– The Undertaker’s Son Edition –
Published April 2017.
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It’s finally the 20th of the month and thus time for another big party at Ferreira Fest! Welcome to a very special edition that focuses on The Undertaker’s Son. We have interviews with the Affolter Brothers and Karyn Mott, comments from Louis Ferreira, tons of photos, screencaps, our exclusive Reading Series, Friends and Charities updates and so much more! Grab a slice of Earth Day Birthday cake and a pineapple cocktail at our virtual bar and come on in!
CHARITIES
Ability Online
Ability Online participated in the University of Toronto mental health expo!
The 150 Challenge continues – Ability Online seeks to sign up new 150 sponsors willing to donate $1,000 or more.
Help Ability Online provide a safe and monitored online community for disabled kids and young adults. It’s easy to donate – just click on the logo below and the link will walk you through the process.
Project Limelight
The poster for the new Project Limelight show Off The Hook is out! Only 2 months to go!
Help Project Limelight educate and feed the kids that will perform in June’s big show – every penny helps. Click on the logo below to donate.
The 2017 program kids of Project Limelight are busy rehearsing.
Rehearsals at Project Limelight always come with wholesome, healthy meals.
Haven Toronto
The recent improv show fundraiser for Haven Toronto was a big success – read all about it here.
Producer Mat Mailandt described his experience working with the men from Haven: find out more by clicking here.
Here is an interesting read about veterans and Haven Toronto’s efforts to support them.
Haven Toronto is seeking a volunteer Dental Hygienist! If you are interested, read more about it here and find out how to get involved in their new dental clinic! To support the clinic and all of Haven Toronto’s vital work please click on the logo below and go to our very own donations page. Please note that the page bears the organization’s former name, The Good Neighbours’ Club.
The Children’s Aid Foundation
The Children’s Aid Foundation supports Canadian youth in the foster care system.
Upcoming Events
April 23rd: The Corsage Project – Boutique Ball
Want to make sure that children in the foster care system can have the best high school prom ever? Donate here!
May 11th: Five14 Talks
Join like-minded business and community leaders from the child welfare, government, academic, scientific, and health sectors in discussions about progress and change. Hosted by the Children’s Aid Foundation, five speakers will speak for 14 minutes each on a range of thought-provoking topics that are shifting the way we think about the young people in our nation’s child welfare system. This year’s five14 theme is Commit. Connect.
Check out the Live Webcast for five14 Talks!
May 14th: Children and Youth In Care Day
“The Children’s Aid Foundation is asking the public to join us in celebrating the strength, bravery and resiliency of children and youth in care who have overcome tremendous adversities to lead meaningful lives.
Help us raise awareness and reduce the stigma around children and young people in care by sharing their messages and videos. We want to give these kids a voice to talk about their struggles, accomplishments and what matters to them. Most often, they are invisible to the public. They deserve to be heard and you can help.
Helping is easy, when we send a new message or video, please post it on your Facebook and Twitter pages and share it with 5 new friends each time and encourage them to do the same. Go a step further and make an online donation of $5.14, which will be used towards funding the needs of Ontario’s most vulnerable kids through programs in the areas of prevention, enrichment, education and healing and recovery.”
You can always read up on the latest news in the online newsletter The Buzz.
To make a general donation to support youth in foster care please click on the logo below to go to our very own donations page. Every penny helps!
THE UNDERTAKER’S SON
This month’s Ferreira Fest focuses on the latest short film by the Affolter Brothers, The Undertaker’s Son. Louis plays the part of the undertaker, Johnathan Redding.
Watch the Teaser Trailer here.
Two of the Affolter Brothers were kind enough to do an interview with Ferreira Fest. Here we go!
FF – Welcome back to the Affolter Brothers, we are so thrilled to talk to you again. And, who do we have on the line today?
HA – This is Heath Affolter.
TA – And Thomas Affolter.
FF – Well, welcome Heath and Thomas!
HA – Thank you very much, we’re happy to talk to you again, it’s always a pleasure.
FF – Great! So, you’ve been incredibly busy in this past year since we last talked. Could you hit some of the highlights of what you’ve been doing?
TA – Yeah, absolutely. We’re right in the middle of doing one short film that last fall we put together a little pitch campaign, basically, to try and win some financing to do. It’s a stop motion animated short film that’s being produced as part of the Telus Storyhive system, up here, a system of financing. And so basically this company Telus, who’s a communications company up here in British Columbia gives grants out to emerging filmmakers to make products, whether they’re, sometimes they’re music videos, sometimes they’re short films, sometimes web-series, they do a bunch of different versions of the Storyhive project. And this version was an animation go around of things, and we’ve done some animation in the past.
