JOY!

Joy to the world...Christmas is almost upon us. I don't know about you, but I am SHOCKED when I see colored lights, hear Christmas music or some clerk in a store asks me "have you got all your shopping done"? What?!!!? No!!!!! Is it Christmas? All of your life goes to ratsh*t when you're working on a film. There just NEVER seems to be enough hours in a day! Joy to the world - WE need a weekend off!

Joy to our Film...We are a breath away from being finished!!!! We spent the last two weeks traveling back and forth to Vancouver where we were doing color grading and sound mixing. I cannot describe the joy we felt upon seeing our first few frames of high rez, color corrected FILM on a big screen or the massive JOY at hearing the generator noise gone and the music soar! The folks at Digital Film Central have given us a whole NEW and beautiful look for our film...and Peter Elliuk at dbc Sound in Vancouver is a Sound God! We are soooo excited with our new and improved film. Throw out the old - here is the new, up-rezed, color graded and sound mixed TORA. Exciting, Exhilerating, Down right Joyous!

Joy in Directing. This from director Allan Moyle, (Pump Up the Volume, Weirdsville, New Waterford Girl, Empire Records) who is a good friend and brilliant director. "A director's best tool is not money or time or wisdom or cunning...it is Joy". Tho' anger and frustration does sometimes take over, it's true....it IS JOY that you feel as you write a good script and it's joy that lifts financiers, cast, crew, collaborators, investors, filmmakers, and audience to another level. It is JOY that drives us and how lucky we are to be doing what we do. Joy in development, on the set and in post is your tool. Use it. Laugh. Be Joyous! I've got to remember this...

Check out our new photos on our website in honour of JOY! We also have just posted our NEW trailer on the website and other fun additions--Check it all out! http://www.torathemovie.com

Tora The Title

Yup, we've changed the name of the film several times (you have no idea how many wine fueled discussions over the darned title have been had)! And yup, we've come full circle back to TORA. The very first draft of the script was titled Tora! Tora! Tora! It was a placeholder and (of course) the title of the epic film about the bombing of Pearl Harbour. It was never meant to stick. As we went into production we still hadn't found an appropriate title and even the clapperboard read TORA. It was sticking to us and growing on us. After many title changes - (the film became "Heir To It All" for a long time) ...we've come back proudly to TORA.

The 1970 film title, Tora! Tora! Tora! is made up of the code-words that were used by the Japanese to indicate that complete surprise at Pearl Harbour was achieved and is translated as "虎" or "tiger", hence making the code for achieved surprise "Tiger, tiger, tiger". There's not a tiger to be seen in our film but the bombing of Pearl Harbour was what precipitated the internment of Japanese citizens of Canada and other countries around the world and therefore, our story.

The shortened title is also an homage to that film. Tora! Tora! Tora! was an American/ Japanese co-production and was actually directed by two directors, one American and one Japanese. An astounding collaboration of two cultures broken apart by that world changing event. The film attempted to show both the Japanese and the American sides of the bombing and by interweaving the two stories, made a brave attempt at truth and forgiveness.

Our epic short film TORA also weaves two stories and cultures with themes of loss, hope and forgiveness. TORA remembers what happened post Pearl Harbour with hopes that "History won't fade as easily as it's lessons" in today's post 9-11 world.

What's a Story Without a Soundtrack?

To me the music in a film is one of the most important decisions a director has to make. It can make a half decent scene better, it can make a great scene incredible and occasionally it can save your ass. Wendy and I joke about the fact that Tora’s the most EPIC short film ever made. The “Gladiator” of shorts. The music had to match. Powerful and big, iconic, painful, hopeful and bittersweet. No easy task. Banjoes and kazoos were out.

I came across Rick Horrock’s website. Right from the start we felt he was the guy to do the music for the film, which is a little weird since we’ve never met him, never even spoken to him except by email. You see Rick lives in England and the whole score for the film was conceived of, described, written, adjusted and finally tweaked over the internet. Wendy thought I was nuts to consider having the film scored over the net but that happens a lot around here. (Wendy thinking I’m nuts). We sent him our winter sampler and a whole bunch of notes on what we thought we wanted. Within a couple of weeks he sent the music back for our trailer. It was stunning. If I remember right there wasn’t a single thing we asked him to tweak on the trailer music. It was perfect.

We shot the rest of the film in late June. Within about a month we had a rough cut put together. At this point it’s a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario. You want to be cutting the film to music but the composer can’t really begin to score the film properly until it’s cut. So we laid in temp music. Music from other films, music we liked, music that sorta worked for each scene. Then we sent it to Rick.

