HNT - Trapped In A Bryan Czerneda Production

Last Saturday I spent a few hours helping a few friends from work who were participating in a the Hamilton 24 hour Film Festival. On 8 PM on Friday night they were given three things that had to be incorporated into a short movie -- and by 8 PM Saturday night, they had to deliver the movie into the competition.

I swung by the set to help them film a short scene in which they needed a middle-aged guy.

Twas a fun few hours. The good news is that they handed the movie in with about 3 minutes to spare. I've got my fingers crossed and hope the movie does well.

It has always been fun making movies. When I was younger, I used to horse around with a camera (a giant VHS camera) and make short goofy films. Always fun times. Having worked with Bryan on a couple short films now has resurrected those pleasures I had from when I was in my late teens and early twenties and endeavoring to make creative short films (Admittedly, my short films were usually spoofs of Conan epics or Star Trek-type adventures -- only one or two of them was anywhere close to being serious in nature/content)

This short film we shot last Saturday was the second Bryan Czerneda production I've appeared in. And for anyone wondering, yes, Bryan is related to my friend science fiction writer Julie E. Czerneda. Apparently the spirit of creative genius flows quite powerfully through the Czerneda clan.

For Bryan's "thesis" film for his final year at McMaster, he created a short film called "Trapped" -- in it, I played a middle-aged teacher of the main character who was, as the title suggests, trapped in a world spinng out of control, confusedly walking through doorways in a desperate attempt for proper self-discovery.

It was a well done film and I'm quite pleased to be in it.

Perhaps, given this trend, I'll be the token middle-aged character guy making a cameo in all of Bryan's films.

My HNT post for this week is a still shot from Trapped by Bryan Czerneda.

We shot the "teacher" scene in my den. Bryan liked my collection of skulls so much that he incorporated Yorick, the skull I often take with me to book signings, into the film. It fit in nicely with the eccentric random book-quoting and babbling professor role I was playing. (Okay, I'll admit - not much acting was involved to pull that off)

Bryan tells me the film will eventually be posted online -- when that happens I'll post a link to it.