Author:


The Pre-Production Meetings

Posted by – June 10, 2009

Starting the last week of this month, the directors and producers will be having weekly meetings until the shooting begins. Here are some of the things we’re going to be discussing, feel free to add suggestions/concerns in the comments.

  • casting and locations: scouting, workshopping
  • gear: sound training, camera insurance, lighting options
  • cinematography: DOPs, limitations/characteristics of the flycam, style
  • world building: physical effects, digital effects, ads, signage, props, wardrobe

It seems to break down pretty straightforwardly into four topics for four meetings. Any preferred order?

Auditions Report

Posted by – June 7, 2009

We held auditions yesterday in the basement auditorium of the Parkdale library, seeing nearly fifty people in five hours. Having gone out for 300 auditions himself, Anthony masterminded the session, getting folks to try out for all the principal roles via ads on craigslist.org, aactionauditions.com, and Mandy.com — Mandy really brought in a lot of talent, and is quite a resource.

For me, it was the first time I’d been to an audition in any capacity, so I found it pretty fascinating. It was very cool to hear the actors bring the characters to life. There’s a ton of talented and focused actors in this city!

We’re still looking for DOP/director types and older Asian men who can speak Mandarin. Let us know if you have any leads!

Concept Art: Oscar’s Gear and a Snapped-off CN Tower

Posted by – May 29, 2009

Some more of Sanford’s marvelous photo-sketch conceptifyin’… click for larger versions.

I never imagined a mask, but Oscar doesn’t necessarily need to see, after all.

This is neat, though I’m favoring a ball-bearing flooring surface rather than a treadmill for a few reasons.

This ref pic was taken from the roof of Sanford’s friend’s condo.

Concept Art: Baby Factory and Busted Up Buildings

Posted by – May 22, 2009

Sanford‘s been hard at work with some visual ideas to inspire us, such as this possible take on Karen and Gary’s baby-making workshop…

…and here’s one of the AGO…

…and one of the Gardiner expressway. Amazing huh? And there’s more to come!

Casting Call on Sat. June 6

Posted by – May 20, 2009

Please forward to people you think might be into acting in the movie — if you’re posting, use this link:
http://nomediakings.org/vidz/ghosts_with_shit_jobs_casting_call.html
…as it’s viewable by the public.

We’re in pre-production for a new lo-fi sci-fi movie called Ghosts With Shit Jobs. Involving many of the same people as our last one, Infest Wisely (imdb / official site), it’s also a no-budget, multi-director project written by me — but with approximately a million times more planning. We’re going to be starting shooting this summer.

In 2040, a generation of Torontonians have grown up after the economic collapse of the west. The movie consists of episodes of a documentary series popular in mainland China about the bad jobs some white people have — the plucky and resilient souls unlucky enough to be born into the slums of North America are both amusing and moving to the Chinese audience.

We’re doing auditions on Saturday, June 6, 12-4. If you’re in Toronto, please check out the roles we’re trying to fill — there’s a variety of ethnicities and ages.

We are looking for non-union actors for the following roles. If you have any questions or are interested in trying out email your details to casting@ghostswithshitjobs.com/productionblog and we’ll give you the details for the auditions on Saturday, June 6, 12-4pm in Parkdale, Toronto.

Oscar is a digital janitor in his 20s/30s, and has to manually cover up logos for copyright reasons in the future’s answer to Google StreetView maps. He doesn’t really know why he’s on a show about bad jobs, because he thinks his job is pretty great — he gets to see history come alive in front of his eyes, like the garbagemen who fancy themselves like archaeologists. But the long hours and loneliness are getting to him, especially since the death of his mother.

Gary and Karen are baby-makers in their 20s/30s. They assemble robot baby dolls for the children of the wealthy in Asia. They’re so indistinguishable from real babies that the crying, diapers and feeding of a half-dozen units at once is driving the couple a little crazy and straining their relationship. Both of them are hugely overqualified for the job, but while Gary has a reasonable ten-year plan, the more ambitious Karen would do anything to be making battlebots now.

Anton and Toph are silk collectors in their 20s. Twenty years ago a herd of gigantic spiders ran amok over the eastern seaboard after a genelab outbreak, leaving behind buildings swathed in spider web silk. Although highly toxic and difficult to collect, people like Anton and Toph risk their lives to get it — it’s worth its weight in gold as an ultrastrong building material. Anton, the enthusiastic and delusional older brother, loves the idea of becoming famous for collecting the Tower silk. Toph, the more intelligent younger brother who actually does the collecting, knows it’s a deathtrap.

