Capturing the moment
Published Saturday October 31st, 2009
While many enjoy going to the movies, most of us are content to leave the magic in the theatre. Not Tony Merzetti.
From a young age, the executive director of the New Brunswick Filmmakers' Co-operative wanted to create his own magic.
"When I was growing up my dad had an 8-mm movie camera. I remember watching those movies and thinking how interesting it was, how reality was re-created. Sometimes, too, stuff you had forgotten could be rekindled by seeing it again. I loved looking at those old movies."
His influences weren't just on the big screen, though. One of his earliest was the original Star Trek show featuring Captain Kirk.
"I would love to have worked on that show. I would love to have been there when it happened," he says.
That show helped Merzetti figure out how to make films as he studied shots to see how the scenes were cut together and the pattern of wide shots versus close-ups.
By the time he was in university, technology had changed, so he went looking for a camera that worked with Super 8 film.
"I ended up going to Sears. I bought a camera you could record sound on and a projector that allowed you to play back the sound. It also had a dubbing capability, so you could have the sound you already recorded and then you could add another track of sound over it."
He adds, "This was going to be really fun to go out and creatively shoot stuff."
Merzetti found a book on filmmaking and read it to get some tips. The rest he learned through trial and error.
"There wasn't really anyone else I made films with. I did films you could do by yourself, a documentary-type thing."
A favourite subject was whatever events were happening in Saint John, where he grew up. One of the highlights back then, he says, was the royal visit by Lady Diana and Prince Charles.
"I figured out all the shots I would need to tell the story."
When they came, he raced from place to place, taking shots of the couple.
"Because it was Super 8, you turned the camera off every few seconds because you've only got about three minutes of film in your roll," he says, laughing at the memory.
"When they were driving up the street I would shoot some footage, then run up the street further and shoot them again, so it looked like I had a whole camera crew covering all these different positions."
At the time he was going to the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, doing a business degree. From there he went to St. Mary's University in Halifax to do his MBA.
Though his focus was business, his passion for filmmaking kept finding its way in.
"In my last year there, all the cases we had to do presentations on I ended up doing on companies like Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers."
When he graduated he wanted to work in film, but the jobs for MBAs in the region were in banking and accounting.
"My resume was pretty thin on film experience and training. I knew it would be pretty hard to get a job. At the time I thought I would go to Toronto because, from what I read, there seemed to be filmmaking happening there and it was a place you could go to break into the business."
One day his mom was at Shoppers Drug Mart and started talking to a woman whose son worked at the National Film Board distribution office. She suggested Merzetti go talk to her son, as he was involved in setting up a group in Fredericton that helps people make films.
Her son Charles MacLellan was the first production manager at the New Brunswick Filmmakers' Co-operative.
"He told me you should go up there because they have workshops on filmmaking, so you can learn how to operate cameras, do editing and stuff like that. As well, they have a membership and these people all work together on film projects, so you can have opportunities to work on films and get experience that way."
It sounded perfect to Merzetti so he came to Fredericton, thinking of this as a stop on the way to Toronto.
"I really liked the co-op. When I came in, there were a bunch of people in the co-ordinator's office and they were all really friendly and they seemed really enthusiastic about filmmaking, and it just seemed like they were kindred spirits."
The first shoot he worked on was in Saint John. It was one of a series of vignettes to celebrate New Brunswick's 200th birthday.
"I got to do the slate," he says. "That was my first job. I was hooked after that."
For the next three years, he worked on all the films that were being made at the co-op. He also got to know Fred Clarke of Fiddlehead Films. Through him, Merzetti got other film work.
"The thing that really appealed to me was having a job where everyone loved doing it, they loved working together. They took pride in what they were doing, but they had fun while they were doing it."
Because of the range of work he was doing, when the film Children of a Lesser God was being filmed in Saint John, Merzetti applied for a job on it.
The spot he was up for originally went to the producer's son, but when he didn't work out, Merzetti was asked to fill the position in the editing department.
"This for me was that break I was looking for. I got to work with an Academy Award-winning editor. Besides working in the editing room, I was the person that did the projecting, the 35-mm film every night for the dailies, so I got to meet some of the other crew.
