
The film and television industry in Ontario is growing rapidly. Streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Apple are investing heavily in new content. Many productions are coming to Ontario. And an increasing number of these are looking for locations outside of the Greater Toronto Area. Brantford is benefiting from such projects.
At the same time, more and more independent and small filmmakers are emerging, fueled by the growth in talent, opportunity, and investment. Some of these productions are coming to Brantford to make use of untapped resources, available locations, and lower operating costs.
In this article, we spotlight Defective, an independent production that transformed a Brantford industrial space into multiple sets to produce a visually striking film. We meet Reese Eveneshen, the creative force behind the movie, and we discover his take on film making and Brantford. You can also watch the trailer to get a sense of the scale of the movie.
Q: Tell us a bit about your background.
Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta! Found myself to Ontario in later years for family related reasons. Film making has always been a part of my life. It’s been so long now that I don’t even remember where it stemmed from anymore. Ontario was a great move though because it has a flourishing film industry. And I was lucky enough to have a few family members working in it. I spent most of my formative years hiding out in Toronto on film sets and quietly observing from a distance.
My first “real” movie (one that actually did something) was a scrappy zombie movie we shot in 2009 called, Dead Genesis. We shot it for peanuts one summer with little to no crew. And much to our surprise, we managed to get it released worldwide! I’m still not sure how that happened, but it did… we snuck in right before the zombie boom of The Walking Dead took over the airways. From there that lead to more work on webseries, tv-work and music videos… but we were also stuck in development hell on getting another feature off the ground. That is until Defective came around…
Q: You completed Defective with many scenes shot in Brantford. Tell us about the film.
At its core Defective is the story of an estranged brother and sister who have to escape a militant police state. It’s a sci-fi, action film set maybe a decade or so in the future when the pendulum has swung a little too far one way. It was a story I had kicking around in my head for a couple years. I’m a big fan of oppressive type science fiction films; Robocop, Terminator, Logan’s Run, Soylent Green, They Live, etc. I had always wanted to do something like that! I mean these are classic B-Movies that are primarily meant to entertain; but hidden between the lines was always just a touch of what was going on in the world at that time.
We shot the film over the course of roughly a year, back in 2015 and 2016. We’d do these big elaborate shooting blocks, run out of money, go back to the drawing board and raise more money, then we’d come back and film the rest. It was an arduous process that was mostly being powered by a small group of passionate artists.
Long story short we finished the film, it finally premiered in the fall of 2017! We had a nice little festival run for a few months as we got to travel around and show the film. Then in the spring of 2018, the movie was released worldwide. In Canada specifically you can find it on most video on demand and streaming services (i.e. iTunes, Amazon Prime, etc.). It’s also available to own on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Q: How did Brantford play a role in the production of the film?
Well, we were not working with a whole lot of money on the film. At the end of the day we had a budget of about ninety-thousand—which when trying to pull off a film like this can be a bit of a challenge. When we were heading into our second block of shooting in the spring of 2016, we needed adequate studio space to build a handful of sets for about ten days’ worth of filming. Low and behold the most affordable space we could find was in Brantford! We took over a section of warehouse space on Woodyatt Drive. We moved the production in there at the beginning of April and built about six to eight full sets. Then we shot there for about two weeks, cleaned everything out and moved to another location in May. We called Brantford our home for a month. The mall across the street became our sanctuary when we got too claustrophobic!
Q: From your perspective, what makes Brantford a unique place for film and creative projects?
Our home base for most of the production had been Guelph. And most of our cast and crew were coming in from Toronto. Brantford is right off the 403 which is extraordinarily convenient. I mean you could see the warehouse from the highway. And it was only a thirty to forty minute drive from our home base in Guelph which wasn’t too bad. It was also nice because I felt like we were quietly toiling away making our movie without any outside distraction.
Cities like Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener and even Guelph have become a little film savvy. And while we love shooting in those locations, there is a distinct lack of privacy! Brantford offered us sanctuary from all of that. And everything was in close proximity; we had hotels, department stores, a mall, restaurants and medical services all within a few miles radius. The most important thing to a film crew when it comes to locations is convenience, and Brantford gave us that for the month of production.
Q: What opportunities and challenges do you see for independent filmmakers in Ontario today?
Well, the opportunities are probably better than they have ever been in the sense that finding creatives to work on films is a lot easier than it’s ever been thanks to social media. Not too mention the equipment is now lighter, smaller and cheaper. Most people are making movies on their phones. And most cities have independent film hubs to help corral these creative types into one space to connect! The biggest challenge facing all of us is and will always be funding. Now to be fair, Ontario has several film grants and funds, but most of them have incredibly strict guidelines when it comes to the content they want to support. And when you’re making a B-Movie with killer drones and people in fancy cyborg suits, most of these places turn a blind-eye.
Q: Your work and story can be an inspiration to others who share your passion. What advice can you share for aspiring filmmakers and creative dreamers in Brantford?
Work with people you know and trust. That’s number one. Embrace the city you live in as well, don’t assume that they’ll be against you. More often than not your city will actually want to work with you and support you! I fought this for years under some false pretensions. Defective would not have been possible without the gracious support of the cities we shot in.
Build a solid business plan; do the homework beforehand and be realistic about your financial endeavors when it comes to making movies. Start small and build your way up! Most people we meet who are staring out in the industry want to be the nobody who became a somebody… but they want that to happen tomorrow. They want to be discovered. It happens once or twice, but for the most part it’s a fantasy. If you want this you need to work for it.
Picture your film making career as a ladder that you need to climb. As long as the next project is a step above the last project, and as long as you don’t give up… there just might be hope for all of us.
Q: Looking at the future, how could Brantford play a part in your future film productions?
Everything boils down to what’s important for the film. And as mentioned before, convenience. It would really depend on what the film is and what is required for it. Brantford had a lot to offer though, a city with a personality is always intriguing to people like me. Whether it is a single building or even an alley way; if it has a unique look I usually want to film there. We’ll see what the future holds, but I hope to take another production to Brantford one day and have another great shooting experience.