Flimic Pro

It’s been a strange year, changing how the world works and how we can move forward with our projects and our lives. Change can be a good thing, forcing us to evolve and adapt to new situations. I’ve been looking into different ways of recording video with smaller and lighter setups. I’ve been doing some cellphone camera tests with Filmic Pro and my iPhone 6S Plus. Filmic Pro captures up to 12 stops of dynamic range and operate at frame rates from 1-240fps. It allows manual control of focus, exposure and shutter, and connects wirelessly to a high-capacity storage volume.

https://www.filmicpro.com/products/filmic-pro/FILM

Here’s my first Filmic Pro test. I’ll keep doing tests over the next six months to see what’s possible. Using the tools you have and working within your limitations to exceed your expectations is a great way to move forward.   

Understanding humans and talking about self-abuse with Pasquale Marco Veltri Guest Author: Nina Lee

Nina Lee: First of all, introduce yourself to those who may not be familiar with your body of work. 

Pasquale Marco Veltri: I’m a filmmaker and my films have screened nationally and internationally in Canada, Britain, France, Italy, and Egypt. My film Measuring Tape Girl has screened at the Cannes Film Festival and the Montreal World Film Festival. 

NL: What is the film about and where did it come from?

PMV: Drowning is a film that examines the physiological effects of being forced into prostitution at a young age. It is a story is about Anna, a woman trying to reinvent herself after working in the sex trade, and how she relates and confronts the people who have coerced, enabled, manipulated, bought and sold her. Anna returns to her childhood home to face off against her family, her enablers, and her own mental distress, and she must figure out what a normal life could possibly be for someone who feels so disconnected from her own emotions. Anna needs to empower herself to overcome her homicidal tendencies, while navigating between reality and her fantasies of revenge.

NL: That sounds heavy. How did you come up with the story? 

PMV: All my characters start their lives as my default character of Measuring Tape Girl. Measuring Tape Girl was a film I made 8 years ago and it’s a representation of all the fears and lost dreams one can suppress in early adulthood. The film was an examination of self-esteem which created a new friend I’d bring with me to help deal with all the self-abuse issues I was dealing with at the time and still carry with me. I was working with a non-profit to try to get the funding for a documentary on the sex-trade off the ground. The documentary was never produced but in the process of working on the project lead me to examine what would happen to Measuring Tape Girl if she was forced into the sex-trade. I began to question, how would someone overcome that abuse? How can they break free of the cycle of self-esteem issues that would arise from being trapped in a cycle of abuse? 

NL: What lead to the creation of so many flawed characters?

PMV: The film is full of mirrored characters who have their own response to being abused. Sometimes it leads to self-abuse, sometimes it leads to denial and with the character of Marcus it led his character to abusing others. The biggest challenge was creating ways for characters to break free from each of their cycles of abuse. 

NL: What was your writing process like? 

PMV: You’re locked in your room for a long time creating characters and figuring out how they might interact. Once the characters are set, the world fills in and I play off the idea of an unreliable narrator who uses wish fulfillment to overcome abuse. After several drafts, I had a few story editors send some notes, and then revisions started taking place. The land of rewriting can be painful but eventually you get the script to a place where it has a life of its own, then the real work begins. I’m usually writing a few different things at the same time so that I can have a day away from characters and then I can come back to the script with fresh eyes. Dealing with the darker areas of the story took some work and development. Sometimes you keep your characters with you and they become your friends, in this case I needed, and wanted to walk away from them all once the project was finished. 

NL: Many of your films feature a female lead - are they inspired by any of the women in your life, and how are their strengths reflected in your characters?

PMV:  The strength of all the women in my life is reflected in my characters and I’ve always felt more comfortable with women in my writing and in real life. Throughout my life and into my early 20’s I didn’t talk much. I have always listened more than I’ve talked. Most people wait for their turn to talk, I just listen. I never feel the need to speak unless it’s necessary. It’s my never-ending shyness that leads me to hear things differently. There is a complex speech pattern to the way people talk that leads to a different level of communication, if you’re listening enough you can hear it.

