RYAN COULDREY

Building palette.

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 09:39:32 -0500

Building palette.

Director's Cuts and Direct-to-Audience Distribution

Mon, 26 Jan 2015 09:56:00 -0500

When a roomful of laughter erupted after Dana begged “Someone, please help!” I knew that I had to make changes to Snow. The film (allegedly, *cough*) hit picture lock in May of 2014, but when you and your film are beholden to no one, what’s stopping you from making changes?

I’d never suggest anyone make small or sweeping changes to their work based solely on test screenings (or, in Snow’s case, the premiere), but indie filmmakers using tools like VHX, Vimeo and YouTube are in a unique position to quickly pivot and react based on any whim they might have. Open up Premiere (or FCP, Vegas, Avid, iMovie, whatever), make your changes (tweak a dialog frequency in a coffeeshop scene, cut out that two-minute-steadicam shot, update your end credits), export and upload. Voila!

Think about what this could mean for your work! Friends on Facebook think your 12-minute trailer is too long? Cut it down to 1:30, and link the new trailer in the comments. Did someone ridiculously important finally call to setup an interview time for that documentary you released last year? Get over to her place, ask her all the important questions, spend the next 10 hours cutting it in to your doc and replace the file on @vimeo. Finally get around to finishing the director’s cut of your masterpiece? Add it as a free extra to your @vhxtv-powered VOD package and give everyone who bought and watched your film last year a chance to rediscover it!

The potential for living, breathing, and somewhat ephemeral works of film and video art is huge today, and will only grow as time passes, tools evolve, and ideas sprout.

Speaking of which, the director’s cut of SNOW is out now, and can be watched for free (same vimeo.com/109810787 and youtu.be/NtkFY3JHnos) and is also available in the sizeable VOD package on www.snowtoronto.com; it’s a few seconds shorter than before ;)

Photo

Sat, 24 Jan 2015 18:23:25 -0500

Northern lights in Yellowknife over the December holidays....

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 01:13:00 -0500

It opened up, right over our heads, and spread out all around us.

Kira's grandfather , who took me out to see my first aurora, taking pics of the aurora as well.

Northern lights in Yellowknife over the December holidays. I’d never seen them before.

Working on the new thing.

Sun, 18 Jan 2015 00:09:52 -0500

Working on the new thing.

Split Focus in SNOW

Thu, 15 Jan 2015 16:52:00 -0500

SPOILER ALERT: The stills included in this post showcase critical moments in the plot. They don’t inherently ruin the story in any way as context is everything, but, you know, it’d be nice if you watched the movie first.

One of the tools we’ve made use of for a select few scenes in Snow is a split-field diopter filter. These filters allow a filmmaker to have two planes of focus in a shot, one very close to and one far from the camera. The effect produced is something our eyes can’t really replicate — it’s decidedly unnatural.

This can of course be accomplished in post-production if you shot the scene twice, but like most everything computer-assisted, there’s an added weight and authenticity when real-world, in-camera tools are used — the lack of perfection is what makes the visuals all the more real, film-like. Animatronics and practical effects are what help make the original Jurassic Park (1993) stand the test of time, while films made a mere five years ago look dated.

There are plenty of cuts, rack focuses, a few jib shots and other shooting and editing tools of the trade that are employed in Snow, but for a few shots, a -field dioptre was necessary to highlight the tension within Dana and the scenes themselves.

Sure, you could always shoot a scene at F/22, but then everything is in focus — when everything is in focus, nothing is the focus. Shooting a scene at F/4 on super-35mm allows you to isolate two distinct areas for a specific purpose.

Buy Snow at www.snowtoronto.com

Free-to-watch streaming/download links:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/NtkFY3JHnos
Facebook: https://facebook.com/SnowToronto
Bittorrent Bundle: https://bundles.bittorrent.com/bundles/snow
Torrent/magnet: http://www.1337x.to/torrent/1030679/Snow-Based-on-the-Graphic-Novel-indie-feature-film/
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/109810787/

#SNOWFILM

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 12:37:40 -0500

#SNOWFILM

Tree near Giant Mine in Yellowknife. The mostly unseen aurora...

Sun, 04 Jan 2015 19:04:34 -0500

Tree near Giant Mine in Yellowknife. The mostly unseen aurora (in this shot) is peeking out behind it.

Headshots are so 2009 — casting agents only want twerk shots...

Mon, 17 Nov 2014 23:39:00 -0500

Headshots are so 2009 — casting agents only want twerk shots now, as Kira can attest to.

Keeping warm with a good book.

Sun, 16 Nov 2014 13:00:00 -0500

Keeping warm with a good book.

snowtoronto: We released Snow — a black and white feature-film...

Sun, 02 Nov 2014 00:08:05 -0400

snowtoronto:

We released Snow — a black and white feature-film adaptation of the graphic novel — online and to a sold-out crowd at Toronto’s Revue Cinema on Oct 27.

