The Volunteer DVDs & Blu-Rays have arrived!

Post by Rosco Films.

Seems incredible that 28 days of shooting principal photography, followed by three months editing a rough cut, followed by four months editing to picture lock, followed by six months of false starts with sound editing, followed by six months of score composition, followed by a month of sound editing, all comes down to a little round disk that is 12cm in diameter and 1.2mm thick!

Initially we were planning on releasing only HD digital downloads but you, our fans, wanted hard copies so we are delivering hard copies!

DVDs are $20CAD + tax ($22 cash)
Blu-Rays are $25CAD + tax ($28 cash).

*Twenty percent of your purchase will go to our friends at Ray of Hope who help those struggling with crime, addiction, or homelessness! They know well both the joys and frustrations of the 'volunteer' spirit.

There are a number of special features included in the DVD/Blu-Rays:
- feature-length commentary
- behind-the-scenes reel
- previously unreleased short film VANCOUVER which plays as a bit of a prequel to THE VOLUNTEER both in terms of story and production.

Email us or reach out on facebook to buy yours today! If do not live in Waterloo Region, please buy your copy at our online store so we can ship it to you!

Thanks again for all of your support!

The Volunteer and the Official Soundtrack is available to buy!

To our many supporters out there who couldn't make it to our screenings in Sudbury, Waterloo, and Guelph, THE VOLUNTEER is now available to download (legally!).

Check out our online store at buy.thevolunteerfilm.com to download an HD copy to watch on your computer or through a streaming device of your choice to your TV. OR, if you're old-school, pre-order a DVD or Blu-Ray! If you are local to Waterloo Region, don't bother ordering through Pay-pal, just contact us through email or facebook to pre-order and we'll get it to you without shipping charges.

"Ambient, contemplative, at times dark, this soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment to a rainy day."

The "exquisite" official soundtrack to The Volunteer by our good friend and genius Brian MacMillan is available to download HERE.

If you were one of our many supporters through our successful IndieGoGo campaign, you will have received an email by now with a promo code to claim your free download(s). Enjoy!

*Update! There is one more screening scheduled in partnership with Grand River Film Festival and the Wilfred Laurier University Film Studies program, in February 2015 - stay tuned!

The Volunteer "...is like a good Bruce Springsteen song."

"The Volunteer" was a cinematic version of a good Bruce Springsteen song: it draws you into
the bleak, barren circumstances of characters living out their lives of
broken promises and dwindling dreams.  No happy endings can be assumed
or guaranteed. But that's okay, because the story is an honest one.”
-Frank Chen Music

THE VOLUNTEER - EXTENDED RUN + Reviews!

Back by popular demand - THE VOLUNTEER has an extended run for those of you missed it our opening weekend! The key info:

Sunday, November 30th, 3pm  4pm - Princess Twin, 46 King St. N, Waterloo, ON

Thursday, December 11th, 7pm - Bookshelf Cinema, 41 Quebec St., Guelph, ON

Tickets are $10 cash at the door. People loved the Q&A from our opening night so for both of the above shows, there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers!

Here's a great review from Heather Riemersma, CKWR New Art Radio:

I was not at all expecting the magnitude of emotion felt during the viewing of Rosco Films, The Volunteer. The entire movie had the audience engaged in the relationships unfolding before us. The superb acting was very reminiscent of Neil Armfield's Australian masterpiece, Candy. In a surprising turn of events, it was made clear after the showing that with the exception of Myra Segal (Becky) and Theodore Bouloukos (Rick), professional actors were not involved. Director Jonathan Steckley and the cast and crew deserve more than a round of applause for this spectacular creation!

THE VOLUNTEER Comes Home!

Opening night at the Princess Twin! [Photo: Tom Emptage]

We're a little late to the game updating here but we want to blog for the record that the local premiere for THE VOLUNTEER was AWESOME!!

We had our official world premiere at Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival which is so cool. Cinéfest is legitimately a powerhouse festival in Canada and for a small film by no-names like us to make it in was an incredible blessing.

But the event we were always looking forward to was showing the film to our hometown crowd - all of you who supported us in so many ways in making this uber indie film come to life! And y'all didn't disappoint - we packed our opening night at the Princess Twin to the rafters; the weekend overall was a huge success and made us feel like it was worth all the work and wait! THANK YOU!

**UPDATE**
Due to the success of our opening run, we're so excited to announce an extended run!

Sunday, November 30th, 3pm - Princess Twin, 46 King St. N, Waterloo, ON

Thursday, December 11th, 7pm - Bookshelf Cinema, 41 Quebec St., Guelph, ON

THE VOLUNTEER - KW Premiere!!

AT LONG LAST, you, our faithful and patient local supporters have a chance to watch The Volunteer on the big screen! We have a weekend run scheduled at the fantastic Princess Cinemas in Uptown Waterloo, so mark your calendars:

Friday Nov. 7th, 7pm - Princess TWIN followed by Q&A with filmmakers!
Saturday, Nov. 8th, 3pm - ORIGINAL Princess
Sunday, Nov. 9th, 3pm - ORIGINAL Princess

Tickets are $10, cash only. For all of you who helped us make this film either by acting/working, or donating, you will get a free HD download of the film, hopefully before Christmas!

Cinéfest Sudbury Dispatch #3: THE VOLUNTEER World Premiere!!

Finally!! The premiere of THE VOLUNTEER! It's hard to believe that two years after shooting and three years after writing the story, we finally unveiled it to our first public audience!

It was weird standing outside the theatre and hearing the ushers directing customers - "You're here for The Volunteer? Number Four to your right."

