Shawn Reynolds is just another example of local boy does good. The Lasalle Secondary School graduate, and former ski instructor at Adanac, came home for Christmas after a heavy schedule of producing and acting in films as far away as Germany.
I just got a call from my agent that I am booked as an actor in The Women In The Directors Chair workshop which is held for two weeks in Banff.
I am only one of 10 Canadian actors selected to play a variety of roles in a series of films for this workshop, said Reynolds from Toronto just before heading home to the Nickel City. Like many actors, Reynolds refuses to give his age, though he says he is in his 20s.
We actors hate to tell our ages as it can limit the roles we can play so we like to say only our families know for sure, said Reynolds.
In early 2006, Reynolds was relishing his stay in Germany while doing an acting stint for Universal Pictures.
It was a big feature called One Way, where an actor charged with rape tries to clear his name. It stars Eric Roberts, the brother of Julia Roberts, Michael Clarke Duncan from Green Mile and Canadian actor Sonia Smets.
I only had a supporting role but I really enjoyed being put up in a great hotel in Cologne. The city was about the size of Barrie-it had the same small town feel, said Reynolds.
According to Reynolds the Canadian film industry is still strong despite a loss of some productions due to the rise of the Canadian dollar, which makes filming of American and foreign films more expensive.
Here in Toronto there is always something going on-some major film happening and my acting friends are working. Toronto is expensive to live though unless you are working steady. I am lucky because I live with one of my brothers who is a firefighter.
We managed to buy a house so that keeps costs under control versus renting, he said.
Reynolds also owns a tennis operation, Litton Park Tennis Camp, on Avenue Rd. near Lawrence but his new passion is producing.
Last week I was at the screening of my first feature film, Dogs Playing Poker. It is a 90-minute comedy about a bunch of regular poker playing amateurs who decide to heist a safe. The title plays on the fact that these guys are kind of dumb and slow, like some dogs I know about.
In fact they kind of look like some dog breeds, said Reynolds.
We shot it in five days in Toronto and used 25 actors, he said.
Reynolds knows a few actors from the north including a Sudbury woman, Haley Shannon.
She was in a theatre company, Theatre Onslaught about 18 months ago. She and I starred in La Ronde, a play about love and sex and what people do to get it and how they respond once they do get it. Our director was Lewis Baumander.
He worked with Keanu Reeves when he directed a Hamlet production at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnepeg.
Reynolds says that his film was test screened at the National Film Board screening room beside Much Music studios.
You always try to have film buffs there so you can get a handle on what needs to be re-edited for the final version.
It seems to have gone over well. The audience, about 70, laughed at all the right places. Some said the characters were absolutely crazy-one looked like Napoleon Dynamite they said, he said.
Based on what changes need to happen, like sound corrections, it should be out in spring and then I hope some of the film festivals like Sudbury s Cinefest pick it up.
Reynolds was impressed to hear that Music And Film in Motion, Sudbury s advocate for northern film and music productions, has set up a $500,000 fund to help aspiring film directors. Funded by FedNor and the Nickel Basin fund, up to $150,000 per proposal is available to support northern productions.
That s great news and I also like the idea that MFM has set up a virtual library of 2,200 locations where filmmakers can consider site locations, he said.
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