Lights, camera, action

Dal student Laura Dawe's film project started as a short-story assignment for a class. (Bruce Bottomley Photo)

Imagine building a wind-operated generator out of an old Impala with an oil-drum turbine and planting seeds to grow food with your survival at stake. That’s the challenge Dalhousie student Laura Dawe depicts in her self-funded, independent film, The Inevitability of Something That Once Felt Impossible.

What started off as a short story assignment in class, turned into the basis of something bigger. Not a novel, or play, but an 80-page screenplay.

The story is centered at Ms. Dawe’s longtime friend Jon Mackay’s home which is located out in the woods. Once she decided the screenplay should be made into a film, he opened up his residence for the set.

The film revolves around a young couple, Michael and Painter, living in a deep recession that they predict will escalate into a major crisis. The couple decides to collect all their money and leave urban living behind to live a self- sustaining life at the inherited house of Michael’s childhood best friend Charlie.

“Who hasn’t wondered, ‘What would I do if I thought the world was ending?’” says Ms. Dawe explaining the intrigue of this theme. The film allows the audience to evaluate how characters on screen deal with the tragic dilemma.

Ms. Dawe hints that a love triangle may be in the works as Charlie and Painter develop a close relationship.

While Dawe has many talents—she’s an artist, a fourth-year honors student, and the arts editor of the Dalhousie Gazette—she did not have any previous background in film. “I didn’t know anything,” she says.

Fortunately, The Inevitability of Something that Once Felt Impossible has some very capable crew members who are volunteering their time for the project, including local independent film director and producer Jason Levangie, and director of photography Ted McInnes who has also shot The Trailer Park Boys.

“What I would recommend to anyone who wants to make a film for little money is to write for a location and a small cast.” 

Luckily, the cast and crew have full access to the house which is not expensive to shoot in.

The small cast of the film includes non actors who are Ms. Dawe’s friends: Corey Hinchey, who plays Michael, Erika Ellsworth, who plays Painter, and fellow Dal student Tim Mitchell as Charlie.

The film is seasonally compartmentalized with shooting taking place six days in the spring where viewers see the characters as optimistic about their situation and then 11 days in the summer where they start to realize the scarcity of their resources. The other six days take place in winter and will be shot in mid-December.

The Inevitability of Something that Once Felt Impossible is scheduled to be completed by end of next summer, and Ms. Dawe hopes its debut will take place at the 2010 Atlantic Film Festival.

LINK: Laura Dawe's blog