Two of us brothers, Nathan and Jon, were actually trained in animation, and Heath and I are trained in live action, so… we’ve done a lot of stop motion animation in the past as well which is like the Wallace and Gromits, or Nightmare Before Christmas, that’s that style of animation, so we pitched a project called Soggy Flakes as a stop motion animated short film and then put together a little campaign to try and get everyone we know to vote for it, basically. And we were very fortunate to win one of the ten thousand dollar grants to make it, so now we’re literally filming it in the next room while we’re on the phone with you.
FF – Well that’s wonderful! Yeah, you’ve posted some pictures of the puppets that you’ve built for it and so we’ve been following it on Instagram and whatnot, and it looks great!
HA – Thank you, yeah, we’re pretty excited about it.
HA – And then we’ve also been, over the last year or so, our last film with Louis, Counter Act, has been playing at some film festivals around the world. So we premiered at the Edmonton International Film Festival, where we won the rising star director award. And then we went on to play at the Reelworld Festival in Toronto where we won the audience award for best short film. And then since then we’ve played at festivals in Vancouver, Port Moody, Maple Ridge, Jackson, Mississippi, we’re at the Victoria, Texas Independent Film Festival this weekend, as well as the Crossroads Film Festival, I think that one’s the one in Jackson. Oh, and the Omaha Film Festival as well.
On top of all of that we also got some financing earlier this year as part of the Crazy8s contest which is a pretty big contest that happens in Vancouver here every year where they select six short films to be made through a pitching process. You start with a video pitch, and then you do a live action pitch, then they narrow it down and you submit a script, and they kind of keep narrowing it down in these stages.
And they end up picking six films to make. And so we were chosen as one. So the film we made is called The Undertaker’s Son. And we were fortunate enough to be able to work with Louis Ferreira again on that one. He was able to star for us this time.
FF – Wonderful. So, let’s talk about The Undertaker’s Son since we’ve already segued into that. So, like Counter Act, it’s actually quite a departure from Comedy Blender and the cartoon characters that we’ve just talked about. Why do a Western, in this day and age?
TA – Well, we’ve always wanted to do a Western of some form. We’re big fans of the genre, you know, grew up on all the Clint Eastwood pictures and Sergio Leone, you know, Once Upon a Time in the West, and all these wonderful classic films.
FF – Right.
TA – And John Ford, and all these inspiring films from cinema history that are sort of staples in the Western genre. And we always thought that would be a really fun genre to dabble in, to sort of dip our toes into.
TA – And so we came up with this idea of basically looking at a Western that takes place after other Westerns do. That is, in a normal Western you see a lot of violence, gun play, you know, bloodshed and death, and stories of vengeance and, you know, the sheriff defending a small town against the bandits that threaten it. All these types of stories, and really, really, violence is a big staple of the Western genre, in its very essence about how the West was won.
FF – Right.
TA – You know, and the West was won by carving out your place amongst the wilderness, so to speak. That type of thing. And so, we wanted to do a story that didn’t actually have any onscreen violence, but instead took a sort of hard look at the real world consequences of all of that gun play and death and violence that you see so often depicted in the genre, and thought that it would be very interesting to look at undertaking and embalming and mortuary services because at the time, just post-Civil War, that’s when embalming had just come to popularity.
TA – It was a very new technology back then. So, kind of an exciting frontier of medicine, and science, and we thought to look at that occupation and that world in the framework of a Western. Because that’s the person who, in every town, would have been sort of the one to do the dirty work. To do both the hard job and important job of preparing these people that have died for their loved ones so that they can have one last chance to sort of say good-bye to them.
FF – Right. So this is basically an aftermath to a Western?
TA – Yeah.
HA – Yeah. We thought of it as a Western that takes place after the Western.
FF – After the Western. Well, that’s such a cool take. And, without giving the plot away, of course, what’s the movie about? Can you talk a little bit about the characters, what kind of people we’re going to meet?
HA – Yeah, it’s about a young man named Christopher, who joins his father for his first day at work of learning the family business of undertaking. So it’s about a young boy joining his father to try and take over the family business, but he is very reluctant, you can tell he doesn’t really want to be doing it. But as the story unfolds, we kind of reveal that there’s a deeper conflict between the two of them that’s sort of bubbling just below the surface that comes to fruition by the end of the film.
Screen grab by Graham and Nelson Talbot.”
FF – Wonderful. So, it’s also a father/ son movie, and a father/ son plot.
HA – Yeah. That’s what it is at its heart. I mean, the whole Western genre, and the idea of it being a Western that takes place after, is kind of the framework, but at its heart it really is a story about a father and a son coming to terms with very family oriented issues.
FF – That sounds great.
