Adapting a stage play for the screen

I've been working with screenwriter/director Emily Chan on the adaptation of "Killer of Death",  a Shakespearean neo-noir stage play written by Vancouver playwright/actor Todd Thomson, which I'm slated to Direct.

All I can say is that it is one of the most refreshing and creatively stimulating things I've ever done. Working with Todd and Emily has been incredibly rewarding.

The play is around 20 pages long, but adapting it to the screen may condense it further. We are very happy to leave Todd the duties of rewriting it into a screenplay, and we are helping him along the way, setting up story meetings to work out any "translation" issues and to give it a cinematic appeal.

Writing progress will be slow, but we dont want to rush it. We want the story to be as good as it gets.

I'll be posting updates as they occur. Im excited!

New songs in the works

Today's band practice went awesome again - we're writing new songs and we're giddy with excitement. Good energy + Great Musicianship = Kickass Music! :D Im happy we're making fast and loud ska and rock, they're gonna be a blast to play live! so pumped.

Key Grip on Lamarque's Feature

I went on a tech scout at this amazing mansion in New West where I'll be working as Key Grip for ten days in April on my ex-instructor Byron Lamarque's feature "Lost & Found". Its a drama about ballet dancers, very well written - and not surprisingly, since Byron is an award winning filmmaker and a grad from the awesome CFC Director's Lab in Toronto.

Check out his website! Lamarque Film

Other good news is that I'll be working with my pal Sean Jackson (who will be working as Gaffer) and my good friend Emily Chan (who will be 1st AD). Awesome!

The week of epic shows!

I attended two amazing shows these past couple days..The Slackers played at the Rickshaw and almost started a riot with their awesome ska punk performance! Then the next day I filmed a fantastic performance by Canadian Poet Shane Koyczan at the Cultch Theatre. His spoken word performances are incredibly moving - they make you laugh, cry, feel anger...the whole spectrum. The guy is really great.

Crazy8s are complete!

I ended up having the good fortune of working on two Crazy8s films this year: Kellie Benz's "Stupid Chainsaw Tricks" as her Storyboard Artist and on Angelina Cantada's "Sikat" as her Art Director.

The premiere of both films (and four others) will be this coming Saturday 27th at 7pm at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver. Do come out if you can!

Two movies, a punk band and tango dancing make Javier a very happy boy.

Im Associate Producing and Production Designing a beautiful Bollywood romantic drama ("Commitment"), Acted/Directed by Rahul Singh and shot by my old pal Brendan Uegama, and immediately after I'm Associate Producing and Storyboarding a Crazy8s comedy ("Stupid Chainsaw Tricks") by award winning director Kellie Benz, edited by the great Brianne Nord-Stewart and Produced by TV show "V"'s co-lead star Christopher Shyer. My good friends Oshy Parasol (Art Director) and Erick Boychuk (Director) are also involved on both shows with me. Add to this my awesome tango dance lessons and the great progress with my skapunk band every week, and I think my life right now is pretty much complete. Im going to sleep like a baby tonight. Thank you universe.