Story by Ryan B. Edmunds Photo of Bill Plumstead by Janie Romain. The journey to 'That Beautiful Somewhere' started in April 2003 for Bill Plumstead, a teacher at Nipissing University and executive producer for the film.
Story by Ryan B. Edmunds Photo of Bill Plumstead by Janie Romain.
The journey to 'That Beautiful Somewhere' started in April 2003 for Bill Plumstead, a teacher at Nipissing University and executive producer for the film. "That Beautiful Somewhere" made its theatrical debut in April and plans are underway to have it open in the United States. Plumstead described it as a long journey.
"Actually, as feature films go in Canada, it's going rather quickly. For me, it was, at times, too slow." Plumstead said. After seeing the film better than a half dozen times, he hasn't grown tired yet.
"I still like it. I guess I'm still amazed that we did it. I see little things that we could have done differently but I also see some things that I think are very strong and I'm very proud to be associated with. It was a great team."
Plumstead described the film's lead, Roy Dupuis, as a pleasure to work with and said it was so much fun to see him on the screen as well as to have been a friend on the set. Plumstead says he was surprised that Jane McGregor came through as strongly as she did. But the real star for him was our beautiful surroundings in northern Ontario.
"The Northern countryside looks far better in the film in November than I can ever remember it being in November. It looks good. It's a great country."
Plumstead sought out writer/director, Robert Budreau, who was at the time doing an OMDC (Ontario Media Development Corporation) calling card film called "Dry Whiskey", to take the story from pages to picture.
The film, which is based on Plumstead's novel Loon, was shot in North Bay and Temagami. The remoteness of the location proved to be one of the hurdles.
"In Temagami there were no cell phones so we couldn't communicate with the crew," Budreau said.
Since the film was shot in November the erratic weather also proved to be a challenge. "The weather made continuity really difficult because it would be snowing and then it would be clear," Budreau said.
Budreau said there are different kinds of hurdles. As one of the film's co-producers, he also found it challenging in putting together financing.
"The film was basically privately funded. We did not get any money through Telefilm, which is a major filming body. We got money through NECO (http://www.neco.on.ca) and through the NOHFC (Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation). Those are the two northern heritage based funders."
Budreau explained that they also got quite a bit of money from private investors in the north and from television pre-sales to TMN and Movie Central.
Budreau cast the three lead actors himself. He said Jane McGregor and Gordon Tootootsis were cast in the earlier days where Roy Dupius came on board after some script changes. What started out as a Summer picture evolved into a late fall/winter picture.
"Most of the supporting roles were cast out of North Bay," said Budreau.
"It's funny because there were a lot of scenes that were supposed to be in the first act which followed Jane McGregor as Catherine's backstory. There is a lot of northern talent in those scenes. Most of those ended up getting cut for story reasons. Unfortunately, there are a lot of actors from North Bay who aren't in the final copy. They might be on extras on the DVD but for story purposes, they ended up getting cut."
Budreau recalls BayToday's own Phil Novak as an extra in the film.
"Phil was one of the 1880s hunters and he had a scene where he holds up a knife."
The film is going to be released on DVD at the end of the summer or the early fall. It will also be on the movie network and Movie Central. Although it hasn't been sold to any yet, Budreau predicts that it will be on network television by Winter. "That Beautiful Somewhere" will be shown again at the Galaxy Cinemas May 16th.
