In a world teeming with generic and bland content, nothing puts a smile on my face more than an original and quirky piece of work. Mockumentary ‘StartStop (The Untold Story as told by Mary Applestone a film by Jim Banfield)’ fits this bill perfectly. The writers, directors, producers and all round creative talents Kew and Michael Bennett Leroux have wholeheartedly embraced the virtues of grassroots and low-budget indie filmmaking to produce a fast-paced, highly entertaining and provocative film which I urge you to submit yourself to entirely, allowing the sheer insanity to wash over you like a wave of delight.
After reviewing the film we were able to sit down with the formidable duo and delve into some of the more intricate parts of their filmmaking prowess. ‘StartStop The Untold Story as told by Mary Applestone, a film by Jim Banfield’ will screen at Brighton Rocks on Friday 23 June at 8:30pm at The Actors as part of our ‘Double Trouble’ Feature Showcase.
Where did this fabulously outlandish idea stem from?
Kew: There are a couple of places, but it all started with Michael.
MBL: The genesis is me having the band StartStop and going to Kew and saying, “I want a 5-minute video, to play before our live shows, that declares StartStop is the greatest band in the world.”
Kew: There was this Bob Dylan interview that takes place in a hotel, it’s really funny, and he is just shitting on the reporter. And I was like, “Oh, let’s parody that.”
MBL: That’s the first thing we came up with. I think we did a test shoot of that.
Kew: Wow, yeah, I almost forgot about that. At my old apartment, we busted out the camera. You had the acoustic guitar and my roommate Ferg and you improvised some scenes.
MBL: So, is StartStop a real band? Yes and no.
Kew: In the Jim Banfield cinematic universe, they are a real, very serious band that had record a deal and are part of Canadian history.
MBL: In real life, it’s one of the bands that my friend Matt and I started. We have played live maybe 2 or 3 times. Well received, but definitely a comedy act. I wanted to play at real venues and at real shows.
Kew: We just kept thinking of other funny ideas, really. We also shot a whole other movie after that first shoot and then went back to StartStop and added more to fill it out, and we came up with the concept. Then we shot the full concert. In the movie, the concert footage shows up and you hear bits and then we cut away, but there exists a whole hour of that concert. We shot that whole thing.
Is Jim Banfield based on anyone real or a real situation?
Kew: In high school, I made a short film called “Al Moore’s ‘The Truth That’s Not So Convenient’.” It was a parody of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” When Michael and I were filling out the script we needed someone to narrate the documentary. I brought up Al Moore, but we very much wanted him to have more of an ego and self-serving personality, like Garth Marenghi from Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place.
MBL: For many years, Larry Fedoruk (Jim Banfield) has been a radio DJ at a very high level across Canada. He has interviewed so many people in the music industry, and spent plenty of time behind the scenes. He understood this character so well. He had this ability to turn on the charm and also to turn on the greasy, just a touch, and lay that on. I know he worked really hard. He took the role very seriously and he came well prepared.
How did you make your old school vintage footage and give it the right aesthetic?
MBL: It has always been really important for us to try different things visually. In our first film as well as our shorts, we challenge ourselves to think creatively in that way.
Kew: It has also been important to think who’s shooting the movie. That’s actually how we came up with the character of Mary Applestone. The Jim Banfield story as well. Who’s behind the camera? And what did they have access to? And how can we make it a bit? We don’t have a lot of money, so we go with a lot of different cameras, lenses, and adapters for older lenses. We find an aesthetic that we can work with that’s close to what gear the character would have. Then we go to the computer and we try to tweak it to bring it home.
You have some incredible locations including Banfield manor, the gig venues, bars and hotel rooms – how did you find all of your locations on the shoestring budget?
Kew: Oh, I’m friends with Michael.
MBL: As a visual artist, sometimes I can see things differently. I think of location as a character. My friend James, the executive producer, built this giant house and when I saw the house, it made me laugh. I wanted it to be a character in a movie. I had an opportunity to use this location in a way that I would not have any other way. We had full access to this mansion. We took 2 days, and utilized almost every single room. We were very conscious of what each room had to offer. Also, I seem to have a large network of people that have access to perfect locations. The live music venue was a place that I worked at as a poker dealer called The Rockpile. The owner was supportive and offered to rent the place at a very low rate. That was the major portion of our budget. Renting the concert venue for that day, feeding the cast and crew. We had 9 performers, 8 crew members, a 5 camera shoot. We also had an amazing live sound artist, Jake Disman on set.
Kew: He also helped quite a bit with the lighting. We wanted to find someone who did rock shows every weekend. Someone who could play along with us and improvise.
MBL: For the hotel we went to The Waverley in Toronto, which has since rebranded into an upscale place. Back then though, it was rented by the hour. We all went in together: me, Matt (Power Maus), Holly (young Mary Applestone), and Kew with a camera. During filming we got a knock on the door and the concierge said, “I know you’re filming a movie. I talked to my boss and he said that either you have to go or you have to give us an extra $20 for cleaning.” I said, “Yeah, that’s fine, to follow my dream… here’s $20.” I didn’t realize until later that he thought we were shooting a porno movie.
