| iR:
How did "Rub & Tug" begin? How did you guys raise the
funding to do it? What inspired you to make your first
feature on this subject? |
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| "Rub & Tug" was produced in participation
for Telefilm Canada, The Movie Network (ASTRAL) and The
Movie Channel (CORUS). Telefilm provided us with most
of the financing and we pre-sold Canadian broadcasting
to The Movie Network and The Movie Channel. |
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| After finishing film school, I searched very
hard for a film worthy subject. I met this massage [parlor]
owner who kept on boasting about his lucrative business but
he also kept on complaining about the massage girls. The
wheels started turning — massage girls fight back—
interesting. He let me meet the girls. After a year of
on-site research of many [similar] places in Toronto,
I started writing a story about the changing lifestyle
in the sex industry. Inherent to this story was the humor
that surrounded it, so it was destined to be a comedy. |
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| iR:
What is the Canadian indie film scene like? Is there
one? Tell us a bit about it... or do you guys just sort
of work on your own? |
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| The Canadian Indie scene is strong. However,
I can really only speak about the Toronto scene where
I am from. Toronto is a great place to make films. The
community is large and this allows for competitive pricing.
Everything was done here from shooting to developing the
print. I feel very lucky to be in a community that supports
and respects newcomers to the industry. However, the bottom
line is passion for your work and a concise knowledge
of story. |
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| iR:
How did you get Don McKellar to star in the film? Is
he an important part of getting the film made? |
| |
 Getting
Don to star in "Rub & Tug" [was] a long and
tense courtship. We (co-writer/producer Edward Stanulis
and I) approached him to read our script. He liked it
and we started working on various drafts. He provided
[us] input for his Conrad character and off we went. Don
is an incredible talent. He is an acclaimed actor/writer/director,
and he comes with a great deal of knowledge and know how.
Back to the story—Don started working on a play and he
got really busy... we couldn't get him on the phone and
we were approaching pre-production. |
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| Suddenly, Don was on the phone and we went
out to dinner [with him]... he wanted some changes to
the last draft. We then locked ourselves in and gave birth
to the new and improved script [in] two days. Sent it
off to Don. No answer and now we were officially in pre-production. All
the other actors were in place [but] no answer from Don.
Couldn't just sit there so we decided to send him a gift
a day. Sent him truffles with a note that read, "Don't
mean to truffle you but can you please call." No
answer — so we sent flowers, wine, cigars you name
it. We knew he was busy but we were running out of gift
ideas and witty notes. Everyone was really tense because
we were approaching production. Finally, a week before
we went to camera we got a call [from Don] saying he would
do it. He joked and said that the gifts were getting better
so he didn't want to call. He is so good in the film—his
comedy timing is incredible. |
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| iR:
What was Ryerson like as a film school? Did you learn
everything you need to make a film there? Would you recommend
it to prospective film students? |
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|
It was truly an inspiring experience. For the very
first exercise, we had to make 16mm films right away,
which was fantastic. Two of my short films I made there
won awards at film festivals, and I made them with my
classmates using school equipment. Many of my classmates
are currently working in the industry. I would definitely
recommend going to a film school just for meeting people
who are very passionate about filmmaking.
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| iR:
After the film was made, how did you guys generate
buzz? How did you get the acquisition people to be interested?
Why did you guys decide to do a distributor screening
rather than screening it at a festival? |
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| Buzz got generated during filming. There
was a report on an internet news digest that said protesters
were expected to interfere with the filming process. So
we kept the filming location a secret and fortunately
there was no incident. |
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| We got the acquisition people interested
because the film is edgy — It's all story. Comedy
that takes place at a full body massage parlor. Get aroused
and laugh at the same time — that sounds good to
me — wouldn't you see it? |
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| During filming we sent out press releases
and the calls just started coming. The response has been
fantastic. The articles are up on our website www.rubandtugthemovie.com. |
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| We opted for a distributor screening in Canada
versus the festivals because it's better to have them
on board to promote your film. Publicity is vital for
the life of an independent film. At our Canadian distributor
screening every distributor made a bid— how rewarding
was that? We are with Seville Pictures, very happy with
the decision. We are talking to U.S. and Foreign distributors
now. |
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| iR:
So what's next for you? What's on the horizons? |
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We have several projects in various stages
of development. However, we are excited about "Sucktion."
It will do to vaginas what "Rub & Tug" has
done to dicks. It's a comedy of errors where things go
terribly wrong when a woman tries to improve her sex life..jpg) |
