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The making of Present from the Past |
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The film also won the Best of Festival and Best Story Awards in the American International Film and Video Festival
Present
From the Past was made for the 2011 Christmas
Guerilla Filmmaking competition in Saint George, Utah. It
won the Jury prize.
 I wanted to do a story about a pair
of siblings losing their dad. Time travel was on my mind. Back to the
Future is my favourite movie and has been since I
was a little boy. As a kid I would play the movie on loop,
which I think drove my parents crazy. I was 3 years old when
the film was released to theatres in July of 1985 but I
didn't discover it until its VHS release. Years later all
three films aired on TV and I wanted to record them. Not
having a blank tape, I carelessly recorded over home video
tapes. When my dad found out, he wasn't too happy. The concept and script for Present From The Past took only a couple of days. I knew I wanted the dad in the film to come back at the end so the time travel idea was obvious. The two kids in the film were named after my twin sister and I. She was frequently drawing and I was constantly watching movies. So I thought: what if they both wrote a letter to Santa asking for the same thing but in a different way?
All works itself out when Santa
is accidentally killed and the dust is used to
revive him, thus putting him on the path to deliver Shaun's
gift. I thought this was a fascinating idea because as a
twin growing up, my sister and I often thought
about the same things at the same time. So, had there only
been one child, the father may have never come back.
 The film was shot over the course of four
days and filming went relatively smoothly. I was
very impressed by first time child actors Lux and Jordan.
Shooting the scenes with the 3 teenagers proved to be
difficult as I was not prepared with snow gear. It was a
cold day and I found myself running in circles trying to
keep warm. One of our actors actually fell in the stream
trying to retrieve a fake dead bird for the shot. I
am really proud of this film and was very lucky to have Mark
Haas compose an original score. He got what I was going for
and completed the soundtrack rather quickly. I can't
remember the exact camera the film was shot on. I borrowed
it from a friend. I know it was a Sony HDV camcorder and I
was very impressed with the picture quality I was able to
capture. Editing went smooth and only took a day to
complete. One thing I like about the writing and directing
process is I'm able to really prepare myself early on for a
fast, low-stress, editing process.
As
far as current projects I am working on...I have recently
finished Over
the Hill with The Space Between Theatre Company I
am developing a short film which takes off from a
Bill Cosby standup routine done in 1982. I also have a Back to the
Future fan film I am working on. I have written the
script and feel it's something special. It's
an ambitious project that I am so excited to
complete.
Thank
you again for your kind response to my film and I wish all
you filmmakers the best in your
creative endeavours.
Director, Shaun Labrecque
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