Two aspiring Ottawa filmmakers might soon get their big break thanks to backing from the National Screen Institute.
The institute chose Christoper Redmond and Jared Young's first feature-length film Stars Shine in Temperance as one of four projects it'll help develop over the next year as part of its Features First training course. The film is about a radio DJ who has a meltdown and has to rebuild his life in a fictional Saskatchewan town.
'We knew going into this contest that we had a bit of a winning formula.... It tells a great story.' - Christopher Redmond, Ottawa filmmaker
The filmmakers spoke to CBC Radio's All In A Day ahead of Redman's presentation at the Digi60 Film Festival on Saturday, and said inspiration for the film came from Young's father, who worked in radio in Saskatchewan and always had entertaining anecdotes from his time there.
"They all felt kind of like comedy sketches, they all felt like SCTV sketches, these crazy things that happened to him," Young said. "And it kind of stayed in my brain over the years and felt like they would make a good story strung together."
The story is set in the '80s — a popular decade these days, with shows like Netflix's Stranger Things — and Young said they had a great time going back and listening to music of that era. "All that Corey Hart, all that Glass Tiger, Kim Mitchell."
"We knew going into this contest that we had a bit of a winning formula, with the time period, setting and location and then the script really comes together. It tells a great story," Redman said.
Christopher Redman, left, and Jared Young, right, appeared on CBC Radio's All In A Day. The two filmmakers will be representing Ottawa at the NSI's Features First training program in Toronto.
Representing Ottawa
The program includes a $7,500 grant toward the final development and packaging of their feature film project.
Redman added it will also equip them to do more than just make the movie, but will include training, work with mentors from the industry and help creating a production budget and marketing plan.
The institute, he said, is known in the industry for vetting young up-and-coming filmmakers, a boon for the two Ottawa residents.
"Living in Ottawa, we're a bit removed from the industry. It feels like we're so close and so far, you know, from Toronto and from a lot of the decision makers in the industry ... and so as much as we could find them and knock on their door and say, 'We've got this idea,' it means so much for someone like the NSI to bring us around town and say, 'Listen to these guys, listen to this story.'"
No one from Ottawa has ever participated in this program run by the National Screen Institute, so Redman and Young said they will be representing the nation's capital when they head down to Toronto to get started on their film.
