The curtain has dropped and the page has turned on another year.
A fresh new, empty book of a year lay in front of us to write the story of 2022.
To say that 2021 was anything less than challenging for iFilmGroup and the world for that matter would be an understatement... on top of an already challenging 2020. But the moments in life are what you make of them.
The team at iFilmGroup feels sometimes that life is like a movie set. Sometimes you have to make the best out of what you are given. That concept makes the iFilmGroup team think of the song ‘Season of Love’ by Jonathan Larson which was featured in the Broadway show “Rent”. The song talks about ‘525,600’ minutes in a year. That is Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred moments to make something happen. “Five hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan”. The song asks the question “How do you measure a life of a woman or a man?”
The iFilmGroup team feels we can each be measured with what we do with the time we are given and how we make the most out of what we have, regardless of the circumstances. Filming and doing production have ground to a standstill in the past two years. With only a few limited shoot dates happening in the last couple of years due to restrictions and safety protocols. The slower pace has given time for post-production of the several films already filmed.
2021 saw the release of “Malicious Attack” and another film “Not Ready” having most of the post-production done with a plan to release in 2022. ‘Filmmaking’ is not at the core of iFilmGroup… ‘mentoring’ is, and has in the past couple of years been challenging on that front. But iFilmGroup has been adapting.
A lot of groundwork has been laid in the past two years for the future of iFilmGroup. Although the process has been slower than the team would like, it is moving forward with a lot of great things that have happened and that are planned for the future. Like every year at this time the team likes to reflect on the accomplishments of the past year… while also dreaming and looking forward to what is to come. So, in the spirit of ‘Season of Love’. Let's celebrate and remember a year in the life of iFilmGroup for 2021.
The iFilmGroup team came into 2021 with three films in post-production that had been shot previously. “We were in a bit of a hole”, remarks ‘Head of Film Production’ Matthew Marshall. iFilmGroup included a short film on bullying called ‘Malicious Attack’ which Marshall had shot through his production company m & s Marshall Productions that was brought under the iFilmGroup banner.
On the set of ‘Blue Love’. Some cast and crew.
A second short film that Marshall had been working on with Helena Rose that wrapped filming in 2019 called “Blue Love” was added to the editing roster.
Then the iFilmGroup production “Not Ready’ had been filmed as well and needed to be edited. Marshall goes on to explain, “That due to some rapid growth of iFilmGroup and a number of opportunities that had presented themselves during 2019 and 2020 the team had focused on Production and filming with little time left for editing”. Something that in the end may have worked out for the team when things came to a standstill in 2020 and into 2021 when the slow down continued.
On set of ‘Not Ready’ with some cast and crew.
2021 SEASON OF EDITING
Marshall spent most of the year of 2021 with the editing department. Editing first “Malicious Attack” and “Not Ready”. He brought ‘Malicious Attack’ to completion and 'Not Ready' to the point of Audio Post-production. He even started editing on ‘Blue Love’. “2021 was a very productive year of editing,'' Marshall adds.
RELEASE OF MALICIOUS ATTACK
Marshall's work in the editing department started to pay off as in October iFilmGroup and m & s Marshall productions released the 49-minute dramatic film “Malicious Attack” about bullying and how it affects high school students. October seemed fitting for the release as it is ‘World Bullying Prevention Awareness Month’, with October 13th being ‘National Stop Bullying Day’. Which was the day the team decided to premiere the film. “Malicious Attack” has already gone on to have 12,000 views and be nominated for awards in Film Festivals.
NEW FORM OF MENTORING
With restrictions, the iFilmGroup team has had to find new ways to carry out the goal of mentoring the target groups. Three areas have developed with great success and have stood out with iFilmGroup International Film Festival, Online Remote Learning and Outreach Beyond the Walls.
iFilmGroup International Film Festival (IFGIFF)
In late 2020 iFilmGroup opened up their new Film Festival for the first year as a way to allow filmmakers of all ages to submit their work. This initiative allowed iFilmGroup to mentor filmmakers online from around the world. The online event was held in April 2021 and was a success. The first annual IFGIFF (as it is called for short) produced some familiar faces in the winner circle which added to the giving back to the Southwestern Ontario Community.
