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Production Notes
Production Notes
Production NotesProduction history
The script was written between 2000 and 2003 with financial help from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec (CALQ), the Harold Greenberg Fund, SODEC and Telefilm Canada.
In June 2003, the project was accepted by Telefilm Canada and Sodec (Québec) with a TV sale to Super-Écran, and a budget of $705,000 plus $115,000 in deferrals of UDA cast and APVQ crew; and $50,000 sponsorship from Locations Michel Trudel, Studio Toc Son et BeeBop Studios for a total of $872,000.
Pre-production took place between January 15th and April 24th 2004. Paying cast and crew minimum union wage less 20% makes casting and recruiting the members of the crew difficult but production manager Daniela Pinna did miracles. Finding 26 locations was also a pain, with such a small budget, but Lara Rosenoff came through brilliantly.
Shooting started March 29th and lasted 20 days, till April 25th. Twenty days of shoot in 26 locations. . . Moving the entire crew of 35 and cast to two different locations in one day, with set-up, shoot, and wrap, all between 8am and 6pm, was made possible by the more than fantastic set manager Sébastien Poussard and assistant-director Claude Dallaire.
The lead actor Dusan Dukic (Terminal, Steven Spielberg) who was on the set 19 days out of 20 was remarkable.
Karyne Lemieux (Histoires de Pen), selected to play Sylvie, has the sensibility we were looking for.
The rest of the cast is: Norman Helms, Louise Laprade, Éric Cabana, Mariah Inger, Kalo Gow, Bruce Ramsay, Julian Casey and many more.
The rest of the crew is Larry Lynn, director of photography (Hochelaga, Histoires de Pen), Geneviève Blais, art director, Peter Xirogiannis, music composer, François Guérin, sound engineer, Corinne Montpetit, costumes, Marie-Josée Galliper, hair and make-up, Anne-Laure Debays, script.
Shooting impressions
"The first images I saw surprised me because it's the first film I shoot in video (DVCPro, to be transfered to film later), but I think it was appropriate since the film is based on a true story" says director Denis Langlois. "The rythm is slow, as it should be in order to reflect the state of mind of an amnesiac waking up to a new life. Dusan Dukic is intense, like fire under the ashes; he has slipped under James' skin and even I have difficulty imagining them apart now."
Director’s intentions
The film is shot in video and transfered to 35 mm, with a minimal crew, art direction and budget (" Tennessee " is a small town near Montreal, etc…). I’ve produced and directed two feature films in Super-16 mm blown up to 35 mm in similar conditions with a similar or smaller budget (L’Escorte and Danny in the Sky).
The style will balance between a cinéma vérité approach, based on the video look of the reconstitution of Mattew/James’s history bits – the media coverage, among other things – and more dream like moments, James’s memories, real or imagined by Sylvie. The visual treatment to identify these moments of « stylised » reality will be decided with the director of photography, but will remain easy to identify : for example, the image could be more contrasted and almost « burned », which would be easy to do in video post-production before it is transfered to film stock.
What do Matthew/James and Sylvie want? To find back their past, to run away from it, or to reinvent themselves? To reinvent oneself is to create a new script of one’s life, it is like telling oneself a story : this is also one of the subject of the film. Thus the many levels and points of view of storytelling. Sylvie tells the story, and we can’t know for sure if the flashbacks of James she presents us are « real » or fictionalized by her. This allows us to jump from Matthew/James’s time period to Sylvie’s period a year later as she pursues her investigation and writes her reconstitution, and vice-versa.
This way, we create for the audience – as long as he hasn’t figured out these three levels of storytelling and the unclear line between them – a puzzle, a kind of detective suspens. But mostly, we recreate Matthew/James’s state of mind, and to a lesser degree Sylvie’s, that is : confusion, anguish and fear. With, at the end of the film, a calmer state of mind : both main characters haven’t found an answer to all their questions, but they’re closer to having found a sense to it all, a direction they can give to their lives.