"I was always interested in cinematography, the camera and lighting. John Seale was the director of photography. He's Australian, and he later went on to do The English Patient and win an Academy Award for that."
Working on Children of a Lesser God was a great experience, says Merzetti.
"At the end of the filming, we decided to do up this gag reel, taking outtakes from the different scenes and cutting something together to show the crew at the wrap party. We put all this together and showed it, and I remember William Hurt came up and put his arms around me and the assistant editor and said, 'Great job, guys. You guys should be making this film.' It was a really nice moment."
In 1986, the co-ordinator of the NB Filmmakers' Co-operative decided to move to Montreal.
As Merzetti had been helping him around the office and knew more about the operation than anyone else, he was offered the job. He knew if he took it, he wouldn't be going to Toronto, but in the end he was swayed by the stable income.
"In the early days it was possible, because of the level of activity, that I could cut out and occasionally work on films."
Over the years, however, the administration of the co-op has gotten increasingly complex.
"There are so many things to oversee. Most of the time I was just there supporting the filmmakers and I enjoy doing that part - helping emerging filmmakers get their projects going."
Since Merzetti first got involved with the co-op in 1983 as a volunteer, the number of people involved in making films has grown substantially.
For example, when the Silver Wave Film Festival began in 1991, they had four or five new films to show and they had to raid the archives to fill up other slots.
"In a lot of respects, because of the festival, it has spurred on interest in people to finish films in progress that might have stretched out over two or three years. It also got other people excited to get films shot to be shown at the festival. This year we have 65 New Brunswick films."
Changes in technology have helped make filmmaking accessible to a wider range of people.
"Because of that and things like YouTube, there are more people out there who are engaged in filmmaking and are interested in producing things."
While this is positive, there was a point that Merzetti and others worried the co-op would no longer be needed. What they discovered is that the most important thing the co-op provides isn't equipment - it's community.
"It's bringing people together, whether it's the actors or the crew or the filmmakers, as a group. That's the thing that people really like."
On top of his work at the co-op, Merzetti is also teaching a couple of film courses at UNB.
"That's something that rejuvenates your spirit and energy, seeing all of this potential."
As well, he's on a couple of boards, including the Fredericton Arts Alliance and the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund.
"Whatever I get involved in, I do get fully immersed in it."
Filmmaking has brought many great experiences into his life, including meeting the woman who would become his wife.
Merzetti has been married to Cathy LeBlanc since 1995. A friend of Merzetti's, a member of the co-op, was driving a cab that LeBlanc was a passenger in.
They started chatting, then hanging out, and she and Merzetti met. The mutual friend moved to Toronto, but LeBlanc and Merzetti continued to spend time together.
"Eventually one thing led to another and we ended up getting married."
Though things can get busy and stressful at work, it never gets stressful between them, he says.
"The good thing is that because Cathy works here with me, that takes the pressure off having spouses with different careers. I think it would be really difficult for me to do what I do if I didn't have a partner who was totally simpatico with what I'm doing. We're so in synch."
They work hard to keep everything in balance. When you're doing what you love, after all, it tends to take up a lot of your life. Even a vacation isn't really a vacation.
"When Cathy and I went to Italy, I shot some footage when I went, and when I came back I made a short film about my grandfather and Montelibretti, the small town that he came from," he says.
Though his work is varied, projects like that keep him energized, he says. He still enjoys directing and doing cinematography when time allows.
"I really enjoy having that creative outlet."
Merzetti has no regrets for the path his life has followed. He may not have ended up in Toronto, but he's had a wonderful career in a field he loves. Thankfully, he kept his mind open to the possibilities.
"Sometimes you can be lucky and discover a way to do the thing you love to do," he says.
"It requires a bit of luck, but I think in other ways it's following a path that you think will get you where you want to be."
Check out the 64 New Brunswick films, including Merzetti's film Francis Sherman: When All is Said and Done, during the Silver Wave Film Festival, taking place Nov. 5-8. Visit www.swfilmfest.com for details.
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