When reached by the North Shore News, Matthew Campbell is just starting the long drive to Cache Creek where he's been tasked with adding brush to the side of an airport runway on the set of the third installment of The Maze Runner.
As a greensman, the North Vancouver resident is responsible for the landscaping element of set construction - anything to do with trees, plants, dirt or rocks. After 10 years working in the film industry, he's grown accustomed to the long hours and fast-paced shooting schedules associated with the job.
"I understand the pacing and the tempo that you want to be filming at," Campbell says. "Being on set all the time, you kind of understand what some of the issues might be and you're used to it."
His first-hand industry experience gave him a leg up when he got the chance to direct a film for this year's Crazy8s challenge. The annual event tasks emerging filmmakers with making a short film in just eight days. Every year, more than 100 teams apply by presenting their idea in a five-minute video. From there, 40 semi-finalists are chosen to pitch in person to a jury of industry professionals. The semi-finalists are whittled down to 12 finalists, who workshop their scripts with a professional story editor.
Finally, six winners receive $1,000 cash and a production support package that includes camera equipment, lighting and grip packages, production insurance, location permits, online editing and a professional sound mix, all provided by sponsors in the local production community, and are given eight days to finish their project.
Campbell and his team were among the six winners. Their entry, Grocery Store
Action Movie, was originally written by comedy duo Peter n' Chris (Peter Carlone and Chris Wilson) as a radio script for CBC's The Irrelevant Show. The action film parody follows main character Alex, who is in the express checkout lane at the grocery store when realizes he's forgotten to pick up crackers. With his dinner guests set to arrive at his house any minute, he embarks on an action-packed journey up and down the aisles trying to find the elusive cracker section before losing his place in line.
"Reading this script, right away I could tell it was funny," says Campbell, who was approached by one of the producers, Ryan Silva, to direct the film last fall. "I could see it in my head and I could see how we could elevate it to a different level."
Action-comedy is a rare genre, and one that Campbell says he was excited to tackle.
"If somebody approaches me with a project, I'm pretty much happy to direct anything as long as I believe the story's there - and the story was definitely there."
Grocery Store Action Movie was filmed inside Stong's Market in Dunbar over three nights in February.
"What happens is you have three 12-hour days to shoot and then five days for post-production, and that's it - that's all you've got."
Campbell and his team were at a slight disadvantage compared to the other teams because they weren't able to film inside Stong's while the store was open to the public.
"Our biggest problem was that we could only shoot 10-hour days because we were shooting inside a store when they were closed."
That meant they had six fewer hours to get the footage they needed. But the tight timeline didn't seem to faze Campbell and his crew.
"I think we were probably the most relaxed team," he says. In fact, Crazy8s reps stopped by with their own camera to document the filming and interviewed Campbell, expecting a frantic response. "They're like, 'So how's it going? Is it crazy, are you guys stressed?' and I'm like, 'No, we're good.'" The final film includes the ambitious addition of choreographed fight scenes and stunts involving shopping carts and upright freezer doors. Campbell says he felt only minimally held back by the time constraints.
"We dropped a small little thing here and there, but we got everything we wanted and everything we needed to tell the story."
The final product, which Campbell says is "by far the best film I've ever done" was screened on Feb. 27 at a gala at The Centre in Vancouver along with the five other Crazy8s winning projects.
"It was nice to see 1,700 or 1,800 people sit there and watch our film and hear the crowd reactions to the stuff," he says. "Because of the time frame on this, it was really nice to see something come together so well in such a short period."
