CLYDECYNIC TRAILER from Genredabattoir on Vimeo.
SYNOPSIS
Clyde Nelson is a young,
self-proclaimed master of hypnosis who lives with his violent and toxic father,
Elijah.
Clyde works for Take the Power Keep
the Power, a small-time company that offers seminars on self-empowerment. With
his hypnotic talent, Clyde pretends that he can erase clients’ past traumas and
undesirable memories. The founder of Take the Power Keep the Power, Dion Green,
uses Clyde's talent to persuade audiences to spend their
money on the seminars. His associate Wayne thinks that Clyde is emotionally
unstable and potentially dangerous, but Dion refuses to believe him.
However, the young master of hypnosis
reveals his true destructive nature when his life begins to spin out of
control. This is when Kate, a tormented bisexual, seeks help from Clyde and
makes him realize what he has become: A
violent and toxic person. Secrets are exposed and lives are ruined as
CLYDECYNIC takes you through a tough and gritty experience that explores the
depths of rage, compassion and manipulation.
RAMIRO BÉLANGER / Writer, Director,
Cinematographer & Editor
Ramiro
Bélanger is a self-taught artist who began his career in filmmaking 14 years
ago as a CGI animator on Hollywood productions like Sin City and 300. In
2007, he wrote, directed and produced Radical,
Rifle, Icon, an ambitious stylistic short film that ignites a quest for his
true path as a filmmaker. A few years later, he introduces his edgy auteur
voice and dark humor with Raymond May
Have Rabies, a short film that tackles taboos in a tell don’t show
style. The film was selected to be part of the Québec Gold selection at the
Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner in 2010 and also won a Prends ça court! Excellence Prize in
2011. While being head of the narrative design team of the Activision
Spider-Man video game franchise, he wrote and directed CLYDECYNIC, an intense
art-house film which he co-produced with his equally passionate wife, Virginie
Lavallée Bélanger. CLYDECYNIC is introduced to the world in 2013 at the Busan
International Film Festival where it premieres in the Flash Forward official
selection and competes for the Audience Award.
VIRGINIE
LAVALLÉE BÉLANGER / Executive Producer & Producer
Hailing
from Montreal, Virginie completed a Master’s degree in Literature and New Media
at Concordia University before realizing her greatest passion in life is cinema
and that she was destined for a career in filmmaking. In 2007 she co-founded
the production house Genre d’Abattoir with now husband Ramiro Bélanger and
started her journey as an indie film producer. Since then, she has produced 13
short films that have been screened in festivals around the world, the
24-episode web series OFF On The Roof
and the feature film CLYDECYNIC. She was art director of her local filmmaking
coop, Spirafilm, from 2009 to 2011, a time during which she also founded a
Cine-Club to develop the auteur film audience in Québec city. From 2010 to 2012
she was Vice-President of the Québec Council of Media Arts (CQAM) and member of
the Media Art Table. She believes her calling in life is producing but also has
a great passion for photography and screenwriting. She has been married to
writer-director Ramiro Bélanger since 2009 and is currently associate producer
for Activision’s Québec city studio Beenox, where she works on the mega franchise Skylanders.
PRESS
PRODUCTION NOTES
WRITING
RAMIRO: I don’t really consider myself as a writer, but more
as a narrative designer who deals with screenwriting, the way you deal with
engineering. It is easier for me to express my artistic vision by working this
way.
CLYDECYNIC was very hard
to create due to the extreme limitations imposed by the production budget. As I
was writing it, I was already thinking about how I would shoot it. I had to lay
down each limitation before designing any plot element or character. What is interesting is that you
sometimes find better ideas while under extreme limitation. When you have
infinite resources, it is easy to become lazy.
The screenplay was
written over the course of four months, at night, while working on a Spider-Man
video game during the day. I did my research on hypnosis outside of traditional
hypnotherapy. I became fascinated by hypnosis schemes in Las Vegas. I like the
idea of something that feels like magic but works for real. I’m interested in
all things that trigger curiosity, and hypnosis definitely does.
Clyde’s character was
created around a mechanic that I wanted to explore which was: how can we have a
victim who’s also a predator. I’m fascinated by this kind of duality and
contrast. I enjoy discovering a character’s layers and observing them transform
over the course of a story.
At the end of the day, I
like storytelling as a vehicle to play with the audience.
