Well, it's been a minute...
So I realized that when I made this website that I had been in my second film program and a lot has happened since then. I am an award winning, internationally played filmmaker, writer, director and producer among other things.
When I started out on this journey back in 2015 I thought to myself "wouldn't it be cool to be a real filmmaker?" Now I've worked with Christopher Walken, Christina Ricci, Bob Odenkirk, Rutger Hauer to name a few... I mean, the reason I started making "movies" (what I call the CPT 10 shorts I made back when I was going to highschool before I made YouTube videos) was "to tell cool stories. It makes my stomach do cartwheels thinking about all the exciting things I've done... and will continue to do.
JUST this past year I took two MORE life affirming film related programs? Idk if that's what I should be calling them, the Colour Reversal film lab was a 5-day intensive followed by a self determined mentorship. We learned 16mm film cameras, to develop and create using this seemingly archaic (with the advent of digital media the era appears to be on its way out... but continue reading- there's more!) medium. It changed my life, and from starting out on 8mm video tapes in home movie cameras then transitioning to SD cards and graduating to hard drives in Sony film cameras and Arri's- to go back to 8mm for the WNDX '1TakeSuper8' THEN do this? What a rush- I felt like a little film baby learning from Rhayne Vermette, Charlene Moore, Bret Parenteau and Lindsay McIntyre, my god. AMAZING.
That was Spring 2022, immediately following that I started the TQFF (Toronto Queer Film Festival) Queer Animation Workshop where I took the project I was going to start after CR (ColourReversal) titled 'E P H E M E R A' and made it into a digital animation. I'm unbothered by this though, while I was in Regina taking CR I came up with 2 other film concepts, 'G O S S A M E R' and 'dystrcktr' the former I think will do well as a 16mm experimental short.
When I set out to make 'E P H E M E R A' I didn't know what I was doing. Sure, I had a slight understanding of what animation was, and what I wanted in my head but for 3 of the 5 months we were given a lot of that time was teaching myself rotoscoping techniques and understanding what I wanted and needed to create. I am so proud of the fact that I made a short with the techniques I developed. My pursuit of this art form is something I want to do as a side to what I am doing now.
Last month I was asked to join the CR team in Toronto for the Analogue Resilience: Film Labs Gathering and it was such an amazing experience! I could not believe how many attendees were there, people I only knew about via the social media circles I am often apart of but only on the outside, observing. It was tremendous to be apart of such a needed and fundamental aspect to independent filmmaking. I sat on a panel with my CR family and we discussed the program and I wish we could have elaborated how important and fundamental the program was. I'm sure I will get the opportunity in the future to do so.
In a week I am starting as my role of 'Producer' on a feature film and I am SO excited to have this chance to collaborate with my friends! I'm sure I will share an update soon about the work we are doing. And as an additional note about my work in film, I recently starred in a feature film titled '8th Street Menace' with fellow CR alum Gavin Baird who we found out afterwards was my cousin! Amazing...
Ekosi, bye for now.
-olly