The IFGIFF 2020-2021 winners
Best Director- Sadie Rose- ‘August’
Best Micro Short Film- ‘Hinterland Election Night’
Best Short Film- ‘August’
Best Lead Actress- Ashleigh Morrison- ‘Goldfish’
Best Lead Actor- Max Steinberg- ‘What Normal Boys Do’
Best Actress Under 18- Ashleigh Morrison- ‘Detainee X’
Best Actor Under 18- Max Steinberg- ‘Afreen’
Best Ensemble Cast- ‘Hinterland Election Night’
In October 2021 the second year for the 2021-2022 iFilmGroup International Film Festival opened up. With an end date of April 2022. Thus far the festival has over 60 entries and will have its final deadlines over the coming months of the early part of 2022. The iFilmGroup team is excited for the results of this second season of the festival.
ONLINE REMOTE LEARNING
Taking a page from the education system, iFilmGroup looks to offer a platform where iFilmGroup members can be mentored without being in person. The iFilmGroup team is working on an online learning and teaching program. A lot of planning and discussion has gone into what this would look like.
This project has been in the works for two years and finally is starting to take form. The team has been filming footage and having individuals record the base training tracks for segments. The concept was started in 2020 but has been one of the aspects to be slowly moving forward. But 2021 saw growth and development as things started to come together and the team prepared for a launch in the future, even if the ‘in-person’ mentoring comes back. iFilmGroup feels this will be a great way to connect with more people and offer teaching and learning so that the mentoring is not limited to just people who can come to ‘in-person’ events.
OUTREACH BEYOND THE WALLS OF IFILMGROUP
Several moves were made to open more doors for outreach by the iFilmGroup team. In the spirit of mentoring and teaching, the iFilmGroup team has several acting coaches working with various actors wanting training both ‘in-person’ sessions (when safe), and also online remote training. Head of Film Production Matthew Marshall has been doing this dealing with the tech side of production. Marshall was hired by the Digital Creative Arts Centre which is under the banner of BGC London. Marshall led two one-week filmmakers camps for teens. Marshall has also been doing some remote teaching on acting and filming with students.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATES
During this downtime, it also allowed Don Hickey (co-founder and Community Engagement Manager at iFilmGroup) to engage in the International Indie film market. In talks with international contacts (since early 2020) iFilmGroup now has associates in Sweden, South Korea, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, and the USA. These associates have already contributed in many ways to our production processes in 2020 and 2021.
EXPANSION & GROWTH
Even in these times of slow down and restrictions iFilmGroup has seen growth. Not always in the areas that they expected, but growth has come on a number of fronts.
The truth is that this process of ‘limited shooting’ has been time-consuming and frustrating at times, for the iFilmGroup team but they are confident that the strides they are making will be good for iFilmGroup and their associates, actors, and crew as the team moves forward.
The first area of growth was iFilmGroup casting a virtual remote film. This had been in the works since 2020, but finally got rolling with some additional casting of roles in 2021. The cast of ‘Social Disobedience’ was fully selected and cast. Filming has started but has been slow due to some of the cast having to learn how to do shots and filming themselves as well as other commitments in their life. “It’s a new way of making a film and I think everyone is on a learning curve of how to make it work”, comments Marshall on the virtual filming process.
A place to film without rental fees and working out schedules has been on the team’s minds. Especially within the world of restrictions. The iFilmGroup team, under the direction of iFilmGroup’s Community Engagement Manager; Don Hickey has obtained space in a warehouse to safely shoot ‘specific sized sets’ for future ‘specialized social distancing’ filming.