***
VIRGINIE: As a producer, the writing process is one of the
most nerve-wracking for me, because it’s kind of a waiting game. I consider the
script to be the foundation of a film and, without it, I feel naked as a
producer. It was twice as challenging with CLYDECYNIC, because I am also
married to Ramiro and was with him during all the angst of finding the right
story to tell and of digging in personal experiences. When making your first
feature film, you want the tone to be right, and you want to make the talent of
the people making the film with you to shine. I feel like it was definitely
very challenging, but we are very proud of the script that turned out in the
end.
CASTING
RAMIRO: I had to reverse engineer the casting process for
CLYDECYNIC. I selected actors I knew and wanted to work with, and I custom-
designed characters for them.
Omari Newton was first
to be cast as the lead character, Clyde. Omari and I had worked together before
on my first short film, and I was extremely thrilled to work with him again. Unfortunately
for us, four days before principal photography, he was offered the lead role in
a TV series. That made it impossible for him to be part of CLYDECYNIC. After
hanging up the phone with Omari, I called Alexander Weiner right away.
Alexander is an actor who was introduced to me by Omari a few weeks earlier,
and for whom it was creative love at first sight. I saw great talent in him,
and I was extremely impressed by his dedication and skill set. He was a perfect
match for Clyde, although he was 10 years younger and of a different skin
colour than previously planned.
Richard Zeman was a good
challenge to write for. Being type-cast most of the time, I wanted to write
something different than a cop or a Nazi officer for him. In his important
stature and physique, I saw power and charisma, the basic foundation for a good
seminar scheme, which I called Take the Power, Keep the Power.
Alex convinced HBO’s
Less Than Kind lead Jesse Camacho to play the only funny role. Jesse and I
really connected, and I basically let him do whatever he wanted with his
character Kevin. Cara Raynold is
another talent introduced to me by Omari. Her natural and edgy femininity was
perfect for the character of Kate.
Mark Kruppa was also an
important collaborator on my first short film. He was cast to play the father
once Omari had to quit the project, which led to the father suddenly becoming
Caucasian.
As for Francis Jr Gould,
he has been a good friend of mine ever since high school. He has always been
interested in acting and has a natural gift; he was perfect for Clyde’s nemesis
Wayne.
It is always special the
first time an actor performs my work. My animation background gave me this
taste for acting. Every small nuance and detail in a performance is really
gratifying.
***
VIRGINIE: Casting when you have no budget is very challenging.
You can’t really hold a traditional casting session if there is no money
involved in making the film, it’s not very well perceived. So we did as we had
done before for our short films: we started with a lead actor in head, wrote
the part for him and figured we would use the script as our tool to convince
the other actors to be a part of our project.
For about a year and a
half, we worked with Omari Newton, who was cast to play the part of Clyde, and
Richard Zeman, who plays Dion Green. Once the script was final, they helped us
cast the other roles by sending us resumes, shots and videos of some actors
they knew and whose work they appreciated. For Kate, it was an easy fit. The
moment we saw Cara we knew we had found our girl. But some other roles were
much more challenging, notably the role of Elijah Nelson, Clyde’s father. Up
until two weeks before we started shooting, we were still looking for the right
fit, until we had a light bulb moment and contacted Mark Krupa.
Because the actors were
accepting to take part in the project without being financially compensated, we
signed an MIP contract with ACTRA, which made them part owners of the project.
We also had one actor in the project that wasn’t part of the union, and boy did
I have to use my convincing skills on ACTRA to let him be part of our cast! I
am really grateful they ended up siding with me, because Francis Gould Jr. did
an amazing job as Wayne.
PRE-PRODUCTION
RAMIRO: We had about 3 months to get ready to shoot and when
you are a 4 person crew, it’s not much. My entire crew consisted of my producer
and wife, collaborator Jonathan Simard and props designer Karine Bédard. The first challenge was Clyde’s office,
where most of the “action” takes place. We didn’t have the resources to rent a
location and to be able to transform it the way we wanted. The most
cost-effective solution was to build a set in our living/dining room. After
emptying the room, we created Clyde’s personal space where he hypnotises his
clients.
For the Take
the Power, Keep the Power meeting, we needed something that reflected the
underground and gritty aspect of the seminar. Virginie found an old building where we could walk in freely
and could use not only a big room for the main scene, but all the corridors and
stairs for other smaller scenes. It was a historic building situated in Québec
city, where we live.
Wardrobe was simple.
