A Big Weekend for SoftLight

With the Silver Waver Film Festival just a day away, this is shaping up to be a pretty big weekend for us here at SoftLight.




Starting with the the festival opener, a screening of Leatha Acidents; a film Will worked on in 2007, we move onto Friday evening where our film Second Hand Smoke will come home from a trip around the festival circuit.





After the awards on Saturday evening the announcement will be made as to which film CBC has chosen for this years CBC 3-2-1 award(a funding award given out to up and coming filmmakers). Through our colleagues at Steam Powered Studios we applied with the before mentioned script The Midnight List. The excitement is certainly building, and our fingers are certainly crossed.

So wish us luck, and we'll be sure to keep everyone posted.

We can't forget to mention that Greg is coming into the homestretch for the post-production of The Other Side of Charlie, and Fred and Carl. With a deadline of December 1st, we can't wait to get these out to you guys!

All the best,

The boys at SoftLight.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We like to keep busy to say the least.

As Greg buries himself deep in post for both The Other Side of Charlie, and Fred and Carl, we've already got a line up for our slate.

So finally, the big announcements we've been waiting to fill you in on.

In December, The Midnight List; my fifth film will go into production. In fact, we're already well under way with pre-production due the demanding nature of this little script. We couldn't be happier to announce that our long time friend and collaborator Jon Blizzard will be once again producing for us, this time under the label of his production company: Steam Powered Studios. This script has been almost three years in the making, so to say we're excited is a bit of an understatement.

Here's a little concept poster I put together a while ago for it.

That's not it though...

I've finally completed my second feature length script!! Let Sleeping Dogs Lie. This is a unique, and special story that I can't wait to share with the world.

Not stopping there though, there's too many stories out there we want to tell, and after about a week or two away from Final Draft and I'll be diving into my next idea; more to come on that later.


Thanks for reading

Will

Post and Packing

Since our last post, we completed Fred and Carl, thanks to our cast and crew!

As I type Greg is packing up to head to Vancouver to permanently set up our office there. We'll miss him on this end of things, but ultimately it's best for all of us, SoftLight included.

We're expecting to have The Other Side of Charlie, and Fred and Carl completed by the end of this year, and onto the festival circuit/out to networks.

In the meantime there's much more in the works creatively, and a big announcement coming from "our East coast division" for the beginning of September.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned.

Asta Pasta,

Will

Fred and Carl: Park Rangers

We're heading full tilt into our next project, Fred and Carl: Park Rangers, a TV Pilot we're producing. Written by Ryan Griffith, and directed by our very own Greg.

The comedy promises a big audience with it's high concept, yet meaningful stories, and we're aiming for the big networks with this one.

Filming begins August 8th and will last for the duration of the week, with filming all around the capital area.

Stay tuned for more info.

With Charlie wrapped, what's next?

A week later, we survived "The Other Side of Charlie". Proud to say we wrapped on time and believe it or not, under budget. We learned a lot and had a great time filming. Can't wait to see what Greg finds under all that footage.

Next up is a pilot we're producing for local writer Ryan Griffith titled "Fred and Carl: Are Park Rangers". With the momentum from Charlie we're already moving ahead with pre-production and will start casting in a few weeks, with hopes for shooting in mid-August.

1st Weekend of Charlie

So the first weekend did meet a bit of bump in the road, but only due to weather, pushing back our first scene on Friday to Saturday. It all worked out though and we managed to get some great footage Saturday afternoon and evening.

Sunday we filmed at The Cellar on campus at UNB. It's become a bit fo a tradition to film our bar scenes there now. Again, we got some really great stuff. We ended Sunday early with Panago Pizza, what could be better?

4 Days till Charlie!!

Hey everybody.

We're just four days away now until principal photography begins on "The Other Side of Charlie".

The pre-production has had it's bumps like all projects, but ultimately has been a good proving ground for the film itself. All in all, this time has provided a great foundation for what's going to be a production I'm sure we can all be proud of.

With a great crew and killer cast, we're just counting down the days until we start...

The Other Side of Charlie

"The Other Side of Charlie" is our grant winning script by Greg Melanson going into production May 27th. At the moment it's a mix of every psychological thriller you've seen, but better. We can't wait to get started, and are holding auditions over the course of the next two weeks to find the perfect Charlie.

Here's a concept poster we have for the moment.

We're also currently working with writer Ryan Griffith on our first pilot; "Fred and Carl are Park Rangers". This projects is still early in prep, but we're aiming for photography in early August.

Second Hand Finished!!

Finally, after WAY too long we can say that Second Hand Smoke is complete.

The film featured Ivana Stojanovic, Joel Thompson, Annick Noel and Elizabeth Goodyear.

Running at 8 minutes and centered around the unorthodox approach that Jimmy(Thompson) takes to win back the girl of his soul mate Julia(Stojanovic).

Second Hand Smoke went into production in May of 2010, and was produced by Jon Blizzard, directed by William Beatty. With cinematography by Jesse Anthony and Production Design by Andrew Long.

At last the project is being packaged and submitted to festivals around the globe, so we'll be keeping you posted on how it does.

Check out the artwork for the poster, drawn by Rachel Noel; whom was also our Key Make-up artist on set.

SoftLight receives grant.

So here's some good news, we were just recently informed that we landed a funding grant from ArtsNB. The grant specifically was the Regional Arts Funding Grant, and will go toward our next project, which is due to go into production in early May.

Happy New Year!!

Now going into our 2nd week of 2011, we're probably due for an update.

Right out of the gate 2011 is shaping up to be a big year for SoftLight with quite a few projects already in the works.

With the production dates set in stone for early May, Greg is busy working away on revising his next short script which was originally titled "The Comedian", but has since changed and is yet to be named.

We're still doing final touches on The Dance, Second Hand Smoke and When You're Gone, but all are expected to be completed by about April, then off to the festival circuit!!

Meanwhile we also have a feature in the works. I can't go into too much detail as of yet but this is something I've been working on for quite a while now and am excited to get it out there and into production; hopefully by the fall.

Well that's all for now, keep coming back and see what we're getting ourselves into next.

Peace,

Will