Tyler Gibb – Writer, Director, Editor, Filmmaker

My dwelling is more often than not right beneath the flight path of the nearest international airport. Quel surprise. And for about one week or so every year – at about this time – the sun’s traverse across the sky lines up perfectly with the flight path above my home. It’s an astrological event of the suburban scale.

What this means to me, being that I work from home, is that roughly every twenty minutes or so, for a week, a jet thunders overhead and momentarily eclipses the sun. Now I’m only in this momentary shadow for a split second but it’s enough to terrify anyone with half my imagination and sense of self-importance. You’d think I’d get used to it. But no, every single time I hear those descending engines hurling toward me and then suddenly the sun is blotted out I think: This is it!

Of course it’s gone as quickly as it came but I’m always left with the lingering reminder of mortality (it’s a pretty long week). And the form this lingering reminder of mortality usual takes is the question: Would I be satisfied with the body of work I’d be leaving behind if a jet plane really did come crashing down and evaporate me in a fiery inferno?

Usually the answer is no. Not yet.

Then I go back to work.

There’s a drawback to being prolific. And to blogging late at night when you really should just shut up and go to sleep before you say something that sounds like a backdoor compliment. As if this form of public self-aggrandizement wasn’t bad enough to begin with…

Where was I?

Being prolific. Doing too much. Covering too many bases. Each new project alienating the last audience you worked so hard to build up. Going from fart jokes to anime – but not even real anime – then from that to a live action tear-jerking drama… How are people supposed to trust you?

And not just the viewers, or listeners, or readers; the people you want to work with. Doing a recent interview for Refrain when the question of “what’s next?” came up, I came to the sudden realization that I will undoubtedly write more scripts than I will ever be able to producer myself in my lifetime. I already have enough stockpiled to last me a decade if I continue to go at it alone. So I need to offload these things. Enough pussy-footing around it, I need to be exploited. Used. But here’s the thing: I’m not entirely sure that the people who could use someone like me (people with means and ends) trust me.

No one trusts a guy selling a bit of everything. No, you want something done well you go to a specialist. One guy, who’s got one thing, one idea that he’s going to champion until his dying breath. And if it turns out to be a dud that doesn’t matter because you just move on – it was his dying breath not yours. You’ve got a dozen completed feature film scripts sitting in a drawer waiting to be shot? Psh! How good could they all be!

That’s exactly what I would say. Maybe I should be more open-minded. But this business seems to be far too full of opportunistic hunters. Scavengers. Charlatans. It’s hard to distinguish yourself from them in the minds of others.

The tragedy of stalking along in the fringe wastes of show business is that gradually you start to understand and sympathize with practices you generally came up despising such as nepotism, cronyism. It’s all about trust isn’t it?

Ha! I’m screwed.

For a couple weeks now I’ve been meaning to post some manner of reflection on Refrain‘s recent premiere and tiny three day run at the World Film Festival. I’d hoped the hornets’ nest of swarming thoughts that is my mind would eventually have quieted down by now but it has not. So in lieu of some sober analysis of my recent experience I’m going to try some free form word association to purge consciousness. Here goes:

Film festivals – money pit

Film critics – love ’em

Rejection – state of mind

Acceptance – grain of salt

Audience – satisfaction

Digibeta – nightmare

Blueray – the future

Filmmaking – compulsion

Ah… That felt pretty good actually. There’s only one real concrete thought I can muster on the subject but I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. Such is living and learning, I guess. The thought is this: Refrain was widely rejected by film festivals however when it did premiere it was very well received by critics and audiences alike. So well in fact that I have to admit, I’m a little nervous about having set some expectations. It all makes me wonder why the people we, as filmmakers, pay to watch our movies (film fest submission fees run as high as $175) seem more discriminating than people who throw down their own hard earned cash to watch our movies? You’d think it would be the opposite.

I’m being coy. I don’t really wonder why. I know why. And I won’t forget it. I’ve paid my last submission fee. Power to the people. Live and learn.

T

I’ve been meaning to poke in here and report on the recent goings-on surrounding Refrain and our recent premiere at the World Film Fest but playing catch-up on a bunch of work has been taking precedence.

However, I did just receive the artwork below and wanted to share it as soon as possible. It’s from a fellow animator and fan of my movie Minushi by the name of Gemma. She has a number of her own projects in the works which you can check out on her website, NiftiHaloStudios.com .

Having this show up in my inbox was a great surprise. Moreover it was a reminder to me why I keep trying to tell stories.

Never stop, Gemma!

I once heard about this thing called a “vakayshun” – not sure if I’ve got the spelling right – but the concept sounded pretty radical. Anyway, I’m sure why that’s on my mind, I’ve just been so pretty busy.

Busy doing what, Tyler?

I’m glad you asked.

Refrain has a brand new website and it didn’t build itself.

Also, Vidya and I have been hard at work on a complete re-recording and revamping of all the songs from Refrain. It took a while, there may have been some severe ear-bleeding involved, but I think we got exactly what we set out to get. You can hear the new versions of the tracks on the new website as well as on the Refrain MySpace music page.

There’s also a new song that we’ve never released before called “Quiet Storm” that rocks the casbah. Well maybe not the casbah, but it’s a toe tapper.

So I’ll break things down here for the record:

You’ve got your music from the movie.

Your re-vamped “studio” editions of the songs from the movie.

And coming shortly, your covers/reinventions of the songs from the movie a.k.a. the Refrain Side Project.

So much music. So very tired.

On the plus side, the weather is beautiful around Montreal this summer. Overcast and chilly. Very easy to work in.

Side Project is coming next so stay tuned for free music!

Tyler