As you know from my review I am slightly obsessed with Mary Applestone but everyone is so witty. Was everything scripted or do you have a particular approach when producing your films?
Kew: We really like people that improvise dialogue. We don’t use improvising as a form of writing stories. We have all the beats figured out. The big jokes as well. Most of them we have figured out beforehand. Improvising is more to have the actor have their own voice put into it, and then they’re a collaborator. With Gillian, we were feeding her information to regurgitate and asking questions like, “Can you talk about all the different sex positions Power Fist introduced you to.” Then she comes up with stuff like The Russian Elevator and the Beaver Dam. We were letting her go wild, that was a fun one. One of the best shoots I ever did.
MBL: I try to make the performers feel safe. Let them have fun. With casting, the people that I choose are already perfect for what they are doing. With our style we would find that when everyone was laughing, we knew it was right. Then, when we knew it was right, we would keep going.
KEW: Michael’s very good at finding people, and I’m good at, “Just give me anybody. I’ll find a way to make it work.” I can edit the crap out of it, or we might end up coming with an awesome joke. Like blurring out a character’s face for the whole movie!
MBL: I really trust Kew. What I try and do is make a very safe place for him to be as creative as possible with the fewest limitations.
You must have had so much footage and bits and pieces to weave together in your edit. How was that approached?
MBL: I think we had over 20 cuts to be honest. You just keep at it.
KEW: Editing is one of my favourite parts of the filmmaking process. It’s the only thing that I have been recognized for in Canada. I was nominated for best editor of a short film for the 2019 Hollywood North Film awards. I really love editing a good project. When it’s your own and something you believe in, you really just keep at it. I like to experiment. Try alternate cuts of scenes. Make them longer. Make them shorter. If I think that something new will fix a problem, hell, I like to shoot new shots and put them in, if I’m in a jam. In the end you’re walking a tightrope of trusting your instincts while also trying to put yourself in the audience’s shoes. Objectively looking at how entertaining your movie is and asking, is it working? For the longest time I really wanted there to be more live footage. But, as far as getting the audience enjoying the comedy and the story, it was very important that we cut a lot of the live footage out. I came around and I think it’s better the way it is…. there is over an hour of that concert though.
MBL: I remember a point where the movie was really good, but it was also mean spirited. We went through and took a couple jokes out. Moved some jokes around and took the nastiness out. Taking that part away from the film and making it lighter, making them cartoon characters and not as mean, I think once we did that we really turned a corner. When we showed a couple of our friends, we came up with a few more ideas, and were able to put a lot of humor and jokes in, right at the end of the process.
KEW: Taking out some of Jim’s mean jokes really made it clear that he is a buffoon. What meanness he does exhibit is a by-product of him genuinely trying to have a good time. One of the changes we made very late in post was Jim’s “Interviewer Shots” with the headshots. Those were shot in different small set ups I made in my apartment. I tried to match the feel of each location where the interview took place. We keep going until we find what the best answer for the project is. The answer is usually, “what’s the funniest way to fix this problem?”
It is very impressive to produce a piece of work like this on such a budget. What can you attribute that success to?
MBL: I would say, kindness and professionalism. Kindly asking people to do something that will only take a little bit of time, will be a lot of fun, and will help me achieve a dream that I’m extremely passionate about. And those people kindly saying, “Yes.” The kindness of people saying yes to me, over and over and staying professional. I’m so grateful for so many kind people. Kew kept polishing and took my notes patiently. Craig Estrella, who also scored the film, entirely mixed the sound twice when we re-edited the film after picture lock. Most of the actors were our friends. I really trusted everyone, and I knew they would be great in the film. The only performer I didn’t choose ended up having their head blurred out.
KEW: Get it done, you know. Just do it. Do it the way that you know how to do it. Have a bag of tricks. Watch behind the scenes commentaries. It doesn’t need to take a lot of money. It doesn’t need to take a lot of people. You just have to have a couple people, like Roger Gorman and Stanley Kubrick did. They made movies the same way.
What do you hope for the film?
MBL: I hope people see it. I hope they laugh. I hope people love StartStop. I hope they love Mary Applestone and love to hate Jim Banfield. I hope I get to play as Power Fist on stage again. I hope we get to make another movie.
KEW: I hope that people can see that we can get the job done. We can make something funny with a story and we can do it again. We could routinely do that. Making stuff takes a long time when you’re doing it on your own. I would love for us to make something for a station or a production company. For someone to see there is value in the fact that we are able to do it on a smaller budget. I hope we get to make another Jim Banfield movie. We’ve got another 1 or 2 really good Jim Banfield stories that we’d love to do. Even a TV show like “Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place” with Larry.
MBL: I would love to be able to build a community where we are making art and everyone involved is having fun, feels supported and is getting paid.
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