FF – Now, the whole movie was shot, edited and put together at a breakneck speed, from what I understand from following you, so I’m sure that your prep time was very extensive and very meticulous. What were some of the challenges that you faced in the process?
TA – Well, I mean there are many, with a period piece there’s always a large amount of problems, a large amount of production logistics that can be a bit difficult to take. Sort of obstacles to overcome, so to speak, I mean, for this one for sure, the number one was, you know, just trying to create the mise-en-scène of 1867 America, sort of, you know it takes place, it’s taking place, we thought, in one of the northern states. With sort of a purposely unnamed town. Something that could be Anytown back in those days.
TA – And, you know, but finding a location first of all was extremely difficult. Then we got very lucky, we were very fortunate to film at a place called Jamestown out here, near Vancouver. It’s in a place called Langley, B.C., it’s just about an hour’s drive outside of Vancouver. And we were very, very fortunate to get three days of filming out at that location. It’s basically a standing Western town.
It’s a little movie set that’s just there all year round. And a number of different productions and TV shows and movies and such go through there and film in the streets and the buildings and just sort of the surrounding area. So, we were very fortunate to be able to walk into that location and have a lot of hard problems sort of already taken care of. And the ranch as well, they have horses and horse wranglers and wagons and lots of stuff, so they’re equipped to be a Western town.
But I mean, we’re still… the buildings are still basically shells, so we had to bring in a lot of set decoration, a lot of art department stuff, signage and whatnot, and big pieces, little pieces alike, just to sort of fill out all the details to make it a convincing Western world, you know.
FF – Yeah.
TA – That, along with the costumes of course, because costumes and hair and makeup, that stuff was all incredibly important to try and create the realism of the film. So basically all the main creative design departments were by far the biggest challenge and sort of always are on period pieces. We had a bit of a taste of that doing Counter Act last year which was 1960.
FF – Yeah, yeah.
TA – Which we thought was difficult, but then trying to do 1867, a hundred years earlier, all within an eight day period, that was definitely…
FF – A whole different ball of wax, right?
TA – Yeah, exactly.
FF – That’s great. Now we mentioned earlier – Crazy8s, what was the reception like at the gala screening event where The Undertaker’s Son was shown?
HA – It was pretty amazing actually. We were floored. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the film. We got a lot of really positive feedback. Everyone was kind of blown away, especially with the performances and the production value and what we managed to kind of pull off with it. Actually it was kind of, I don’t, we can’t, obviously claim that this was a result of the film but apparently there was somebody in the audience that had quite a reaction to the film that caused them to feel almost light-headed and they actually had to stop the films after ours played and bring in some medical attention because the person was having a…
TA – An anxiety attack.
FF – Oh my goodness!
HA – Yeah, some sort of anxiety attack. I mean…
HA – We heard through the grapevine that it was because they were reacting to a moment at the end of our film. But we don’t know that firsthand, of course. It could have just been a previous condition that this person had, but…
FF – Right, right. But talk about added drama.
HA – It evoked quite a reaction.
FF – Wow.
HA – We’re very happy, obviously not happy that that person had to receive medical treatment, but we’re happy that people had some sort of reaction to the film for sure.
FF – Right, I’m imagining for a short film such as that it’s probably pretty unusual to get something that is so period oriented and not like a recent time period but like you said, a hundred and fifty years ago, that that must be quite unusual too…
HA – Yeah, I mean, I think it is and it isn’t. I think Crazy8s, as an organization, they do a really good job of being eclectic with their film choices. There are occasionally films that take place in like a Victorian era or there are sci-fi kind of futuristic films sometimes. They do do a pretty good job of mixing up both genre and tone within their films. But, it’s not the most unusual thing in the world, but from the compliments we received, I think we pulled off a feeling of that time era pretty well, given our constraints.
FF – Wonderful!
FF – Now, why did you choose to work with Louis again? And how did his contributions shape the story-telling?
HA – Quite frankly, we would choose to work with Louis as much as we possibly can for the rest of our career. After working with him on Counter Act, it was just such a joy and a pleasure to have him on set. And he was willing to take such a small part in Counter Act just because he liked the script that it was exciting to us that we had written this role this time that was something that was appropriate for him and that would give him a chance to really sink his teeth into it and be a leading role in it.
FF – Right.
Photo by Amanda Oakes
HA – So we were very honored that when we offered it to him he was more than happy to come on board with us again and play the role. And yeah, he just did an absolutely phenomenal job in it. It was, you know, kind of the same thing as Counter Act, where he’s such a leader to the rest of the cast on the set. And he’s such a veteran that… he’s a pleasure to be around, on set, you know, he does a really good job of even when it’s a heavy scene, or there’s scenes of death or struggling with grief and things like that, but between takes he manages to make it feel so light and enjoyable. So, basically we feel very lucky that he was willing to work with us again.
