– Director: Laurie Lynd

– Producer: Karen Lee Hall

– Writers: Laurie Lynd, Daniel MacIvor

– Diary by: Kim Bondi

Spring 1991: New York University graduate and former resident of the Canadian Film Centre Laurie Lynd sees Daniel MacIvor’s Chalmers Award-winning, one-man play House for the first time. Lynd is immediately enamored of MacIvor’s story of Victor (MacIvor) who engages a small town with his paranoid account of his own life, which he delivers, or rather spews out, like a gutted beast’s entrails.

April 1992: Lynd and MacIvor discuss the possibility of making House into a 60-minute adaptation for tv. Lynd figures it could be something easily financed for television. ‘To be candid, the initial impulse was that we could make some money from this, and I always thought it was an amazing piece that should be preserved on film.’

Summer 1992: The first draft of the screenplay begins. Lynd is writing it on his own, adapting it with the text of MacIvor’s monologue. This draft places MacIvor as Victor in a sort of black void with no audience and slides projected behind him.

Fall 1992: Lucre from the Canada Arts Council is obtained to the tune of about $25,000.

Winter 1992: With both producers handling Lynd/MacIvor projects, Karen Lee Hall and Paul Brown make a swap, putting Brown in the producer’s chair for House.

March/April 1993: The second draft emerges, significantly different from the first. The idea of six short film sequences peppered throughout the one-man play that Victor puts on is tossed about.

Winter 1993/94: The final draft is written. Lynd and MacIvor include the vignettes that feature members of the audience in the small town. It becomes longer than 60 minutes – a significant development. ‘That was kind of the turning point in the making of the film. (It’s) more than a one-man show. The little parables tell the story of the audience members and it becomes much more cinematic, much more beginning-middle-end. I think that’s what made it into a movie,’ says Lynd.

March/April 1994: Lynd submits his script to the Feature Film Project. In the event of succeeding with the ffp’s funding, Brown is replaced with Hall once again. Brown would be ineligible because the project is for first-time feature filmmakers and he produced I Love A Man In Uniform.

June 1994: House is made on the standard ffp budget of $700,000 ($325,000 in cash and $375,000 in deferred services) with the stipulation that production begin on the first of September. The film also gets made with an added $60,000 from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council, bringing the budget to $760,000.

July/August 1994: Casting for the 12 virtually non-speaking roles begins with casting director Liza Balkan (who had worked with Lynd on rsvp) and Lynd employing a silent audition method.

‘We came up with the idea of a silent improv because we couldn’t see the point of having people read lines when they wouldn’t be speaking in the film. We’d have a table full of props and I’d set the scene telling them that they’ve escaped to the attic after a fight at a family dinner. I would give directions like, ‘Pick up that book, it has your first love letter in it,’ and we’d watch the reactions.’

August/September 1994: Hall and production manager Carol McBride try to secure a crew for a September shoot, only to find that Toronto is having its busiest production season ever and no one is available.

The Riverdale Presbyterian Church donates its space. Set decorator Jocelynne Senior collects pieces of valuable set dressings on garbage night, stashing them in alleyways and hidden corners until she has the means to transport the goods.

Oct. 11, 1994: Production begins and runs for four weeks. Lynd, Hall, MacIvor and the rest of the crew are blessed. Filming in Bradford, Ont., they are welcomed with fabulous small-town hospitality and enjoy the warmest October Ontario has had for 159 years.

Winter 1994/95: Post-production involves tremendously long hours for picture editor Susan Maggi and Lynd. Balancing the presence of the constantly speaking Victor with the silent characters of the audience proves to be difficult. Several test screenings take place.

June 1995: The final cut is shown to the investors one year to the day that they gave the green light on the film. Approval all-round.

July 1995: The first print of the film is titled A Particular Messiah for fear the producers of the series of American horror films called House will cause problems, but Hall finally gets permission to use the original title.

July/August 1995: House gets a distribution deal from Alliance: ‘We’re really excited about Alliance, they’ll really get it out there, and the thing we’re really wanting is a theatrical release in Canada, the u.s. and hopefully Europe,’ says Lynd.

Aug. 18, 1995: Lynd sees the title in place for the first time.

Sept. 10, 1995: House premiers at the Toronto International Film Festival.