Story

The Mechanic was the brain child of two Michaels: Rouse and Grand. Being of similar name and taste, their affection for filmmaking drew them together resulting in the short film you see here now. Mr. Rouse had been mulling over the idea of a mechanic hopelessly indebted to a customer for sometime, and in a flash of brilliance, picked up the phone on a cold, and foggy Vancouver eve and attempted to ring his counterpart Mr. Grand to share his thoughts. Mr. Grand, being the perpetual globetrotter that he is, was not available, and therefore the call was sent to voicemail. This happened once again, by which time Mr. Rouse surely must have been thinking his efforts were going to waste. Was this brilliant idea to toil in obscurity in the inbox of a cell phone’s voicemail? Fear not. Mr. Grand carefully nurtured these ideas into a working script, writing parts specifically for the talented thespians, David Lewis and Viv Leacock. And on the morning of March 2, 2009 (and with Mr. Rouse’s personal blessing) he triumphantly marched down to the Crazy 8s film office and signed up to pitch his new and wondrous idea. Crazy 8s, for those who don’t know, is a Vancouver institution in its own right and has produced some award winning shorts notably from Directors Zach Lipovsky and Dylan Akio Smith. It is an 8 day competition, that gives its participants $800, and access to professional gear and post production facilities. The rest is up to the filmmakers.

Over the course of the next several weeks, the teams were whittled down to 11 remaining standouts, of which all were sent to script advisors to enhance their scope. From these 11, 6 were finally chosen, and The Mechanic was happily among them. Now the true test began. With the official start date on April 16, 2009, the teams had roughly 2 weeks prior to acquire crew, locations, and gear. The task was not an easy one. Doing all this with an $800 budget and only 2 days of the 8 days competition allotted to shoot, our heroes were in for a wild ride. In one of the luckier moments of his young life, Mr. Grand happened to bump into a socialite friend of his, Jacqui Norick, who ultimately introduced him to master cinematographer, Glen Winter of Smallville fame. Mr. Winter’s presence would surely bring The Mechanic to a new level.

Shot between two locations – Bodo Motors in North Vancouver, and La Rocca Italian Restaurant on Commercial Drive, the team once again was three times lucky with the incredibly generous help from both location owners – Paul and Melissa Plumridge, @ Bodo, and Corrado Lenzi @ La Rocca.

8 days and 80 hours of lost sleep, jobs in limbo, and sanities slowly drifting away, The Mechanic was finally completed and screened at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver with the other 5 films. With the help of the many sponsors, the Crazy 8s management team, and the surrounding communities, the event was an ever-successful one, and proved that the Vancouver film industry isn’t just alive, its thriving. Thanks again to all who made this possible. (special thanks in order to Paul Brown, for putting this site together!)

Regards,
James Brown
Producer