Even though we spent 16 months working on it, we’ve released it for free on vimeo (as embedded above) to anyone who wants to enjoy, heart, reblog, tweet with #SnowFilm and share. If you do enjoy it, consider purchasing the sizeable vhxtv-powered VOD package at snowtoronto.com for yourself or a friend. 2014 proceeds will benefit The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

I made this feature-length movie, adapted from a graphic novel, and you don’t even have to pay for it or watch any ads. It’s 77 minutes long. Watch it, log in with your Vimeo account and heart it, then reblog it.

Kira turned herself into a frozen Franklin Expedition Mummy, and...

Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:05:00 -0400

SMILE FOR THE CAMERA

Guys, I feel fine, really. Think I'm just reacting to the flu shot or something.

Kira turned herself into a frozen Franklin Expedition Mummy, and me into a bitten-but-not-quite-yet-a zombie, so we took pictures.

Cigarette at the Redline

Mon, 20 Oct 2014 09:09:00 -0400

Cigarette at the Redline

Cafe 260 on Richmond, just west of Sherbourne. They have an...

Mon, 13 Oct 2014 14:01:43 -0400

Cafe 260 on Richmond, just west of Sherbourne. They have an amazing ginger molasses cookie, really buttery, not super chewy like a Starbucks one (which is also super delicious, just different).

snowtoronto: Julia: Huh, another one bites the dust. Dana: What...

Mon, 06 Oct 2014 21:16:50 -0400

snowtoronto:

Julia: Huh, another one bites the dust.
Dana: What is going on with Queen Street? It’s like the soul is being sucked out of the neighbourhood.
Julia: this place will be selling grande bolds by next week.

Posted for Nuit Blanche. If you see these or any of the others that went up, take pics, hash tag it, and spread the word.

Get tickets to the film premiere, October 27! https://www.uniiverse.com/snow

snowtoronto: The final poster, designed by benjaminrivers. So...

Fri, 26 Sep 2014 21:22:21 -0400

snowtoronto:

The final poster, designed by benjaminrivers. So much has changed since the night of that promo shoot — the laundromat we shot this and part of the film in just recently shut down. “Another one bites the dust.”

Pre-order + trailer: www.snowtoronto.com

snowtoronto: Snow's poster. Pre-order the film (complete with...

Fri, 19 Sep 2014 09:34:00 -0400

snowtoronto:

Snow's poster. Pre-order the film (complete with extras like the 165 page graphic novel, Snow The Video Game, the official soundtrack and lots more) right here: http://bit.ly/SnowPreorder

I shot the image in this poster in a last-minute photo shoot, the day before we went public with Snow in December 2013. It accidentally fooled a lot of people into thinking the film was 100% done, even though we’d only start filming a month later.

The actual scene opens with pretty much the exact same shot, one of my favourite static takes in the film. It was Nina (Dana in Snow) who suggested “Why not try shooting from over there?” pointing to where I would end up standing.

snowtoronto: Pre-order SNOW - Based on the Graphic...

Mon, 15 Sep 2014 20:37:13 -0400

snowtoronto:

Pre-order SNOW - Based on the Graphic Novel at www.snowtoronto.com

Use the code REBLOG (which doubles as a friendly suggestion) to get 10% off the complete package containing the feature film, Snow - The Video Game, the 165 page graphic novel it’s based on, the complete OST and more! THE CODE IS VALID UNTIL MIDNIGHT, SEPTEMBER 16!

This is all I’ve been working on since May 2013. It’s all I’ll be working on until the end of 2014 as well.

It’s a good time to go extinct. Moon Dinosaur Theatre's...

Fri, 05 Sep 2014 15:02:28 -0400

It’s a good time to go extinct.

Moon Dinosaur Theatre's one-woman show Paleoncology opens up tonight at the Vancouver Fringe. 10:45pm at The Cultch. The Pacific coast fringe is the last stop on Kira’s multi-award-winning (Best Solo Show in Montreal, Fave Drama in Victoria) tour across Canada.

Mediocrity is easy. Watching your brother die is hard. Dinosaurs? Dinosaurs are… distracting. Told with the help of overhead projections, toys-turned-puppets, and a therapist named Tammy, Paleoncology is a story about siblings, cancer, and personal potential. Also, dinosaurs.

Visit the VanFringe site for all the show times. It’s half-price night tonight! The feelings, though, those are free with ticket purchase.

snowtoronto: One of the (many) bonus features we’ll be...

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 10:00:45 -0400

snowtoronto:

One of the (many) bonus features we’ll be including in the Snow package is a behind-the-scenes look at makeup for black & white cinema, featuring Snow makeup and hair stylist Margo Paige Allen.

One of my favourite shots ever, featuring lovelies Margo Paige (hair and makeup for Snow) and Kira Hall (Julia in Snow).