"Truth Or Dare, Nevermore" - live on filmaka.com

My follow-up film to "Double Dare" for the Jury's consideration is "Truth Or Dare, Nevermore"

PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED: There is a brief, almost inaudible use of the word "a-hole" in this film, so if you don't want your children exposed to such language, consider yourself warned.

You can finally view the film if you click here. It didn't win, place or show, but I'm still very happy with it.

Check it out before reading on. We're also waiting to see what becomes of "Hardly Working" for the Pros & Cons contest.

Production Notes (and thanks to all involved):
I got the notification that we were a finalist with filmaka.com just before the Toronto Film Fest was underway, and in retrospect, I probably should've dumped a few films to allow for more planning. We were set to shoot the very day after the festival ended. I had a number of Starbucks meetings with new crew members and countless calls on the go or in line.

While we had the advantage of John Preketes' studio (JPC Post Studios) to shoot in, some other hurdles with scheduling had to be overcome, and even just days before the shoot we still didn't have confirmed actresses to play the roles of concerned wives. A last minute script change was necessary, but luckily Jane Hailes came to the rescue and did a terrific job.

Big thanks to John, and it was great to meet and work with Kyryll Sobolev and Jinette Prince too. My dear friend Amber Panchyshyn also went above and beyond as Production Manager and made many of the last-minute crises go away. (Which is what she's in training for, so I guess I should've thrown more curve balls at her now that I think of it.)

The Makeup Artists:
The special makeup artists Robin Collop and Ken Bunprasert both did terrific jobs on Dan Fox and Eric McDonald respectively, and apart from running a bit longer than we expected, the shoot went smoothly. Ken was able to get a crucial head start with the tattoo makeup the night before with Eric, so I'm indebted to them both for the head start.

The Audio:
In post, we had some white noise audio issues to sort out that a one-click fix in "Soundtrack Pro" amazingly helped out with, but my cousin James Dooley in Ireland deserves praise for coming to the rescue and giving the soundtrack some polish as sound editor. Special thanks to Steven Budd for lending some advice and giving the audio a look as well.

The Score:
The only downside of working with Dino Giancola online is he doesn't get to see my face of pure elation when I hear his score for the first time. Or the tenth time. My grin just getting bigger with each passing moment. I turned the final picture edit over to him Sunday night and just four days later he produced a fantastic score that hopefully you've already heard by now. Great guy to work with... looking forward to meeting him one of these days. He's only scored four of my films so far, so I guess a face to face meet is long overdue, but he was in Montreal the whole time so that wasn't in the cards this time. But that's just a testament to the wonders of the digital age and the interweb. Thanks a million, Dino!

The Editing:
The first draft assembly picture edit was a good thing to share with a select bunch who offered some helpful feedback, but extra special thanks is due to Richard Pierre who not only had great advice but pretty much saved the day when some tech issues beyond my modest abilities arose at the eleventh hour. While I learned a lot just from physically doing the edit myself for a change, and tinkering is always fun, fact is I couldn't have finished on time without him. You were missed on set, bud.

The Actors:
Starring Dan Fox, David Ivkovic, Mark Orchard, Jane Hailes, Eric McDonald, Peter Kacsor and Chris Tinglin. Great job everyone. Dan, I think I owe you one nipple still, right? Sorry, dude.

Final thoughts:
So happy with the work everyone did, the actors did a terrific job, our crew did so much with so little and I'm very happy with the results. A round of applause for everyone and consider this a big cyber-pat on the back. Thanks also to those who cheered me on from the sidelines and lent their support and encouragement.