healthy living and resting as my daily life. As most know, exerecise is vital to a helathymind . Combined with the creative life one can life as successfully as possilbe - stress is a killer.

People often tell me how good i look for someone that has had 4 major surgeries,  can hardly turn my neck from the two neck surgeries, my shoulders are seperated and require replaement surgery , I've had so much radiation that i can no longer tolerate it and now am on chemo.... my future looks bleak given all that but i do't see it that way - creative work and a positive attitude, exercise, rest all have contributed to help me still see the world as a positive place that i want to contribute to and live in.

I welcome each morning regardless of my pain or soreness or my diminishing energy. That i can rest well and face my illness with courage and live as fully as i can .. is my gift or so a nurse told me.

IMAGE ARTICLE by : Peter Evanchuck

HAD a GREAT adventure road trip/shoot for upcoming shows and movies - Toronto was like summer one hand on bike handle other on my pan770 shooting

yeah it's something all creative people should do.

Take off 'get outta Dodge' pronto tonto as often as u can - and get invigorated and get those sleepies outta ya.

RL Stevenson when asked why he travels his answer was simple and real , 'I travel to move.' - shake the foundation of ur lethargy by travelling to new adventures that offer some level of risk - the braver u are the bigger the risk and, i think, the greater the creative rewards.

Well cancer has curbed my great adventures but i still have some reasonable juice left in me to 'get the hell outta Dodge' - now if u don't know that that exprssion means let me enlighten ur old school notions of ur life in the slow lane.

Getting outta Dodge does not mean a place but a mind set. IT means that a creative person has to shake their brain as often as necessary to keep it acitve, alive and functioning at some higher than normal creative level.

so if u're stuck in the muck of ur dull existence don't blame or shame the messanger but look in the mirror and see the culprit.

grab ur keys, grab ur lunch and put a bunch of k's on ur RAV and make some movies....

good luck and enjoy the moment and the 'ALL TIME' of ur life.

adios amigos & amigas

Well .. damn REMNANTS mini doc givng me problems with sound tracks FCPro7 seems a bit out of date might swing into FCProX or Premiier - theKNOWIdALLclub continues

Had rather a comical event happen when i encountered an email from someone i knew decades ago who informed me how he knew all about kayaking and shooting video from a kayak - the irony of that guy is that he never kayaked or made/shot digital in his life.

U see when u actaully do things/complete things there seems to be a longer list of 'nay-sayers' than congratulators in Canada - seems we are a 'down' country where the arts are concerned.

I know so many filmakers who struggle to rise above the freebees of the profession to the pay-the-rent ability that it's rather disheartening. So many of us take other venue to make out living and create movies as a sideline rahter than a livingline.

The co-ops and schools are real testaments to this reality.

Recently i read about how busy and productive movie-making is now in Manitoba. So busy that they can't get crews to cover all the work. Despite this the government intends to take away the tax credits which of course makes much of the work viable/possible - it seems strange that this is an easy way to provide employment and yet like NB and other provinces , the government wants to take away that credit as though their coffers needs that money - for what or why we never know.

of course that means so many exceptional filmakers are heading south as usual and this is obvious in Quebec where many of the best filmakers are made. Instead of turning out those great movies of a Jutra, Arcand, or Breault they head to Hollywoody and get huge budgets ot me whatever that factory throws at them and never is it about stories that created them, never is it about their home towns, their home country but business as usual, it's usally about the good ol USofA.

sad and true the way the world works almost never in mysterious ways.....

ooops i got on a wrong rant and so forgot about my problems with REMNANTS so that'll be covered in next babble.....stay tuned

CANCER, CONCERNS & CASH - LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE & my FUNNY 'KNOW IT ALL CLUB'

Well it's been a long while since i got back into the Babble with the Rabble of my mindless and mindful thoughts....

well got another emergency call from the General Hospital to attend a meet in 6 hours with the spinal radiation specialist; so, instead of enjoying a moderation of the arctic -30temps that have haunted my outdoor life in Ottawa's Sandy Hill, i had to cancel my ski-out of the day to prep for this meet and jusst went for a one hour hikeAlong the Rideau Riverside.

My thoughts turning to a recent email received from one of my former associates when i produced, cooked for and hosted a Toronto Soup Kitchen at St. George's.

Haven't heard or seen him in a decade or more and receiving his email about his robotic cancer surgery but nothing about how i feel or what state my cancer is at.

Instead he offered his solution which was to write poetry to my Cancer as though it would listen or cause me some relief.

Being an avid lifelong filmaker i sent him my most recent mini-doc called SOLITUDE - shot from my kayak during the water woods of NB i.e. Spring floods produced a 'lakeinthewoods' thus i was able to kayak which a month later would become impossibe since the earth would absorb the water.

It's one of the miracles of daily kayaking most of the year to have this amazing experience. Very meditative and very wonderful kayaking ...... floating thru the woods instead of hiking over them.

To help the viewer experience this meditative miracle i put a Tibetan Bhuddists chant under the image.... and told my former collegue this was my poetry ( he was well aware of my creative filmaking lifestyle . )

Instead of showing any interest in it at all he went into a tirade of ridiculous ways of how to shoot image from my kayak - i would point out that  he's never been in a kayak, never been in NB, never been kayaking in any kind of water source and never shot one inch of film/video footage; thus, he qualifies to be the next PRESIDENT of the KNOWitALL CLUB.

Because the PRESIDENT must know it all and do absolutely nothing about anything....


p.s. i should mention i know or knew many guys those years back who would qualify for the PRESIDENCYof the KNOWitALL club not unlike that idiot who now is President of America .... sad very sad.... he reminded me of the patience I used ot have for such creatures of negativity... and sometimes still tolerate them but not as often mmmm.