NL: You’ve mentioned before how many of your films are therapeutic. How did your life inspire your films, and how has creating helped you?

PMV: I’ve always dealt with deep self-esteem issues which always seemed to exist without reason. My very early work tended to focus on self-harm and cycling self-abuse. Throughout my childhood and early adult life, I have always had issues with accepting reality, which leads me to create characters who also have issues with reality. I see what I want to see and I hear what I want to hear. As we all do, but we rarely accept it. Through the creation of my core default character, Measuring Tape Girl, I was able to bring to light all of my self-esteem issues with an alter ego who said the things I was unable to say. I try to create characters who might actually have strong reasons to escape reality. Drowning is an examination of cyclical abuse and its effect on a character’s ability to deal with reality and the emotions brought forth from recurring abuse. The lead character uses wish fulfillment to break free from her cycle of abuse. Real abuse leads to self-abuse. Anna does not have the self-esteem to overcome the abuse she suffers in the real world, so she creates a new reality where she fights back.

Learn more about Pasquale Marco Veltri’s future projects at, www.pmveltri.com

Friends don’t let friends make movies: A Simple Guide to Micro-Budget Filmmaking

1. Posters

      Make a poster before you shoot your film. You’ll be able to use this poster to pitch your project to everyone you talk to about the film. A poster makes your film feel like a real thing even though you have not shot it yet. You’ll be using your poster to pitch investors, for crowdfunding, to convince crew members to work with you and to help you, and everyone working with you that this project exists and is worth their time.

 

2. Teamwork, collaboration, and compromises

      Everything in filmmaking comes down to teamwork and collaboration. The less money you have the more this rings true for the success of your production. As a filmmaker, you have to be ready and willing to let the best idea win. Every stage of you filmmaking process will involve compromises. If you remain realistic and flexible you have a smoother time getting to the finished project, then if you take on a single-minded attitude. Only through teamwork and collaboration with every member of the crew will your project get across the finish line.

3. Filmmaking is paperwork

        Over the three to five years it takes to get your micro-budget film off the ground you will spend 20 to 30 days on set with a crew and cameras. Every other moment of those three to five years will be spent making paperwork for grants, business plans, budgets, schedules, crowdfunding… The paperwork is endless. Learn to love paperwork or find someone to work with you that will help you with the paperwork. As a filmmaker, it would be a mistake to hand over all the paperwork and producing duties to someone else. You should be involved with the paperwork so you have a better idea of what documents are actually required for you to properly paper your film with the correct legal documents. Filmmaker, producer they-self.

4. Make short films first

    Attempt to make a few/several short films before you make a feature film. The short films can be scenes from a bigger project or self-contained ideas. Walk before you run.

5. Keep re-writing the script until it’s ready

        Don’t stop at your first, second or third draft and start shooting. Take notes from everyone, find a story editor if you can, and make sure your script is ready before you shoot. As a micro-budget film, limit locations, limit cast and do not plan on special effects. Marketability matters. You are creating a product that must be sold. Do market research and make sure there is a market for what you’re trying to make. 

6. Locations

Make a list of all the locations you have access to and write a story around those locations. Be flexible with locations so they can be moved to any location that allows you to shoot in them. Limit the number of locations you use and try not to have multiple location days unless you can’t avoid it. Even with a small crew, moving from one location to the next in one day will not always work out as smoothy as you think. Maximize your locations by using every room and wall available. Every room has four walls and four corners, with the right change of lighting and props that can turn into eight different locations. Move past your limitations by accepting them and using them to your advantage in creative ways.

7. Permission-based art

    Do not rely on grants, script contest or lottery tickets to fund your film. If you wait for a grant, your film may never get made. Stop asking permission to make films and just make something. Start with a short film and go from there. 

8. Budgets

Make multiple budgets that reflect the reality of the different situations you might find yourself in different budget levels. One budget that is the ideal budget where you have the funds needed, a second budget where you have some of the money you need (where you make the cuts required), and a final shoestring budget where you’re making the film with very little funds or almost no funding.

