This is continued from Part 1
Morgan Muscat is young Canadian Filmmaker with whom I was speaking recently.
Morgan's next project was 10 minutes long and called Title Match, another class project. This was completed in 2008, during his last year at Sheridan. Title Match was also submitted to the Festival circuit and got into both MIFF (Mississauga Independent Film Festival) and the Speakup! Festival in Mississauga. It was nominated for 4 Media Arts Awards in 2008. The nominations were for Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Production Management and People's Choice.
Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Morgan immediately launched into making his SciFi/Drama short, Severance. This was a script that he had written while still at college, and it had just been waiting for the appropriate time to make it happen. A fully independent production, Severance would take two years to complete. This is where Morgan ran into some of the headaches that can plague an independent production. Funding was the first issue. Morgan had a few dollars saved but not enough to fully fund Severance.
Photo by Bruce M. Walker
Originally it was supposed to be a joint project with Sheridan College, but they backed away from that plan and it became very much of a stealth production. He got a bunch of his ex-classmates involved, friends with an interest in filmmaking. Next they scrounged around for lighting equipment and cameras. They shot the film guerrilla style - shooting during off hours, finding quiet streets and vacant lots.
Some of the hassles he ran into involved shooting in locations without getting the appropriate permits signed; using some actor friends who happened also to be in the Actor's Union and then having the union breathing down his neck; using special effects without getting clearance for their use in the specific locations; failing to get the appropriate insurance policies, and even running out of funds for post production … Morgan says that although the issues were annoying and caused setbacks and delays, it was an invaluable learning experience about things you would not learn in school. He says he learned more in the two years of making Severance than he had learned in the previous 3 years of film school.
Severance is about a selfish and spoiled individual who has lost sight of what is valuable in life in exchange for power and money. He finds himself being plagued by his alter-ego who shows him what he has become.
When Severance was finally finished in 2010, Morgan immediately began to submit it to the Festival circuit. It was accepted by MIFF, and received accolades from all who saw it, and no wonder. Severance is a really excellent short film, showing no signs of the conflicts that raged around its actual making. It was directed by another young Canadian filmmaker, Dany Geshan. The editing is tight, the acting is great, and the cinematography is excellent. As usual with Morgan's films, the choice of music was really appropriate, with a great original score by David O'Hearn.
Morgan told us that regretfully, during the editing process he had to cut some of his favourite scenes in order to get the film to its 30 minute length, but in viewing the film, it has not lost any context from those cuts, and it flows smoothly.
Finished in 2011, Morgan's next short film - 8 minutes in length and shot in one day - was The Devil Walks Among You. Ryan M. Andrews was the writer and one of the producers. Made on a shoestring budget of $1,300 CDN this short horror movie is sophisticated and brilliantly made. It was shot in a local diner and a piano bar. They had to shoot when the locations were closed, which was during the day. Since the movie takes place late at night, while shooting at the diner they had to block the light from the windows. Once again, Morgan's choice of music for the film was perfect, with another original score by David O'Hearn.
The resulting movie is ominous, frightening and visually excellent. The choice of actors was excellent, with Morgan's favorite actor, Robert Nolan playing the lead, and the sultry narrator being played by Sandra DaCosta. The results are spectacular, and Morgan is very proud of this movie. It was played on Malta television, and It was nominated for three awards - Best Director, Best Editing and Best Cinematography. Actor Robert Nolan who played the Devil, won an award for 'Best male Actor' Hamilton Film Festival, 2012….and the film won Best Picture Foreign Origin Short, 2012 at the Barebones Film Festival in Oklahoma.
The story is about a diner on a lonely stretch of highway, and their last customer of the night, the Devil.
The Devil Walks Among You is an Official Selection at the 2013 Little Nightmares Canadian Horror Shorts Festival. The film will screen on June 1st, 2013 at the Staircase Theatre in Hamilton, Ontario.
In 2011 Morgan got married and decided to take a couple of years off to be with his family. He wanted to do this "before the world of filmmaking swallows me up", as he put it. Morgan says his wife and brand new baby are his inspiration to move ahead with his different ideas.
Photo by Bruce M. Walker
Right now he has several projects on the go: an adaptation of a Stephen King short story called "Suffer the Little Children", He is joining forces with writer/director/animator David T. Krupicz to produce a feature length animated film called Cold Dark Mirror which they hope to release in 2014. (Morgan previously worked with Krupicz as a producer and a voice actor on his Archon Defender animated feature released in 2009.)
Morgan left us with with a quote "To me, screenwriting is a love that I cherish and would never want to give up; creating a world of situations and characters is such a thrilling experience for me, especially so when you're on set seeing your vision fully realized by a director. The same can be said about producing. If I had the chance, I would write and produce all my films because I prefer that combo. That's me in a nutshell."