Serina is human spam in her 20s/30s. She makes a living by mentioning brands and products in casual conversation, and is credited based on their status and wealth. Because of the life she’s chosen, she’s disconnected from friends and family but protected by a lipstick-sized tazer and her “people” in the Nigerian cartel. A chameleon and professionally skilled at reinvention, her good humour and friendliness is only skin deep — beneath it is a cold and ruthless survivor.

Other parts

  • the Documentarian, an Asian man (Mandarin speaking a plus)
  • the show host, an Asian woman (Mandarin speaking a plus)
  • Harry, a heavyset Caucasian in 40s/50s/60s
  • Tom, an alpha male office worker in his 20s/30s
  • Leo, a beta male office worker in his 20s/30s
  • Avinash, an east Indian male in his 30s/40s
  • Nat, a Caucasian male in his 20s/30s
  • Mr. Wilson, a Caucasian male in his 40s/50s
  • two eight year old boys
  • two Asian men, 30s-40s
  • a man in his 60s-70s

This is such an ambitious project that if you’re interested, I’m pretty sure we’ll find a part for you to play — it might be as a background extra or it might be as a Director of Photography, but you won’t know if you don’t get in touch!

A Sinocentric Future

Posted by – May 18, 2009

So I’ve been researching China with an eye towards giving GWSJ more of a sinocentric (a word I just learned that regards China to be unique or central on the world stage) feel.

  • Might be nice to have something like the above Buddha in the Scarborough Bluffs;
  • have someone drinking mao tai at the bar;
  • Yuan (Chinese currency) should play a part;
  • I’m imagining India is a secondary superpower, but more low key — maybe China/India have a US/Canada relationship;
  • thinking about a more confident, relaxed China — what’s their relationship with Tibet and Taiwan;

Anyway, if you have links or research suggestions please shoot them over via email or comment — I’m watching Up the Yangtze soon. Just discovered this English language blog about China.

2nd Draft and Infest Wisely on IMDB

Posted by – May 12, 2009

I’ve uploaded the second draft of the script here. We had a meeting and most of the directors are planning to shoot in July and August.

Also, Infest Wisely got an entry on IMDB — they’ve been slow to update the credits, so not everyone’s on there yet, but pretty neat! If you care about such things, I welcome you to get an IMDB account and input your credits via “update data”.

Slathered in Space Spider Silk

Posted by – April 15, 2009


Sanford, who’s offered to do a matte painting for the movie, just sent me the above concept drawing for a Toronto after the giant spiders have their way with it in 2025. Very cool.

As if that isn’t enough, he’s also been to Shanghai recently, and sent this collection of shots for possible references.

Alive in Joberg

Posted by – April 11, 2009

When I was staying with Kent in San Francisco a few weeks back I was talking about the doc style of Ghosts and he recommended the phenomenal “Alive in Joberg” by Neill Blomkamp. Blomkamp grew up in Vancouver but was born in South Africa, and makes great use of the style of movies made about SA and Africa in general.

When I got home I saw this great lo-fi sci-fi discussion thread referring both to Infest Wisely and Blomkamp’s short, so obviously I was meant to see it. There’s lots of interesting shorts on the thread, including others by Blomkamp, but “Metalosis Maligna” is my favourite. It’s a pretty amazing surrealist approach to lo-fi sci-fi, with the crazy growth on the x-rays giving the viewer a chance to imagine what the condition looks like.

Just typed up the notes from the brainstorming session and workshop we had last week. Some really great ideas to explore. I’m wondering what an Asian-dominated future will look — when most of my previous near-futures assume the continued ascendance of western-style capitalism, a more intense corporation-mediated reality. I’m also going to be looking into how people in India have developed their outsourcing foothold.

If you have any thoughts/suggested links or reading on this, email me or post a comment. And if you get a chance to read the script, I’m soliciting feedback until April 20th at which point I’ll be diving in again.

Pre-Production Overdrive

Posted by – March 31, 2009

This Sunday we’re going to be shifting GWSJ to the next level.

Directors, can you please arrive at 11 with the following prepared, in order of importance:

  1. Read the script and pick 4 scenes you’d like to workshop, one from each of the main characters. Bring a copy of each of the scenes for the actors.
  2. Read the two contracts, as we’ll be signing them. Please email me in advance if you have questions are so I can research/edit as required.
  3. Watch some clips from This American Life (here and here) to get a sense of the cinematic style I’m thinking about, and this clip from the 7 Up series to see the interview style. (If you have time, both season 1 of This American Life and 49 Up (the latest in the 7 Up series) are available through vid stores and bit torrent.)

We’ll be starting with a script brainstorming at 11am. At 1pm the actors will be arriving for the workshopping session. We’ll be done by 4.

I’ll be in touch with everybody via email later this week with the location.