9. Art Direction

       Micro-budget films are allowed to have art direction. Choose a colour palette for your film and stick to it. Low budget films can still use colour to add meaning. Create a lookbook with a series of images that can help communicate with your director of photography what you’re going for. Having photographs and paintings to build from help gets all the crew on the same page. Images below show the painting of Jack Vettriano and the final stills from the film Drowning.

10. Festival Plan

    Before you start shooting your film you should have a film festival plan in place. Have a list of all the film festivals you might be sending the film to and their deadlines. Do not submit to the late deadlines, get your film to the film festival by their regular deadline or sooner. Earlier is always better. The cost of sending films to festivals, traveling to film festivals and marketing will very quickly exceed the cost of your micro-budget film. For most short films the film festival costs can eventually exceed the cost of the actual budget you used to make that short film.

11. Sound

     You won’t be able to fix the sound in post. It just costs too much. The sound person is one of the most important people on set. Don’t try to save money on sound, you’ll pay for it later.

12. Pre-Production and shooting order

        The less money you have the more important your pre-production planning is. Have a meeting will all crew members to clarify their needs, especially the Director of Photography. It’s important to discuss every location with all crew members. Pick a realistic number of shooting days, don’t try to shoot a feature in five to ten days. Give yourself more time, work with a smaller crew so that you might be able to shoot for more days and not blow the budget. Shoot your wide shots first, light in one direction at a time. Sometimes the basics go out the window when your rushing and running out of time. Remain calm and shoot things in a logical order. Avoid situations where you’re fighting against a sunset; the sun will set and you’ll have lost the day. Trust your DOP to give you the real times of what it takes to make your day. Don’t over-schedule the day to save money; give yourself the time you need. You have less money so you need to give yourself more time.

13. Extras

    Try not to have empty locations without extras. Empty restaurants and public spaces scream low budget film. Do what you can to fill your wide shots with extras. Schedule all the extras for that hour you’re doing the wide shots and just make it happen.

14. Life Film balance - Finish what you start

      You need to find a balance between the work you want to do in film and the actual time you have to do it. How many days a week can you work on your film projects and how many days do you need to devote to paying your bills? Until you find a balance you should not move forward with any film project. Do actually math, not just on the money you’ve raised, but on the physical time you have to work on your micro-budget film. Do you have the minutes, hours and days required to finish what you start?

The film poster below show the amount of time each film took to finish.

CANADIAN AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR PASQUALE MARCO VELTRI PREMIERES HIS NEW FEATURE FILM DROWNING AT ICFF FILM FESTIVAL ON JUNE 15

May 15, 2019 (Toronto, ON) - Internationally renowned filmmaker Pasquale Marco Veltri’s independent film, Drowning will make its world premiere among this year’s roster of Canadian independent films at the ICFF Film Festival on June 15 at 2:00 p.m. at the TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King St W, Toronto). Drowning is a film that examines the psychological effects of being forced into prostitution at a young age.

Veltri’s films have screened nationally and internationally in Canada, USA, Britain, France, Italy, and Egypt. Measuring Tape Girl has screened at the Cannes Film Festival and the Montreal World Film Festival. Words to Remember won the Chris Award for Narrative at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival.

Starring Laura Tremblay (Evil Dead: The Musical) as Anna, a troubled woman trying to reinvent herself after working in the sex trade, and Mark Nuttall (CBC’s Extraordinary Canadians) as Marcus, Anna’s foil, ex-lover and pimp, with supporting performances by Tracy Rowland, Alys Crocker and Pardeep Bassi, Drowning sends a strong message about female empowerment and the cycle of abuse. Tremblay says of her character:

“Anna is a strong, independent, real woman, who fights for what she wants in life. I admire her ability to decide to do something and see it through until the end. She may be stubborn, but she knows what she wants and she takes it, and that's inspirational.”

