Back in January and February I worked as the artistic director on the new Dan Mangan music video for the song “About as Helpful as you can be without being any help at all” and the video has just been released! Take a look!

More behind the scenes of the Dan Mangan music video. The night scenes. This is going to look amazing. I can’t wait to see the final product. And don’t worry, the second its out I’ll post it right away.

The big group is all the dancers and my amazing Makeup Artists (Carolyn Secord, Tatiana Tavares and Kat) and stylists (Tyra Weitman and Beckiy Winston) and the awesome choreographer Jane Osbourn.
The small group is Chris Snell and Jordan Soet (helping with building and decorating the set) and the glorious stylists once again.

I recently had the pleasure of returning to my chair as the Artistic Director for another video with Stuart Gillies. You may recall last January I worked on a project with him called “A Wish Where the Wind Once Blew” which was a short film dealing metaphorically with Cystic Fibrosis. This year Stuart returned to Vancouver to shoot an awesome little music video for Dan Mangan’s song “About as Helpful as You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All.” It was an amazing experience being involved with the project and helping shape the idea for the video both through the set and costumes as well as how they affected and changed the plot. I’ll slowly leak out these photos from the day on set over the next little while so stay tuned! And check out the awesome song!

Greeted by a lack of sleep for all parties involved, the day had a rough start. Also a muddy start. A very muddy start as the first shot was at a “Creek bed” on a beach. Really there was a slight drip beside us and a lot of mud. The scene took place entirely up in the trees where Dan the homeless clown lived. Unfortunately I was busy dressing sets so there were no pictures of the location (You’ll just have to see the film!) but before we started on the next scene my camera started getting passed around and photos were taken. None by my until night fell.

 The biggest scenes of the film were shot this day. The end group scene with most of the characters that Saffron had met on her journey through the world. Also several of the most emotionally charged scenes.

(ITS ME!)

One of the challenges of the day was the Wreck Beach Stairs. Anyone who has been to the beach knows the horror of the almost 300 stairs between the road and the beach. And we had to carry everything down and up (And run up when ever we forgot something).

The very last thing we filmed was a dance party. We had a mandolin, a broken guitar, several tamborines, and our voices singing “Saffron fairy! Saf- Saff-ron Fairy fairy!” and “I say “Saffron” you say “Fairy”.

We got the shots and had a lot of fun.

And thus ends my role as art director/still photographer/actor in the film. I’ll of course be at the Gala and after party (Parties?)

I highly recommend checking out the 65 Red Roses gala fundraiser on February 11 2011 in New Westminster (Basically Vancouver). It features three amazing local bands and the premier of our short film “A Wish Where the Wind Once Blew”. The project deals with Cystic Fibrosis, a disease that has effected everyone involved in making the film happen in some way or another. Hope to see some of you there!

We were remarkably lucky with the weather all shoot, occasionally even having bright sunny warm-ish days! But Day 6 and 7 were the wettest. From my point of view this day won the wettest of them all prize. We were shooting up in Lynn Canyon, two scenes, the hunter scene and the elegant dancing couple (I was in that scene. No pictures though). We started with the hunters.

When the hunters were finished it came turn for my scene with beautiful Cate wrapped in fur (It was second hand, don’t worry). But we had to waltz and, in my case at least, formal dance is not my strong suit (I can kinda do swing…) so Ethan, a man of many talents, gave us a lunch time demo with Quinn and then coached us even more when we got to location. After all the practice it turned out we just had to spin convincingly because our feet wouldn’t even be in the shot. I’m excited to seehow the scene looks in the end. Unfortunately no pictures as, well, I’m the photographer.

Once again, the project is “A Wish Where the Wind Once Blew”. We’re working with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the film will premier at the 65 Red Roses gala on February 11th. Tickets are selling out fast so get yours quick!

Another big snow filled day. All types of fun and wet feet. Today featured Bill as a Wizard!

This day I mastered the art of making snow look untouched. When you watch the film please pay attention to the natural smoothness of pure white snow around the rose.

We had lunch in the cabin, home made veggie chilli, hot chocolate, fresh bread, putin and deep thought.

Again, Kirstin was awesome dealing with the cold wet snow.

The film is “A Wish Where the Wind Once Blew”, a short film dealing, through metaphore, for Cystic Fibrosis. The film will premier at the 65 Red Roses Fundraiser in New Westminster on February 11. Three local musicians will also be preforming that night. Definitely something worth checking out.

An easy day (Comparatively). We were shooting two scenes there, one with the “Japanese Traveler” and the other with the “Indian Princess”. Beautiful costumes all around and the light that came pouring through the leaves made us all think of the Lord Of The Rings. We were very happy.

Once again for more information on the project please visit www.saffronfairy.com

Day two we shot the final scene of the film out at beautiful White Cliff Park in West Vancouver.

Last minute Make Up by the remarkably talented Carolyn Secord.

Stuart Gillies directing the film’s youngest actor, Tess, playing the part of the Red Fairy.

Costume design and creation by Christine Stathers and Tyra Weitman.

To find out more about the film “A Wish Where the Wind Once Blew” please visit the website!