Completed Films

Completed Films

Currently, we have produced three short films, an instruction video and three episodes of Channel 456. Stacy's New Bible, The Face in the Mirror and Tanzen are the short films produced by Old Sow Productions.

Tanzen the Film

Tanzen is our first professionally produced film. It was produced in co-operation with a grant from NB Film and assistance from the New Brunswick Filmmaker's Co-op. It premiered on November 7, 2003 at the Fredericton Playhouse as part of the third Tidal Wave Film Festival.

Introducing the Deer Island
Heath Centre

We created an institutional video to acquaint the intramural staff with the health staff at our local clinic in November and December 2002.

Stacy's New Bible

Improvised short.
Basically an equipment test
that we decided to keep.

The Face in the Mirror

Our first feature film.
It was completed in
the summer of 2002.

Introducing the Deer Island Heath Centre	We created an institutional video to acquaint the intermural staff with the health staff at our local clinic in November and December 2002.
Channel 456	We have filmed our first three episodes of Channel 456 and we hope to produce more in the future.

We are looking into new films to produce. Check our Current Projects page for the latest information and our project guidelines.

Stacy's New Bible

Stacy's New Bible was created in the spring of 2002. It was filmed on one Monday night during youth group. While we were still developing the script for our first feature, we decided to film a short improvisational vignette. We fleshed out a basic scenario and let the camera's roll.

Synopsis

Stacy is very excited about her new Christmas present, a new red children's bible. All of the other youth are jealous that Stacy got a neat new bible that is so easy to use and all they got were inferior gifts like bikes, TV's, scooters and PlayStations ®.

Images from the film

Director's Comments:

Part of Jody's scene was cut. We had him jump up and run to Stacey. Part one was much faster than part two. Therefore only part two was actually used in the film. It was a good lesson in continuity. Also it was at this youth group meeting that Stephanie filmed the Stephanie Witch Project which was later seen in the outtakes for Face in the Mirror.

The Face in the Mirror

The Face in the Mirror is our first feature film. It runs approximately 40 minutes including the outtakes. It premiered on July 7, 2002 at Bayview Christian Camp. Bayview was one of the major filming locations as well as Deer Island School, the Leonardville Church of Christ and Lambert's Cove Baptist Church.

Synopsis
While counselling at Bayview Christian Camp, Roz shares with the kids her moment of regret. When she was in High School, she was forced to choose between her best friend and her new popular friends. With the combination of Roz's overactive imagination and real life issues, The Face in the Mirror hopes to inspire as well as entertain.

Images from the film

Director's Comments (Arranged in filming order):

