With a Golden Honu Award for Best Foreign Feature at the Big Island Film Festival for his film Patterson’s Wager, he’s eager to share the film with local audiences in just a few days at the Vancity Theatre.

O. Corbin Saleken gave us the lowdown on the film and his process in bringing it to life.

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Can you start by telling us a little bit about you?

I am a Vancouver-based filmmaker whose primary goal is to make engaging, original stories.   I love it when a movie surprises me, when it takes me somewhere I haven’t been before, so that’s the kind of experience I’m trying create for an audience.

How did you get started in the industry and who were some of your early inspirations?

I got my start making movies back in high school, using a VHS camera to make bad skits and horror movies with my brother.  I eventually went to film school at UBC.  After graduating, I just kept plugging away, making shorts and writing scripts, until eventually I decided to take the leap and make Patterson’s Wager, my first feature.
As far as early inspirations, I’m a kid of the eighties, so I was hugely inspired by filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Robert Zemeckis, and James Cameron.

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You’re the writer and director of Patterson’s Wager. What can you tell us about the film and how you got started with it?

Patterson’s Wager is a romantic comedy with a dash of fantasy.  It’s about a man named Charles (played by Fred Ewanuick, from Corner Gas and Dan for Mayor) who discovers that he has the unpredictable ability to see two minutes into the future.   The key word here is “unpredictable.”  Charles can’t control his ability, nor does he know when it’s going to happen, which introduces a significant amount of uncertainty into both his life and the life of his girlfriend Audrey (played by Chelah Horsdal, from Hell on Wheels and, currently, The Man in the High Castle), to whom he wants to propose.

The impetus for the film was twofold.   The concept came to me when I was thinking about useless superpowers, and how I could introduce a single fantastical element into an otherwise grounded story.  I figured that being able to see a minute or so into the future wouldn’t really allow you to do anything spectacular, but it would be just enough to seriously complicate matters.  I then used this conceit to explore particular themes in which I’ve always been interested, these being trust, faith, and the nature of belief.

What should audiences expect from the film?

Audiences who see Patterson’s Wager should expect to see an original story that they haven’t seen before.  It’s a film that comes straight from my heart and mind, and its narrative journey is as unpredictable as are its main character’s “superpowers.”  Audiences can also expect to have an engaging, thoughtful, heart-warming experience that leaves them feeling particularly good when they exit the theatre.  At least, that’s my hope, and, judging from some of the comments I’ve received from audiences who’ve seen the film at festivals, it seems to be what a number of people have felt.

In your own personal experience, did the film change a lot from how you originally envisioned it during the writing process, or was it close to how you imagined it?

Honestly, the film turned out pretty much exactly as I envisioned it, to the point where many of the line readings were uncannily similar to what I’d imagined when I initially came up with the dialogue.   This only happened because people just kept saying “yes” to me whenever I approached them about contributing to the project.   This list of incredibly generous individuals includes the all-volunteer crew, the great cast, the people at William F. Whites and Sharpe Sound and Skylab, and everyone else who gave me access to a particular location, who loaned me or let me use a special prop, who carved me a special prop, and who sewed me a special costume.

What was the biggest challenge for you in making the film and how did you handle it?

The biggest challenge in making Patterson’s Wager was deciding to do it.  I knew that I was going to have to self-fund the movie if I wanted it to get made, which would require a huge financial and time commitment on my part.  I also knew that it would require access to a whole bunch of external resources, such as top-notch actors who’d have to be willing to work for next to nothing.  Despite these limitations, I was also determined that I didn’t want to go ahead if it meant I would have to compromise my intentions in any way.  If I couldn’t do it the right way, I didn’t want to do it all.

I handled this challenge by initially engaging three key people: my long-time friend and the movie’s eventual co-producer (and co-star) Alex Zahara, and the super talented cinematographers Nelson Talbot and Graham Talbot.  Once these guys were onboard, I started adding more and more people to the roster, until eventually I’d gained enough forward momentum that I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to.

What advice would you have for other directors who want to direct their own screenplays?