FF – Wonderful, wonderful. So, what’s next for The Undertaker’s Son? Where can we watch it?
TA – Well, it’s going to be hitting a film festival run, just like Counter Act. It won’t be available online, anytime soon. We’re hoping to have a premiere at some pretty big festivals. And hopefully, fingers crossed, we get into some prestigious ones and basically we’ll be putting it out there throughout the international film festival circuit over the coming year. And then after that, at that point, when it’s done its film festival run we’ll probably end up releasing it online, or perhaps selling it to a distributor where there will be a means for the public to view it. But other than that you’ll just have to keep your eyes on the film festivals near you and hopefully we can get in some programs where some readers of Ferreira Fest can go check it out.
FF – Wonderful.
HA – We just found out actually very recently that there’s a film organization, kind of the main film organization in Canada is called Telefilm, that Telefilm does this thing every year where they select a certain number of Canadian short films to bring to the Cannes Film Festival where they present the films. They’re not played in competition at Cannes, but they’re presented in their own little private screening to showcase what is possible with Canadian filmmaking. And we found out that The Undertaker’s Son was selected to be part of that program.
FF – Oh my God, that’s awesome! Well, keep us paged on that. Yeah, that’s terrific. Wow.
HA – Yes, it’s very exciting for us. So it’ll be playing, it’s called the, I believe it’s the Marche du Film at Cannes, so it’ll be there at the end of May during when all the rest of the Cannes film festival is going on.
FF – Wow, that’s terrific. That’s wonderful. Congratulations! This is awesome news!
TA – Thank you very much.
FF – That’s great.
TA – Very exciting.
FF – So, other than keeping our eyes on the festival circuit, how can Ferreira Fest readers help support your work? Whether it has Louis in it or not, it doesn’t matter much to us at this point. We know you do good work, how can we help support you?
TA – Well, there’s all the social media pages that it would be amazing if people could like and share, and follow us, help get our social media following as big as possible. Because that also plays a factor when people are, festival programmers, are looking at which films to include and which films not to include. So, you can look up @undertakerfilm on Twitter and Instagram. And Facebook as well, that’s the Facebook handle, and if you get all those main social pages, if people just want to like and follow and share with their friends, if they like what they see, then that would be a huge help.
You can also actually see a trailer for The Undertaker’s Son that’s been posted on the Facebook page. So if the readers go to Facebook.com/undertakerfilm they’ll find The Undertaker’s Son Facebook page and there will be a little sneak peek of the film on there they can check out.
HA – Yeah, sharing, sharing is definitely huge for us, it just helps us, our work get in front of audiences that we might not otherwise be able to reach. So if people can seek out those pages and share them with their own followers that’s definitely a huge help for us.
FF – All righty! Well, that’s what we will do then. Well, thank you so much for your time. I know it’s been a crazy week for everybody and I really appreciate you sitting down for a couple of minutes to talk to us about The Undertaker’s Son. And I’m sure we’ll be talking again in the very near future.
TA – Great, yeah, thank you very much. And if people want to check out the stop motion animated short film we’re making, Soggy Flakes, they can also go check out @soggyflakesfilm, those Facebook pages as well, there’s social media for all of that – Twitter and Instagram and Facebook. And they can get a, we’re filming it right now, so we’re pretty much updating it daily with photos from the set and all kinds of fun stuff that’s going on on the animation side of things at our company too. So they can, if readers want to check out something there then, again, it would be great if they could just like and share and follow us, and they’d be included in the action, so to speak.
FF – Well, we’ll keep up to date with you guys.
HA – Awesome. Thank you very much, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you.
TA – Yeah, thank you so much.
Introducing Karyn Mott
Karyn has a lead role in The Undertaker’s Son. Louis enjoyed working with her very much. Here are some of his thoughts on her:
LF – I just met Karyn on The Undertaker’s Son, and from the get-go, I was so impressed with her, I guess the word might be professionalism in the sense that she was so into what she was doing and so had a back story about a character in a short that just, it just was beyond impressive to me.
It was just like, that kind of commitment is what translates, not just in the actual short itself but in your life in terms of that kind of commitment and dedication, creating the idea that there are no small parts. And that everything is an opportunity, and that everything is a manifestation of who you are.
And then, we had the privilege of, me and Aidan, Aidan was first AD on that show which was one of the highlights for me because that happened at the last minute. I didn’t even know that was going to happen.