The over the water footage was the first part filmed. I got on the John E. Rigby ferry and started to film. I also held the camera out of my car for road and scenery footage. Most of this footage was not used. I also noticed later that the lens was dirty - another important lesson in filmmaking.
The next part that was filmed was the playground. I filmed at the Deer Island School. I held the camera waist high to achieve the little kid feel. I used my daughter and a friend for the younger versions of Roz and Libby.
The first principle photography was done in one evening at the DI School. The first scene that we filmed was the Lunchroom scene. We felt that this scene would set the tone for the rest of the movie. The lunchroom and lockers were the only scenes that the actors had a chance to rehearse and block before filming. This was our first attempt at filming people separately and adding group shots to achieve the best shots and to help with the constant laughing. Stacey did not attend the rehearsal so we filmed Abby first, then Julia, Heidi and finally a group shot. The next scene filmed was at the Lockers. The sound was horrendous as they sounded like they were in a tin can. Next we filmed the Walk by the lockers by Julia. Notice that Mikey is wearing his rubber boots - he was working as a production assistant and was grabbed as an extra. If you look real close you can see Stephanie in some of the locker shots. This is interesting since her character exists in the future. The last shot that day was outside by benches. This was used at the end of the playground sequence.
The trial was filmed next at the Leonardville Church of Christ. I filmed the jury after church one day. Basically it was my Sunday School class. The next day we filmed the trial sequences. I think I filmed Julia, then Heidi, Tristen, the group and finally Maria. We tried to avoid the clock on the wall so it would not betray that we filmed out of sequence. Tristen wore my pastoral robe and after he came back from cleaning out a lobster pound. Next we went to the Sunday School Building to film the Sean sequence with Jody and Justin. We filmed Justin, Julia, Jody and then everybody. You may notice that we have the same extra's as the locker sequence.
We had a big day of filming at Bayview Christian Camp. First of all we filmed the Showdown where Roz asked Libby to forgive her. This was filmed behind the bathroom in a glen. It was scenic and less wind. The tears from Julia were saline solution for contact lenses. I lost my sunglass attachment for my glasses at this shot. there was one shot were Heidi messed up her lines, but we decided that it seemed more natural so we kept it. Next we filmed Squirrel's pick up lines (seen only on the extended version). This gave Julia and Heidi another chance to chance outfits. Next we filmed the diner scene. We originally planned to film at the village diner, but we were running out of time so we filmed at the cook house at camp. You will notice a lot of cleaning and repair equipment in the back ground. There is a scene in the expended version where I moved the camera across the room and forgot that I left the camera on. I liked the accidental footage. Then we filmed Justin, Julia and Heidi outside by the cookhouse for the just before school nervous scene. There was no script. They had it in just two takes. I was very impressed. The last shot of the day was Julia running from the imaginary crocodiles. This was just next to the cookhouse where the previous scenes were filmed.
We came back to the camp a few days later to film Stephanie and the younger kids (456). We filmed them coming to campfire, then the kids parts. We sent them home and we filmed Stephanie by herself by the rocks. The last part was Stephanie's narration, which was filmed in the cookhouse (where we filmed the Diner and Squirrel's pickup lines). Stephanie had several narrations that did not make it into the film. They were as a back up because we were not sure that we could get Heidi back to finish up her scenes.
I set a meeting with Kirby to film his scenes. By this time, I had compiled the other shots on my laptop. This gave Kirby a chance to see what was going on before he could craft his sermon. We filmed the sermon at Lambert's Cove Baptist Church, where Kirby preaches (great painting in the back ground). I gave him the passages in James and he improvised the sermon based on the movie so far and the passages in James. Then we went downstairs to film his confrontation with Heidi. It was just Kirby but we used a chair to show where she would be standing and we taped our spots on the carpet. On the way home I did some outside shots again, in particularly the outside of the village diner. I did some internal shots of the diner but it was drastically different from the camp so it was cut. I also stopped at the ambulance station to film the ambulance, the heart monitor and the inside of the ambulance. Noranne was washing the ambulance when I stopped by to ask. I distracted her and she locked the keys in the ambulance. After I masterfully worked a coat hanger to unlock the door (I knew it was my fault and we were praying that no body would get hurt for a while) we filmed my heart on a monitor and I sat on the stretcher.
The next day I grabbed Heidi to finish up her scenes. First of all, we filmed her scenes in the church. I tried to get a close up of her but I did not want it to look like she was there alone. We grabbed a puppet to put next to her, you can make out part of its arm. Originally we wrote that this scene was going to be at a youth group meeting. As we got closer to summer, it was harder to get the youth off of work. Also we wanted Roz to imagine that she was being tortured in a chamber by Nathan and Mikey. However, there was a family emergency and that idea was scrapped. The heart attack was added instead. We went down stairs at roughly the same time Kirby was there the day before to film her conversation with Kirby. Next we went to Stephanie's parents house to film the mirror sequence. The bathroom was just re-done by Heidi's aunt and uncle (also Stephanie's parents). We originally wanted Heidi to talk to Stephanie through the mirror, but we did not have time. We also shot two walking sequences outside with Heidi.

The film debuted at Bayview Christian Camp on Sunday July 7th. It was screened at camp the next week as well. A re-edited and shortened version was screened at the Tidal Wave Film Festival in Fredericton, NB November 10th, 2002.