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The Climb Is Now Available Online | The Climb Short Film

NEW SHORT FILM ON 17WEST.CA

17 West Productions is pleased to announce the release of a brand new short film: The Climb.  The movie centers on Cameron and Destiny and their struggles living on the street. Each of them must face their terrible pasts in order to move on. While Destiny lost all hope long ago, Cameron holds to his belief that he will find a way to change things one day.

The short film stars Michael Clarke, Alyssa LaPlume.  It was written & directed by Jason McKinnon and produced by Eric Gamache.

Check out the trailer below and head over to 17west.ca for the whole film.

Check out The Climb’s archives for more on the production.

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The Climb: A Journey Ends

LOOKING BACK.  LOOKING AHEAD

When I first decided to make The Climb, it was always meant to be an editing experiment.  I just realized that’s a lot of pressure to put on myself as I took over a year and a half to get it done.  It should be flawless right?  I’m not the person to judge such a thing.

We produced The Climb with about 300 bucks and a lot of help from our talented cast and crew.  We made it because it’s fun to be on a film set.  It’s fun to make movies.

I’m a professional editor but my experience is almost entirely in a live television environment.  Having footage to work with at home has been amazing…  But as I exported the final film a few weeks ago, I found myself a little saddened.  What footage am I going to work with now?

The obvious answer is to shoot another film but I’m getting married this year!  2012 is also a year I’ve dedicated to screenwriting in between planning the massive event this fall.  And so I realized I probably won’t cut another short film for at least a year and half and potentially longer…  It’s a little sad.

Having said that, I do plan on shooting some footage when I can in creative ways.  I always like to have a couple active projects in After Effects to pick at.  It’s addicting.

In the end, I think I cut The Climb using a variety of styles just to experiment and I had a blast.  But a film is meant to be completed so I’m happy to have it done.  I’m going to miss cutting footage for the next little while but, thankfully, developing new projects is just as fun.

A New Poster For THE CLIMB Has Arrived! | Independent Short Film Toronto

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Producing A Low Budget Short Film | Independent Film Blog

50 POSTS ABOUT INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING

We filmed The Climb over a weekend in May 2010 for about $300.  It was the first project we developed after I launched this blog so there was a ton of coverage here.

There are posts about every topic including budgets, screenwriting, stories from the set, post-production, marketing, promotion, trailers, posters and more.

Now that the film is completed I thought it would be useful to gather every post in one place.  So check out the entire story of how we produced The Climb.

WATCH THE ENTIRE FILM HERE

Pre-Production

Low Budget Filmmaking: The Climb’s Budget

The Climb’s 1st Location Scout

Screenwriting: Rewriting The Climb

Meet The Cast Of The Climb

Storyboarding When You Can’t Draw

Designing The Tattoos

The Director Of Photography

First Tattoo Sketches And Tests

No Budget Filmmaking: Producing A Short Film

The Need To Edit A Movie

Improving The Screenplay

Pre-Production Day

Final Make-Up Tests

Wardrobe And Props

Rehearsing A Short Film

Tweaking Your Screenplay

Directing Short Films: The Calm Before The Storm

Making Progress

Making A Short Film: The Little Details

Final Location Scouts

It Begins!

Production

Technical Specs

Can’t Complain About Early Call Times

I Dislike People Who Honk During Filming

Destiny’s Tattoos

I Don’t Like To Hold The Camera

Rushing To Capture Footage

A Computer, Some Footage And Me

How The Weather Almost Killed Our Short Film

Directing Short Films: Playing Through vs The Climb

That’s A Wrap!

Post-Production

Editing A Short Film: Little Moments

How a dialogue heavy script became a quiet movie

Short Film Editing: Is This Scene Boring?

Tough Cuts: Letting go of a scene

Taking on the opening scene

Editing a short film you directed: The Annoying Part

Editing a short film: You have to start somewhere

I got stuck editing my short film

We Have Picture Lock

Marketing & Promotion

Short Films, After Effects & Video Copilot

The Climb’ Trailer

Planning The Trailer

A new poster for The Climb has arrived

First official still from The Climb

Does this poster sell my independent short film?

The Climb’s poster is here

Commentaries

The Climb: A Journey Ends

The Climb is finished

The Climb: One Year Later

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17 West Productions In 2012 | Independent Film Toronto

While 17 West Productions didn’t produce any new films in 2011, it was still a busy year.   I have a several big announcements to make:

17WEST.CA Relaunch!

The last time I updated 17 West site, it was purely to upgrade the look and integrate The Athletic Nerd a little more.  I’ve been blogging online for over 2 years now and I’ve learned a lot about search engines and what it takes to attract an audience.  Now it’s time to put that knowledge to good use.

A whole new look has arrived but this time it’s a fully functional WordPress powered site.

A NEW SHORT FILM RELEASED!

The new site just happens to coincide with the release of The Climb.  Our new short film which will be up VERY SOON!

PLAYING THROUGH FINALLY ONLINE!

Playing Through is now on YouTube.

WHAT’S NEXT

On a sad note, Strings has officially been cancelled.  The film was in pre-production for over a year but after a couple hitches we’ve decided to move forward with some new ideas.  17 West Productions is now actively developing our next project which will be directed by Eric Gamache.  There aren’t any timelines yet but updates will come fast both here and on the new 17west.ca.

Enjoy the new movies!

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The Climb Is Finished!

January 11th, 2012 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Filmmaking | The Climb - (0 Comments)

The Climb: A Journey Ends

SHORT FILM WILL BE RELEASED ONLINE FEBRUARY 2012

It’s official!

Today, I finished authoring a DVD and started gearing up for the release of The Climb.  The newest short film from 17 West Productions.  The drama is just under 14 minutes long and stars Michael Clarke and Alyssa LaPlume as two people struggling with life on the streets and the meaning of hope.

Check out the film’s trailer below and stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks!

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