CAMP COMEDY IN THE WORKS
Local filmmakers add stars to cast
What’s in a name? When it comes to making a film, plenty. So Windsor filmmaker Mike Stasko is a step ahead for his next project, Boys Vs. Girls, even though he doesn’t even have all the funding yet.
But he has something better: two name stars already lined up. Comedians Colin Mochrie, from Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and Kevin McDonald, from Kids in the Hall, have confirmed that they will travel to Windsor for filming in June.
“I’m over the moon,” Stasko, who teaches film production at the University of Windsor, said Tuesday. “Having these guys on board adds to the cachet of the film. A lot of people are excited and have enthusiasm for the project just by having these two names attached to it.” Besides a professional crew, Stasko will have a number of University of Windsor students pitching in on the movie to be filmed June 6 to July 2, largely at Kiwanis Sunshine Point Camp west of Kingsville, but also at some Windsor area locations. Boys Vs. Girls is inspired by the 37-year-old’s real-life experience when Camp Kitchikewana north of Toronto went co-ed for the first time. The counsellors don’t take too kindly to the big change and, well, hijinks ensue. Mochrie will play the camp director while McDonald will play the camp caretaker in the comedy set in 1990.
Stasko is the writer, director and co-producer with fellow producers Gerry Lattmann and Theodore Bezaire of the Dot Film Company. The same team produced the comedy The Birder, which starred Tom Cavanagh and Fred Willard. They also teamed up to produce the sci-fi thriller The Control, which will begin its festival run with its world premier Thursday at the 51st WorldFest Houston, the oldest indie film-and-video festival in the world. Meanwhile, Stasko has already arranged for $110,000 of the Boys Vs. Girls roughly $150,000 budget. He has launched an Indiegogo campaign to help raise the rest, offering such incentives as running donors’ real camp photos during the end credits.
Born and raised in Windsor, Stasko earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from the University of Windsor and a master’s degree in film production from Columbia University. But Stasko, working on his fifth feature film, plans to maintain his commitment to Canadiana. “I have no ambition to do the big Hollywood-style movies,” said Stasko, who’s happy in Windsor with his wife Greer and their nine-year-old Boston/beagle mix Hooch.
“I advise any students who do have that goal to move to Hollywood and start climbing that ladder. “My end goal is to make Canadian films in Canada. I think the highest budget I would ever work with is in the $5- million to $10million range, which is still very much indie filmmaking.” Stasko wants to retain as much creative control as possible. “As soon as people give you money for something, they actually gain control over you a little bit,” he said. “And if you take too much money — which is the case in Hollywood — then there’s a lot of people who have a stake in your film, and you lose a lot of control really quickly.”
Doing it his way, alternating between indie comedies and arthouse dramas, means Stasko and crew have potentially more fun — including with Canadian jokesters Mochrie and McDonald. “Filming it is going to be a riot,” Stasko said. “I might have to rein them in to get the shots I need, if they go off script and start to improvise. But I’ll probably get a lot of hilarity out of it.
“Boys Vs. Girls is pure comedy. The plot is basically a loose string in order to hang as many jokes on it per second as I can.”
For more information about Boys Vs. Girls, visit boysvgirlsmovie.ca.