Filmmakers enter final stretch of international competition

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/11/2019 (2132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two years ago, Brandon-based filmmakers Nate Bower and Miles Crossman cracked the top three of Filmaka’s “Lost in Translation” competition based on the quality of their respective shorts.

Because of this ranking, the duo got the opportunity to take part in the company’s latest contest, where they have a chance at winning a feature film deal.

Since the parameters of the contest are very broad, with each short having to fall under a “Whistleblower” theme, Bower and Crossman decided to make drastically different projects and started shooting them in Brandon this past weekend.

Crossman, for his part, wrote and directed a comedy about a lifeguard who has anxiety about using his whistle for the first time.

Meanwhile, Bower crafted a more conventional political thriller called “Affirmation.”

On Sunday, Bower, Crossman and their crew had to brave freezing temperatures at the corner of Third Street and Lorne Avenue to film a exterior scene for “Affirmation” that involved a SWAT team breaking into an apartment complex.

Being a seasoned veteran of the Canadian film industry, Bower managed to get all the footage he needed in under 10 takes.

“If you work in film in Manitoba, you learn to buy nice warm gear because you always shoot too much outside,” he said.

Bower later told the Sun that he has been producing video content since 2000 and has been able to do this as a full-time job over the last seven years.

Crossman has been involved in the industry since around 2014 and usually sticks to the writing and producing side of things.

The two met at a Brandon University screenwriting class three or four years ago and have been collaborators ever since.

Even though Crossman and Bower call Brandon their home, they both have to regularly travel to Winnipeg for work, since that’s where all the province’s movie and TV jobs are situated.

However, Crossman thinks Brandon can definitely sustain more local film production, given how supportive the city’s been to their last couple projects.

“They let us close down this street for our little shoot (on Sunday) and I think that kind of commitment to seeing film production in Manitoba grow and expand to Westman is wonderful,” he said.

This support extends to institutions like Systems Beauty College and Assiniboine Community College, since several students from these schools served as vital members of their crew throughout this past weekend.

“In terms of our actors, we have such a great theatre pool here,” Crossman said. “We know that there’s more people who want to be apart of something like this — they just don’t know that they can do it here.”

Now that they’ve laid down all this groundwork, Bower thinks that Brandon and the Westman area are perfect candidates to help expand Manitoba’s film and TV industry.

“We’re never going to be a rival to Winnipeg,” he said. “But if we can get a good core group of people, there’s no reason why we can’t start shooting a bunch of stuff here.”

In fact, Bower and Crossman told the Sun that they want to produce a feature-length film right here in Brandon if they manage to score this deal with Filmaka.

Not only would this project be a boon to the community, but it would also guarantee more film opportunities down the line, Crossman says.

“Getting that first (feature) off is a prerequisite to unlock any public funding from the federal government through Telefilm,” he said. “And that’s the biggest barrier we have, because film is an expensive operation.”

Crossman and Bower are hoping to wrap up shooting of their respective short films sometime this week. After that, they are required to edit and submit their finalized projects to Filmaka by Dec. 14.

Even though the pair are going up against 34 other submissions from around the world, they remain pretty optimistic about their chances of winning and about the filmmaking potential of smaller Canadian cities in general.

To make this case, Bower points to the success of CineCoup’s 2014 horror comedy “Wolf Cop,” which was shot in Regina and its surrounding area.

“Those guys have gone on to do some great things, so ideally the same kind of thing happens here,” he said. “We shoot a feature here and that just sparks a whole movement in Westman.”

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