Filmed in Toronto, Clinton and various sites in the GTA during the Fall of 2016, Drowning is the first feature film by award-winning Toronto-based director, Pasquale Marco Veltri. On what inspired Veltri to embark on this project:
“I’ve always been drawn to characters who have issues with reality. I wanted to explore the inner world of a character that was overcoming trauma in their life. How could a character use their own dreams and delusions to set themselves free from a cycle of abuse? How can we use our need and desire to escape pain in our lives to set ourselves free?”

The film is produced by Veltri, Valerie Laurie and Adam Gowland. The film was edited by Nathan Shields (Living Downstream), with cinematography by Albert Rudnicki (Cavalia), and an original score by Ryan Latham (Breakout, Departures).

Drowning celebrates its world premiere at the ICFF Film Festival on June 15, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are available through https://icff.ca or by visiting the box office.

About Pasquale Marco Veltri

Pasquale Marco Veltri is a Canadian writer, filmmaker and photographer whose unique vision crosses the boundaries of culture and language. He is a worldly soul and visual storyteller whose focus on character development is strongly represented in the intelligence and complexity of his works. Veltri’s films have screened nationally and internationally in Canada, USA, Britain, France, Italy, and Egypt. Measuring Tape Girl has screened at the Cannes Film Festival and the Montreal World Film Festival. Words to Remember won the Chris Award for Narrative at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival. pmveltri.com. 

About Laura Tremblay

Laura Tremblay is essentially a ‘jill of all trades’ - singer, songwriter, actor, writer, director and producer. She has an array of film and television roles to her credit, including The Expanse (Syfy/Space Channel), Ben-Hur (2016; Paramount Pictures), Fugue (Indiecan Entertainment), The Cocksure Lads (Spiral Entertainment) and many more. Tremblay also had a leading role in the highly-acclaimed touring stage production of Evil Dead: The Musical, joined the case of Legally Blonde: The Musical at Stage West Calgary this past spring, and originated the leading role of “Lori” in the brand new musical Jukebox Hero which is set to tour North America and Europe in 2019. tremblaylaura.com. 

About Mark Nuttall

Mark Nuttall is an award winning Actor from Guelph, Ontario. He made his small screen debut in 2010 with a guest appearance in the original series Andy and the Upside. Mark's breakout role thus far was in 2016's Still Closed where he won the award for Best Supporting Actor at the Chatham Film Festival. In the same year, Mark landed lead roles in the CBC television drama Extraordinary Canadians, as well as, a part in the feature film Santa's Castle (Christmas film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum's original short story). actmarknuttall.com. 

Link to Tickets:

https://icff.ca/2019movie-drowning/

Taking it one day at a time: the secret to making a micro-budget film - Author: Nina Lee

Producing a film is a juggling trick with many hats. Producing a micro-budget film even more so. Big budget films have the benefit of employing assistant producers, co-producers, caterers, accountants, development teams, advertising teams, marketing experts, and staff to manage the shooting schedule and day to day costs and rigours of shooting. A micro-budget film has the producers doing all this and more. The production team behind ‘Drowning’, comprised of Pasquale Marco Veltri, Valerie Laurie and Adam Gowland, faced grueling tasks, long hours and short deadlines. Weeks away from completing ‘Drowning’, I chatted with Adam, Marco and Valerie about some of the challenges they encountered during the creation of their film. 

Nina Lee: Adam, your background is in commercial productions, as such you bring a different perspective to the film, how did your past experiences help the team?
Adam Gowland: I met Marco through Albert Rudnicki (Director of Photography and 1st camera), who'd kindly asked me to join the team shortly before production. Working as a producer on an independent feature like ‘Drowning’ brought some new challenges and rewards for me. It was a long 27-day shoot schedule and we had to be sure to maximize the budget to get the best results. I very much enjoyed collaborating with Marco and working towards protecting his vision for the film while working within the budget. The first challenge for me was to identify what holes needed filling in the production. I did my best to bring the level of planning and organization I'd experienced on larger network productions to a much scaled down independent version. This meant wearing many hats. From breaking down the script and drafting shooting schedules, sourcing and managing some outstanding locations, production office duties; contracts, accounting, insurance, arranging transport and most importantly problem solving when shoot dates needed to be swapped or a unique prop gun needed a match. It was really exciting to solve some challenging requirements and a pleasure to work with Marco, Valerie and such a hardworking and devoted crew. 

