Watch all four videos to hear about the scenes they’re proud of, the rising celebration of Ontario film and television production work, and what it means to share their projects with TIFF audiences. Hear from the Members in their own words this TIFF!
Thank you to all our Members who participated this year:
Walter Gasparovic, 1st Assistant Director, Being Heumann
Cici Clancy, 1st Assistant Director, All That She Wants
Reginald Harkema, Picture Editor, The Stunt Driver
Hugh Elchuk, Picture Editor, In The Heart Of The South
D. Gillian Truster, Supervising Picture Editor, Yaga
Paul Intson, Music Editor, Below
Helen Shaver, Director, Below
Ashley Devereux, Production Designer, Back in Black
Ron Murphy, Director, Back in Black
Zarrar Kahn, Director, The Lion Does Not Concern Himself
Orlee Buium, Picture Editor, The Betrayers
Sari Miettinen, Location Manager, Neverman
“So many amazing Canadians made this film. That’s what I’m most proud of. And I hope that people are caught up in the story enough not to be able to break it into its elements, even though the elements in and of themselves are terrific.“
-Ron Murphy, Back in Black Director, on what he’s most proud of
“I was in a Home Depot when I found out, of course, classic Art Department. Ron Murphy actually left me a voicemail at first, and I just had a sense it was gonna be about getting into TIFF. I didn’t even look at the voicemail, I just called him back, because I wanted to hear it from him!”
–Ashley Devereux, Back in Black Production Designer, on getting the call the film was headed to TIFF
“It’s about climate change, forced migration. It’s about what lies beneath, what is below in in all of our subconscious and in every piece of folklore that comes from a community that lives by the sea. There is always a monster below, and in all of us there’s a monster too.”
Helen Shaver, Below episode Director, on what she loves most about the series
“We’ve been upping our game in Ontario. We’ve been upping our game since I got into this industry. I work on a lot of productions that are based outside of Canada, and I feel like we’re definitely holding our own right now, and we’re going to keep holding our own.”
Paul Intson, Below Music Editor, on the impact of Canadian creatives globally
“Everyone came up and told us their story about growing up differently in an able-bodied world. Not what was on the page in the script, but what it was like for them. I’ve never seen so many tears on a set, from the camera operator to the boom person to everyone at the monitor. It was incredible, and I’ve never witnessed anything like it.”
Walter Gasparovic, Being Heumann 1st Assistant Director, on his favourite on-set moment
“I hope that audiences are just so engaged and so totally along for the ride that they don’t even think about how it’s made. There’s such an enormous amount of craft that goes into making something feel effortless. And I think that’s ultimately what we’re all trying to achieve.”
Gillian Truster, Yaga Supervising Editor, on what she hopes audiences notice
It’s based on his book, but this is an adaptation a decade later, so [Director/Writer David Bezmozgis] has grown and changed as a person. It’s definitely a film with a lot of heart, and the performances from all four of the leads are so, so strong. It was such a pleasure to cut.”
Orlee Buium, The Betrayers Picture Editor, on her favourite aspects of working on this production
“The locations in Hamilton Scottish Rite, Auchmar Estate and others had a line up of film crews wanting to film at the same time as ours. We worked out a very specific detailed schedule with the location itself and both productions allowing overlap. At one point we had two shoots going on inside the Scottish Rite. Ours was a day shoot and the other a night shoot!”
Sari Miettinen, Neverman Location Manager, on challenging elements from a locations perspective
“This was a teaching set where we worked with the nonprofit POV. It was a really lovely space where we were creating something, but we were also teaching folks simultaneously, and I’ve never been on a set like that before. So it was a first for me in so many ways.”
Zarrar Khan, The Lion Does Not Concern Himself Writer/ Director, on what he loved about this set
“With being a Director and working as an Editor for someone else, you really have a respect for their process. You edit for them as you would want your Editor to edit for you. I tend not to just fall back and say ‘this is good enough.‘ I like to explore what’s not working, what’s bugging the Director, work through a bunch of footage and see if that opens up possibilites.
Reg Harkema, The Stunt Driver Picture Editor, on how his directing work informs his editing work
“We had Zosia Mamet, Christine Baranski, John Gemberling, and Annie Murphy sitting in the audience, watching Bill Irwin do the performance for the first time. It was just so perfect, and so joyful, that they all just stood up and gave a genuine standing ovation, and everyone was just so moved by how fun it was. I’m very excited to see how that came out on film.”
Cece Clancy, All That She Wants 1st Assistant Director, on her favourite day on set
“We worked really hard on balancing the psychological thriller aspects with the more character-driven aspects, and finding the transitions between those two elements. [Director Nyla Innuksuk] wanted to play with some scenes almost as a voyeur, like one of the characters seeing the scenes unfold.”
Hugh Elchuk, In the Heart of the South Picture Editor, on what he’s most proud of