And you know, of course, you know how I feel about the Affolter brothers. I just adore them. And that’s why I flew, you know, I did, I put myself up to be in their short because I am a fan of what those guys do and, I think, what they want to say and the kinds of works they want to do including what they said with Counter Act, I thought was important and current and what they did with this film I thought was really unique.
What I can’t say enough about her is that, when we drove her home, she almost got Hairspray on Broadway. You know my daughter and I, one of our bonds is musical theater. And that was one of the ones that we saw live two or three times, that we’re big fans of. We had the locker, we had the Zac Efron doll, we had the Travolta, I mean, we had it all.
So she sang Good Morning Baltimore in the car. I set up Karaoke in the car, something I love to do, basically car pool Karaoke, she sang that song and I could have sworn, it could have been her. It was so, so amazing. I had goosebumps, I was looking at Aidan with a sheer smile on my face, like “are you hearing this girl sing right now from the backseat of our car”? It was just phenomenal.
And so we ended up, from that, singing all kinds of musical numbers. I, of course, had to do my Judas from Jesus Christ Superstar. I am nowhere classically trained like that. This girl has a voice! She’s just this light to be around and it affects everybody, and I believe that that’s what we all should try to be for each other and so she just was one of those people who was just, you know, she’s part of that. She’s part of that beautiful “I get life, I’m larger than life, I love life and I give life and I am light and love” and all that stuff that we more than ever need to be about.
So, I have nothing but love for that, for her, because she was just that giving and that loving and that caring. She was just awesome. So, I’m glad she did this interview. That’s very cool.
And the Affolter Brothers are chiming in as well:
I can say, she’s amazing, she was a treasure to work with for sure. It’s the first time we had worked with her and really wouldn’t be able to recommend her highly enough to others. She was an utmost professional and just a great person.
A Brief Interview With Karyn Mott
FF – Well, welcome to Karyn Mott, also known as Li’l Ginge, who is our guest at Ferreira Fest this evening. So good to talk to you, Karyn.
KM – Yeah, you as well Bea. I’m grateful to be here.
FF – Okay, so, this is all about The Undertaker’s Son because this month, which is April, 2017, is The Undertaker’s Son Edition. And, we had another interview with the Affolter Brothers and lots of pictures and videos and that kind of stuff. And so you will be in this very, very wonderful group of people.
KM – Wonderful.
FF – Now, if you could tell us a little bit how you got involved in The Undertaker’s Son and, without giving the plot away, what was your role in the movie?
KM – Yeah, I’d love to. So, The Undertaker’s Son was part of a festival in Vancouver called the Crazy8s Festival. So, as an actor, once the eight plays have been, or eight films, have been finalized they then hold auditions through the casting directors for parts in the show. Some of the parts, some of the roles, were already cast. And then they had auditions, so I submitted online on Casting Workbook. So it’s not an audition that my agent got through, that’s the great kind of thing about Crazy8s is that it really allows you, as a performer, to put yourself out there and submit yourself. So, I submitted myself through Casting Workbook, and then was lucky enough to get an audition. And, was cast in the role of Ms. Morris.
And without giving away too much, Ms. Morris is Christopher’s, so, the Undertaker’s son’s, his schoolteacher, and the gift that Ms. Morris, I think, allows, is a catalyst moment for the father and son to reconcile, or have an understanding within each other about some events that happened in their life together, that they hadn’t been able to process through together.
FF – Great.
KM – So allowing each of those characters to share their side of what happened to them. And their own kind of experience of it, while also then allowing them to see the father’s side of the story, and the son’s side of the story.
FF – Both Heath and Thomas talked about, in their interview, how you had to do the opening shot eighteen times in a row. What is, what kind of a challenge is that for you as an actor?
KM – Well, I just want to say it was one of the neatest experiences, just to be part of as an actor, because we started off the day with just the core main actors. And we walked through that and then we went back and we slowly added, over about a three or four hour period of rehearsals, added in the lights and the sound and the extras and all the scenes until it all flowed together. So, it was such a neat opportunity to watch that because then, as the character, you’re really able to watch everything that’s about to happen before you enter the scene. So there’s this live energy just created because of, well I guess, the liveness, of the filming process of it.
FF – Right.
KM – And then going over it, I guess it was eighteen times, I had no idea, we’d just get to the end of the shot and we still had light left. We shot the scene, I guess we probably started filming the shots, maybe, right after lunch. So maybe two o’clock or 3 o’clock. So we had a prime two hours of daylight.
FF – Right.
KM – So we just, we’d get to one end of the, we cut at the end of the scene, and then we’d just, we’d roll again.
KM – So, it was such a gift as an actor because you were able to take that moment while they were resetting, because there are horses involved and carts and all the camera crew to move back to the first one. There’s that moment as an actor to kind of stand there and take that moment, which usually happens after the filming, just to be like, okay, how, how did that go for me? And what tweaks can I make?
