Getting the camera rolling
photo courtesy finniganproductions.com
Ottawa filmmaker Tim Finnigan premieres latest project
OTTAWA FILMKAKER TIM Finnigan knows all too well that support for independent artists is not the city’s strong point. The local writer, producer, director, actor, and cinematographer has no illusions about the difficulty of flying solo in this remote corner of the film world.
“It’s tough for such a small community of filmmakers; you have to be really patient,” explained Finnigan. “In general, you know, we’re not Montreal, we’re not Toronto, we’re not Vancouver. We used to get a lot of TV movies but now things have changed. Ottawa gets cut if things are slow.”
Funding is the biggest problem for Finnigan and his brother Chris who own and run their own locally based production company, Finnigan Productions. For the pair, whose works tend towards the science fiction, thriller, mystery, and black comedy genres, most local grants are out of reach. Institutions such as the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative of Ottawa and Saw Video do offer regular monetary grants but, according to Finnigan, they have a penchant for more abstract art-house films.
“Everyone wants their own vision,” said Finnigan. “I wish [other like-minded filmmakers] could come together and do one big project. Maybe then we’d have a chance of getting [something] bigger.”
As far the Finnigan brothers are concerned, the only way to cope with this minefield of obstacles is a whole lot of determination and self-motivation. Driven by a positive and hard-working attitude, and having managed to come up with the funds and equipment to produce an original full-length feature, Finnigan took on this latest project on his own.
“We always worked as a team. Then, come summer of 2008, we both had two different ideas for a movie,” explained Finnigan. “For the first time, [though] we wanted to help out each other’s films, we also wanted to do our own thing. It turned into a bit of a competition, actually.”
His new film, a feature-length thriller called A Stale Yellow, is about an amateur detective who takes on the deceptively easy case of finding the actress wife of his neighbour in the fictional Chalice City. However, just when he thinks his work is done, the unsuspecting main character is confronted with a mysterious supernatural horror and is forced into dealings with a strange satanic cult.
The endeavour of writing, producing, directing, and acting in his first independent work was a daunting one for Finnigan, who was used to collaborating and bouncing ideas off his brother.
“It’s a Tim Finnigan thing,” he said. “[In the end] you just pick up the camera and try to do your own stuff.”
Finnigan’s hard work seems to be paying off—A Stale Yellow has been accepted as a competitor in the first round of the Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival, in addition to being booked for a local debut at the Mayfair theatre on Oct. 18.
“There’s something about the Mayfair that I just like a lot. They do a lot of local stuff,” said Finnigan. “We have the core crowd [for the premiere], but I want to get more of the public to come. I’m a bit nervous, but I am looking forward to it.”
For his next project, Finnigan will be going back to work with Finnigan Productions. The project will bring together other little-known filmmakers for a collaborative short film, which Finnigan hopes will make it to the early stages of production late next year.
“I’d love to just do a short film. We seemed to get into this kick of feature films and quality maybe gets sacrificed a little bit,” explained Finnigan. “For now, I’m [just] going to write for a while.”
A Stale Yellow will premiere Sunday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Mayfair Theatre.
