In Oct 2011, I was asked by a friend to think of some commercial ideas for a new channel that only plays “classic movies”. We just needed to have the catch phrase “Movie Lovers” somewhere in the ad. It was going to play on TV, movie theaters, etc. I had nothing. But my friend James came up with this concept, so we shot it in a couple of hours outside our friend’s house. That’s me playing the delivery guy.
On September 22, 2011 it was my 37th Birthday. I wanted to do something different. I asked, on Facebook (and at random) for 37 friends to make a request for one of the following 5 things: DRAWING, PHOTO, STORY, MOVIE OR MUSIC.
The idea was that this would be a party favour from me to them. Many understood what I was doing. A lot thought it was a real party and did not read the instructions.
Check out the rest of the favours here:
In 2010, I made a Hackintosh computer using my old Core 2 Duo clone PC. The whole thing cost me about $60 for the Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD and a heavily discounted copy of iLife. Within iLife was iMovie, and the whole setup’s been a nice little editing computer for the last year.
The following movie was the first thing I cut. It was video shot entirely on my Canon Powershot SD700IS, on Aug 6 2008, during a Radiohead concert in Montreal’s Parc Jean Drapeau:
(Note: Sound on my version was weak. So I used one of the tracks found here: bt.etree.org/details.php?id=517444 (link for mp3s is dead now) which was recorded by someone named Blane. Thanks to him, I was able to get the entire audio for this song.)
No major project this year, because 100% of our time was preparing for our wedding in Las Vegas. About 50 of our closest family and friends attended and it was amazing.
If you’re planning on getting married and unsure what to do, I highly recommend a destination wedding. I’ve spent most of my life, preparing and scheduling events/project/shoots and the great thing about doing “destination” is you just pay them and they take care of the rest. Now unless you’re a REALLY picky person, and need to nit-pick over every god damn little thing, then stick to your $20,000 bullshit event that no one cares about. A week somewhere warm, with all of your loved ones? Man, you just can’t beat that. And we spent a fraction of the cost compared to what a normal wedding costs. Oh and did I mention we won a lot of cash there too? Vegas baby! (p.s. Don’t tell Revenue Canada.)
A couple of years ago, my friend James got to work with Dave Foley.
He sat down with him to reminisce about the good olde days….
So me and my co-worker/friend Dave decided to make a comic book. This would be Dave’s first comic, after numerous attempts with other writers. This was my second, after the Paradox comic I made a few years back.
The comic was about a super-hero named The Flying Squirrel who was having a hard time fitting in with society. So with the help of a local inventor, they create the most sophisticated, high-tech Fat Suit ever! Code-named: B.E.R.T.H.A.
We don’t have the comic post online, yet, but we might post it at some point. If you would like to order a copy (only $5!), please feel free to contact me through this website. And be sure to visit the official Candle Mountains site to see some of David’s other work:
In 2007, all the rage on the internet was taking a bunch of things and mashing them together. I liked Radiohead back then (still do!) and I also love The Empire Strikes Back (as you probably figured out by now). So I figured, why not combine the two for fun? It took about two days but I came up with this video. I hope you like it.
My friends and I decided to make a food blog in 2006-2007.
Our only rule: The place needed to provide a meal that was no more than $10 per person. So if you’re visiting the city of Toronto, look no further! These are some good cheap eats.
Hey we made a book too! If you would like to buy it, click here.
So in 1993, I graduated from high school not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I mean I knew I wanted to get into film. But the colleges I applied to did not accept me. So I tried again a year later and got into Ryerson. But during that year I did a little soul searching. And that’s when I re-discovered The Empire Strikes Back.
I know that may seem kind of lame to some people, but that movie just talked to me at that time. The story, the characters, the effects. That was the type of film I wanted to make. So I tried to make it myself. I borrowed my cousin’s vintage AT-AT walker, bought a lot soap detergent and made Hoth in my parent’s basement. Big mistake. After seeing the results of one week’s work (about 20 seconds of crap) I gave up. I forgot all about it after I got accepted to Ryerson. And that was that.
Then in 2005, I came across some of those old attempts I made when I was cleaning out some old boxes. I was determined to do it right this time. In fact, I was going to try to make the entire film for the 30th Anniversary of Empire. It would be different this time, having a film school background. I was sure that I could do it and nothing was going to stop me.
