Strings is a short film being produced in Sudbury Ontario. 17 West Productions is co-producing the film with UnoPark for director Mat Cousineau.
Guest Post by Mat Cousineau
In a nut shell, I started 17 West with Eric and Jay as we finished up college. Over time, I fell out of filmmaking as I was a little bit too busy with other things in life. However, I’ve kept in the loop with 17 West and helped out where I could but I definitely wasn’t as involved as much as I wanted to be over the last couple of years.
Recently I’ve moved back home to Sudbury, ON, where we are all from. I join Eric and Jay as a proud ‘Northerner’ and I decided it was time to return to filmmaking. So began our ‘Northern Branch’ of 17west. Our first effort is a short film entitled Strings. A project I will be producing and directing.
Two of my biggest passions in life are film and music. My family is full of musicians and I play a little guitar myself. It’s always been a dream of mine to make a film that was told through music. I’m talking about a musical where the actors sing to the audience. I’m talking about a film where the music is part of the actual story. In fact, a film where music comprises nearly 100% of the story.
So I challenged Jay to write me a script where the story was told through music. A story where the characters were playing music to themselves and each other. When Jay sent me the first draft of “Strings” I was ecstatic! It was exactly what I was looking for.
Now I’m faced with the biggest challenge I’ve faced in the film industry yet. Finding the right musicians and more importantly the right songs for the script.
About a two months ago we had our first audition session. Now I have to say it was a huge success thanks to Ian MacDonald, a co producer we brought on board here in Sudbury.
We had over 60 people show up to audition and out of those people, I found a good dozen I would consider putting in the film. I have to say, I was extremely pleased with the talent we found in Sudbury and I’m looking forward to sharing all of it with you. Click here for more about the audition as well as links to some press we received. The game plan at this point is to set up a second audition with those dozen and start making some decisions.
For now you are up to date with the pre-production of Strings. I can’t express how excited I am about this film. I plan to have some more updates soon and I might even share with you an MP3 of one of the songs we plan on using.
