My Film/Video Productions

	Missing Lady Synopsis: A film from my third year in film school. A 'comedy of errors' involving two feuding neighbours, a missing dog, and murder! My Credits: Sound recordist and an original musical score. Notes: This was my first experience with union actors. The film won a CBC telefest award.
	Moonlight Serenade Synopsis: A young boy receives guidance in love and self-defense by a tiny elf-like character he inadvertently summons from an old book. My Credits: Sound recordist, original orchestral musical score, prosthetic makeup effects, miniatures, titles, special prop construction.... and a cameo by myself as the 'old sprite' at the end! Notes: The orchestral soundtrack was fairly ambitious, sounding oddly similar to that of Edward Scissorhands, which came out later. I had never done makeup before, let alone prosthetic makeup effects. I taught myself over the christmas holidays, along with doing tests, designing the character, and building the pieces. This film involved using a large bluescreen stage, as well as the film footage being transferred to video and edited electronically... a first at the film school we were at, so the faculty watched very closely, as they considered switching to that system if it proved successful.
	Rice Porn Synopsis: A mock trailer about a porn film involving rice! It is based on a joke image I created years before, about a website involving erotic rice images (utilizing many rice-related puns). My Credits: Done entirely by myself, including original music, digital imagery and animation, acting and voicework. Notes: My first short film done for the 'Darryl's Hard Liquor & Porn Film Festival'. At the time, both my video cameras were broken, so the film was created with stills and computer animation.
	Mystery Partner Synopsis: A short comedy film where a man participates in a porn film where the one catch is that his partner will be chosen for him secretly. My Credits: Done entirely on my own, including original music, animation, editing, acting and effects. Notes: One of two entries for my second year at the 'Darryl's Hard Liquor & Porn Film Festival'. My first venture into a 'Roger Rabbit' style animation/live action blend. Shot in a single night, where I spent the evening flinging myself around the room. The 'head squish' effect was done without any special effects, but instead, done by me (painfully) compressing my own neck for the duration of the shot! Written, filmed, edited, and finished within a month... including composing music and creating animation and effects. Ended up being 'censored' not for its sexual content, but for a cartoon gun that appears in some shots!
	Enter The Nookie Synopsis: Kung Fu porn! My Credits: Done on my own, including original music, visual effects, editing, acting, stunts and fight choreography. Also starring my friend, Charlotte. Notes: The second of my two films for my second year at the 'Darryl's Hard Liquor & Porn Film Festival'. My first experience with fight choreography. A very physical role, involving lots of flips and falls. Filmed in two days... the first with Charlotte and myself, and the second for the remaining shots of just myself. This film was actually an 'afterthought', with Mystery Partner intended as my main film... yet this film not only overshadowed it, but became a bit of a cult favorite of the festival. The 'fight' sequences were filmed with us moving slower than it appears on film, and then all of the attacks were sped up (leaving the pauses between them normal speed, creating a realistic effect, as opposed to a 'Benny Hill' effect. My first 'nude' scene.
	At Play In The Fields Of The Mouse Synopsis: An epic, silly, cartoon-like documentation of my epic trip to Disneyland with my friend, Andrew! My Credits: Done entirely on my own, except for additional videography by Andrew. Notes: Both Andrew and i had been to Disneyland once before (separately) as young kids, and had always wanted to revisit the park as adults (..with cameras!). A mix of real, documentary footage of our trip, and spontaneous 'skits' we made up during our stay. Filled with cartoon sound effects. Among the many jokes in the film is a running gag were all vehicals have squeeky wheels. This was done before I had any kind of computer editing or digital FX capability, so all the effects and titles were done using a video switcher I owned. Documents my first rollercoaster and waterslide, my performance in the Indiana Jones show, and brutal sunburns. Has a very diverse soundtrack (not my own), consisting of everything from lounge music to hard-core punk.
	Deee-Stroy Synopsis: A music video parody of Deee-lite's 'Groove Is In The Heart', done as a thrash song, starring my friends Andrew Grant, Keith Arima and myself. My Credits: Music composition/performance of a thrash version of 'Groove Is In The Heart'. Final editing (primary editing by Andrew Grant) and post production effects. I played the role of the Russian band member. Notes: Shot over a weekend in an unused photo studio at our work in the early '90s. We performed to a music track (no vocals) on VHS, and mouthed the lyrics. The video was edited (initially on 3/4 tape), resulting in a 'mostly done' video edit over the music track (still without vocals). A vocal track was recorded months (years?) later, but never merged with the edit... until over a decade later. The music video remained unfinished until 2006, when it both the edit and the recording of the vocals were imported into a PC, edited together, and the whole piece enhanced further through more editing and titles/effects (which, over the many years that passed, were now quite easy to do on a home computer). The first and only film/video in which I wear ponytails! The wardrobe I wear was from my own closet or that of my parents. (...yikes) To my knowledge, Andrew's first and only appearance in drag. The studio studio space used was the same one that Andrew and I would often do 'late night jam session' breaks in during our night shift at the company (Andrew played drums, while I played a bass pumped through a distortion pedal).
