September 19, 2012 – I have dinner with my friend Robin and I pitch her Patterson’s Wager, the screenplay I’ve spent the last five months writing.  When I get to the end of the story, she’s crying.  I’d love to see that movie, she says.  I would, too, I tell her, but there’s no real chance of that happening.  I wrote it because I wanted to get it down on paper, not because I have any hope that it’ll actually get made.  I mean, how would I ever be able to do that?

January 10, 2013 – I send the following email to Nelson and Graham Talbot, the twin directors of photography I collaborated with on my previous short, The Vehicle: “I’m mulling over the possibility of shooting a feature, so I’d like to talk to you two guys about just how feasible you think that might be.“ 

February 7 – I see a Save BC Film video done by Chelah Horsdal, and I’m immediately struck that she would be perfect for the female lead in Patterson’s Wager.  … If I ever actually figure out how to make it, that is. 

February 18 – I meet with Alex Zahara, my longtime friend and frequent collaborator, to chat about potential casting.  … So, are Alex and I just talking about making this movie, or are we actually talking about it?

February 19 & 21 – I email Gillian Barber and Garry Chalk, the stars of The Vehicle, and tell them I’m in the preliminary stages of pre-production on what I hope will maybe be my first feature.  Without reading the script or knowing anything more about the project, they both say that they’ll do it.  With Alex already onboard for another key role, this now means the cast is up to three.  It kind of feels like this is sort of maybe slowly beginning to happen. 

March 27 – Alex and I get together with Fred Ewanuick, my one and only choice to play the male lead.  At the end of our meeting, Fred says that if we still want him, he’d like to do it.  … Wow, okay, this thing just got very real.  I suddenly realize that with Fred’s commitment I really can’t back out now.  … Bloody hell, I guess that I’m making a feature.  Did I mention I’ll be funding this all by myself out of my savings?

April 2 – Chelah Horsdal’s response to the script: “It’s delightful! I’d love to be a part of this.”

May 4 – The table read:  It’s a surreal experience to hear my words being spoken by such high-calibre actors, all of who have agreed to work under the UBCP Ultra-Low Budget agreement, which means they’re doing the movie for basically nothing.    The crew is literally doing it for nothing.  … I’m not sure why, but I’m beyond grateful they are.

July 7, aka DAY 1 – Shooting at home certainly makes it easy to get to set.  Joe Green, our gaffer, pulls up in front of my house in the fully loaded William F. Whites truck.  It truly hits me then that I’m about to start shooting my first feature film.

Borrowing a Judd Apatow tactic, we start with one of the film’s most dramatic scenes.  I’m hoping it will set an emotional marker towards which we can work. 

We finish the day at a Mac’s convenience store.  Farhan, the manager, has graciously allowed us to shoot while he’s still open for business.  He even appears in the scene as the cashier. I tell him that he doesn’t have to say anything, but he doesn’t think that makes sense. He gives himself some lines, and I, in turn, have to give him $100, as per the rules of the UBCP Ultra-Low Budget Agreement.

Day one wraps, with four scenes down, and only another 78 to go.

July 9 – With 8 ½ pages to cover, today is our biggest day yet.  This is when having professional actors really pays off, as they always come prepared and ready to get everything in just one or two takes. This is also where having done a huge amount of pre-production pays off.  I’ve storyboarded every scene, and I know exactly what coverage I require in order to put this story together; at least, I think I do. 

The biggest issue we have is with our last shot of the night.  Fred is supposed to make a phone call by an open window and a couple of drunk yahoos are sitting on the curb right outside, loudly talking.  Our requests to keep it down only encourage them to speak louder.  Eventually, co-producer Alex Zahara manages to negotiate a momentary truce.

July 11 – Bad news: One of the locations we’re supposed to use tomorrow (and for two days after this) is infected with the parvovirus, which is lethal to dogs.  A vet tells me what kind of disinfection measures we’ll all have to take in order to ensure the virus isn’t transferred from the property to someone’s pet. 

When I get home from the day’s shoot, I get a call from one of the actors concerned about going to the infected property.  I completely understand where they’re coming from, and, at 1 AM, I decide to cancel the problematic location.  I go to bed having no idea where we’ll be shooting the second half of the day tomorrow.

July 12 – We start the day at Cascade Falls in Mission.  Where we’re going to be finishing the day is anybody’s guess. Considering that we’re scheduled to do 9 ½ pages today, this could be a problem. 

Alex calls because he’s figured out that we’re right beside Danny Virtue’s ranch.  Production manager Mackenzie Warner and I meet with Danny. We tell him what we need and he graciously works out a deal with us that not only gives us a great location for later that day, but also gives us access to a forest, a river, and a vintage-looking log cabin, all of which we were needing for the next week of filming.

We decide to shoot our campfire scene in a grove of trees in Langley, right behind the Talbot’s (our DoPs’) home.  Despite being minutes away from the highway, it looks like we’re in the middle of the woods.  That’s a wrap on our first week.

July 16 – We’ve got four scenes and more than 11 pages of script to get through, including the “tissue test” scene, a mother-daughter talk about trust that is, in my mind, the heart of the film.  According to Anne Openshaw, who’s playing Otter’s Mum, it’s also the biggest monologue she’s had during her twenty years of acting.  Despite being so ill that she has to temporarily leave set to visit a nearby clinic (at which point my friend Toni-Lynn steps in as Anne’s body double), Anne absolutely nails her speech.  Because Michelle Creber is 13 years old, we only have her for 10 hours.  We finish her last shot with literally seconds to spar.

July 17 – Today’s page count is 12, plus another 3 of voice-over.  We start at some mosquito-infested-yet-visually-beautiful waterfalls, and finish around a campfire, in the forest behind the Talbot’s house. 

There’s a bit of an issue when, due to wearing too many hats (co-producer, teacher, actor in this and an MOW, plus multiple auditions), Alex has a late-night brain fart and has trouble remembering some lines, but this is remedied by holding up the script just off camera.  We go late into the night, but manage to get it all, including the voice-over.

July 22 – The Tim Hortons in Squamish calls me at 1 AM telling me that my food is ready for pick-up.  … Huh?!?   I’ve pre-ordered $300 worth of paninis and soup for tomorrow night, but a communication snafu has mixed up the days.  Thankfully, they don’t make me cover the mistake.

I get to Chances Casino in Squamish at 9:30 PM, on this, our last day of filming.  That we’ve been given complete access to this fantastic location is beyond amazing. To top it off, Kailey and Sam Spear, who’ve been handling extras casting throughout the shoot, have somehow managed to convince a whole bunch of people to drive out here on a Monday night to sit around and fill our background.

We get out last shot of the day – and the movie – at 5:30 AM.  An hour and a half later, I drop off Anton Thomas (our sound mixer) at his place in Burnaby then I drive home in a daze, partly because I’ve been up all night filming, but mostly because I’ve just somehow finished shooting my first feature film.  After just 12 ½ days of shooting, Patterson’s Wager has been brought into existence.  If you’d told me ten months ago this would happen, I never would have believed it.