Yet another coup in the battle to acquire strong songs for the soundtrack was the discovery of Ephemera. I stumbled across this Norwegian group by typing "Girl bands" into Google and searching through thousands of hits. They had some MP3s on their site and I was immediately taken by their sweet girl pop sound (all mixed down with a Stereolab kind of feel). I was surprised to discover that they are almost unknown here in North America.
They contributed the song, Girls Keep Secrets in the Strangest Ways, which - you wouldn't know from their photos - underscores (and beautifully) one of the only 'sad' moment in the film. I think it is time to scoop up on what's going on in Norway. Check them out at Ephemera.
I just realized that for a blog devoted to a film called These Girls there are precious few photos of girls on it (none in fact so far). Here is a photo from The Toronto International Film Festival of the principle cast and me. These kinds of promo photos are kind of strange because I would get a call from the film's publicist to show up at such and such a place and suddenly I'm being ushered into a room with the cast for a photo session. Then I realized that Caroline, Holly and Amanda have been in makeup for hours and have dressed up expressly for this - however I have just rolled out of bed and my eyes aren't even open yet. I sometimes would get a blast of coffee moments beforehand or David would let me have something off of his breakfast plate, which seemed to follow him magically everywhere. Stranger still, I don't even know who owns this photo and I will probably get my ass sued for using it.
In order to give you a little taste of the behind the scenes action I thought I would reveal some moments that we, the filmmakers, shared but are not usually available to you, the audience. The reason you don't often see this kind of material revealed is because actors are shy people and often very aware of their image - and in this day and age who can blame them. So, here is a photo of Paul Spence (Fubar, Pete Tong) before going into makeup and late for work again. (I didn't ask him where he got the truck) All I can say is, "Dude, put a shirt on".
Actually, once Paul got over his - night out with the locals - he eased into his role as Lenny, the semi-dangerous biker, with grace and, dare I say, vigour.
Here are a couple of frames from the opening titles sequence - every set of titles is animated and it all blasts by to the tune of Combat Baby by Metric (that's the band not the curiously rational and efficient European standard of measurement adopted by the Canadian government in the late 1970s) You can check out the song (and others) on Metric's website at http://www.ilovemetric.com/music.html
The titles sequence is a true work of art designed by a couple of fine young Montrealers who go by the name Le Club Social. It goes by pretty fast when you see the film in the theatre - although it looks awesome when it is big. I am sure that when it comes out on DVD, people will want to own it just so they can watch the titles sequence over and over and over - I know I will. If you click on them they should get bigger and easier to see.
These Girls will have it US premiere at San Francisco Indiefest! The film will screen February 2nd and 5th. I will be attending the festival and will be posting a festival diary. Check out the festival website. http://www.sfindie.com/indiefest06/
Here is the first in a hopefully informative and stimulating series we are calling These Girls Facts!
These Girls was shot in Shediac, New Brunswick, a small fishing and tourist village on Canada's Atlantic coast. Shediac boasts to be the Lobster Capital of the World and a testament to the seriousness with which they take their boasts is the worlds largest lobster, which guards the entrance to the village. In this photo Producer, Andrew Noble (on right) and Production Manager, Donald Tétreault discuss trying to get lobster into movie. Either the lobster was too big or the camera was too close, one way or another there is no lobster in These Girls.
Just to start off, here is proof positive that I directed These Girls. That's me in the baseball cap 'directing' David Boreanaz. If I recall correctly, the conversation was something like this.
David: Is this the part where I turn into a monster and kick everyone's ass?
John: I think we'll save that energy for the next scene.
This is, of course, completely untrue. Transmutation was never discussed although David insisted I looked quite a bit like Mark McGuire or an extra from a civil war drama (on alternating days). I have had actors turn into monsters on set before without being requested to do so - its not pretty - but David was a pleasure to work with.
And just to show you that I look nothing like Mark McGuire here are photos of 1) a Mark McGuire impersonator, 2) Mark McGuire and 3) Myself.
Here is my first attempt at building a personal blog for my film These Girls. Hopefully as it evolves I can get some of the other people involved to put in their two cents, every once and a while. I will attempt to post updates regularly and point out all those other sources of These Girls information that are out there, e.g. the official website which should be up soon. I will try my best to actually give information that you can't get anywhere else and drop some trade secrets. So let's begin...
Yet another coup in the battle to acquire strong songs for the soundtrack was the discovery of Ephemera. I stumbled across this Norwegian group by typing "Girl bands" into Google and searching through thousands of hits. They had some MP3s on their site and I was immediately taken by their sweet girl pop sound (all mixed down with a Stereolab kind of feel). I was surprised to discover that they are almost unknown here in North America.
They contributed the song, Girls Keep Secrets in the Strangest Ways, which - you wouldn't know from their photos - underscores (and beautifully) one of the only 'sad' moment in the film. I think it is time to scoop up on what's going on in Norway. Check them out at Ephemera.