To answer this, I shall quote a writing instructor I once had, who said that every writer’s problem is that they can’t see their screenplay’s biggest flaw.  Now, I don’t necessarily believe that every screenplay has a big flaw, but when you’re directing your own script it’s certainly easier to overlook, or simply be oblivious to, some problems that might be there.  For example, I will admit that there was one scene in Patterson’s Wager that I overwrote.  It was an important monologue with which I, the writer, was a little too enamoured.  Unfortunately, I, the director, hadn’t realized that I’d overwritten the scene, so we shot it the way it was written, which meant that it was eventually left to me, the editor, to fix it.

I guess, then, my advice is to be very critical of your own script, and make sure you ask for feedback from people you trust.  More importantly, make sure that you listen to this feedback.  If you truly understand the story you want to tell, you’ll be able to apply this feedback in ways that will make your project stronger.

What books and authors have been influential to you throughout your creative journey so far?

My two favourite authors, the ones who’ve had the biggest influence on the way I think about stories, are Jonathan Carroll and Neil Gaiman.  Both of these writers have a knack for creating original narratives, ones that often mix the fantastical with the quotidian, which is something I also like to do.   I’ve also been influenced by D.H. Lawrence, Iris Murdoch, Brian K. Vaughan, Alan Moore, and Roald Dahl. Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach and E.M. Forester’s A Passage to India are probably my two favourite books.

As for film-related books, I loved Hard Core Roadshow, which is about the making of what I consider to be the greatest Canadian film ever made, Hard Core Logo, as experienced by the movie’s screenwriter Noel Baker.  Another great book on filmmaking, and just life in general, is Herzog on Herzog.  During pre-production on Patterson’s Wager, I found Master Shots Vol 2: Shooting Great Dialogue Scenes to be particularly useful.

What other projects are you involved with at the moment?

My next project is probably going to be a short film that will also feature Fred Ewanuick. I’ve written a bunch of feature scripts, so I’m hoping that I can use Patterson’s Wager as a springboard to get one of them made. My dream project is called Peach Fest, it’s kind of the Canadian Dazed and Confused. I’ve got another one called The Dummy Factor, which is about a group of kids investigating a possible local connection to some child abductions.  I’ve also got an unconventional ghost story that I wrote with my cousin Ben Rollo.

Where can we find out more about you and Patterson’s Wager?

You can find more information about Patterson’s Wager at PattersonsWager.com, facebook.com/PattersonsWagermovie, and @PattersonsWager on Twitter.

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Thanks to O. Corbin Saleken for speaking with us!

Patterson’s Wager will screen at the Vancity Theatre on April 17th as part of the Canadian Film Week series and on April 20th for Canadian Film Day.

Tickets are available through VIFF.org

The post The Biz Interview: O. Corbin Saleken appeared first on Biz Books.

With the contest winding down and “When Pigs Fly” holding steady as a prime contender, we spoke with Brendan Taylor about how the commercial came to be, what goes into a successful commercial, and what else he has in the pipeline.

Tell us about the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest and your commercial, “When Pigs Fly”.

The contest is open to anyone who wants to make an ad for Doritos; they don’t have to be filmmakers necessarily, they just have to have a good idea. The winning ad is shown during the Super Bowl, the filmmaker gets a job at Universal in LA, and they win $1 million! Graham Talbot and Nelson Talbot happen to be great local filmmakers, they are SFU Film Alumni and aspire to work on bigger projects. They entered the contest last year and made it to the Top 25 semi-finals, which is already great. But this year they made it to the Top 10, out of almost 5,000 submissions. But I didn’t know it would get there when we shot it in October! It turned out amazing, and of course I’m biased, but I actually do think it’s the best one out of the 10 finalists!

In the ad, a young boy approaches his neighbour and casually asks for a Dorito chip. The grown-up says to him “When pigs fly!”, and the smart young boy takes it literally; he comes back the next day to surprise his neighbour, with a fly-by pig with a rocket on his back. The neighbour concedes and gives him the whole bag.

How can people get involved to support it?

Please go to Doritos.com and click ‘VOTE’ under our video “When Pigs Fly”! We are 1 of 2 Canadian teams this year, and would love all the support we can get to win this thing! It’s real easy, no sign-up, just visit the site and vote! You can vote every day until Wednesday, January 28th, once a day on your computer, phone, and tablet!

And find Vote4whenpigsfly on Facebook for all the latest news and extra behind-the-scenes stuff! We find out who won the contest DURING the Super Bowl on February 1st; they will air it live, so we will all find out at the same time!