FF – Oh!
KM – So it was, coming from a theater background, it was a great opportunity to have that theater quality to it where it’s not that one-take wonder. You got opportunities to grow and find different moments and different beats. And, yeah, it was such a cool process to watch. And then, eventually just to fall into the whole scene. I knew the timing so well that when they started rolling, I knew exactly how much time, fully, as a character, I had to play out the full scene.
FF – Right.
KM – So that’s neat in a two day filming process, or three day filming process. You know, one day to shoot that first scene, to have all of that time to play with it. The challenge, I guess, would have been the continuity of it all.
FF – Yes.
KM – Because it is one shot. But trying to make sure that the continuity of everything that you’re choosing and the sound of your voice, is all the same.
FF – Right. That sounds really wonderful, and it’s a rather positive way of looking at it. Because, I know a lot of people, if they had to do the same thing eighteen times over they would probably be quite exasperated, or getting bored with it, but you used it as an opportunity to, as you called it, tweak it.
KM – Yeah, well, and I always think, whenever you’re wrapped on set, I’ve never had a moment where I thought, oh my goodness, I’m glad I’m wrapped. Right? Because I just, I constantly have that hunger to continue playing, so that opportunity just highlighted it.
FF – Right. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Now, you were in kind of a unique situation filming that in that you were working with a father/ son team, but in a different situation than you would normally. Normally you would think that the father would be in the directing role, and the son would be in the co-star, acting role. But in your case, it was the opposite way around. You had the son as the director, or, assistant director, and the father as a co-star/ actor. What was it like to work that way?
KM – Awesome. I showed up to set naïve, I guess, in the fact that I didn’t know that they were father and son, so I built this great rapport with Aidan and then later found, like I mean, a couple, you know maybe twenty minutes later, found out that this was his dad. And to watch them work together, what a team! You know, the respect that they both have for each other, and they always knew what the other person needed, and, and to watch Aidan guide his dad, or give him advice, or, it was just, it was so amazing to watch.
Because I always think that transition you make from father/ son, that relationship when you’re younger, to that relationship when we’re older, of “we’re both adults”, and we have these conversations and we’re not fearful to challenge each other because it’s in such a respectful and loving way.
KM – I was lucky enough, I don’t have a car, so I was getting rides out to set all three days. And on the third day, on the Sunday, I got a ride out with just Louis, and then I got a ride back with Louis and Aidan. That’s a car trip I’ll never forget.
FF – I bet!
KM – Because they were two beautiful people. We sang Karaoke songs in the car. I have a recording of them.
FF – I was just going to ask you whether you had to do car pool Karaoke!
KM – Oh, man, we loved it. I mean, again, I grew up in a musical theater background, so, and then being challenged to sing Hairspray, and singing at the top of my lungs, it just, they create this freedom within people just to be themselves. I left that car feeling, high on the world. But not just because we just wrapped a great set, because it’s like I spent three days, and then the hour and a bit drive back with just, God, just the most inspiring people. And, genuine, which was the biggest thing, I think, yeah.
FF – Yeah. Wonderful! Could you share a memorable moment of working on that film that really touched you and moved you as a performer?
KM – The gift the Affolter Brothers created, and the whole set, certainly Louis and Aidan, and I mean, everyone involved seemed like a family. And there was no one on set, crew, cast, extras, anyone who was working on it, who wasn’t included in that family. Every morning, at the start of the day, they, the brothers gathered us all around and would give a little pep talk.
They got us riled to be working together. And Louis would say something and Aidan would say something and anyone who wanted a voice to say something, it was a safe set to do that. And I, you know, I think we all hope for that to be on any set.
FF – Right.
KM – Yeah, I think it was huge to me because, sometimes, I think, as actors, we question whether we should be in the performing arts. And I’ve known since I was a kid, since I was six, that there’s nothing else I wanted to do. But I was having one of those moments before I filmed The Undertaker’s Son. And coming onto that set, like, I left there feeling like there’s nothing else I want to do in the world. So I think that’s probably the biggest memorable moment, is just that they created such a family and community dynamic on that set.
FF – Right.
KM – That’s exactly why I do the arts, right? Is for that community and that shared connection, to share a story.
FF – That’s wonderful. Thank you so much for that insight. Now, where can people keep up with you? How can we follow you or your career?
KM – Yeah. I’ve got a couple of different ones. I do a live broadcast on PocketLIVE, which is an app that’s available, on the computer and also on iPhones, and they just launched one for Android as well. So I do about fifty to sixty hours of broadcasting a month on that. Yeah, and it’s amazing, it’s online curated talent, so it challenges me as a performer and allows me to cultivate creatively with people, even if we’re not in the same room together.
