Inside:

Distribution on the edge:

Canadian cinema carves an ‘erotic weirdness’ niche – p. B3

Canadian screenwriting:

‘A low-percentage proposition’ – p. B4

Shorts getting longer shrift:

Garnering more slots and more money – p. B20

Film diaries:

Production chronicles from conception to completion – begin p. B7

Features:

The Hanging Garden – p. B7

Shopping for Fangs – p. B11

Gerrie & Louise – p. B14

Pitch – p. B17

Hayseed – p. B19

Shorts:

Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight – p. B22

Permission – p. B24

Linear Dreams – p. B26

Director/writer: Daniel MacIvor * Producer: Karen Lee Hall * Cameraman: Daniel Sauve * Diary by: Pamela Swedko

Premiering in the short film category of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Daniel MacIvor’s foray into directing is set in the unlikely locale of Zellers and is based on a retail shopping experience from his childhood.

Permission is a 23-minute tale of a father struggling with his son’s individuality. The son wants a doll; the father buys him a bike, the nuances of which are captured in the $30,000 project directed by MacIvor and produced by Karen Lee Hall.

May 1996: MacIvor and Hall spend months batting around ideas for a short film until finally one day, while driving in the car, MacIvor espouses what Hall calls ‘a perfectly formed little narrative for a short film.’

The idea is based on MacIvor’s own childhood and is a subtle, lighthearted story about a seven-year-old boy whose mother takes him to Zellers every Sunday to buy a toy. On this particular Sunday, leading the venture is the boy’s father who goes blue in the face when the child’s object of desire is a doll. He buys him a bike instead.

MacIvor begins writing the script while Hall starts looking for financing. ‘We had around $3,000 from the Ontario Arts Council from another project,’ says Hall. ‘We ended up investing money of our own plus we got a presale from the cbc, who were the biggest single investor.’

All of the fundraising efforts combined with $5,000 from MacIvor’s best friend, photographer Guntar Kravis, and a loan brokered through his mother, brings the financing in line with the $30,000 budget.

June 1996: With funding in place the casting process begins. Jim Allodi is playing the role of Albert the father and Tracy Wright is Deb the mother, both actors MacIvor envisaged for the roles from the beginning.

The trick is to find someone to play the young boy.

Hoping to steal a performance out of his nephew, who inspired him to write the screenplay, MacIvor and Hall take a video camera and pay him a visit. He is very shy, which makes both of them a little nervous. Casting a little boy with no previous acting experience will be creating a lot of work for a first-time director.

With that in mind, the two keep searching for a second boy to play another smaller role. One of the cast members suggests eight-year-old actor Luca Perlman for the part. MacIvor meets with him.

‘He said the part is kind of small but it looks like fun,’ explains the director. ‘He read the script with me and he was fabulous.’

MacIvor calls Hall and they agree Perlman should be their lead. MacIvor spends time stressing about what he is going to tell his nephew.

With Perlman in place everyone is happy except for one hairy problem. Perlman has a ponytail down to his waist which MacIvor cannot write into the script and cannot ask him to cut off. Hair and makeup come in and work miracles.

July 1996: On July 18, MacIvor and dop Daniel Sauve begin five long days of shooting at a house and at the local Zellers store in Mimico, just outside of Toronto. There is the odd setback, corrected by a tweak to the script.

‘My nephew, who was recast as a child from another family, didn’t show up the day we were supposed to shoot that scene, so we changed the script and that family ended up tragically losing one of their children.’

Zellers donates all kinds of toys for the film. Ira Levy of Breakthrough Films and Video loans many stuffed Dudley the Dragon dolls for both the house and the toy department scenes, and PS Production Services donates the equipment.

September 1996 to April 1997: The month of September is spent editing; in December the film is mixed.

Mag North gives a ‘great deal’ on the video transfer. Casablanca Sound practically gives them the post sound mix, and Fearless Film and Video and editor Weibke von Carolsfeld are extremely generous with four weeks of editing.

By March, Permission is shipped out for festival consideration.

In April, the short is delivered to the cbc where it will air after Oct. 1.

September 1997: MacIvor’s first film makes its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. He goes into preproduction on his next short film at the end of September.