Trevor Cameron
Writer/director/editor
Blue Buffalo Productions
604-834-3675
https://www.angelfire.com/indie/cafesurrey/
bluebuffalo@telus.net
Well where should I start... I guess it would be June 2001. That's right over a year ago.
I was a Whalley and I really wanted to tell my story about Whalley. Everyone has a story about Whalley.
I approached the Java Joint, a coffee shop that was the basis for Cafe Surrey. It had been steadily dying for a year. The owner loved the idea so I went and wrote "Coffee night in Canada".
Before starting I went to Alberta to collect myself and sweat. I came back recharged and ready to go.
The java Joint was closed.
Perfect, I thought, I finally write this thing and now I'm hooped. But the owner said something that was a challenge. He said he still had the keys till the end of the month and even thought that meant a week and a half I thought great. I could cast in four days and shoot for three. Time to spare.
So I began casting. It was the casting of tough times. I had some good casting and bad casting but hell, I had a guy who brought his pitbull and apologized about being too stoned to read. What do you say to that? We casted enough to shoot the next day
That's when the now ex-owner took me aside...
"Umm I have to give me key back tomorrow..."
"So we can't shoot?!"
"Y'know, I don't even know why I told you. Don't worry about it. It'll be fine."
The next morning I get the phone call. Telling me that it was indeed a problem. A big problem.
I called the owner of the building and he wanted a hundred dollars a day to shoot. My thought was twenty four hours and his idea of a day was eight hours.
So I went a looking for Coffee shops in Surrey. One that wasn't part of a franchise. Everywhere I went was unwilling to help without some large financing. It was like everyone thought I was part of the Hollywood cash cow. I finally found one coffee shop that knew my brother. I went to work. Mobilizing an army small army but an army. My soldiers were; makeup, food, actors, a second camera. Then on the day of shooting my second Cameraman was called away and now I had to worry about the length of time needed to shoot. There I was setting up lights and set decorating actors were coming in make up was pumping out some great stuff. I thought, "It's coming together, I'll just take some shots of some coffee cups. I always need them."
That's when the camera broke. I wanted to cry. Instead I took the actors and make up artist for drinks. I don't drink but I wanted to see somebody get drunk.
Work started soon after and I got busy. I made some script changes.
Then Yosef opened Snackerz in the Java Joint site. I met with him several times and he liked the idea of helping us out. Just as long as we bought food and he could stay open. So that's what we did. We did our casting in the back and shot all the interior stuff over on long day.
Then the long task of editing began. Without continuity, editing is frickin annoying. I wish I could of used some scenes but they didn't match the previous shot. It got done though.
That's the story. It's abridged but complete enough to guilt you into coming to a screening or buying something.
Trevor Cameron