This warehouse will allow shooting with multiple three-walled rooms. Hickey figures once renovations are complete there will be at least 8 rooms for staging. “Just think “Big Bang Theory” set or any other sitcom set that you might have seen (on a behind-the-scenes feature), and that’s what iFilmGroup will have”, Hickey says.
Marshall adds, “This awesome ‘real estate’ feature will allow us to continue with mentoring workshops and ongoing filming. Our members (made up of crew and actors) are excited about continuing their growth and sharing their talent with our mentoring program. Growth will continue and we have a full schedule for the 2021-2022 season.” The team has already shot footage for the acting training as well as scenes for the film 'Not Ready' in this warehouse.
From a personnel perspective, the team has grown as well. Tim Harvey, a local photographer and sound engineer that has worked with the iFilmGroup team a number of times have come on board to help out with people who are looking for affordable headshots. Tim worked on several productions with the team as a photographer including ‘Struggles Within’ and ‘Malicious Attack’. Most recently he was a drone pilot and camera op for ‘Not Ready’. Tim has an extensive background in photography in various forms. “He is partnering with iFilmGroup to be a source that we can send people to for headshots.” adds Marshall.
The iFilmGroup team expanded in 2021 in a way that is at the core of the iFilmGroup’s values and mission. iFilmGroup added a co-op student, Olivia Williams. Her time started in October 2021 and will go to June 2022.
The iFilmGroup team has had what they call “Accredited Mentoring” of students in the past on a short-term basis for a term of a month or so, or for a certain number of hours. A student had completed a one-month term during shooting of a film. A College student also did some virtual training with Marshall on ‘Directing’. But never an internship or co-op that ran a full school year or semester like Olivia is doing.
Marshall and Hickey are very excited about this opportunity. “This style of training is at our core as a mentoring group”, Marshall says. Marshall feels this opens the door to the group doing more internships and training like this in the future. Olivia’s training has been mostly virtual. But Marshall feels that when you look at acting in most cases actors do a lot of independent work learning the craft and preparing for auditions. So, the style of virtual training very much fits the way an actor would be functioning. More so than attending a certain location every day.
With the co-op, it is putting more of a focus on the development of the Online virtual learning program and how much this could be a state-of-the-art program in the area for the training of young or new actors. “The structure and learning process could be something that we become well known for”, adds Hickey.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
With all this growth in the last few years, the team is looking to where they need to go in the future. If by the theory, growth continues at the current rate, the team has to look at how their programs and facilities can expand and how this structurally will work. iFilmGroup is not funded by any government programs. Their funding comes from the generous funding of corporate and individual donations.
Perry Hegmans and Don Hickey overseeing the renovations at the warehouse to complete iFilmGroup Studio.
The team and donors have fronted the burden of the costs of renovations in the warehouse as the team converted the interior to sound stages. Renovations of the warehouse to sound stages will be ongoing into 2022. Also, the team has shot several short films, plus Virtual Acting training incurring many expenses. In 2022 iFilmGroup will be looking at ways to raise more funds to continue to finance the projects underway. To make a donation to iFilmGroup cause, please contact either Matthew Marshall or Don Hickey of iFilmGroup.
Despite the restrictions of 2021, iFilmGroup feels they have used every second of their Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred moments of 2021 and is planning to wisely use all those same moments of time in 2022. As the chapter of 2021 has closed, a new chapter of 2022 has opened with a fresh new blank page. As Hickey and Marshall are both scriptwriters, they both jokingly wish to be very clear that because we have ended a year, that doesn’t mean the story of iFilmGroup has ended. In fact, it has just begun for a New Year and they look forward to the new journey and the story that will be written.
New Year 2022 - Chapter one… begins!
“2020 and 2021 have been great growth years even during these ‘special times’ and with many restrictions on business and society. Developments in many departments within iFilmGroup have exceeded our expectations. Thank you to The Production Team, mentors, mentees, actors, and associates.”
iFilmGroup
London ■ St. Thomas ■ Chatham-Kent
Ontario - Canada
WEBSITE - www.ifilmgroup.org