A short film featuring the creative touch of fraternal twins Graham and Nelson Talbot has made the cut for a unique festival.
The Crazy8s Film Society has announced the winners of their 19th annual competition, #Crazy8sFilms18, and the film CC is on the list.
The directors of photography team for CC are the Talbot Brothers, known not only for their work on projects like Lawrence and Halloman, but also for shooting the Doritos commercial When Pigs Fly that aired during the 2015 Super Bowl.
Filmed on a farm in Aldergrove, When Pigs Fly is the only 100 per cent Canadian made ad to ever air at any Super Bowl.
When Pigs Fly
Now 28, the twins grew up in Langley, attending Langley Fine Arts School from Grades 1 to 12, and are former Walnut Grove residents.
CC, which coincidentally is directed by twin sisters Kailey Spear and Sam Spear, involves an AI nanny who assaults her employer and the investigative team who must determine what caused the attack. Jewel Staite (Stargate Atlantis, The Killing) is set to star.
About #Crazy8Films18
Chosen from among a record 228 original applications, this year’s selection of six short films features a variety of colourful characters.
The selected stories include a tale of Syrian refugees and a border guard faced with an impossible decision, a washed-up badminton player looking for redemption, an amateur painter whose reality is transformed by the fish that she paints, a young girl with a love for dance who may just happen to be death incarnate, and gamers who must confront the dark side of virtual reality when they meet in real life.
Of the record 201 teams who submitted a four-minute pitch video to be a part of Crazy8s in early November, a short-list of 42 semifinalists was chosen and invited to pitch their projects in person to the jury made up of Amanda Tapping, Christine Haebler, Zach Lipovsky, Kaare Andrews, Sabrina Furminger and Lawrence Le Lam.
From those, 12 teams were then chosen to move forward into the final stages of the competition — completing their scripts with intensive story editing sessions with a group of ‘script doctors’ including Brian Casilio, Ric Beairsto, Kat Montagu, Rudy Thauberger, Bill Hurst and Sara Graefe.
The 12 polished scripts were reviewed and heatedly debated at the final jury meeting on Jan. 7, and now the six winning teams will be making their Crazy8s short films this year.
They include:
Bordered
(director and writer Anaïsa Visser, producers Darren Devlin and Marco Bossow)
CC
(director and writer Kailey Spear and Sam Spear, producer Natasha When)
Extra-Ordinary Amy
(director Christopher Graham, writer Zlatina Pacheva, producer Kris McRonney)
Gemini
(director and writer Mily Mumford, producer Phil Planta)
Shuttlecock
(director and writer Melanie Jones, story by Melanie Jones and Rhona Rees, producer Kristyn Stilling, associate producer Amelia Morris)
Small Fish
(director and writer Maxime Beauchamp, producers Kent Donguines and Mackenzie Stannard)
Teams started production Feb. 9.
From there, they’ll have just eight days to shoot, edit and post their films, with $1,000 cash and significant in-kind assistance provided by the local film community.
The completed films will screen Feb. 24 during the#Crazy8sFilms18 Gala Screening at The Centre (777 Homer St., Vancouver) with the official after party to follow at Science World. Last year’s films played to a record 1,750-plus people at the gala.
Nelson said it’s “super crazy” to have a film shown at the festival.
“It’s such a tight deadline, but it’s a really exciting experience,” Nelson said on Friday, Feb. 9, during the filming of CC. “This festival is supported by the local community, and it means so much for the community to get behind the six films that are being produced. It’ll be exciting to watch all of our work together (at Science World).”
The two sets of twins have a long history of collaboration, including on the Twilight series.
“We have a long-running connection,” Nelson said. “We like working together.”
Nelson said there is a lot of work to be done over the next week, “then it’s all enjoyment after that.”
#Crazy8sFilms18 is seeking support online by donating to an official Annual #Crazy8sFilms18Indiegogo Campaign Fundraiser running until February 20 at http://crazy8s.film or by attending the 19th Anniversary Crazy8s DGC-BC Fundraiser Screening at the RIO Theatre January 25 screening 8 classic Crazy8s films. Tickets: http://riotheatre.ca/event/crazy-8s-dgc-bc-19th-anniversary-screening-fundraiser.
For more on the Talbots, visit www.talbottwins.com.
