Burning Car Upholstery Makes a Lot More Smoke Than I Ever Would Have Imagined

At 4:30AM on Monday night we lit a car on fire.



It took three months of planning, forty thousand dollars and a crew of fifty, but we pulled it off. We just completed production on Human Scale Productions Limited's newest short film extravaganza "Anniversary Present"—I got incorporated a couple of days before production because of the possibilities for pyrotechnic disaster.



Somehow 9 months ago I convinced myself that I could make a small and easy 6 minute film that would eventually come to involve a small wedding (with 50 union extras), a three day shoot (that should have been five days), a couple of locations (10), a relatively easy shoot (10,000 feet of Super 35mm film, 50 crew members, 10 vehicles including an HMI package truck, 4 producers, not enough money) and the (complete and utter) destruction of a sports car (in an underground parking lot). Having finally caught up on some sleep I realize that sometimes maybe I aim a little too high. Two people in a room shot on video, that's what I'm gonna do next, or maybe a fringe play.



For now I'm off to the telecine to see the footage for the first time with the producers and the DP. The film stars Liane Balaban (New Waterford Girl) and David Alpay (Ararat) and I think it's gonna be a really fun "little" show.



"Anniversary Present" was generously financed and supported by Bravo!Fact, The NFB, Bravo, Kodak, Panavision Cameras, PS Production Services, ACTRA, The CFTPA, Notch, Cine-Byte, Flashcut Editing and Great North Artists.