The pressure is on this Christmas for a Black Diamond native and his team of filmmakers to put their script into motion.
Cameraman Kyle Robb and his team were one of 15 selected to receive $10,000 to produce a digital scripted story through TELUS’ STORYHIVE program, which supports emerging creators in the arts with funding and distribution opportunities.
Robb helped produce the video Psyborgs, written by friend David Hiatt, about an elite team of psychic cybernetic super soldiers who band together to destroy the insidious forces of a militant organization.
“Initially, I planned to help him shoot it and do the lighting and now I’m helping to produce it,” Robb said. “It’s tough, especially since me and Dave are both working day jobs, too. We had to do everything in the evenings and weekends.”
The Calgary-based team shot the pitch video in October and learned about the grant in November.
“We went out and shot the trailer in one night and Dave did a couple pickup shots over the weekend,” said Robb. “We just had a rough copy of the script done when we entered the competition.”
With the script now ready to go, Robb said the team has lined up four days at the end of December to shoot the short story in Calgary. The final product will be showcased on TELUS Optik TV on Demand in March.
“We have until February (8) to completely edit it and do our visual effects and sound work to have it ready and deliver it,” said Robb. “It’s pretty short having to do everything in one month. We’ll do revisions on the script the last couple of weeks.”
Community members are invited to vote online from Feb. 29 to March 4 as the teams compete for a prize of customized career training or a scholarship to the Banff Television Festival. The winners, one from Alberta and one from British Columbia, will be announced in March 2016.
During Robb’s years growing up in Black Diamond he would spend hours shooting videos with his friends on an old Sony hand-held camera.
He graduated from Oilfields High School in 2008 and enrolled in the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s two-year film and video production program, where he majored in lighting and camera.
“When I first started doing side projects with Dave (Hiatt) in school he would always go for something semi comedy and I always loved his sense of humour,” he said. “When he invites me to work on projects I’m on board.”
Although Robb is a full-time electrician, he dabbles in film when he can.
“Dave and I both have non-industry related day jobs but we were pretty active in film industry in the two or three years following,” he said. “We want to create more short films. Short films aren’t a major money-making project, but it’s opening the door to work on bigger features. A lot of independent filmmakers that shoot these 10 to 15 minute films will go the festival route and see who they can get it shown to.”
While Robb has done lighting for such television series as Hell on Wheels and Fargo, he prefers the hours and stability of being an electrician.
“Those big TV shows run a 12 to 16 hour days for five days a week and then when a TV show is over you are on the job hunt for who knows how long,” he said. “I was looking for something more stable and with more time off.”
Robb said he plans to always stay connected to the movie industry, but more as an independent.
“When it’s your own project you get to feel like you have a little creative control,” he said.
“When you are working in lighting and camera in bigger TV shows you are a worker that does what he’s told and don’t feel all that involved. If the opportunity came up and we were able to shoot a full feature film I would be interested in doing that.”
To view Robb’s pitch video go to www.storyhive.com/project/show/id/753
