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"Seasons", A Short Film in 70mm | Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter
| Written by: Michael Milne,
USA | Date:
02.10.2011 |
70mm
frame blow-up from "Seasons in the Mind". Color restoration by Schauburg
Kino
You might be interested in a bit of the background of the film.
Peter Pearson and I were high school friends at UTS in Toronto. We both
went to U of T. I am the third generation of a Toronto photography
family. After college I was a photographic lecturer for Eastman Kodak
where I co-produced and filmed a multi-screen slide and movie show
called Photoscenic Canada, that toured the world. After that I worked in
my Father's commercial photography studio, until Peter and I set up our
production company.
After college, Peter went to Italy and
studied film. Then he worked for the CBC and the Film Board. We remained
best friends and spent hours plotting out how we would make films
together. Our first joint effort was "The Best Damn Fiddler From
Calabogie to Kaladar". Peter was director, and I was a
free-lance art director. "Calabogie" almost didn't get
made.
I had spent a month up on Calabogie searching locations,
casting and preparing locations for the shoot. We had cast Chris
Wiggins, Kate Reid and Margot Kidder, and were all set to shoot an hour
35mm colour film of Joan Finnegan's script. Peter had some trouble with
John Kemeny, the Film Board producer, days before we were to start and
the production was cancelled! Peter and I talked Kemeny into letting us
shoot in 16mm black and white...a shame because the countryside and the
locations were spectacular...but we made a heck of a film anyway. Kemeny
didn't stop at just a b+w film...he only bought two-time rights from the
actors. "Calabogie" was only broadcast ONCE on the
CBC...but it won a basket full of Etrogs...now called Genies.
| More in 70mm reading:
7. Todd-AO 70mm-Festival 2011
Canadian 70mm Short
Films
The Lost Dominion 70mm Film
Festival
"Seasons in the Mind":
Canadian 70mm Short Films
|
We
then made a theatrical short for the Board called "The Dowry",
and after that film we set up Milne-Pearson Productions. We received the
first production grant from the Canadian Government film
initiative...and with it we bought the film rights to As For Me and My
House, by Sinclair Ross. We hired Graeme Gibson to write the script. We
were hardly into the script when we were contacted by an Ontario
Government civil servant, Jim Ramsay, who wanted a film made.. I went to
see him and pitched our feature..."House"...but after
listening to my pitch for half an hour, he told me he wanted us to make
a big screen film for the
Cinesphere Theatre to be built at Ontario
Place. He chose us because he loved the fight scene at the square dance
in "Calabogie Fiddler"!!!! He told me we would have
$500K....and he wanted it started right away!
We spent a little
more than a year shooting the film. There was only one Imax camera in
the world, and it was being used for "North of Superior".
We tried to convince Ramsay to let us shoot in 70mm 3D...but he was
worried about the Imax concept...so we ended up shooting in 35mm
Panavision format and blew up the film to 70mm. That gave us a lot of
technical leeway for the special effects. We created the visual effects
in Toronto. We edited the film in Toronto. Then I spent two months at
Technicolor, timing and finishing the 70 mm print. The score was
recorded in 12 tracks at Todd A-O in Hollywood. We ended up with 6 sound
tracks on the 70mm print and 6 more tracks running in synch on a 35mm
magnetic tape. It was spectacular wrap around sound! Six tracks on the
screen, two tracks on each side and two at the back of the Cinesphere
theatre. When the film was reprinted a couple of years later they
reduced the sound tracks to 6...and a 35 mm theatrical version was put
into distribution by Paramount. Somewhere I have a 35mm print that has
never been shown! |
|
70mm
frame blow-up from "Seasons in the Mind". Color restoration by Schauburg
Kino
There is an interesting little sidebar to my
Hollywood stay. While I was busy at Technicolor, I was spending my spare
time trying to find financing and actors for As For Me and My House. Max
Von Sydow agreed to play the male lead, Kate Reid was to be the wife,
and Margot Kidder was cast for the female antagonist. Technicolor was
excited by the "Seasons" film. They screened the rushes
for several people and were very enthusiastic about the whole project.
One day they asked me to meet a young film maker who they thought would
be an ideal person to partner with. He was also trying to raise money
for a couple of films...so we got together for dinner. We talked about
"Seasons"...he had many questions...and I tried to
interest him in House. He, on the other hand, wanted to make a film
about two dueling tractor-trailers...and another about a space alien who
was stranded on Earth and wanted to call his home! He asked me to DP his
films, and after we made the first two, we would work on House.
It is a little embarrassing to acknowledge that I turned down Steven
Spielberg!!!! I felt I had a moral obligation to my best friend, Peter
Pearson. Steven wanted to direct, and so did Peter. That wouldn't work
for our production company. Sadly, six months after "Seasons"
opened at Cinesphere...Peter and I had an acrimonious falling out. We
may have spoken three times in the last 30 years. At least two of those
occasions were funerals!!!
I'm sure you know all about Peter's
film career in Canada. I eventually gave up my photography and film
interests and went into the garment industry in Montreal (until Levesque
made things uncomfortable) and since then in New York City. I am now
sort of retired in the wilderness (fishing the Susquehanna and Delaware
Rivers) of Pennsylvania.
It's interesting to think about the
film! I hope I can get to see it again this year!
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