Along with the rough cut, Rick got reams of notes which I’m sure made his eyes roll into the back of his skull when he saw them. They were filled with all sorts of very non-musical descriptions like “we want a kind of creepy sound here but not too creepy”. Add some more do do do’s. This is a bit too poofy. Can you write something that sounds like Alien meets Old Yeller?

A few days later we got the first piece of music back. The theme that plays over the opening majestic helicopter shots of Kimiko and Lucy on the mountaintop. It was far different than we’d imagined but we loved it. As the scoring of the film progressed we started to realize that no matter how many suggestions or notes or comments we gave him, he was always going to come up with something better on his own… and he did.

Rick took our pictures, our words and our intentions and translated them into music. His ideas made our ideas better and that’s what every filmmaker needs. The score for TORA will blow your mind, and we’re looking forward to the day we finally get to meet the artist who contributed so much to our film in person.

Part of the Job

Just got back from Vancouver where we were invited to VIFF to see Force Of Nature the feature documentary on David Suzuki's life that I had the privilege to work on. It's a beautiful film and I encourage all to go see it when it opens this Friday in Vancouver (it opened already in TO). He talks in the movie about his time as a young boy in an internment camp. Very moving and made us proud that OUR film speaks to this issue and is personal for him. It was great fun standing on the sidewalk with David in front of the theatre waiting for the film to open. The crowd was lined up around the block! Being the star of the film and the star that he is...everyone wanted to talk or shake hands with David...I must say it was a bit disconcerting and I felt kind of protective of him. But he was so gracious and took the time to say hello to all who approached. When I asked him if it was difficult to have so many people admiring him, wanting to be near him, touch him, he shrugged it off..."part of the job" he said. We are honoured to have David in our film and look forward to standing beside him and the rest of our stars, (cast and crew) on our opening night. When and where is still TBA but it'll come...and it'll be fun!

Good News Bad News

Seems like there's always a bit of both...The bad news is that Heir To It All did not get into the Vancouver Film Festival...same reason-We just weren't ready. These are always crushing blows to the filmmakers and we know that Vancouver would have been fab for our cast and crew too...Who doesn't want to put on a sparkly dress? (or see Glen in one?)...But we persevere and believe that the film needed this time to finish it properly. The good news is that the film continues to grow and get better, amaze and enchant. We are now working on Music and FX, and really looking forward to seeing it in it's full rez version - the 35mm film is being scanned and reassembled as we speak. And...we look forward to seeing you all soon when the film is finished and we can screen it for you! PARTY!

Sweet Reminders of Why We Do It

We wanted to share with you a letter from one of our crew-angels, a member

of the local Japanese Canadian community, Addie Maehara, who worked hard

to cast all our fabulous Japanese Interns. We love you Addie and big thanks

to all of the Japanese Canadians who took part in the dream of telling the story!

Dear Wendy and Glen and Sweet Lucy,

Thank you for tackling the subject of the internment of the Japanese and for writing a script that not only entertains but informs and most of all reminds us all that there is hope, forgiveness and healing. All who have attempted to acknowledge injustices, to bring this part of our history to the public's attention as a reminder - be it writers , government, journalists, historians - and filmmakers have honorably fulfilled your role. THANK YOU.

I like to think, ideally, that because of people like you, we are freed to move ahead with a deeper understanding and appreciation as we look forward! We humans have so much to learn. Let's not give up on ourselves.

Thank you for your vision, artistry and hard work and for being who you are!

We are the benefactors.

With gratitude,

Addie Maehara

Finishing Touches

The film is really looking like a film now! Adding credits and ADR has made such a difference! Glen and I are constantly amazed at the growth of the film. How the editing and sound work can define and add to the story. We swear that in the future we will "have no wine before it's time". Wishing now we hadn't had to send it into festivals and so on before this point. BUT...there are always deadlines. And the curse of the indi-filmmaker is that you have to meet deadlines before you are finished...for what else? Financial reasons. The festival circuit is truly important to the film and we have been planning and plotting our strategy. The larger more prestigious fests won't take you if you're not a "Premiere", World, North American, European, National, etc. So...if we didn't want to wait a year to out the film (which we could not afford to do) then we had to submit our works in progress and HOPE... Hoping that someone can see what a great film you have before it's finished is a game of chance. We toss the dice and hope.

Our days these days are spent working in the nuance of sound; how a ticking sound pulls your eye to the watch, how a heartbeat will drive the music, etc. It's fun and rewarding. ...And very time consuming. In between we strategize and fill out entries to the big festivals, get press kits together and plot our next projects. Writing, financing, always moving towards the next one(s), while we work to put the finishing touches on this one. A filmmaker's work is never done.