The first complete stranger to ever recognize me from a production that I had done was a homeless guy on Queen Street trying to sell me some hash.
Ever since then, nothing surprises me.
No Surprise
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Author Archives: Simon Fraser
LCD
Auteur is the lowest common denominator.
Overnight Success
An actor rises to stardom and falls from grace over the course of one night. Produced by Paul Andrew. Written by Simon Fraser. Directed by P.A. Castel. Starring Simon Fraser, Lisa Burling, Peter Ivaskiv, Mick Southon.
DIY: Stay at Home Dan
I returned from Los Angeles late last night where I was shooting a 7-minute version of a sitcom pilot I’ve written with Ben Brooks and Renée Percy. The name of the sitcom is “Stay at Home Dan”; the name of the pilot episode is “Chick Magnet”.
The three of us financed, produced, directed and starred in it ourselves. We had a wicked crew consisting of director of photography John Schmidt, production manager Brandi Wright, sound recordist Sean Oakley, gaffer Carlos Jackson and grip J.R. Latouche. We also had a great supporting cast with Jessica Sattel, Pete Gardner and Jay Malone.
Now begins my favorite step in the process: editing. It’s the part where I finally get to write the story.
Here are some production stills:
Ben Brooks and Renée Percy in Stay at Home Dan
Simon Fraser in Stay at Home Dan
Jessica Sattel in Stay at Home Dan
Pete Gardner in Stay at Home Dan
Jay Malone in Stay at Home Dan
cast & crew in Topanga State Park
Method Story
I think it’s possible to let your problems work for you. They can affect how you tell a story, but any story can be told any way.
The simplest possible method to tell the story is for you yourself to deliver the story directly to camera. And there’s even different ways of doing that – video/film diary, home video/movies, various styles of news report, documentary/mockumentary, etc.
That’s the simplest. Everything else is an expansion of that.