Every actor brought their own wardrobe and we provided the Take the Power, Keep
the Power t-shirts and hoodies. It was important to make the clothes reflect
who the characters were, and give an insight into their personalities.
The Take the Power, Keep
the Power iconography needed special attention. I wanted it to be simple and
clean, and to reflect the D.I.Y aspect of the group. It also had to be
something that could resonate with the audience. Graphic designer Daniel Voyer
Lessard was brought in to create all the images and iconography of the infamous
seminar group where Clyde works.
***
VIRGINIE: We always like to keep our crew as small as possible
in order to stay as independent as possible, and this time was no exception. I
was the only one working full-time on the pre-production for 3 months, since
Ramiro, our Art Director Jonathan and our prop designer Karine were all working
on the Spider-Man video game on a full time basis at the time. We held many
meetings, week-ends and week nights, to determine the look we wanted for the
film. It had to be easy to create but highly effective.
One of the first choices
Ramiro and I had made was to use our apartment as the main set. We had learned
while shooting our first short film in 2007 how expensive locations can be and
how annoying it can be to work around the opening hours. It sounded like such a
great idea, but we definitely had pink glasses on. We had 800 square feet to
create two main locations, house two of our actors and ourselves in addition to
making the craft and establishing a production office. We built the sets with
no exterior help and created custom lighting for our needs. We asked our
neighbours living above to keep their 1 and 3 year olds quiet for the following
three weeks and I prepared 3 meals a day for 12 people. Luckily, we live in
Canada, and in January our balcony could be used as a freezer. Unfortunately,
our light installations were also outside and they didn’t always love the -25
degrees celsius (-13 Fahrenheit) weather as much.
PRODUCTION
RAMIRO: Shooting started on January 2, 2012 in Quebec City,
Canada. The decision was made to shoot the picture in black and white. It was
more of a practical decision than an aesthetic one. Knowing I would do the entire post production, I decided
that I didn’t want to spend time on color grading and color timing. Black and
white allowed me to focus on composition, contrast and framing, leaving behind
skin tones and color schemes.
Knowing our technical
crew would consist of only two people, Jonathan and I, lighting needed to be
simple and static. No changes between camera setups. The decision was made to
use practical lighting. One problem we faced was light coming from outside that
we could not control. Lights rigs had to be build outside so we could control
the light coming from the windows. Setting up those rigs every morning at -25 degrees
(-13 Fahrenheit) was an unpleasant challenge for Jonathan and I.
Every scene was shot
with two Canon 7Ds, with and an average of thirteen takes per camera setup. As
a director, I like discovering the scene with the actors. I like when everybody
comes in with their ideas, but my kick is watching actors discovering new
angles and taking decisions on the spot. I’m looking for errors and spontaneous
pantomimes and unexpected facial expressions. It’s something that my animation
background makes me appreciate in a performance. I’m not the type of director
who is expecting something very precise from an actor. I usually discuss
extensively with them about the character’s body language and persona before
main photography. On set, I’m there to help the actors to give their best, and
to give them a different perspective on the material. At the end of the day,
I’m just a fan watching people perform my writing.
The shooting ended on
time and within budget, something I’m really proud of. Through my entire career
in animation, being on time and within budget was always important. I learned
to embrace limitation, and how to use it as a creative tool.
After 4 weeks of
shooting, we ended up with 130 hours of footage.
***
VIRGINIE: Production is my favorite part of the process. There
isn’t really anything quite like being on set. As crazy as this shoot was, it
was also the coolest experience ever. We had to have a short shoot for logistic
reasons and so our schedule was spread over 22 days of shooting during month of
January. It was very important for Ramiro to have the time and the freedom to
shoot as many takes as possible of each scene to really make this film about
the acting. The days were long, but we had such an energy going between us; it
was kind of magical. We shot for three weeks in Québec city, and then we took
down all the sets and moved all of our worldly possessions to a new space where
we were going to go into post-production. The next day, we started the Montreal
leg of our shoot at my father’s Saint-Anne-des-Plaines maple farm where we shot
for 6 days straight. Our very last day of shooting took place in a fancy Laval
hotel, with only Alex, Mark, Ramiro and I.
POST-PRODUCTION
RAMIRO: With so much footage to watch and review while
also working full time, a
proper work flow needed it to be established.
