Mecha-Canister film shoot

 Big shooting day in the studio, the last with this team of students. I was mostly Mecha-Canister, a giant robotic version of Canister the Robot, which has been built to protect the city from a series of invading monsters. No plot of dialog scenes, just effects scenes. Threw out a lot of stuff at the end of the day. Cast and crew were Dani Fink, Rebekah Illingworth, Nicte Recinos-Lane, Robert Stevenson, Aiden San Andres, and Katya Shyshenina along with Geremy Lague and William. 

Photos here are mostly shot by Robert. 

Preparing to film

I had hospital tests this morning which left me a bit drained, so when my set up time at the studio will all my students was interrupted by a real fire alarm, I admit I was a bit glad to send everyone home. Half the time was spent emptying things out of my office anyway. I'm giving a lot of 16mm films to Rebekah and and lot of film chemistry things to her and Dani. 

Speaking of fire, thought we didn't see any at the university (fire truck did arrive), we lit our own. Allan came over and I bought his newly printed (and dedicated) second half of the Critters set. 
 

Painting buildings

William and I did a rush job painting windows and doors onto the high rise buildings for the sthoot tomorrow. The eight foot flats will each be about 20 stories high, for those tracking scale. Also, I brought all of the Auricon camera parts together and let Mike and Ron know about it's potential for great cinematic adventure. 
 

Building a city

 Got a layer of paint onto my foam flats last night and William and I put together a plan for the next steps today. I'm feeling very excited yet exhausted by every step I take this month. I'm so happy that I'm doing a bunch of creative projects but at the same time, I am dying to have a bunch of time to just do nothing but stay home. I think that is what led to a bit of a stalled day today. We determined some stencil plans but didn't have the right tools to start, which was fine with me. 

Nicole departs

 Got Nicole to the airport this morning after one mor short visit with mom. 

Sunday activities

Nicole and I played some cards with mom this morning in lui of father's day activities. Later I managed to cram six sheets of styrofoam into my car from Rona to use this week at the university. They are 8 feet by 2 feet and cost about 9 bucks each. This evening we played a new game the William found at the giant book sale a couple days ago. It was a bit complicated and we are unlikely to play it again, but not really bad. 

 

Day with Nicole

 Brunch at a pop-up restaurant turned into an overly sweet sugar fest with Nicole and mom this morning. We ended up back at the house where we played the new Root game. Very nice day. 

On the way to the Globe

On the way to the Globe theatre this evening, noticed that the building that we were insisting that we project onto for Nuit Blanche is now gone. No wonder we didn't get accepted into it this year. Also finally caught the Neutral Ground window show by Grace Boyd and was fascinated by this view from the Globe of the neighbouring building. Wouldn't it be great to film a performance that would take place on that roof from this window? 

 Met up with George at the play, Arsenic and Old Lace, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is our first time at the renovated space. Katheryn Bracht had just moved into one of the lead roles due to someone's illness. I think we knew more people in the cast than in the audience. 

Visiting with mom and Nicole

Nicole is in town for a week, mostly to visit with mom. We all went to the giant used book sale. Mom got a handful of novels. I got a couple Andy Capp books. William got a game. Nicole got a book that she wanted to re-read but had lost her copy. We finally found the time to show mom a heap of William's artwork, something she's been asking about for a long time. 
 

Early father's day gift

 With Nicole in town (and having recommending this in specific) William bought me a game called Root. It was initially quite confusing, but Nicole taught us how to play and it is quite engaging. 

Convocation

 Many of my students convocating today including Chance Roh, Claire Henneberg,  Dani Fink, Nicte Recinos-Lane, Andrew Nickel and many others. It was wonderful to see them together today and meet a few of their parents and families. 

The Debaters

Nicole arrived in town today. We took her to a live recording of The Debaters. They indicated that they had been here before, but we don't remember that happening. The show has been running for 19 years and I think we've been listening to it most of that time. They did four debates and we really enjoyed it. 

Still no making of Empire Strikes Back

 Years ago we had a disappointing backyard screening of what I thought was going to be "The Making of The Empire Strikes Back" but was mislabled. Today I found the second reel of it, but it was, unfortunately, just a second film can but another random non-Star Wars film inside. 

Cat watches rabbit

 I was too slow on the trigger, but saw this curious moment from the gazebo as a rabbit came into the yard without seeing us or the cat. It stopped in the middle of the lawn and then became aware and dashed off. Sylvie got up but even in her prime would not have a chance against a rabbit that size (it is almost twice her size). 

William gets a break with new Seth book

 William had a busy week. He had to work through the pain of his injured arm to run his meeting of the minds, then paint backdrops, then shoot his scenes, then today he worked all afternoon with Victor Lam. Yesterday's radio show was a solo endeavour where he read from an older Seth book, so today I gave him the newest Seth book to allow him some R&R time. 

Shooting Bird People scenes

 William, Geremy, and my team of Nicte, Aiden, Robert, and Katya shot a 9 minute series of short scenes extracted from William's most recent bird people feature script. 

Possible new car for William

 Margaret was shown this car at Mazda. It came in as a trade in and it the same as my car except its shitty colour and that it's an automatic. We can afford to get it for William and are now talking price. He'll be able to confidently go on the highway and do adventures. 

New background

 William preparing the tea room set for the upcoming Bird People film shoot. 

Bird People "Meeting of the Minds"

William invited a number of people to come together this evening to talk about developing and writing  a "Bird People" radio drama series, based on his comic: https://bird-people.thecomicseries.com/ . Geremy and I were there, along with five others closer to his age. It started off rough but quickly everyone started adding nutty ideas into the mix, just like he wanted. Image above is for Groundhog's Day. In the middle of the meeting, we took a break to go outside and watch the hail fall.