FF – Right.
KM – And then I have my Twitter account and my Instagram account. And then on Facebook, I’m KarynMott. Oh, and I have a website as well.
FF – Well thank you so much for your time Karyn, I really appreciate your insight, and sharing your thoughts about The Undertaker’s Son and we all appreciate it so much. And you have a wonderful evening. Thank you so much, bye-bye.
KM – Thank you, bye.
– Thanks to Casey for all the transcripts in this issue! All photos in Karyn’s interview are courtesy of Karyn Mott.
Watch a video of Karyn and Aidan on the set of The Undertaker’s Son!
You may also want to check out the Vancouver Sun blog entry about The Undertaker’s Son, as well as an interview with the Affolters at Hollywood North Magazine.
We will follow up with Karyn Mott later this year and see what else she’s been up to in her career!
IT CAME FROM THE TWITTERVERSE
SCREENCAPS
We have a blast from the past for you this month – an album with 462 screencaps from the first episode of Season 2 of MOTIVE, Raw Deal, which was written by none other than our friend Dennis Heaton.
Here is a direct link to the album: https://ferreirafestscreencaps.shutterfly.com/pictures/8#, or click on the screen cap below.
THE NEW READING SERIES: MR. MUGS – MEET MY PALS
The second monthly reading series is Mr. Mugs – Meet My Pals by Martha Kambeitz, Denise Burns and Josephine Proctor.
Louis credits the Mr. Mugs books series with helping him to learn English at a very young age. The Mr. Mugs books have been out of print for many years but occasionally you can find them on eBay, Amazon Marketplace or various other antique book dealers.
You can listen to the book readings on the Reading Series Page.
This month’s chapter is part 11 of Mr. Mugs – Meet My Pals.
FRIENDS NEWS
The Affolter Brothers
The short film Counter Act racked up a lot of honors at the Victoria TX Indie Film Fest!
“Incredibly excited to announce some award nominations at The Victoria TX Independent Film Festival! We were nominated for #BestShort, #BestOfFest, and most exciting at all, the amazing Naika Toussaint was nominated for #BestActress!!! Congrats Naika! “
A Counter Act Q&A at the Maple Ridge Festival of BC Film
“Q&A at the wonderful The ACT Arts Centre at the Maple Ridge Festival of BC Film, where we had the honour of screening to freedom rider and civil rights activist Bev Mill along with the fine folks of Maple Ridge. An AMAZING honour for the film and everyone in our cast & crew! Thank you to the festival for having us!!!”
A Counter Act Q&A at the Maple Ridge Festival of BC Film
“Q&A at the wonderful The ACT Arts Centre at the Maple Ridge Festival of BC Film, where we had the honour of screening to freedom rider and civil rights activist Bev Mill along with the fine folks of Maple Ridge. An AMAZING honour for the film and everyone in our cast & crew! Thank you to the festival for having us!!!”
There are so many cool photos from the stop-motion animation film on the official Facebook page you simply have to go visit and see them for yourselves!
There are videos, too! Watch the Soggy Flakesmotion control movement test:
“Check out some fun camera testing we did with motion control rigs at Fusion Cine! We are only a few days away from going to camera on #SoggyFlakes, friends, it’s going to be great!!”
Here’s the Soggy Flakes storyboard. Don’t you wish you knew what’s on it?
“2 brother animators animate 2 animated characters in this animation short film 4 brother animators are animating!”
“A few head sculpts of our diner patrons by the stop-mo wizard Edward Coughlan.”
“Just a nice morning breakfast at the local diner.”
Amanda Alexander
Amanda is the script supervisor of Altered Carbon.
Lunch at Altered Carbon. Or: an opportunity to catch some zzzzs.
Here’s Why Script Supervisors Are the ‘Secret Ninjas’ of Film Production: read this to find out what it is that Amanda does for a living!
Greyston Holt
“Most of my stuffed animals I had as a child were monkeys and it’s been a lifelong dream to interact with one. Today it happened. Goodbye world. I’m going to swim out into the sea and die happy.”
Click on the picture to watch the video!
“LAX—> YVR to start work on a new project. More info coming soon. Also I haven’t been home in almost three months. Very much looking forward to the smell of rain and firs… if only for two days. My rainforest.”
Mika McKinnon
“Hello, Atlanta. I’ll be seeing you again this year for my annual pilgrimage to Dragon Con. Ping if you’ve got panels you want me to pitch.“
Mika has some great new articles you can read online:
- How to care for a pet hedgehog (For lots of adorable hedgehog pictures, follow Mika on Twitter.)
