– Director: Holly Dale

– Producer: Steve Hoban

– Writer: Andrew Rai Berzins

– Executive producer: Colin Brunton

– Diary by: Claire Ross Dunn

January 1993: Andrew Rai Berzins’ screenplay of Blood & Donuts, an offbeat contemporary vampire tale, is the first of three scripts chosen for the newly established Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project. With only $350,000 in cash and the same in deferrals allocated to each film, a technically demanding script like Blood & Donuts is going to be a challenge.

ffp executive producer Colin Brunton looks at all the Centre’s short films. Two of his favorites are Dead Meat directed by Holly Dale and Half Nelson produced by Steven Hoban. Brunton decides Dale and Hoban are the perfect combination to make Blood & Donuts.

April 1993: The script is too ambitious for the ffp’s small budget, so Dale, Hoban and Berzins launch into a breakneck pace to scale down the 140-page script.

May 4, 1993: The final Blood & Donuts application is submitted to the ffp.

June 1993: The project is approved and the race toward a fall shoot begins.

October 1993: Hoban and Dale have serious doubts the film can be shot within the allotted four weeks. Together, they decide to further defer $5,000 from each of their salaries (having already deferred $12,000) to help cover the cost of an extra week of shooting.

Early November 1993: Dale’s vision is a grungy, hyper-realistic look for the vampire’s night world. ‘At its core, Blood & Donuts is a very tender story about trading in loneliness for friendship and love,’ she says. ‘So while the film is very stylized in its look, there is a lot of heart and soul under the surface.’

Nine different sets are built in Toronto’s huge, semi-abandoned Riverdale Presbyterian Church, which serves as the studio for three months at a total rental cost of $200. Hoban gets a tip about some free flats left over from a television series, and the art department beats Dark Man II’s crew to the scene.

dop Paul Sarossy (Exotica) is brought on for the five-week shoot, with Jonathan Freeman shooting a full week of second unit.

Nov. 8, 1993: Out of nowhere news comes that the 35mm camera package being supplied by Production Services as part of its ffp sponsorship deal is given to Dark Man II. There isn’t another camera package in the country. A desperate search is launched through all of North America and as far as Germany. In the end, a package is located in Texas which is rented for an unforeseen $18,800.

November 1993: The shoot begins with two weeks of bitterly cold nights for exteriors; one in a Scarborough cemetery is so frigid that the Nagra breaks down. When a second camera is found, it too succumbs to the temperatures.

Hoban is co-ordinating deals for the demanding special effects: rare bats, real and fake rats, shoot-outs, the bloody death of David Cronenberg’s character, and the on-screen transformation of the vampire. And there are stunts, too.

A combination of on-set pyrotechnics and prosthetics is used.

Later, sophisticated post-production digital effects will make the seams invisible.

When asked about a typical low-budget horror story, Hoban remembers the infamous taxi cab. In an effort to be frugal, the transport department buys an old heap for $500 and paints it to stand in for a leading role as a cab.

In one scene it is supposed to speed away, tires squealing. On the first day the car has to be towed to the set. Throughout the shoot the transport department goes through boxes of fan belts and gallons of oil to keep the beater running. It will only go half a block before breaking down.

Dec. 16, 1995: Shooting is completed.

Jan. 2, 1994: Post-production begins. In a long and detailed process, Spin Productions offers to provide digital effects dirt cheap, while Parallax Graphics Systems (which licensed the Matador software used in The Crow) provides the software used for compositing the digital effects.

Fall 1994: l.a.-based efilm (Last Action Hero) transfers the digital files created by Spin back to film.

Jan. 29, 1994: Brunton introduces Dale and Hoban to Nash the Slash, composer on two of Brunton’s earlier films, Highway 61 and Roadkill. ‘Nash was the ideal choice for our sound track,’ says Hoban. ‘When we first entered Nash’s loft studio – with a portrait of Edgar Allen Poe on the wall and a stuffed raven perched on a human skull on the bookcase – we knew he would be in tune with the darker elements of the film.’

Despite a small overall budget of $10,000 for both composed and licensed music, Hoban scores bands such as The Platters, Concrete Blonde and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

March 1995: None of the ffp films have to go to distributors to access production financing or presales, so the filmmakers are in the advantageous position of being able shop around a fine cut of the film.

A packed distributor screening of Blood & Donuts garners interest from Alliance Releasing, Cineplex Odeon Films, Norstar Entertainment and Malofilm Distribution.

April 4, 1995: Malofilm gets serious and invites the production team to a meeting, offering donuts and champagne glasses filled with tomato juice.

April 25, 1995: The filmmakers decide to sign with Malofilm for domestic distribution and foreign sales. Miraculously, the film has $130 left in the production bank account from a final gst return.

September 1995: The film premiers in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Perspective Canada series alongside the other two ffp films, Rude and House.

October 1995: Blood & Donuts opens commercially.