NL: Speaking of working within a tight budget, Valerie, tell me about how the film was financed? 

Valerie Laurie: We began our journey for financing with an Indiegogo campaign during which we raised the first $11,000. Obviously not enough to make a feature film, but it was a start. One thing I found about the crowdfunding campaign is that it made the project - and the completion of it - very, very personal. It was no longer just this abstract "movie", but something that family and friends and professional colleagues had contributed to and so were curious about. It's been a long time since that campaign. Two years since it wrapped. The well-meaning, but ever-present pressure (in the form of love and support) to know the film's status has kept me involved in the film during times when I might otherwise have caved because it got hard. Even more than my own money that I've put into the film, I have felt responsible to the people who believed in me enough to contribute to our dream during that campaign. Whether they realize it or not, they kept me going after every grant or financing rejection. 

NL: Marco, how did you manage to shoot a feature in a month given the many conflicting schedules of the actors, production and creative staff?
Pasquale Marco Veltri: Most productions attempt to shoot in less time but with the limitations of a micro-budget film being so encompassing you need to find a way to give people more time to do their best. Shooting faster rarely makes things better, especially on a micro-budget film. The film was made with an amazing group of people who supported each other and made each day of the shoot better than the last. It was an amazing learning experience and the cast and crew came together to get the film across the finish line. 

NL: Now that you’re on the other side of the production - the filming is done, post is almost done. What would you have done differently? What worked well?
AG: It was really great working with Marco and his attitude was so positive no matter what the challenges were. Working on an independent micro-budget film meant there were occasionally hurdles that had to be accounted for quickly and sometimes concessions made. I knew Marco would adapt if needed but I aimed to make sure he didn't have to concede anything whenever possible. Really the whole crew were so devoted and worked very hard, it was a pleasure to be included. 

If there's anything I would have done differently, I would have liked to meet Marco sooner in the process. I'd love to have been able to take some of the responsibilities off his shoulders sooner on this project and hope to do so again on his next one! 

NL: This film will will have taken more than two years to complete, from beginning to end. You’ve all experienced many changes in your lives, Valerie - you had a baby and started a new job. Tell me about the challenges of maintaining your work-life balance?
VL: Life-work balance is really hard. There are priorities in my life that sometimes are, but sometimes aren't, respected by everyone I have obligations to. Those priorities change depending on what needs my attention the most at any given time, but it's definitely not easy pleasing so many masters. Some things have suffered. Some things have had to wait. Some things have not been accomplished to what I know are the best of my abilities and that frustrates me to no end. For the first year of this journey when I had a newborn and 3 year old, my day would go by in a flash and I would sit down exhausted at 8pm and open my computer to do three hours of work on the film before bed - answering emails, preparing budgets, begging favours - only to be up again in a few hours to feed the babe. Finding childcare to cover me if I wanted to go to a development workshop or meet with a potential investor, or attend a film festival event has always been tricky. My husband's hours are long and I've always been very much the primary caregiver for our family. It's a role I love, but one that complicates matters and makes my life somewhat inflexible. As time went on and I went back to work, it became even harder to figure out how to fit the film into my life. For much of that year we were in stand-by mode. Trying to talk to the right people and find the magic formula that would mean we could go to camera. But no matter what, I felt supported by my boss and colleagues at my day job and knew that when the time came to shoot it, I'd be able to swing the time off and make it work. 

Ultimately, I needed a change in my day job. I'd felt stuck in the same job for a really long time and wasn't sure what I wanted from a career anymore - it's one of the main reasons I took on this film in the first place. I'd been looking for a new job for quite a while, but when I was eventually offered one, it came unexpectedly. It was a position in the film industry (rather than television where I'd been for 10 years) and was a really amazing opportunity to learn all of the business affairs and financing side of producing that we'd struggled with so much on Drowning. I made the leap to a new company and that's been much, much harder than I expected. I wasn't able to get the time off for shooting, though I was granted a few days to facilitate the shooting back in my hometown. I was grateful for that time, but it's a bummer I wasn't able to be as involved in Production as I'd always hoped. 

