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Sunday, July 11, 2010

New Film Project - Your help needed!

If you follow my Twitter feed or have spoken to me in person recently you may have discovered that I'm working on a new feature film project. For those of you haven't heard already though, I would like to formally announce that there is a new production in the works and tell you a bit about it. Further to that I would like to appeal to everyone reading this for their help in making the film as well.

The new film is about personal identity. It is an exploration of the notion that we are never truly ourselves, that our personalities are not really who we are in our heads and in our hearts. Who we are can more actually be described as the sum of the expectations other people have for us, and the expectations we have for ourselves. The expression of what we actually think and feel is constantly being mediated against those expectations. We use masks and create personas that do not truthfully reflect our character, but paint a picture of who we think we are or are supposed to be. As Kurt Vonnegut suggests at the beginning of Mother Night, "We are what we pretend to be" and by extension, not whatever identity we keep up bottled up inside. This is, as always, very personal subject matter for me. I often feel confused by the person I have grown to be, how I got to be that way, and how faithful I am to my inner self (whoever that is).

We hope to explore these ideas through the study of one individual going through a bit of an identity crisis of his own. This individual is, or appears to be, the unpleasant stereotypical choch (also known as a chach, chauch, chongo, etc). I think we're all familiar with some variation of a choch and carry our own preconceived notions of what they're like. But the protagonist choch of our film has no feelings of love for himself. He hates all those choch qualities he exhibits that we have all come to be familiar with and despise, and it feels to him that this choch persona is a betrayal of who he really is inside his head. The film follows this character over the the course of six days as he confronts his own reflection in his aviator sunglasses.

As of now the script is prepared and all of the main parts have been cast minus one. Right now we're trying to cast this last part and assemble costume pieces, props, and a few locations before we get shooting. It's going to be a difficult test to see if we can shoot the whole film before the end of August when I leave to go back to Burnaby for school, but I'm very excited to delve into the material and get filmming in a manner that is going to be very different from my previous projects. I've already enlisted the talents and time of a number of actors and crew members, but I still need help pulling together some resources. If you or anyone you know can loan us or help us in any way with acquiring any of these production requirements please let me know via email (brendan.prost@hotmail.com).

Cast:
  • One male, 18-25 years old. Significant speaking role. Skilled at character improvisation. Available on the evenings and weekends. 
  • Lots of one-line roles, walk-ons, background work for males and females of all ages.
Crew:
  • Always looking for willing helpers to hold the boom, lights, etc.
Props:
  • Posters and other paraphernalia that a choch might have in his room.
  • DVD seasons of Entourage. 
Locations:
  • Restaurant patio
  • Gym
  • Restaurant interior
  • Bar/club/pub interior 
Costume pieces:
  • Anything a choch might wear (jeans, t-shirts, muscle shirts, shorts, shoes, etc)
  • Gold looking necklace
  • Large garish belt buckle
  • Aviator sunglasses
  • Black rimmed hipster glasses (preferably with no prescription lenses)


Thanks everyone for reading and passing the word along.

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