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Looking for crew: NEXT film

Following the success of the short film Nowhere Normal this year, Janine Waddell will direct Heather Morrow‘s next short script, Reasons I Hate Being Single in the fall of 2023, in Edmonton, Alberta.

We’re applying to this fall’s funding cycle. Given the story’s subject, we would like notes of interest from Edmonton-based, female-identifying, and BIPOC crew, for the following positions:

  • DOP
  • Camera Operator
  • Set Decorator
  • Costume Supervisor
  • Hair Stylists (including specialty hairstyling)
  • Makeup (including effects makeup and prosthetics)
  • Storyboard Artist
  • Grip
  • Cable Person
  • Script Supervisor

This won’t we a full union production, but WILL pay IATSE rates.

If interested, please contact producer Heather Morrow at hmorrow@takeabite.ca

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Crew: Meet Dante Sutton

Dante is a camera operator, DP, and producer around and about Edmonton. He was assistant camera on Nowhere Normal, and thanks to him, we were able to film on a beautiful Arri Alexa. He’s most interested in commercials *hint*.

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Crew: Meet Brenda LePage

Brenda was…everything on Nowhere Normal. Locations manager, PA, security, and script coordinator. She’s credited as Assistant Director on this film, but that doesn’t express how this film would not have happened without her. Oh, she’s a screenwriter too, and we hope she doesn’t forget our little crew now that she’s had a script optioned in Los Angeles (!)

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Crew: Meet Alexandra Paulhus

Alexandra has worked on multiple films in various roles, but for Nowhere Normal, she had “only” two of the most important – making the location look good, and keeping us all fed. Please meet our production designer and craft services deity.

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Crew: Meet Fami Kaur

Fami is the production manager of Nowhere Normal. She immigrated from India in 2024 with a background in Journalism and Mass Communication to attend the NAIT Digital Cinema program. Since 2018, Fami has worked for the Edmonton Short Film Festival as a Social Media Strategist. In 2020, she founded her own production company, Biji Productions, and was elected as the new Vice President for Women in Film and Television Alberta. Her production prowess is well-rounded and only continues to grow with Fami’s passion for the industry and the people in it.

Check out some of Fami’s work below:

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Audacity.

Robert O’Hara used this word a lot in our breakout session, Don’t F*ck with my Play, yesterday at Banff. About we playwrights having the audacity to say to a director:

“No, I can’t work with you.”

To people not in theatre: “No, this is not just a hobby.”

To the director, producer, or actors who want to change what you wrote to suit them. “NO, that is not what I wrote, you’re not doing it.”

About asking the production team what they need from me, the playwright, and informing them what I need, at the start, so that the play doesn’t get screwed up.

And if the situation changes during rehearsal, work to fix it. And if it can’t be fixed, decide if I’m going to shrug, wait for the terrible production to be over and move on. OR, if I’m going to tell the production team I, the person who wrote the play which has given them all work, isn’t happy, and take the crap that comes with being a ‘difficult writer.’

Sometimes, it’s not enough for the show to go on. I did recently pull the plug on a project I was really looking forward to, because it was already making me unhappy. And that’s not the point. I’m still disappointed and miffed, but better that, than insane.

This weekend, an Obie-winning playwright told me I was good. I met Karen Hines and told her about the award I was nominated for and how proud I was to lose to her, and she laughed. I made a whole room of people laugh. I don’t deserve to be f*cked around.