And now we're in Post! And we faced another financing rejection, but at least I'm comfortable in Post. Post is where I live in my day job, though I have to be very careful not to insinuate myself in an unintended conflict of interest. But we have so many offers from friends willing to help us out to finish our movie. We are able to cash-in on my "primary caregiver role" (Yay, being stretched too thin!?), because the post facility my husband has devoted so many hours to is allowing him to mix the film during downtime. Friends willing to help out finishing the picture and visual effects are what is going to get us across the finish line. And then the new marathon of distribution starts. And we keep going. Because we made a film. 

I'm not sure which success will come first - a completed film, or potty-training the toddler? At different moments, each of those is certainly a priority, but one day at a time. 

Either you go back on the streets or I do - Author: Nina Lee

How do you rationalize a manipulative pimp’s actions and bring him to life? Mark Nuttall had the difficult task of taking an aggressive, manipulative and demanding character, giving him emotional depth and sensitivity. 

I chatted with Mark about his character in Drowning recently, and had a chance to pick his brain about playing a bad guy. I always start these interviews asking what attracted the actor to the role and the film. Most people answer - “I loved the character, or I loved the script.” But Mark’s character, Marcus, is despicable by most accounts, so I was surprised to learn that it was Marcus’ damage that Mark found most interesting - here was a character that was unique and a challenge. “It's interesting, when you first go into a role like this you think, 'man, I really have to do some transforming here to get this guy right,' but after putting in the time and research it takes to understand a character like Marcus, I realized he is not too far off from me, or you, or any other real person.” Mark explained, “It is the circumstances of his traumatic upbringing and the subsequent poor choices he has made and continues to make as a reflection of that upbringing that make him different. But that said, the essence of Marcus comes from his unrelenting, impassioned love for Anna, something I think anyone who has ever loved or been in love can relate to.” 

Wait a minute, did we read the same script?  No, seriously, did we? 

Perhaps I identified more strongly with Anna, or even her sister, Mary. Two women who had been dragged through mud emotionally, but who dealt with their resulting emotions differently. Anna acted out, Mary internalized, Anna fantasized, Mary buried. But I hated Marcus, I couldn’t see any humanity in him, he was aggressive and manipulative and just, grrrrr, I don’t even have the vocabulary to explain how I felt about him. So I was genuinely curious about Mark’s interpretation, “Marcus is aggressive, yes, but he is also deeply emotional and highly sensitive. In fact, it is this sensitivity and emotionality that charges many of his fears, and in turn, gives way to his aggressive behaviour...He is a human being, and like all human beings, he has many layers; relative to the overarching theme of the film that says human beings whether it be Marcus, Anna or whomever else have depth far beyond what we can see or hear.”

Okay. Marcus is layered, I can accept that. He’s sensitive and emotional and expresses himself through aggression, rather than logic and rationality. Interesting. I glossed over that aspect of his character’s motivation in the script, but now I’m pondering, How did Mark bring this role to life?  I talked my way into an advance screening of the film, and I was surprised that I didn’t hate Marcus. Mark gave him depth and personality, and the moments when Marcus expresses his love and fears on screen are powerful and feel genuine. So I asked Mark about his method and how he managed to bring range to Marcus’ character. He explained that he took time to study strong, thinker-type actors, Alpha-males, like Marlon Brando. Mark explained, “Brando once said he took the role of Vito Corleone because he loved the idea of playing the bad guy you root for. I don’t necessarily think people are rooting for Marcus in this film, but I do feel if I have done this role justice, people will see the good in him, or at least get a sense of what this broken man has been through.” But Marcus isn’t just a sensitive, emotive guy. Because then he’d be Ryan Gosling. He’s dangerous. He’s been on the streets. He’s been a gigolo, and now he’s a pimp. He doesn’t keep his status by sitting back and watching others take control. Mark had to adopt a fighting stance and a bravado, which he did by studying professional fighters. “In Marcus, you have someone who is capable of doing truly inhuman, horrific acts to others. He is a man who shows almost no remorse for causing physical harm. And so, I studied professional fighters, not to say that fighters are criminals or evil people, but just for the simple fact that these professional athletes are able to answer the call to violence in an instant, similar to Marcus. Mostly I studied their posture, their movements, their physicality; anything that will give me an edge toward looking like someone, at least on the surface, who has the ability to ignore humanity and exact physical harm on another person.”