A key scene was selected
for each character as a guide on which direction to take for them. Then, the
other takes would be selected to match my primary take, so the performance
would be constant and fluid. With this method, it was easy to discard takes and
not fall in love with a take that was very good but didn’t match the
character’s behaviour and persona.
Sound is the only aspect
where I couldn’t do it myself, and having good sound was very important for the
film’s credibility. Serge André Amin was introduced to me through friends we
had in common. After many discussions about the minimal style I was looking
for, Serge was able to pull off something clean and simple. Cara Reynold’s
(Kate) entire voice performance needed to be redone in ADR due to a microphone
problem. We had to fly Cara back from Vancouver. Due to the complex sexual
undertone of the scene, redoing the entire performance was a great challenge
for Cara and a great dose of stress for me. Cara was able to prepare herself
and she was able to pull it off gracefully.
Working only at night
and on weekends, the film took eighteen months to edit.
CLYDECYNIC is my first
attempt at a feature film. The decision to handle everything myself, from
writing to editing, was a personal test to see if I had what it need to be a
complete filmmaker without having the stress of spending somebody else’s money.
***
VIRGINIE: During post-production, people start talking about
the movie as your baby because they notice you’ve been obsessing about it for
about two years now, and it will soon be ready to be released into the
universe.
For us post production
had its ups and downs. Once the film edit was finalized, I did a lot of the sound editing to help
move the process along. Our final edit and sound mixing was done in Montreal,
which made the process a bit challenging since we lived in Québec city. Ramiro
likes to be involved in every detail, and living 250 km away from your sound
studio can be stressful.
Music is one aspect that
we toyed with until the very end. For a long time, the film had no music at
all. Then, Ram and Jo recorded some guitar sounds. We wanted to use more light
and pad than music. In the end, the film was fairly heavy, although Ramiro and
I found it funny. And so, we added some music,
but very delicately.
ABOUT THE CAST
ALEX WEINER / Clyde Nelson
Alex began acting professionally
at the age of 17 when, after one of his very first auditions, he landed a
leading role in the feature film Territories
(Olivier Abbou). Alex has since worked with various directors on numerous
projects, including the lead role in the feature film CLYDECYNIC (Ramiro
Bélanger), a supporting role in the feature The
Good Lie (Shawn Linden), a supporting role in the Sonar Network mini-series
Exploding The Sun (Michael Robison,
aired on Space and SYFY in the spring of 2013) and guest starring on Spike TV's
Blue Mountain State. He also did
voice acting for animated productions like Wink
and the lead in the animated pilot Hubert
and Takako. Alex also lends his talent behind the camera, involving himself
in the producing, directing and writing of several short films.
MARK KRUPA / Elijah
Nelson
Mark
started his career with the multi-cultural theatre troupe Montreal Serai before expanding into TV and film in both the
English and French Canadian markets. Some of his most notable performances can
be seen in Human Trafficking, Silent Night, L’incomparable Mademoiselle C and The Last Templar. He also wrote, co-executive produced, and acted
in the The Wild Hunt, which won the
Best First Canadian Feature Film prize at TIFF in 2009 as well as the audience
award for best feature film at Slamdance in 2010. At the 2011 Gémaux awards,
Mark was nominated as Best Host in a
Youth Series for Zooville which
aired on SRC for 2 seasons, totaling 104 episodes. He also wrote and hosted the
travel-adventure series Hooked With Mark
Krupa, which airs internationally. Mark also completed his Master’s degree
in Dramatherapy at Concordia University. In between productions, he works with
troubled teens.
JESSE
CAMACHO / Kevin Thomson
Jesse has been an ACTRA member since the age of 8. At 9, he landed
a recurring role on the Hallmark series Tales
From The Neverending Story and a role in the critically acclaimed feature
film 12 And Holding shot completely
on location in New York. After several painfully close calls with American
Network TV series and Hollywood studios, he landed a lead role in the
independent feature film, Summerhood. He can also be seen in the role of
young Duddy Kravitz in the mini-series St.
Urban’s Horseman. Other credits include The
Trotsky, Rapture Palooza, Kickass II and the upcoming feature Nicky Deuce. Jesse recently completed
filming on the fourth season of the Gemini-winning, HBO Canada series, Less Than Kind. When not on set, Jesse
can be found in front of his computer working on one of his many screenplays.
Among his most prized possessions are the two Canadian Comedy Awards for best
ensemble cast he shares with his Less
Than Kind castmate.
