It will screen on June 2nd.

SYNOPSIS

No one believes Zoë when she says she doesn’t want to get married. She knows everyone assumes it is her longtime partner, Kyle, who refuses to wed. Out of her charitable heart and her profound belief “that everyone needs to make a complete fool of themselves at least once”, she comes up with a brilliant plan to prove everyone right. What’s more, she has the perfect timing, venue and the dress to execute her outrageous plan: the wedding of her best friend, Emily, who unwittingly chose her as her bridesmaid.

WHY, DAMN IT, WHY?

The film project started accidentally with a short story Michal wrote and mentioned to Jen over dinner. Jen immediately responded with “Let’s make a movie”. Somehow, along the way the film took on a life of it’s own. We would like to think that the project itself enticed so many creative, talented and artistic women, and several confident men. It might actually have had something to do with all of Jen and Michal’s increasingly shameless pleading. Light deception, a few half-truths and some minor peddling also proved helpful. It takes MANY people to make a film and we sincerely thank every one we coerced and cajoled. We have asked everyone we knew and had to make more friends. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Making this film is most likely the closest Michal or Jen will ever get to marriage. Michal somehow managed to get a degree and a job, two things that were expected of her and that she tried to avoid. A wedding is the last card she holds to keep her mother from bliss. Jen is gay and while same sex marriage is legal for the moment in Canada, Jen figures that by the time she decides to tie the knot, it might not be so anymore.

LIFE IN NUMBERS

Life in Numbers started with the application for the AFA grant. We really didn’t have much to show in terms of experience. While Jen had directed and produced a film for the Super 8 Challenge and had helped on several productions, Michal had done nothing of the sort. It was quite outrageous to even ask for funding. Vexed with the process of writing a resume, exhausted from trying to find action words, frustrated with herself for her lack of achievements and musing about all the things she should have done, Michal resorted to sum her life in numbers. Jen summed her life in numbers. Then everyone did.

Life in Numbers is an alternative resume and an opportunity to delve into the intimate, arithmetic core of the people behind the scenes. Stripped to digits, we present to you the crew and cast.

Locations:

It is ambitious to try and make a film in the first place. It is challenging to have multiple locations and shooting days for a low budget, first film, and it is ludicrous to plan a wedding on top of it all. Considering the time, effort and money it took to plan the fake wedding, it surprising people actually get married in real life.
We were fortunate to have the help and exploit the generosity of the owners of the following businesses:

ETHOS – Bridal Store

Ethos is one of the top bridal stores in Calgary, featuring thousands of dresses in a beautiful romantic store. Haya and Haim generously donated not only their location for the shooting, but the bridesmaids’ dresses as well.

THE COUP – Restaurant

The coup is an intimate vegetarian restaurant with imaginative delicious food. Shooting two scenes in the coffee shop we needed an entire day at the Coup. Dalia and Tabitha endured dozens of calls and about 15 changes in shooting dates and still provided the location.

TWIGS – Flower Shop

Twigs must be the most gorgeous and inspiring flower shop in Calgary. Colin not only generously donated the location, made the stunning bouquets for the wedding and played the flower shop owner, he also pretended to be another dog’s daddy. His dedication to the film is second to none.

ART GALLERY OF CALGARY

Finding a wedding hall that would live up to the expectations set by Ethos, the Coup, and Twigs was almost an impossible task. We needed a place that was sophisticated and beautiful, with a hard floor, not a carpet, and could allow a dropped cake and a dog prancing around. Oh, and that we could afford, too. We both knew that there was no other option but the Art Gallery of Calgary, not least because most wedding halls are hard to distinguish from funeral parlors. Chris Flodberg’s dark, haunting, monumental paintings were more than we could ask. Justin Patton, the charming, resourceful and immaculately well dressed, Director of Business Development, made it all happen.