After hearing Mark talk about his character’s emotional scars and his need to be aggressive and manipulative as a way to deal with his own tumultuous past, I realize, Marcus’ line, “Either you go back on the streets, or I do,” perfectly encapsulates his story. He is a man afraid of having to do what he forces his girls to do every day. And his fears hold him hostage. He is a man as trapped in his world, unable to break free, as Anna is. Ultimately, Drowning is a story about, well Drowning in our own lives and fantasies. 

Learn more about Mark Nuttall’s future projects at, www.actmarknuttall.com & marknuttall.workbooklive.com

From the Perspective of the Lead - Author: Nina Lee

I was sitting behind the women in front of the camera in front of the man behind the camera, when I realized something. Acting is a series of simple instructions, repeated over and over with slight variations until someone says “cut”. And somehow, through all these simple instructions, the actor interprets and reinterprets the words in the script into a compelling, personal story.  Watching Laura Tremblay portray Anna, the lead in Veltri’s newest film, Drowning, I was mesmerized, How did she know how to minutely adjust her emotions for every take? How did she know how those emotions would play on camera? and why did she want to take on such a heady, complicated character?

Tremblay, an actor, musician and filmmaker, believes in dreams and perseverance and serendipity. Originally from Midland, Ontario, nestled on the shores of Georgian Bay, Laura dreamed of being an entertainer. Previously in Evil Dead: The Musical, an actively touring musician and a filmmaker in her own right, Tremblay says of her character, “Anna is a strong, independent, real woman, who fights for what she wants in life. I admire her ability to decide to do something and see it through until the end. She may be stubborn, but she knows what she wants and she takes it, and that's inspirational. Being a part of the Drowning team has been one of the best experiences of my life. I am so grateful for the opportunity to explore a character I never imagined I'd play.” Tremblay called the role daunting. Anna is so different from many of us. She is a complicated woman who has been abused by her uncle, sold into the sex trade by her boyfriend, and struggles to relate with family, friends, co-workers and case workers. She is trying to simultaneously escape and accept her past, while learning to adjust to her new reality and change her inevitable future. Which she accomplishes by creating a cathartic dream world where she acts out her anger, frustration and uncertainty and gives herself the control and power that she craves.

But Anna is all of us. We are all forced into situations where we lose control of our lives, we are angry, we are uncertain of our future. We all have an “uncle” that takes their anger out on us, a “boyfriend” who takes advantage of us, or a “mother” who doesn’t understand us. The “uncle”,  “boyfriend” and “mother” are archetypes that can be replaced with any relationship; boss, friend, brother, neighbour, co-worker or spouse. Tremblay saw the human struggle within Anna, which attracted her to the role, “Anna is such an in depth character, with struggles and vices that I don't necessarily have in my life. I was attracted to the character, the opportunity to learn about the lives of others and to challenge my craft in a way I never have before. Anna has had so many hardships that it was hard at first to really put myself into her shoes. I knew that research into the character was the only way I could prepare myself to play the role. I watched a lot of documentaries and read a lot of articles about the lives of people working in the sex trade, child molestation survivors, and those suffering from mental illness. I have also had a few experiences in life, including being a survivor of sexual assault and living with a sister who suffered from depression, that have given me strength and guidance in finding Anna's character. I also felt like, though Anna had her downfalls, she was ultimately a strong willed, independent warrior and I couldn't wait to explore that.”

Learn more about Laura Tremblay’s future projects at, www.thelauratremblay.com