“I am the Layton Legacy” is a tribute showcase to Jack Layton made for the 2012 New Democrat Leadership Convention held in Toronto on March 23rd and 24th. This convention attracted record numbers of delegates, media and volunteers. What was created on the convention floor was an immersive, 3D space composed of hermetic instances personifying memories of Jack written in chalk in Nathan Phillips Square.
This piece illustrates my obsession with breathing life into individual, human moments. I got to share my perspective on Jack, in the way I remember him. An attempt was made to capture the nonverbal language articulated by his movements. I wanted to personify his smile in a conversation or a particular statement. He had a way of inviting you in with his gesture, be it a lean into a podium or a sweeping hand movement. The footage selection was based on both the dialogue itself and how Jack was active in the frame.
We applied the Ken Burns treatments to photographs; only in our case we updated the method bringing it into our century. Separating layers and using basic cinematic camera language we created subtle movements and added particle effects, lighting streaks and flares to enhance the environments of the photos in a non-invasive and organic way. We then integrated them with interviews.
I am very proud of this particular showcase and I consider myself fortunate to have collaborated with other very talented individuals. The end result is something I haven’t yet completely digested. It was extremely fulfilling to be able to communicate the respect and admiration supporters have for Layton. As Brian Mulroney articulated in his interview in the piece itself, Layton was “someone who turned out to be a great man.”

« Je suis la relève de Jack » était une présentation en hommage à Jack Layton que nous avons préparée pour le congrès à la chefferie 2012 du Nouveau Parti démocratique qui s’est tenu les 23 et 24 mars dernier à Toronto. Ce congrès a réuni un nombre record de délégués, de représentants des médias et de bénévoles. Nous avons créé un environnement dynamique, dans lequel nous avons pu vivre un moment spécial au cours duquel nous nous sommes souvenus de Jack, nous avons partagé nos souvenirs de lui et nous lui avons rendu hommage avec comme arrière-plan les dessins à la craie qui ont été faits pour lui dans le parc Nathan Phillips de Toronto. Les vidéos présentées lors de cet hommage mettaient de l’avant des moments forts de la carrière de Jack, interrompus des témoignages de Canadiens et de militants, ainsi que de leaders provinciaux, municipaux et fédéraux.

J’étais obsédé par l’idée de donner un aspect individuel à cet hommage : de montrer Jack aux gens comme je le vois lorsque je me souviens de lui. Je voulais personnifier ces moments précieux, comme son sourire lors d’une conversation, une déclaration particulière, au encore le langage qu’il utilisait, non seulement avec les mots employés lorsqu’il parlait, mais aussi sa gestuelle invitante, que ce soit lorsqu’il se penchait sur le podium, ou faisait un grand geste de la main. La sélection des clips vidéos s’est donc faite à la fois en fonction du dialogue et de la gestuelle de Jack dans ces clips.
Nous avons également appliqué le traitement bien connu de Ken Burns sur les photos, mais adapté à notre siècle. En séparant les couches et en utilisant le langage cinématique de base de la caméra, nous avons créé de subtils mouvements et ajouté des effets réalistes de particules, nous avons insisté sur les effets de lumières et les nuances pour améliorer l’environnement des photos de manière naturelle et non intrusive, puis nous les avons intégrées dans les entrevues.

Mon rôle concernait surtout la gestion postproduction et le montage.
Je suis particulièrement fier de cette présentation. J’ai eu la chance de collaborer avec des personnes de talent, et le résultat est au-dessus de mes attentes. Je suis heureux d’avoir participé à ce projet. J’ai l’impression que nous avons eu la chance de communiquer aux gens tout le respect et l’admiration que nous avions pour, comme l’a dit Brian Mulroney dans son entrevue, « quelqu’un qui s’est avéré être un grand homme. »

This particular project has two different incarnations, most of which will be posted soon. This was originally part of the NDP’s 50th Anniversary showcase during the 2011 convention. It highlights the history, achievements and leadership of New Democrat federal leaders from Tommy Douglas on through to Jack Layton. As a City Councillor in Toronto and as the Leader of the NDP and MP for Toronto Danforth, he championed issues in the LGBT community. This piece was modified for the INSPIRE awards; it highlights Jack’s activism and leadership.

I was able to work on the 2011 Provincial campaign for Ontario’s New Democrats. These ads in order…

• “Inspired Choice” Director, writer, editor, animator
• “Positive Choice” Director, writer, editor, animator
• “Choice” Director, writer, editor, animator

“For war rooms, perhaps. Voters might be less inclined to pop the champagne corks. If only they had a choice. By coincidence, on the day before the auditor-general kerfuffle, the NDP started running an ad called, “You Have A Choice.”
At two minutes long, the ad aired only at NDP rallies and in those late-night free-time ad slots nobody watches. It did not produce the shift in attitude toward the NDP. But it almost certainly can help us decode it.

