Alexz Johnson Island

Here’s an article about “The Dishwasher”‘s win at Storyhive! This article gives a lot of insight from the Director on the film and plans for “The Dishwasher” going forward.

Source

by Ashley Wadhwani – Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times
posted Mar 15, 2016 at 10:00 AM— updated Mar 15, 2016 at 4:53 PM

A sibling duo, born and raised in Maple Ridge, will be attending the Banff World Media Festival this summer, after winning the STORYHIVE digital short scholarship for their digital short film The Dishwasher.

Matt David Johnson, story writer and director for the short will also receive customized career training, and the short film will air on select Telus platforms.

Matt and sister, Alex Johnson, competed against 30 other filmmakers from the province and Alberta. People could vote for their favourite film until March 4, and STORYHIVE chose one winning film from B.C. and Alberta.

Matt created the script and directed the short, while his sister, Alexz Johnson, produced and created the soundtrack for the film.

The short film, Matt said, is a “visual piece that feels very cinematic,” with minimum dialogue.

The short’s central character, a dishwasher at a “greasy restaurant” is accepted into a prestigious cooking academy, but struggles. With the help of a new friend, a young prostitute in the area, he trades meals in exchange for her culinary advice.

So far, the film has gained a positive response from the general public, Matt said, one person even “being driven to tears.”

“My goal is to resonate emotionally [with] people,” the director said.

He added that filming the short in various locations in Vancouver– a task that was done in a mere three days time – was made possible through the help of the cast and crew, Art Institute of Vancouver president Brian Parker who allowed the group to film in its culinary school, and Wesley Chadwick and the Gospel Mission, an organization that offers shower services and meals to the under-privileged in East Vancouver.

Working alongside his sister, was also an experience to remember.

“Working with my sister was a thrill,” the director said. “Her industry training has been on the other side of the coin. We had to learn pretty quickly to trust each other.”

During the first day of filming, Matt said, the cast and crew finished the day by handing out the 100 sandwiches that were featured in an earlier scene.

The director described the experience as “a reality check.”

“It only took about 20 minutes to give them out,” he said. “That’s how fast and in need [people] in East Vancouver are of good and healthy food.”

Matt and his sister also hosted a debut screening, and donated the proceeds back to Gospel Mission.

Now that the duo have won, Matt said, the possibilities are endless.

In fact, The Dishwasher has already led to the establishing of a new production company called Barbara Brooke for all future projects, he said.

Also an experience to look forward to, will be the duo’s trip to the Banff World Media Festival on June 12 to 15.

“A scholarship to Banff World Media Festival is a chance to showcase the film,” the director said. “Meeting like-minded people in the industry, you can’t ask for a better reward than that.”

The next step, is to show the short “to as many festivals as we can over the next year,” he said. “It will be exciting to see the response…

“I think our goal is going to be to leverage that into another short,” he added.

The director does not want to limit himself, and keep an open mind to his future ahead, but does have a few family driven, emotionally driven, social issues-based ideas in the works.

“My team and I are sitting on a trove of original ideas,” he said.

The short film can be viewed, for free, at dishwashermovie.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 15th, 2016 at 7:26 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.