	Institutionalized Synopsis: Our own spontaneous music video for the Suicidal Tendencies song, 'Institutionalized'. My Credits: Andrew and I just kind of shot and edited it together. Notes: Shot in one day, in my parent's basement, without any real plan. Just kind of made it up as we went along. Andrew had no idea what I was doing behind him, and would often almost break out into laughter whenever he made the mistake of looking behind him... often finding me flying though the air. Among the many images projected on the sheet behind us, was a shot of my dad screaming, from a university film project I did previously. One shot involved Andrew shouting out the chorus, in closeup, with a mouth filled with mouthwash. A shot from the video, of Andrew dancing behind a backlit curtain, was actually used in a MuchMusic promo.
	Pepsi Video Synopsis: During their 'Ray Charles: You've Got The Right One' promotion, Pepsi held a contest, asking people to submit their 'audition' videos. I responded with a faux audition, followed by an original song, accompanied by a group of my highschool friends dancing in unison. My Credits: Writting, directing, choreography, original music, editing. Notes: The piece begins with a fake video audition, with a bumbling character trying to videotape himself singing. He goes through a few attempts, then tries various musical instruments and genres, each getting sillier. Finaly, surrounded by all the props from his failed attempts, he sits defeated, drinking a Pepsi. His exhausted sign blows across the bottle, creating a tone, which suddenly inspires him. Cut to an upbeat accapella song, with our guy plus four others, doing choreographed dancing. The music I composed was entirely created from sounds made by Pepsi products (slapping bottle, blowing in bottle, scraping bottle, etc) and the group of guys 'chanting' a few lines. Shot in the basement of Andrew's parents place. One of the guys had a horrible lack of rhythm... (Sorry, Rich! Heheh) To my great displeasure, it didn't win, but Pepsi was so impressed with it,and a few other entries, they created a 'runner up winners' category.
	How I Spent My Parent's Vacation Synopsis: A 'Ferris Bueller' type adventure of what I did while my parents were away on vacation. My Credits: Another one of those 'I did everything alone and myself' things... Notes: The film was shot while my parents were actually away on a real vacation, and includes footage of them actually saying goodbye to me and leaving. Contains a lot of in-camera tricks, including a 'slight of hand' gag with a figurine that almost gave my mom a heart attack. Being a perfectionist, I did the entire 'struggle with the vaccume cleaner hose' scene probably at least ten times. The editing of the film was only about 3/4 done, and still remains unfinished... although I'm working on changing that. I had no editing machine, and it was long before I had a computer, let alone editing software. So, the film was edited by simultaneously playing shots from the tape, recording it on a VHS (in sequence), and doing live folley work for the audio as it recorded! An ending was never filmed... and if one were done today, it could not include me in it, as I'm now 20 years older! Both the source footage and the original (incomplete) edit have been digitized into my computer (20 years later!), and I have started re-editing it digitally, with the intention of finishing it someday. Since I am now 20 years older than I was in the film, I have devised an additional storyline that will allow for the age difference. Despite the fact that editing on the computer is far easier than via the live dub VHS method I used back when this project was first done, I am torn as to whether to use modern computer fx in the edit, or stay with the in-camera effects.
	The Making Of Ana's Shirt Synopsis: It started off as a straight-forward step-by-step process video of the making of a T-Shirt for a co-worker... but soon turned into a crazy video featuring a trip to the mall, and several bloody 'accidents'. My Credits: Another one of my one-man productions! Notes: Andrew made a surprise visit while I was taping one of the segments, which triggered the whole craziness of the video. Features a sunny day in mid-November that was warm enough for T-Shirts! Contains probably the most blood-filled scene I have ever created in a video or film.
	Phoebic Vampire Synopsis: A short mock trailer of a vintage horror film with a twist. My Credits: Camerawork, editing, titles... stuff like that. Notes: Yet another of my films that was shot in my youth, yet only edited many years later. It still hasn't been completed, but is very close. The old film effect was done using my own processes, as opposed to a plug-in.
	Night Of The Living Dead: Reanimated Synopsis: A project where artists around the world choose a scene/shot from the famous zombie film, and recreate it using animation or some other means. The resulting submissions are then edited onto the original audio track, creating a 'video quilt' version of the film. My Credits: I contributed four sequences, and am creating an introduction sequence for the special edition DVD. Notes: This project was thought up and coordinated by American artist, Mike Schneider. Being the only artist from Toronto (or perhaps even Ontario) who worked on the film, I was the guest speaker at the Toronto premiere screening.