Well, eventually my shift at work changed (started earlier in the day), I met my future wife and let’s just say life eventually put those plans on hold again. I did manage to complete one scene though; The Carbon Freeze Sequence. I didn’t make my 30th Anniversary deadline, but I’m not giving up. One day I will complete this project. So until then, enjoy this scene:
Between 2003-2005, Jonathan Santiago and I worked together at Sprint Canada here in Toronto. I was going to make a documentary about his life, but when I found out he could do magic, I cut this together instead. This is just a sample of what Jon can do. That guy was amazing!
In 2005, my friend Damon and I were discussing, via e-mails, about starting up a “drama-based podcast”. He and I had been talking at length (one evening at a mutual friend’s party) about the new Dr. Who series. We both felt that it would be cool to do something like that, making a show about time travel, but without all the hassles of working on film or video for 12 hour days. Not to mention spending a lot of money from our own pockets. But recording voices and editing sound f/x? Hell, that’s so easy! (So I thought) If anything, I figured, it’ll give me some good practice sound editing again.
So the first episode was written and shot. And that was it. I blame myself for dropping the ball. My schedule just go so busy at work that I didn’t have time to edit he rest (even though we pretty much shot the next two episodes)
The series is called “Nemoscene”. Just click on the link below to take you to that archived website:
Off the success of the first BangZOOM! we decided to do another one a year later. This one wasn’t as good because we were vastly unprepared. I had just come back from Greece, lost my luggage and dealing with the idiots at Alitalia (don’t ever fly with them - THEY SUCK), and had only 2 weeks to prep everything with Mike.
But we did cut together a nicer opening this time around, featuring the great Michael Jackson!
Check it out:
In 2003, I was asked by my friend Andrew Woolner (who you may remember from my 4th year student film It’s Not Easy Being Greek), to help create a how-to video for theatre lighting.
I’d never made a how-to video before. As you will see from the final product:
Credits:
In 2003, I wanted to be Much Music’s next Temp, so I made a video similar to this one for them. I made it while I was taking a break-dancing class every Friday that year. I didn’t win (not surprised). The person who did win, Weird Al’d (verb) a Tenacious D song. Who makes a parody song of a funny group? So original!
And to top it off, Much Music hated my video so much they ripped it off a year later. I haven’t seen it myself, so I could be wrong. But my camera man said he saw it and was blown away over the similarities. That’s fine. Considering no one watches Much Music any more, I’d say we’re even:
Winner: 2nd prize - 3rd Annual Hub Magazine Digital Video Contest.
Credits:
The Cast & Crew:
Written, Directed & Edited: Peter Kambasis
Starring: Peter Kambasis, Troy Sexton and the Gotta Dance break dancing class of 2002-03.
Director of Photography: Brock T. Hodgkinson
So it was 2002-2003, and my film school friends and I wanted to get back into making some short films. It had been about 6-7 since we graduated from school and we all wanted to get back in touch with our creative side. So we decided to gather a whole bunch of people together, and over 4 weekends, we shot a bunch of shorts that each of us wrote and directed. When everything was cut together, we decided that it would be fun to rent out a theatre and show the shorts for our family and friends and anyone else who would pay $2. Yes we only charged two bucks! Since we had enough film-makers involved, it was pretty cheap to rent the space. Plus I promised everyone that I would make a DVD with everyone’s films on it, so it was a great deal for everyone.
So we needed to promote it. I had registered bangzoom.ca (.com was taken) and I got to work promoting the screening. Here is the commercial I cut for the site:
Next we needed a venue. My pal, Michael Longfield and I contacted the Bloor Cinema here in Toronto and we got them to give us a 2 hour block for a little over a hundred bucks. Then Mike and I got to work cutting all the shorts together.
A few of the film-makers made some commercials. They appeared before the opening credit sequence. Then we showed about 7-8 shorts, with a mock “intermission” sequence that was so entertaining that no one wanted to leave the theatre! Even us.
So here are some of the things Mike and I cut in between the movies. I don’t have permission from everyone to re-post the entire festival shorts online, but maybe one day I will once I get the okay from everyone: