Local film shot on a shoestring

Sackville has recently been home to film-making at its most independent. The unpaid crew of The Lot consists of volunteers and its budget is practically non-existent. To date, local residents, Chad Lindsay and Karan Sidhu have spent less than $50 in order to realize the movie.

"The movie is about a pair of slacker half-brothers, Trent and Kamal, who work on a used car lot owned by their absent father," explained Lindsay. "The boys run into trouble when a competing car lot owner with a grudge pulls out the stops to get Kingfisher shut down. In order to save their car lot, Trent and Kamal need to raise $45,000 fast to pay the fines leveraged against their car lot."

Filming began at the end of the September, continuing each Sunday, and now more than half of the film is complete. This is a measure of the dedication of the creators, their crew, and the generosity of local businesses.

"Major Discount Autos Sales (owned by Karan's uncle, Ken Sidhu) has allowed us to film on their car lot as our own home base," explained Lindsay. "Harvard Auto Sales has allowed us to use their car lot as the high-end car lot owned by our nemesis Tanar Ford. We've had about a dozen people that have just kept showing up each Sunday to film, and Tom's Restaurant has been good enough to provide food to the cast and crew. We can't pay any of the actors or crew, but we can feed them very well."

Flea-market magnate, Bill Mont has also shown his support, allowing Lindsay and Sidhu to set up tables at his Forum and Downsview locations to recruit extra cast members from among the bargain hunters.

Another financial help has been the use of Facebook in helping arrange shooting schedules with the cast and generating awareness and support. Both Lindsay and Sidhu were pleasantly surprised to learn that Facebook is also being used to petition the Showcase network to consider The Lot as a potential show. Their main goal had simply been to create something of their own to enter in the Atlantic Film Festival.

Although neither Sidhu nor Lindsay have any formal background in film, they have been helped by Vancouver Film School graduate, Paul St. Amand, and Tanar Repchull. St. Amand is the 2007 winner of the Lenhoff & Lenhoff Award for Best Director and using his expertise as cameraman and as editor for The Lot. Repchull, with his experience as an extra, offered suggestions to avoid stray sounds - such as laughter from amused crew - from ruining a take. Since The Lot is a comedy, with much improvisation, this was a common occurrence.

Jonathan Mosher, one of the many talented crew members, recalled how the cast had grown a handful of interested participants. "Then it took off," he said. "There are now about 35 to 40 of us."

Mosher offered nothing but praise for the project and shared the same conviction as the rest of the crew regarding the fate of the film.

"If it doesn't go anywhere it's no big deal," he said. "Because it's been fun."

For more information on The Lot, check the Facebook site: The Lot - And Indie Film.

atoal@ns.sympatico.ca