For anyone who has driven through Trail, 小蓝视频, the town's smelter belching out pollution while residents go about their business in the streets below is a familiar sight.
It's against this bleak backdrop that emerging independent Canadian filmmakers Soren Johnstone and Michael Babiarz filmed their award-winning feature film, Play with Fire, screening at the Adventure Centre Saturday Nov. 13.
Play With Fire is a groundbreaking film in a number of ways. Not only was it filmed with next to no budget using local people with no prior acting experience, it managed to capture the award for Best Cinematography at its premier at the RealHeART International Film Festival (RHIFF) in Toronto in 2009.
"I can't fully answer why we won an award for 'Best Cinematography' with next to no budget," said writer/director Johnstone. "I believe a lot of it has to do with the locations and how I chose to photograph them, but also how the outcome affects the viewer."
It took Johnstone years to write the script, a dark tale about a 28-year-old small town "lifer" whose girlfriend gets exasperated with his lack of ambition and convinces him to leave town.
But before he can do so, his misguided loyalty to his best friend steers him in the wrong direction which leads to some harsh lessons about life.
Obsessed with the story, Johnstone recruited his friend Babiartz to help him produce the film. Together they overcame the challenges of no money and borrowed equipment while enlisting friends to play the key roles.
"I lived in Rossland for 16 years, which is six kilometres up a hill from Trail," said Johnstone. "I had always envisioned these spots in the film but where I was at that point in my life I felt I would never get around to making the film - we searched for grant money and additional financial help but eventually I picked apart the script and planned it out in a way that we could make it on our own.
"Looking back on it now, it was the only way to get it done," he said. "Waiting for money and help sometimes will only age you."
The film was shot over 13 months using a cheap camera and handmade dollies and car rigs. Johnstone said he would have hired a professional director of photography if he could have afforded it but, in the end, shooting Play With Fire himself worked out for the best.
"I had broken down everything in the film and understood how to achieve what I was looking for," he said. "I was also willing to go the extra distance."
Johnstone also said it was time he "stepped up" from his past work on post production and serving as a camera operator on his own snowboard skateboard films from when he was younger.
"In a way, those days were like my film school," he said.
The Nov. 13 screening at the Adventure Centre is the third stop on their province-wide tour. Tickets are $10, doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the film starts at 8 p.m. Visit playwithfiremovie.com for more info on the theatrical release tour and DVD pre-orders.
