New year, new updates!

Bright Eye proposal cover

Hello to anyone reading! Hope the new year has been kind, chill, and easy considering the state of the world.

So where the heck have I been? I've been off doing lots of work, some I can talk about and some I can't... yet.

The stuff I can talk about includes the official release of my feature film, Much Ado!, on Youtube and Vimeo. Yes, you can watch the film for the same price as breathable air (we'll see how that goes in a decade) on these easily accessible platforms. While I would've liked to have seen the film be properly released via a distributor, I am nonetheless happy that the work of some truly talented artists is finally out there for you all to see.

The nature of independent filmmaking and the democratization of filmmaking means there are so many things one can do on an absurdly low budget, though it also means the competition has gotten significantly more brutal as a result. This is layered with so many positives and negatives. On the one hand, anyone can make Casablanca on an iPhone. On the other, there are thousands of 20 something year olds trying to make Casablanca on their iPhones and the bar has been raised so high when it comes to making your films stand out to festival juries and distributors. Your script has to be top notch, you actors have to give exceptional performances, and your voice has to come through. Most importantly, you need to know what you're trying to say with your film. Unfortunately, Much Ado! didn't hit many of these for festivals. I look at it fondly as training for later projects, as a practice that was so invaluable to me as an artist in learning the things film school did not usually teach. There is no better way to learn how to make a film than going out, getting funding, hiring talent and crew, and editing your film- I cannot stress enough how important it is to learn editing as a screenwriter. The discipline it teaches you is essential.

That said, Much Ado! has found some success on online platforms. On Youtube, at the time of writing this, has garnered 3.3K views since its release on Dec. 31st. There's an audience out there. A small audience but an audience nonetheless. Projects on the side include the conclusion of storyboarding Gavin Cameron's upcoming short film, Theatre Rat. I am also racking up several side gigs to help with the rent- such as an animated promo for Santi's Love and Country County Fair, which will be happening at the Russian Hall from February 13-15th.

I've also begun working on a proposal for a graphic novel version of my shelved short film "Bright Eye" to a local company here in Vancouver. It'll be from a script by Max Robin and will be illustrated and coloured by me. Hopefully you'll get to see the story, if not on the screen then on the page!

Those are the things I can talk about. However, these projects will not take up a majority of my time this year. To avoid being coy, I'm just gonna say much of my energy will be put towards my next big film project that I'm developing. Hopefully I can talk about it soon.

Anyways, that's it for now folks. I'll end this post by saying that we're about to see some major changes in the world and as dreadful as these changes are going to be, it's up to us to stand our ground. Bullies need attention and the only thing we can do at this time is avoid giving that attention to the narcissists that drink our money like milkshakes. Queer art, stories about race and gender, may take a backseat to the mindless garbage that sees apoliticism as a positive if not shallow trait but we're not out yet. There are many of us that exist, out and open, and who'll have the appetitie to make and seek out queer art. Now is the time we'll see who were our true allies and who were just playing the game until the pendulum swung.

Freedom to queer folks everywhere.