The ad is all text. For the first half, the background is Tory blue or Liberal red and the music is ominous. Blocks of text spell out the message. “For too long in Ottawa, scandals and political games have gotten in the way of getting anything done,” the text said. A little later: “And now other leaders are telling you that you have no choice. That you have to vote for more of the same.” Who could this be about? The screen helpfully displays a blue door and a red door, just as Ignatieff described them in his flop-sweat scrum. “Doesn’t sound right, does it?”

The tone of the music changes—to celestial trumpets. “They’ve been telling JACK LAYTON the same thing for over EIGHT YEARS,” the text reads. “Jack Layton has proven them wrong.” The blue background switches to orange. The doom music becomes peppy acoustic guitar, Layton’s preferred instrument for serenading trapped reporters on the NDP campaign plane. “Fighting for our families. Our veterans. Our seniors.” Here the content of the pitch changes, from hope to accomplishment. “New Democrats sit first or second in 104 ridings across Canada . . . ridings where only New Democrats defeat Conservatives.”

We’ll spare you the rest, except to note that in the ad’s remaining 45 seconds, the words “You can choose” appear five times.”

- Paul Wells, Macleans (May 2011) “The untold story of the 2011 election: Chapter 3 ‘The velocity of indignation’” Page 29.

This piece started as an intro piece to the Platform launch event in Toronto and then morphed in an activist piece and our free time ad.

This is a satirical profiling of Eric Kim and Mara Sternberg, curators of the 2009 Rated R Art Show. Together with a film crew, the pair sequester themselves deep into the wilds of northern Ontario in preparation for the Fall Art Show. With the camera set upon them so as to objectively frame their state of mind and capture the tension and its subsequent happenings, there is great build-up to the eventual and climactic release.

Founded in 1987, The Beguiling has set a new standard in Canada for comics and graphic novel retail. Showcasing the largest selection of alternative, underground and avant-garde graphic story telling in the country, The Beguiling has a worldwide reputation for excellence. Among the many accolades afforded the store, the most prestigious was the first-ever Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award for excellence in retailing.
In its long history, The Beguiling sponsored numerous book launches, author signings, readings and other comic events. It has featured legendary creators including Robert Crumb, Harlan Ellison, Jamie Hernandez, Neil Gaiman, Joann Sfar, and literally hundreds more. In 2003 several members of The Beguiling staff founded the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, bringing alternative and independent comics creators from around the world to Toronto to celebrate the best in comic art. Held every two years, the show continues to thrive and grows in size with each iteration.

Music is Brahms “Rhapsody, Op.79-2″

Video I directed, shot and edited for Carbon, for the new JVC GY-HM700U. A professional HD Camera. The footage was shot up Hwy 118 near Bracebridge Ontario.

Synopsis: Lindsay is an abscess human laying within dire margins few of us would understand. She is changing. It is this change, and the threat she feels it presents, that catalyzes her decision for self-imprisonment. Equipped with only a camera to record the artefact of her struggle and the bare essentials for survival, a literal video diary is produced documenting her battle with things larger and potentially greater than herself.

Lindsay the Alchemist is a 20 minute exploration of a disease developed through a combination of medical, theoretical and heuristic research. A lot of attention is paid to the character and themes of isolation. The medical research was organized around symptoms of Schizophrenia. The symptoms and the disease itself pattern the film’s narrative; a kind of fictionalized case study is transposed into film. The sole character, Lindsay, is designed without the application of our most common assumptions of gender, mental illness, sexual orientation and ethnicity. The ambition here is to disseminate a compelling character story without perpetuating or condoning the misrepresentation of abject people that is too often reproduced through the marginalization and defamation of an individual’s circumstance.
Lindsay is an undifferentiated Schizophrenic. This is the foundation for every movement throughout the film. Each scene is constructed around how the character reinforces the Schizophrenic’s primary conflict (the core delusion or hallucination the Schizophrenic combats), with dialogue and incident contextualized through the variety of symptoms of Schizophrenia (i.e. disorganized thought, speech and behaviour; Alogia, avolition and social dysfunction).
I wrote, shot, scored edited and directed “Lindsay the Alchemist”. This may seem like a huge undertaking and indeed it was not easy, but one of the many benefits of my formal art school training is that, by necessity, I’ve developed the habit of doing everything on my own. In this way, I have dramatically expanded my skill set. Lindsay the Alchemist is the marriage of all these acquired skills. By the same token, it’s the first time I was able to work with a professional actor in a collaborative and immersive way to really bring the character to life.

“Movies are regarded in the sequence of Mythology, Stories and Drama, as expressions of often obscure fantasies in the people among whom they are produced and diffused.” -Martha Wolfenstein and Nathan Leites. From “Movies: A Psychological Study”.

This is a teaser trailer for the film.