Everyday Is Like Sunday continues to move forward. We’re hoping to shoot this upcoming Spring and have some absolutely insane talent attached to the project. Details on that soon.

We’re also producing a new series called The Seventh Art. The Canadian Film-centric ‘video magazine’ features long-form interviews with Canadian filmmakers. We shot one with Academy Award-winning animator Chris Landreth at the end of last month and are shooting an interview with the exceptionally talented Guy Maddin tomorrow. The first episode of that series should be released very early next year. Keep an eye out for updates!

Everyday Is Like Sunday (the web series version, that is) continues to move ahead. The script is completed and I’m working hard on its continued development. I should have more specific news I can report soon. In the meantime, we put together a little 1-minute short to submit to the Toronto Urban Film Festival last weekend. You can view both the short and a little bonus video we put together at the 5 to 9 Diaries page. — PM

You may have already read on our Facebook that we’ve finished writing a 10-episode web series version of Everyday Is Like Sunday. We’re in development now and hope to have the series released before the end of the year. There is some really exciting news about that project that I’ll hopefully be able to share soon. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates, as they will likely be posted there first.

Additionally I’ve been making some changes to the EILS website, transitioning it to be about the upcoming web series as opposed to the pilot we shot last year. As our new series moves forward, those changes will continue, so we will be perpetually ‘under construction’ – my apologies if you encounter any issues. I hope to post detailed blogs about the development of this project with some other cool content as well, so keep an eye out for that.

PM

We’re working on some website things for the next few days, so some aspects of the site may not be functional. Thanks for your patience!

Our independently produced television pilot, Everyday Is Like Sunday, is now available to view online. See it at EverydayIsLikeSunday.tv

We originally began development on Everyday Is Like Sunday over two years ago. In fact, it was the premise of EILS that spawned our 2009 web series “Ten Sundays” as well as the 3-minute demo trailer we produced for Everyday Is Like Sunday later in 2009. Needless to say, this pilot has been a long time coming. Check it out, let us know what you think, and hopefully with your help we can get this series on Canadian television screens soon!

The trailer for our indie tv pilot, “Everyday Is Like Sunday” has been released. You can view it by visiting EverydayIsLikeSunday.tv.

Please help us get the word out and share, share, share! Thank you!

Hey everyone,

Just a heads up that “Everyday Is Like Sunday”, our 22-minute pilot, is in pre-production. We’re aiming to start rolling in mid-December and hopefully release the pilot online in February/March 2011. Keep an eye out for a production blog coming soon.

The film we shot a little under two weeks ago, “Buckle Down, Pants Off” has made its way online. You can view it, along with some info about the production itself by clicking here. If you can share the link, we appreciate it.

A Word On The Making Of Buckle Down, Pants Off

I made “Buckle Down, Pants Off” in a bit of a period of inactivity after completing “And Here We Are Now…” and waiting for some development news on another project.

I was attending a going-away party and had a brand new camera I wanted to put to use and so it made sense to try our hand at shooting a film there with a very fluid process, using only friends as actors, a two-person crew, and embracing spontaneity in a way that many of my favourite micro-budget films had done previously.

After initially planning to film completely without a script, we (my writing partner Mike and I) decided to write one anyway as a guideline or ‘worst case scenario’ (plus, we just like writing scripts). The actors wouldn’t have to memorize their lines and were encouraged not to, to better extract authentic performances. This process isn’t by any means a new one, it’s been utilized by countless other filmmakers to great degrees of success.

Things started off a little rigid, friends were trying too hard to be “actors” and the scenes were coming out very close to the script. But then people started drinking, the lines got forgotten and the atmosphere changed. Things were beginning to get more fluid, which was what I wanted in the first place. Filming from that point on went well, we got exactly what we needed because we never really defined what we needed (and physically removed copies of the script from the premises for shooting those later scenes).

When it came to editing, I had about a 15 minute first cut of the film that immediately felt problematic. The film felt rigid and disconnected. The scenes we shot initially, that set up the narrative/provided all the exposition didn’t really fit with anything else we shot. I ended up cutting them completely, likely at the expense of “depth” that may have been there otherwise (the scenes accounted for the first 5 minutes, or 1/3 of the film).

The title “Buckle Down, Pants Off” represents two diametrically opposed ways of thinking, and we see that play out between Anthony and Jenni in the film and we essentially lived it as our process changed throughout the day. Some of the lack of exposition might make things a tad hard to follow, there are a lot of jump cuts (done out of necessity), maybe a couple continuity issues and so on. “Buckle Down, Pants Off” isn’t the film we wrote, it’s not the film we shot, but it is what it is right now and on this particular project, I think that might’ve been what we were after. — PM

It’s a little less flashy than the old one, but it’s more functional, interactive and easier to update.

Might be some issues here and there, haven’t really tested things out too much.

The full version of Buckle Down, Pants Off will be posted tomorrow.