- Preparing for a disaster
- The Early Universe May Have Been Smellier Than We Thought
Troy Mundle
La Buena is Troy’s newest project:
“Our short film is about a man who loses his family to a drunk driver. Tackles some very pertinent social issues. Submitting to TIFF. Written by Troy Mundle, co-directed by Chad Riley and Troy Mundle, produced by the three of us and Cinematography by Thomas Billingsley. 🙂 We go to camera in two weeks!”
Patrick Gilmore
Patrick has the recurring role of Shaun in Season 2 of You Me Her alongside Jen Spence.
His current show Travelers has begun filming Season 2. Patrick is reprising his role as David Mailer.
Patrick as Shaun the bartender in You Me Her Season 2
Patrick has a special Haircut song! Click for a link to watch the video.
And whenever you’re having a really rotten day and need something to make you feel better, watch Patrick and Louis Go for a Drive:
Choose Drive 1 or Drive 2.
Sawyer Ferreira
Sawyer is celebrating her 18th birthday on Earth Day, April 22!
Visit her guest page here at The Friends of Louis Ferreira.
Happy Earth Day Birthday, Sawyer!
FYA – Fulfilling Young Artists
The 2017 Program has begun! Here is this year’s cohort of young artists. Eric Banerd was paired up with Louis a few years back. Good luck to everyone this year!
Eric Banerd
Eric has been building a skate park in Costa Rica! He writes:
“Made a short video of the time I had in Costa Rica with my friends from Redbull, Journey (www.wejourney.co), and Divert City (www.divertcity.co )! For those who don’t know – a ton of money was raised to build a skate park for underprivileged youth so they can have access to a positive outlet through action sports. The park was named “Luzo Skate Park” after one of the community leaders who was tragically shot and killed. It was amazing to see the community come together and be stoked for a positive cause. Overall, it was such an incredible trip. Much love to all of the amazing people I met from across North America and of course the kids we built the park for in San Rafael!”
Here’s Eric hard at work…
… and hard at play – skydiving!
David Dingess
Here’s David conducting the Bibb County Honor Choir!
Watch the video here.
Jennifer Spence
Jen is currently starring as Carmen in a recurring role in Season 2 of You Me Her.
You Me Her is a Canadian television show that revolves around a suburban married couple who is entering a three-way romantic relationship, otherwise known as a polyamorous relationship. The series is set in Portland, Oregon. The series is also promoted as TV’s “first polyromantic comedy”. It airs on Audience Network which is available on AT&T U-verse and DirecTV Now.
Ingrid Rogers
Ingrid is currently starring as LaTonya Edgar on the TV series Bosch.
Season 3 of Bosch available for streaming beginning April 21st on Amazon.
Rob Munic
Rob is working with KITS – Kids In The Spotlight – again. He writes:
“You wanna know what passion looks like? These kids right here who are all living in the LA Foster system spent 6+ hours casting and auditioning for their films that they wrote – all for a shot at getting their voices heard. Kids in The Spotlight – I got so much love for you all.”
Peter Kelamis
Peter recently guest starred in the TV series iZombie, playing Mr. Huntsman in the episode Zombie Knows Best. Here’s a still:
Did you miss Peter’s series Beyond? Watch Season 1 online on Freeform!
Bradley Stryker
Bradley has a bunch of new projects:
La Buena – check it out in Troy Mundle‘s section! Bradley plays Snake.
Hard Powder
Logline: A snowplow driver seeks revenge against the drug dealers he thinks killed his son. Based on the 2014 Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance. Liam Neeson and Emmy Rossum star. Bradley plays the character Limbo.
The Arrangement
Bradley plays Bryson in the episode Control.
HEALING BODY ART
Every month Vancouver artist Nicole Pilich shares one of her henna creations with Ferreira Fest. Please visit her website for lots more photos and fascinating facts and information about this ancient artform. And if you find yourself in Vancouver – visit her studio and treat yourself to some Healing Body Art made just for you.
This month Nicole writes:
“This lovely bride was getting married on a Monday afternoon, in her building courtyard surrounded by friends and family. Very casual and so she wanted a casual henna design.”
ODDS & ENDS
SGU Comics
The long-awaited Stargate Universe comic is finally becoming a reality! The publication dat has been changed many time but the latest word is it’s around the end of May!
Check the hashtag #BacktoDestiny on Twitter for the latest info, script excerpts, artwork and more. Contact your local comic book store on how to order them. We will keep you posted on any new developments!
Here are two sample covers to whet your appetite:
And that, dear Friends, is about it for this month! Thanks for visiting often! Be sure to follow us on Twitter for all the Louis news you can handle and TV reminders!
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We hope to see you all next month!
