Noisography Reviews Elective Single

Recently named one of the Top 30 music websites across Canada by the CBC, Noisography has posted a review of "The Stitch-Up Of Bloody Mary," the first single and video from Elective, our musical side project with Kayleigh Goldsworthy. The review was written by Mr. Dan Nightgale

Video/Single Review: Elective - "The Stitch-Up Of Bloody Mary" 

The music sounds like a lot of Ableton Live loops piled on top of each other but the quality is good and the drum (bongo?) sounds are deep if a little repetitive. 

The vocals go high above most of the instrumentation and is clear and pleasing, and sometimes I start to worry that she's going to run out of breath with the run on sentence lyrics. A few layers move in and out on top of the drums with gentle chimes and a sliding bopping bassline.

The repeating chorus straddles the line between cliché and nostalgic but the vocal quality is very appealing and the layering makes for an emotionally moving and sweeping musical landscape. It's the peak of the relatively short song, followed by a 15 second denouement and a sudden halt to the drum landscape and it's over. 

The video is pretty straight forward: artsy dancing girl. There's lots of nice cinematography and it's high quality and well shot. If you hadn't seen the new Radiohead video it would be a little easier to dismiss this as lacking in substance, but if it's good enough for Thom Yorke, it's good enough for CJ Wallis (who did it about a month earlier, just for the record).

You can check out the recently published webpage for the Elective/Bloody Mary video on our website by clicking here which has a little bit about the concept behind the editing and some production things.

Dead Hooker In A Trunk Gets UK DVD Release

We initially found out via Steve Hills Twitter account that Bounty Films, who also recently attained the rights for the second installment of The Human Centipede, has made a deal with our sales agent and will be releasing Dead Hooker In A Trunk in the UK on May 23rd.

Pre-sales of the DVD have already found their way onto Amazon and are available for just under 10 pounds. I have created and recorded a decent amount of DVD extras from what footage/etc was available and those items will be delivered to our agents and onto the eventual buyers. These exclusive features currently include, but aren't limited to, the following:

Dead Hooker In A Trunk - DVD Extras

"Rebels Without A Budget" >> A 15 minute featurette following the making of Dead Hooker In A Trunk which is a mash-up of alternate footage, B-Roll and candid moments throughout the production showing aspects of the process of making a no-budget independent film.

Director Commentary Track / Featuring Jen & Sylvia Soska, Recorded February 2011. The twins discuss various aspects of the film and it's creation set to screen specific moments.

Post-Production Commentary Track / Featuring CJ Wallis, Recorded February 2011. This track will discuss some of the tricks and methods used along the way to side-step the time and budget limitations during production and post.

A Discussion With Carlos Gallardo Shot in Carlos' apartment in Los Angeles shortly after completing his scenes, the Twins and Carlos discuss El Mariachi and the history and war stories of low-budget filmmaking.

Deleted Scenes

It is my understanding that whoever purchases the rights for each separate region's release has the ability to package the film however they wish, so I cannot say what will make it on what disc and where but when we know, we will pass it along.

Elective - The Stitch-Up Of Bloody Mary

Elective - "The Stitch-Up Of Bloody Mary"
Edited, Photographed & Directed by CJ Wallis, @fortyfps
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Find more information on this project and others at our official website, fortyfps.com
Follow us on Facebook & Twitter for exclusive content & updates. 

Elective Music Video Coming Soon

In the middle of a recent week-long editing adventure in Toronto on another director's first short film, I commissioned the usual suspects at Major St Productions to assist me in making a music video for "The Stitch-Up Of Bloody Mary" by Elective, which is my musical project with Kayleigh Goldsworthy

Despite a month long illness that included something completely limiting the use of her left ear, Lucy Rupert (who last worked with us here) toughed through over 45 minutes of continuous performance as we had to execute, set-up and light two completely different looks and set dressing and pack down production in under 2 hours.

Robert Walsh was on camera and lighting with myself and Jeffrey Zablotny operating other cameras from other angles to triple the amount of footage captured in the limited amount of takes. Elli Weisbaum, who has produced a few of my previous efforts, came out to maintain order and help operate the multiple lighting dimmers and cues with gaffer Todd Thompson. Make-Up artist Nicole Stredder politely rearranged my very male attempts to describe the eye make-up design I was hoping for on Lucy and this video would not in any way be what it is/was without the selfless efforts of these six individuals.

The plan is to release the video on Valentine's Day, Monday, February 14th.

Behind The Scenes With The Scarlet Ending

Katharine Isabelle Is American Mary

NEW VIDEO: RYKKA "BLACKIE"

RYKKA - BLACKIE
Edited, Photographed & Directed by CJ Wallis, @fortyfps

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Find more information on this project and others at our official website, fortyfps.com
Follow us on Facebook & Twitter for exclusive content & updates. 

24 Hours Away From Making 21 Year Old CJ's Day

For whatever reason, I vividly remember every detail of the 4 minutes in 2002 when I happened to stumble upon the video debut of the song "Sweet Ones" by some 'new' hyper-active Canadian named Sarah Slean.

It marked the first time it occurred to me that I really wanted to make a music video for someone. I wrote her name down in red smelly-felt on a desk-sized scribble pad I had at the time and set it to the back of my mind to one day try to dazzle this person I didn't know existed 5 minutes previous.

I saw her countless times live afterwards and a couple years later in a bold, Jack Daniels soaked gesture - informed her of this lofty goal after her show at the Commodore Ballroom. She politely/warmly smiled and said whatever sweet things popular artists say when strange people tell them strange things. (She claims to have no recollection of this thankfully.)

It is nearly impossible for the people you enjoy and respect from a distance through film or music to live up to everything you've assumed and built them up to be if you are ever fortunate to get to meet them or collaborate together and Sarah is, and has been, all of it and more. Please enjoy a short clip of someone being effortlessly talented and relishing every second of it...Thank you for having me around. Xx

Sarah Slean's "The Rose" Video Release Revealed

This morning was greeted with an e-mail from our new best friend Jennifer at BravoFact! letting us know that, almost a year to the date it was finished, our Sarah Slean music video for "The Rose" has it's national broadcast date which, in turn, means it can be finally be released online!

The video will be embedded here and released on Monday, January 31st and will be accompanied by another incredible making-of documentary shot and edited by Jeffrey Zablotny. Please visit our Rose Project Page on our website for a bit of pre-release context and other potentially interesting things.