How did the idea for this commercial come about?

Graham Talbot and Nelson Talbot just did a brainstorming session and built on what they learned last year, got an idea, and ran with it. Raw creativity based on experience! They knew kids and animals were popular in ads, so they worked from there. They have a good friend who does most of the post-production CGI effects. You can find a great little video on the visual effects on our Facebook page.

What can you tell us about your creative process in putting it together?

There were many factors, the Talbots will tell you: working on a budget, calling in favours and finding the location, and the actors: Keegan Turbitt, the perfect young genius boy, myself for the ‘simple’ farmer, and Bernard the Pig, who is a local pig actor! I got a call randomly from a mutual friend who was helping them find cast. I looked at the Talbot’s previous work and really liked it. I decided to jump on board, thinking at the very least of having something cool for a demo reel. The rest is history!

What do you enjoy about doing commercials vs. theatre, television, and film?

Commercials have been great for me not only for on set experience, but as an outlet for comedic acting. I love comedy, but there’s not a lot of comedy that shoots in Vancouver, just mainly dreary sci-fi stuff. But I do love TV and Film, more so in fact because I get to dig into a real story, and not just a fleeting gag or idea from a 30 second spot. And I love theatre: I was trained in theatre, and firmly believe it makes the actor great. Name any famous actor you enjoy, and chances are they grew up on the stage. Overall, I just love being immersed in storytelling. In a perfect world, I would balance my time shooting TV in LA, traveling abroad and shooting a film on a remote island somewhere for 6 months, then hunkering down in NYC for a few months to work on a Broadway play.

What would you say are the three most important things that every successful commercial needs?

Hmm, tough question. I’m not a marketing person, but from my own experience I would say: know your market, think outside the box, and…hire good actors? I find advertising fascinating, but I think it’s a lot of pressure to constantly come up with good ideas! Often times I’ve found myself improv-ing something in an audition and they end up using my idea because it was better than their own!

One of my favourite recent gigs I had was a singing voice-over gig for Old Spice ‘Dadsong’, once of the most unique and creative ad campaigns out there. The song was written by Bret McKenzie of ‘Flight of the Conchords’. So bizarre, yet very high production value and and you can’t help but laugh and sing along. Check it out on Youtube!

What other projects are you involved with these days?

I have a few projects coming out very soon. I was on an episode of the CW’s Arrow, which will be airing in a couple weeks, and I was on a new show called Olympus on the SyFy Network. I have a few commercials airing right now, and couple more on the way. I was also a lead in a feature film that shot last summer called Charlotte’s Song, which will be in festivals this Spring. It’s a supernatural period piece set in the 1930s Dust Bowl based on the fable of the Little Mermaid. I’m very excited for people to see it.

I’m also in the midst of co-producing an original play with some friends from my theatre company. We’re still in early stages, and it’s scary to dive into something original, but it’s exciting.

Who are some of your influences in film, television, and theatre?

I’ve found my tastes and interests have changed greatly over my life, in terms of who I like and who I think is good. But I definitely have some role models: In dramatic acting, I look up to Daniel Day Lewis, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Fassbender, Michael Keaton. In the world of comedy, I love Ty Burrell, Patrick Warburton, and Larry David’s brilliant writing. I’m fascinated by Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction era. In theatre, sometimes I’m in the mood for William Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams, but then I’ll play with David Mamet or Martin McDonagh.

What books have been influential to you in your career so far?

As I mentioned, I like a variety of theatre, so I love reading plays. Actual physical plays, not so much online. I’d love to have a huge collection of play books that I could chip away at. I find they’re very useful to have around too, if you’re an actor in training, which you should be. It’s so easy to be lazy as an actor, so at the very least you should be reading plays, thinking of monologues, reading up on playwrights or directors, reading or watching biographies… do something to further your craft if you’re not taking classes. Which you should be.

Where can we find out more about you and keep up with your projects?

You can check out my website at Brendan-Taylor.com. I try to keep the blog up to date with my latest gigs. You can find most of my commercials there too, and plenty of photos from past projects, including several plays with Blind Pig Theatre. And you can follow my Twitter @bdog_taylor and Instagram @dardaboy. In the coming weeks I will have a new demo as well as a voice demo up on my site, so stay tuned!

The post The Biz Interview: Brendan Taylor appeared first on Biz Books.