Short Film World Premiere!

The story behind the making of my son’s first ever movie.

I’m a very proud mama bear!

Thursday night, I went to a small local cinema to see my youngest son, Thomas’ first ever movie on the big screen! He, and a bunch of old high-school friends, collaborated on writing, acting, producing, and directing a short film called Still Together.

Please watch it and give them all a thumbs up! No, it isn’t a blockbuster or academy award contender, but it will make you smile, keep you guessing — and have you thinking.

Without spilling the beans on its storyline, it’s essential to appreciate the hard work and commitment to get a movie from its conception to the screen. Unless ‘in the know,’ we are blind to what happens behind the scenes — even for those blockbuster productions — often taking how it all magically came together for granted.

Tom — and everyone involved — kept outsiders in the dark as to the storyline, and I was delighted to have a good belly laugh when the plot was finally revealed over a year later.

I don’t think I could’ve kept my mouth shut that long!

After watching it for a second and third time, I appreciated the depth of the short movie. The title is perfect since it represents the many underlying messages within the 13 minutes of screen time.

It was a thrill to see months of hard work come to fruition. In honour of the occasion, I’m delighted to share the background behind the film’s birth and production after a wonderful conversation/interview with my son, Thomas.

The inspiration to make a short film

Tom and his buddy Justin were “bored shitless” last summer and decided to use the three months of downtime to work on a project that would look good on their portfolios.

Although Justin’s academic studies don’t relate to film, he has previously worked in several studios and productions. Tom is in media production studies at Toronto Metropolitan University — formerly known as Ryerson until they came under fire for naming their establishment after one of the instigators of the shocking Residential School System here in Canada.

Tom knew he would need something solid on his portfolio before the end of his studies, so what better way to do so than to make a movie from scratch?

The movie’s subject didn’t matter, so they engaged the help of some other high school friends, Todd Houghton and Aymeric Barbeau, to write the script. They had free reign to come up with something that would entertain and capture an audience until the last minute.

Another high school pal, Jesse Caruso, designed the advertising poster. He has cleverly included the plot within his design. Luc Béchard, my other son’s best bud, who is also into film and photography, did the set design.

Tom confesses none of them — including himself — really knew what they were doing and flew by the seat of their pants for the most part.

Ignorance is bliss!

Budget and funding

They set up a ‘Go Fund Me’ page and raised over $4K from friends and family.

Most of the money was spent on shooting days for set paraphernalia, food, a professional cameraman (Julian Stamboulieh), and payment to the seven actors they hired from a local college who were inAymeric’ss graduating class.

As all actors are subject to union regulations, it was necessary to reward the budding artists financially. Not only did it respect the strict union laws that ultimately give them authenticity for their work, but it also ensured they came away with an official acting gig to put on their portfolios. Their participation in the movie was, hopefully, a grand opportunity to kick-start each of their acting careers.

Props were sourced from Facebook Marketplace or borrowed from friends — and kept within a $400 budget.

The movie was filmed in one of theactor’ss apartments, and no equipment had to be rented, keeping the costs down.

Some of the challenges they encountered

Allocating the money was the most challenging task; how do you use $4K to make it most effective when you have no idea what you need and how much it costs to make a movie? They had to be super organized to ensure the three allocated filming days did not run overtime and blow their meager budget.

Tom spent hours on the audio, but it was a labour of love. Every minute of film equated to a minimum of two days of work, cutting out white noise and adding sound effects to match the action, voices, and necessary background noise. Door knocks, background chatter, and out-of-shape breathlessness had to be carefully manipulated to paint the scene in line with theactors’' movements.

Tom had never used the software or handled that amount of raw data before but cleverly made me howl with his unique input to taint perception.

He also composed the three minutes of music that ended the movie.Tom’ss initial idea was to play the manuscript with a Ronroco, but hewasn’tt happy with its more predominant treble sound, so he switched to a classical guitar.

To facilitate the musical editing process, he engaged another high school friend, John Duncan, to play his composition while he recorded and edited the sound to perfection. He and John had collaborated in the past and respected eachother’ss talents.

A team spirit was at play the whole time. It was a steep learning curve for all involved.

The future?

I was disappointed that the executive team — Justin, Tom, Todd, and Aymeric —didn’tt submit their work to film festivals for potential recognition. There are technical rules for each competition, including a significant time delay between submission and acceptance and strict regulations that deter promotional advertising.

They decided they just wanted to have some fun and not feel added pressures or restrictions to get the movie out. Fame and fortune were not on the top of their list for making this movie.

The project was putting a feather under their caps.

I have a feeling that these guys immensely enjoyed the limelight. Thetheatre’ss capacity is 54 seats; there were so many people at the premiere that they had to have two showings! It was amazing for me to reconnect with his old buddies and their parents. Some teachers from his high school were there to support them all. Tom had the night of his life!

There was no red carpet or paparazzi, but who cared? These young guys and gals relished on the big screen in a well-earned thirteen minutes. It was a massive achievement for these 22-year-olds to accomplish making a movie from A to Z.

Congratulations to everyone who made this short film happen. It was a low-budget, collaborative display of talent, drive, and passion for making their dream a reality.

I have no doubt it is the beginning of bigger things.