RICHARD
ZEMAN / Dion Green
Born
and raised in Montreal as the son of Czech immigrants, Richard’s father was a
cabaret and theater performer in Europe before coming to Canada. Richard always
liked performing in front of an audience and he realized after doing his first
play at the age of 14 that it was his calling in life. While taking acting
classes, he got his first movie acting job and decided to whole-heartedly
pursue his career as an actor. He has worked all over Canada, in the U.S., Europe,
and New Zealand. Right now, his home is wherever work and life may take him.
CARA REYNOLDS / Kate
Cara
Reynolds began her acting career in Montreal at the age of 9. She landed her
third audition ever, earning a role in the feature film Eye of The Beholder, where she played the younger version of Ashley
Judd’s character Joanna Eris. She later had a brief stint on the children’s
television series Caillou, as well as
on PBS Kids cooking show Wiz Chef.
She then held a series of small roles in three Canadian independent features.
Throughout her teenage years, Cara landed roles in her high school’s renditions
of Cheaper by The Dozen and Alice in Wonderland. Cara took a short
hiatus from acting in order to focus on her studies before deciding to combine
her love of acting and academia to enroll in John Abbott’s Professional Theatre
program. After a year of learning from some great mentors, Cara moved to
Vancouver to take a crack at the West Coast film and television industry.
FRANCIS GOULD JR / Wayne
Ever since
joining his high school improv team in the 9th grade, Francis has
been passionate about acting as a hobby. As a teenager, he was involved in live
action role-playing games where he met Ramiro Bélanger, who, seeing a lot of
raw talent, inspired him to continue developing his acting skills. A decade later,
Francis was cast to play JR in the short film Raymond May Have Rabies. His performance blew the team away, so
Ramiro decided to write a part for him in his first feature, CLYDECYNIC. He was
the only non-unionized actor in the production and held his own as a
professional. Since then, Francis has written and directed his first short
film, Two Inches From Death.
Q&A
HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED WITH CLYDECYNIC?
ALEX WEINER: I got a call from Omari Newton,
who I had worked with in 2011 on a television show. At that time he was playing
the lead in CLYDECYNIC and he introduced me to Ramiro, who was looking for
someone to take the supporting role of Kevin. A week and a half before we
started shooting, Omari couldn't work on CLYDECYNIC anymore, so Ramiro offered
me the lead role of Clyde.
JESSE CAMACHO: This is actually a funny little
story. I was sitting at home one night when I got a call from my buddy Alex
Weiner, who plays Clyde in the movie, asking me if I would go to Quebec City
for a few days to shoot a movie. I had no idea what was going on. He'd left me
like 3 messages and kept texting me. I was lucky enough to get involved from
there.
RICHARD ZEMAN: About 6 years ago Ramiro asked me
to play a part in his first ever film, a short, bizarre science-fiction film. I
think what got me interested in it was more Ramiro - his character and his
energy – than the film itself. One of his great assets - aside from directing -
I think is his ability to listen to ideas. We have remained friends, and he
often told me he wanted to shoot a full length feature film with me in it. After several years of writing and
changing the concept many times, he came up with CLYDECYNIC.
HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOU FIRST READ THE SCRIPT?
ALEX WEINER: When I first read the script, all
I kept thinking was that I wished I could play Clyde. I was in love with the
character’s torment, and the script had this raw tone to it. I knew I wanted to
be a part of it in any way, really. When I got the part, I really started to
delve into the script, and I realized how naturally the words flowed out. The
writing was meticulous and obviously very deliberate. Before reading the
script, I had never really come across a character like this, and I knew it was
a unique piece of writing.
MARK KRUPA: I was drawn to the dysfunctional
father-son relationship: the story of a father who loves, yet abuses, his son,
which perpetuates a cycle of violence.
JESSE CAMACHO: I REALLY liked it. It was intense,
dark, simple, with a great story. I could tell Ramiro knew his characters and
their arcs. When you read a script you always look for great characters and
Ramiro created a bunch of them. It was one great scene after another.
HOW DID YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR ROLE?
ALEX WEINER: There were two aspects that I
needed to solidify in the character right off the bat. The first one being his
expertise: hypnotism, and the second being his history with his abusive father.
Hypnotism is a huge part of the film and is the skill that Clyde has mastered,
so I needed to be credible in that sense. I went to a hypnotist and underwent
hypnotherapy, I read a book on self-hypnosis and another more academic one
featuring more specific case studies, and I tried to hypnotize members of my
family. I also consulted a lot of "performance" hypnotists,
particularly Marshall Silver. The rest of Clyde I worked from within, spending
long hours on the floor of my bathroom crying or in the corner of my room
letting the character arrive in some way that I still can't fully understand.
MARK KRUPA: I thought it would be challenging
to portray a father with a subtle yet undeniable mental condition. As a
dramatherapist, I am familiar with several dysfunctional behavior patterns, so
I chose to explore an intense and unique form of Obsessive-Compulsive disorder
that would match the character in the script.
FRANCIS GOULD JR.: Ramiro made me watch a lot of
movies and study them. He also coached me with acting for weeks before the
shoot and made me look for the character’s personal story.
JESSE CAMACHO: I'm gonna sound a little silly
here, but I didn't really want to, and I'll explain why. Kevin is the comic
relief of the movie. His purpose is to come in and lighten the mood slightly
for the audience before the shit really hits the fan. I didn't want to prepare
him too much one way or the other as I didn't know exactly what Ramiro would
want when I arrived on set. It also gave us more room to play with the
characterization, which we did.
HOW WAS IT ON LOCATION?
ALEX WEINER: Ramiro and Virginie built the set
in their home, and I went to sleep and woke up in my character's office, which
was great. Virginie is a great cook (she took care of all the craf), and we all
loved the film and the process. Every day was focused fun, like a group working
on a really cool project.
RICHARD ZEMAN: For me it was a fun process
working with people I knew. Our
common goal was to create as much as possible with the little we had: a script,
a camera, and some talent. A little patience helped too.
JESSE CAMACHO: SOOO much fun! I was already
friends with Alex Weiner, who plays Clyde. But I also got to work with Richard
Zemen and Francis, who are both awesome. It was interesting actually, because I
only really came down for like 4 days and shot my scenes, which are mostly very
comedic. So my experience was one of making a comedy. So it’s gonna be really
cool for me to see all the dramatic stuff I didn't get to work on.
HOW DID
YOU LIKE WORKING WITH SCREENWRITER-DIRECTOR RAMIRO BÉLANGER?
ALEX WEINER: Ramiro and I just clicked. We
challenged each other when we needed to, but we mostly have the same ideas in
terms of good films. He respects my preparation methods in terms of
character-building, and I let him direct me in the right direction. I love having
a good director who knows how to give direction, and he does a great job of
showing me an objective point of view in terms of scene-building and dramatic
action. We make a very good team.
CARA REYNOLDS: Not only is he wild, and likes to
push limits, but he knows what he is doing, and the coolest thing about the
fact that he is so knowledgeable is that he is completely self-taught. It was
his passion for film that led him down the road to filmmaking and he learned
everything he knows about it on his own by watching and re-watching many films
and studying his favorite directors. He is a big fan of doing many takes in
order to capture the most subtle aspects of every performance. At times it was
challenging because you need a lot of stamina to work in such a way, but I had
full confidence in him and his vision.
HOW WAS IT WORKING WITH PRODUCER VIRGINIE LAVALLÉE
BÉLANGER?
JONATHAN SIMARD: She did all the thankless work in
addition to her responsibilities as a producer. She made sure everybody had
something to eat, that we were on schedule and also assisted during the
filming, taking care of the continuity and other stuff. I don't remember ever
seeing her take a break actually. I kept telling Ramiro how lucky he is to have
her. The movie couldn’t have been completed without her, that’s for sure.
CARA REYNOLDS: She was like an older sister I
never had, and the cool young mom of the entire film.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON WORKING ON A NO BUDGET INDIE
FILM?
ALEX WEINER: It depends on the team. Some
people can make a great set with no money, while others do a terrible job. Same
thing goes for big budget sets: it depends on the team. Some films require a
big budget, of course, but smaller sets can be so efficient for some projects.
I will say that if the project speaks to me and I think it's a worthy
investment of my time: then let's do it, let's team up and make a movie. I
would do it again with Ramiro and Virginie in a heartbeat.
MARK KRUPA: I am a strong supporter of indie
film. I ask many people to work on my indie productions so I try as much as
possible to return the favour. Unfortunately, in English-speaking Canada, we
are in somewhat of a cultural coma, but film-makers like Ramiro and Virginie
remain part of the solution.