The script was written between 2000 and 2003 with financial help from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec (CALQ), the Harold Greenberg Fund, SODEC and Telefilm Canada.
In June 2003, the project was accepted by Telefilm Canada and Sodec (Québec) with a TV sale to Super-Écran, and a budget of $705,000 plus $115,000 in deferrals of UDA cast and APVQ crew; and $50,000 sponsorship from Locations Michel Trudel, Studio Toc Son et BeeBop Studios for a total of $872,000.
Pre-production took place between January 15th and April 24th 2004. Paying cast and crew minimum union wage less 20% makes casting and recruiting the members of the crew difficult but production manager Daniela Pinna did miracles. Finding 26 locations was also a pain, with such a small budget, but Lara Rosenoff came through brilliantly.
Shooting started March 29th and lasted 20 days, till April 25th. Twenty days of shoot in 26 locations. . . Moving the entire crew of 35 and cast to two different locations in one day, with set-up, shoot, and wrap, all between 8am and 6pm, was made possible by the more than fantastic set manager Sébastien Poussard and assistant-director Claude Dallaire.
The lead actor Dusan Dukic (Terminal, Steven Spielberg) who was on the set 19 days out of 20 was remarkable.
Karyne Lemieux (Histoires de Pen), selected to play Sylvie, has the sensibility we were looking for.
The rest of the cast is: Norman Helms, Louise Laprade, Éric Cabana, Mariah Inger, Kalo Gow, Bruce Ramsay, Julian Casey and many more.
The rest of the crew is Larry Lynn, director of photography (Hochelaga, Histoires de Pen), Geneviève Blais, art director, Peter Xirogiannis, music composer, François Guérin, sound engineer, Corinne Montpetit, costumes, Marie-Josée Galliper, hair and make-up, Anne-Laure Debays, script.
Shooting impressions
"The first images I saw surprised me because it's the first film I shoot in video (DVCPro, to be transfered to film later), but I think it was appropriate since the film is based on a true story" says director Denis Langlois. "The rythm is slow, as it should be in order to reflect the state of mind of an amnesiac waking up to a new life. Dusan Dukic is intense, like fire under the ashes; he has slipped under James' skin and even I have difficulty imagining them apart now."
Director’s intentions
The film is shot in video and transfered to 35 mm, with a minimal crew, art direction and budget (" Tennessee " is a small town near Montreal, etc…). I’ve produced and directed two feature films in Super-16 mm blown up to 35 mm in similar conditions with a similar or smaller budget (L’Escorte and Danny in the Sky).
The style will balance between a cinéma vérité approach, based on the video look of the reconstitution of Mattew/James’s history bits – the media coverage, among other things – and more dream like moments, James’s memories, real or imagined by Sylvie. The visual treatment to identify these moments of « stylised » reality will be decided with the director of photography, but will remain easy to identify : for example, the image could be more contrasted and almost « burned », which would be easy to do in video post-production before it is transfered to film stock.
What do Matthew/James and Sylvie want? To find back their past, to run away from it, or to reinvent themselves? To reinvent oneself is to create a new script of one’s life, it is like telling oneself a story : this is also one of the subject of the film. Thus the many levels and points of view of storytelling. Sylvie tells the story, and we can’t know for sure if the flashbacks of James she presents us are « real » or fictionalized by her. This allows us to jump from Matthew/James’s time period to Sylvie’s period a year later as she pursues her investigation and writes her reconstitution, and vice-versa.
This way, we create for the audience – as long as he hasn’t figured out these three levels of storytelling and the unclear line between them – a puzzle, a kind of detective suspens. But mostly, we recreate Matthew/James’s state of mind, and to a lesser degree Sylvie’s, that is : confusion, anguish and fear. With, at the end of the film, a calmer state of mind : both main characters haven’t found an answer to all their questions, but they’re closer to having found a sense to it all, a direction they can give to their lives.
