{"id":10883,"date":"2015-06-03T23:12:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T03:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10883"},"modified":"2015-06-17T18:45:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T22:45:23","slug":"local-filmmakers-come-out-with-wins-at-playr-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/local-filmmakers-come-out-with-wins-at-playr-fest\/","title":{"rendered":"Local filmmakers come out with wins at PlaYR Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyone who has ever wielded a camera knows all too well the feeling that comes when you just have to take a photo. Filmmakers, however, might know the feeling experienced one night by Chris Hau.<\/p>\n

The Aurora filmmaker was sitting around one night with friends and the feeling struck: they just wanted to make a music video. So, with whim in mind they set out to make it a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just so happened someone was available with some really great equipment, so we went down to the Distillery District, met with another friend who is a professional actor and said, \u2018Are you around tonight? We\u2019ll give you a Starbucks Gift Card!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That did the trick, and they quickly assembled crew spent the next two hours shooting in the Victorian industrial splendour of the Toronto landmark.
\n\u201cIt was good it was rush hour, so we had some time to think about it,\u201d laughs Mr. Hau when asked what their overall vision was for the video, nothing they hadn\u2019t the slightest idea when they left Aurora. \u201cWe really wanted to get into the idea that with relationships not all of them end in a bad way. Sometimes it is good that you have these relationships in your life [and at the end], it is kind of the end of the battle \u2013 fresh and raw. It is this feeling of reflecting on these relationships. It is hard, but it is about thinking about it and getting to know yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resulting music video for \u201cCan We Talk?\u201d took home honours at the PlaYR Film Festival \u2013 formerly the York Region Multimedia Film Festival \u2013 which culminated in an awards ceremony on Thursday night after making its way around the Region.<\/p>\n

Rebranded for the 2015 festival, this year attracted a record number of video submissions, according to John Watson, Executive Director of the Festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe material we have received has been a whole new level and the quality is really fantastic,\u201d said Mr. Watson.<\/p>\n

Along with the number of submissions, the diversity of the films and videos submitted has grown as well. From \u201cCommunist Mummies from Mars\u201d to a creative \u2013 and all too helpful \u2013 tutorial of the various kinds and various methods of using chopsticks, there was a video for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlobally right now it is an amazing time with digital media and what is happening out there [and] the things you can capture on your camera, the way we view images, and the way we shape things that are happening in our world right now,\u201d said actress Joanne Vannicola, who hosted the event. \u201cI feel this is a time of what feels like difficult times and yet, on the flipside it is also really hopeful because it allows us the opportunity to kind of document and watch human behaviour and change it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am all about change and I am really grateful to live in a time where we can see culturally diverse images, we can talk about LGBT, we can make movies about people from all over the world of all races, cultures, genders, sexualities and I am really excited to be part of this new wave of imaging and digital imagery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aurora filmmaker Alex Broughton is very much a part of this new wave, particularly with his project \u201cPlatform 21\u201d, which won Best Film in the Experimental Category for professionals. Like Mr. Hau, Mr. Broughton\u2019s film explores the challenges of navigating those personal relationships, with a mix of traditional filmmaking combined with still photography over voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an artist, I think it is part of our duty to constantly push whatever it is we\u2019re doing, whether it is the medium we\u2019re expressing ourselves in, or the content we\u2019re addressing,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat inspired this story was a bad breakup and being obsessed with current affairs and a lot of projects. Sometimes that takes priority and it did in a relationship and it cost me in the end. It became a learning experience and that is how I wanted to address this project \u2013 something completely different and another learning experience; an experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mix of moving and still image, he added, was meant to convey a disconnect \u2013 not only a disconnect between the subject of the film and himself, but also between the audience and what they are seeing. \u201cThe universal message that love is the most important thing to fight for, whether it is love for each other, love for another person, love for a family, or love for life itself,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of us get obsessed with ideals and we fight for them, which is good, but you have to be constantly diligent in what you\u2019re fighting and doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex

Alex Broughton<\/p><\/div>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who has ever wielded a camera knows all too well the feeling that comes when you just have to take a photo. Filmmakers, however, might know the feeling experienced one night by Chris Hau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/2015-06-04-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Px","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 14:27:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}