Press Kit:
SPUN A short film about falling out of love. Synopsis It's been years, but Daniel's still in love with his childhood crush Jenny when she unexpectedly resurfaces in his life via Facebook. Daniel leaps back into the relationship, prompting a quirky past versus present dilemma. Earnestly nostalgic, SPUN looks at the perils of social media reconnections, and will appeal to anyone who's ever received an 'old friend' request. The Idea I got the idea for SPUN after a buddy of mine from high school contacted me on Facebook. We hadn’t seen each other in years, but he had just moved to Toronto and asked me if I wanted to meet up for a beer. We met at a local pub and had a blast reminiscing about all the old times from our youth. Our group of friends had spent so much time together during those pivotal years of adolescence; and now Facebook had reconnected us all so many years later. Following our hang out, I wondered how many people I knew had had reconnections like this through Facebook. That thought got me thinking about how for every great reconnection, there must be some amount of possible disastrous reconnections that could also occur. Bad breakups, old flames, bullies, etc. The possibilities seemed endless. I started asking myself, "who wouldn't I want to see, and what would I do if they contacted me?" The Writing I wanted SPUN to be quirky and clever, but it couldn't be just that. There had to be some truth to it too. During a conversation with another friend over coffee, we started examining what we're like as people presently, versus what we were like as kids. My friend and I both found it interesting how with certain old friends, we find ourselves falling back in the same "roles" we played when we hung around them years ago. Even though today we are completely different people, with many accomplishments and life experiences under our belts, sometimes, those certain people make us forgot everything we are today, and we become whoever we used to be, because of that history. Daniel's world gets rocked back into the past when he is contacted by his old crush Jenny. For him, she is the one who has that affect on him. He cannot escape it. He becomes a nervous anxious teenager again, falling to her every word. This idea was my truth. I know that certain people have this affect on me. Luckily my story is mostly fictional. Luckily, I've never been punched in the face by my boyhood crush's fiancé, and I hope I never do. But this type of thing could happen to someone. In fact, to some poor soul out there on Facebook, it probably already has. Producing SPUN I teamed up with my good friend and co-producer Lauren MacKinlay, knowing she'd be perfect both to help me make this film happen with a small budget, and also knowing that she'd be great for the role of Jen. Lauren has a thorough background in acting, with a strong focus on film, filmmaking and storytelling. As a co-producer, she drilled me to make sure my story was more than just a bunch of "funny situations, with funny looks and reactions". I had a great team to work with who are responsible for so much of this film. Katie (Art. Dept.) took detailed notes from the script and our meetings and created the perfect visual world in front of the lens. Mark, my DOP is like a one-man film crew, who knows how to get things done, especially on a budget, and still make it all look amazing. Kelly, my 1st AD (and well, my only AD) rounded out the core group, making sure everyone knew what was happening at all times, and saved me from going crazy having to do so much extra work, in addition to my jobs as director, producer, writer, actor... The rest of the crew was amazing! I've worked with Luke Higginson, my editor on several projects, and there was no one else I would have rather had cutting it together for me. Dan Leberg composed the score and Evan Jerred made the film sound complete as my re-recording mixer and sound editor. The "Storybook" Look: As I've mentioned, we didn't have a huge budget for SPUN, so our equipment was limited, meaning lots of fancy camera movement was out of the question. At some point in the script's development I got this idea of introducing each location with a shot of a doorway. After we see that, we then move inside with the characters. The doorway shots in the script were all framed the same way, and I can credit my friend Daniel Grant (a fantastic DOP) for pointing out that the framed doorways shots - he thought the script visually reminded him of a storybook, each scene being like its own page of the story. So the "look" became telling the story as you would see in a children's book. Going from page to page, showing very static, and yet the most important "pictures" as the means to tell the story. This idea ended up working so well with my script, and the budget that we were working with, that a "storybook" look was perfect. The Sound: I knew I didn't have a lot of dialogue for SPUN. Mostly because what you see is so clear anyway. But I didn't want to make a "silent" film either. When you think back to old memories of when we were kids, I think it's mostly the feelings you remember the most, then some of the things you saw, and only usually a few words that were said which tend to stick around in our subconscious. Full conversations I definitely do not remember. So SPUN wasn't a big "talking" film. Music was an obvious choice to set the tone, and that little tune that plays in the background popped into my head one day, and I couldn't imagine anything else for the film. I went over to my friend and composer's home, Dan Leberg, who is an excellent pianist, and I hummed the tune in my head for him repeatedly, until he was able to plunk out the melody on his piano. From there, we built the song. But music couldn't be the only thing we heard. Otherwise the whole thing would probably come across as a Hallmark commercial. Another friend told me after reading the script that certain sounds were very apparent in the story to him. Kids laughing, a bottle spinning, doorways closing, etc. Just the simple ambient sounds of a room, or of a memory, that ground us in a reality of time and space. Inserting those into the film, and finding the perfect mix of music and sound, is what made SPUN really come to life. To finish it off, I got permission from the incredible singer/songwriter Peter Katz to use his song "Birdy" in the bar scene. In Closing I could not have made this film without the help of so many talented people, and the advice of so many friends, both from the crew and from my everyday life. Another friend of mine, an established filmmaker said to me that every film that actually gets made, because of the sheer amount of work that it takes to get it done, is a "little miracle". After this experience, I can certainly say that truer words have not been spoken. SPUN is my little miracle. And it only happened because of so many great people who's names are all over this website. So, I want to say thank you to them once again. I hope you enjoy my film. I hope you laugh. I hope it makes you think...perhaps twice before hitting "accept friend request." Chris Baker writer, producer, director, actor SPUN |
For Immediate Release:
Embracing the Indie Filmmaking Spirit Indie filmmaker and St. Catharines native Chris Baker set his sights high with his first low-budget short film SPUN, which will premiere at the upcoming ZERO Film Festival - Canada, screening in Toronto and Montreal this month. Baker, an actor and self-taught filmmaker, has worked on or helped produce several short films with co-producer Lauren MacKinlay, but SPUN is the first film he has penned, produced, acted in, and directed. None of the projects the pair typically work on receive any government financial aid, which so many films in Canada rely upon. Instead, the producing pair work with people who self-finance their films. These projects demand long hours, hard work, and a fantastic team to get the job done. SPUN has been their most ambitious short to date, with a crew of 12 (which is small compared to most productions) and a cast of 8, working for well under the standard industry rates, simply for the love of film. Baker and co-producer MacKinlay are used to taking on several jobs on set, and have done the same to produce SPUN. Baker wrote the script and directed. MacKinlay and Baker both act in the film and shared the responsibilities of producer, which in the indie film world can mean anything from sourcing and locking locations, applying for city film permits, buying costumes and making props, filling out contracts, promoting the film through social media and hiring the crew. This is all work that takes hours of time to complete, all for no compensation. "You really have to want to do it," says Baker, "funding or not, I kept saying we are going to make this film, we'll either have some money, or no money. But we are going to do it." SPUN is a 7:00 minute, short romantic comedy that follows Daniel, a hapless guy who is still in love with his childhood crush Jenny when she unexpectedly resurfaces in his life via Facebook. Daniel leaps back into the relationship, prompting a quirky past versus present dilemma. Earnestly nostalgic, SPUN looks at the perils of social media reconnections, and will appeal to anyone who's ever received an 'old friend' request. It was shot in two days in Toronto last May. Prior to that, it took around four weeks leading up to the shoot to get everything organized. For five months before that, the five-page script went through almost ten drafts before the team was satisfied with the story. Post production on the film was completed in January 2014 and SPUN is now set to premiere at the 5th annual ZERO Film Fest - Canada, a unique festival that focuses exclusively on the work of independent filmmakers and those who self-finance their films. "By the time we screen SPUN it'll be nearly two years of hard work, countless unpaid hours, hundreds of emails and phone calls, all for seven minutes of screen time. Clearly if we didn't love this, we wouldn't be doing it!" says Baker. Baker and MacKinlay both trained as actors in University, and have worked in Toronto in the film and television industry for the last 10 years. They've had success with roles in television commercials, independent feature films, and Canadian television shows. However, they believe in order to survive in their industry in Canada, you have to wear more than on hat. "Toronto is home to over 13,000 performers. At any one time there might only be five or six films shooting in Toronto, maybe ten TV series, and a handful of commercials. That's not a lot of roles to go around. If you want to continue to work when the phone isn't ringing, you have to create your own," Baker explains. The two met while working in a restaurant, where many Canadian actors work in order to make ends meet, and quickly became friends. They teamed up to produce MacKinlay's first short film, KISS. No strangers to hard work and late nights, the two thrive on being busy. "It wasn't unusual for us to work an entire night shift at the restaurant and go home and work on our films. We have an on-going joke between us about who was awake the latest. It's normal to wake up the next morning and see an email from the other person as late as 3am," MacKinlay jokes. Baker and MacKinlay mostly learned the ropes of filmmaking while on set for various acting jobs, by asking questions, networking, and when all else failed, by trial and error. "We are inspired by our peers, and we have a curiosity for the craft. We just want to learn, to create, and to tell stories. Canadian stories. Because we love our country, we love our industry, and we think there's a lot of talent here," offers Baker. After finishing up the film festival circuit, SPUN will be used as a stepping stone to help the pair seek out future funding opportunities. MacKinlay and Baker both have feature film scripts in the works that they are writing. SPUN will have it's premiere screening at the 5th annual ZERO Film Fest - Canada on Tuesday, October 14th at the Drake Hotel in Toronto. Following that, it travels to Montreal to screen at the Cinema du Parc at the end of October. For ticket information, visit www.zero-canada.com. |