It was like, "Really? But... you don't even know us!"

The experience was nerve-wracking but rewarding and my mind went back to this horrific experience by now-revered director, Wes Anderson, on the first screening of his first movie, BOTTLE ROCKET (1996). Unlike poor Wes, most of our audience stuck around to the end and gave us a nice hand.

Managing Director Patrick O'Hearn was, once again, wonderful in facilitating a great Q&A where everybody got to get up in front and say some words about their role and experience rehearsing and shooting. Amazingly, nobody said the words, "It turned me off filmmaking forever." A few key cast members were missing - Theodore Bouloukos and Cheryl Lee - we missed you!

Finally, we leave you with the kind words of a woman who raised her hand during the Q&A:

"I don't really have a question; I just wanted to say you guys knocked it out of the park! It was beautiful and wonderful and I want to watch everything you make."

UPDATE:
Andrew Cherry, Dave Walpole, and I went to the gala that evening (there's a gala every evening, free booze and food! Live music! What's not to like?) and there we got the real heart of the Cinéfest experience. We were recognized and people were coming up to us, to take pictures with us, telling us they loved our movie! It was fantastic and weird!

The demographic at Cinéfest skews 60yrs+ and many of them had been dedicated Cinéfest-goers for 26 years, since the beginning. A number of people told us they watch easily 30 or more films over the nine-day festival. One woman told me, "We're a town of workers, and we really appreciate the work you guys do to make films." There's a reason why Cinéfest bills itself "the people's festival". The folks here are hard-core cinephiles who not only appreciate the art, but the enormous amount of WORK that goes into making that art.

Cinéfest Sudbury Dispatch #2: The Shout Out

Somebody we know who works for TIFF and travels widely to attend festivals said to us, "Enjoy Cinéfest, it's one of the best festivals in Canada, no BS."

Yesterday afternoon, we found out one more reason why.

We were sitting in the half-dark theatre a couple rows back, waiting for PRIMARY to start, when a suited gentleman came up to us and said,

"Excuse me, are you guys from THE VOLUNTEER?".

Uh. YES. HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

It was Patrick O'Hearn, Managing Director of Cinéfest!! He had recognized me from our poster and our screener! He thanked us for coming and assured us we would connect over the next couple days to talk about our premiere and Q&A to follow. Seconds later, he was in the spotlight at the front of the theatre, introducing the film and at the end he pointed us out and told everybody to go see our film on Thursday. We got a nice round of applause.

The point is this - how cool is it that the Managing Director of a major film festival would recognize a couple of no-name indie filmmakers in a dark theatre full of people and give them a shout out?

Cinéfest for the win!

Cinéfest Sudbury Dispatch #1

We have safely arrived in Sudbury after only one missed exit and one speeding ticket courtesy of a hyper-vigilant OPP officer. Thank you for keeping our roads safe!

The first screening we watched was Nightcrawler, directed by Dan Gilroy and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, and (new to me) Riz Ahmed. It was a packed house and the only seats available were in the second row with the gigantic Silver City screen looming above us. We sat beside a friendly older gentleman who turned out to be the former mayor of Sudbury! A very amicable man, he told us, among other things, a story about his friend whose racing horse had recently won him half a million bucks.


Despite the nauseating closeness of the screen, we thoroughly enjoyed this film - the best thriller I'd seen in a long time, in fact. Gyllenhaal is perfectly creepy as a cheerful, calculating sociopath who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Great characters, solid writing, and a fantastic story that just keeps building. Highly recommended.

And you know what's cool?? Our film is playing at the same festival!! NIGHTCRAWLER is a big fish, THE VOLUNTEER is a small fish.... but we're swimming in the same pond for a week! Pretty cool.

THE VOLUNTEER Official Trailer!

As we were about to post this on our facebook page, we had a little moment:

"Holy crap. This is actually the very first time people are actually seeing what we've spent two years crafting. I am scared."

Not scared so much as suddenly nervous! It's all good to show beautiful screen caps and behind the scenes photos, but to show everything put together?? And this is just the trailer!

Anyway, we hope you enjoy this - so many people put so much work into this over the past two years that it's rewarding just to have finished it and to say "WE MADE A REAL MOVIE."

Official THE VOLUNTEER poster!

Post by Rosco Films.

Really excited to unveil the official poster for our feature film, THE VOLUNTEER!
This was literally the first mockup from over a year ago and turns out - it was a winner all along. Huge thanks again to our on-set photographer, Jonathon Bowman, who gave of his time and talents to capture tons of amazing images throughout pre-production and shooting.

CinéFest Sudbury International Film Festival, here we come!

HEYO! THE VOLUNTEER will have it's world premiere at Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival!! We are super excited to have our film premiere at, in the words of one industry veteran, "one of the best festivals in Canada, no BS." 

This is our first time premiering a film at a festival so we've been talking to everybody we can who's had some experience to try and glean some tips. Many of them say similar things:

- Be bold - don't be afraid to put yourself out there!
- Talk to as many people as you can.
- Have some 'next projects' in the back pocket - people are more interested in what you're doing next, than what you've just done.
- Enjoy the festival experience.

There are some fantastic films screening in Sudbury and a few that we are excited about are:

• BOYHOOD,  the latest from one of my favourite writer/directors, Richard Linklater
• CAMP X-RAY, by Jon's fellow NCSA alumnus Peter Sattler,  starring Kristen Stewart
• ALTMAN, a documentary on one of Jon's favourite directors. (It's Robert Altman).

Of course, we want to thank everybody who was a part of getting us this far and we look forward to showing off our long labour of love. THANK YOU!

The Volunteer: Update #3

As much as we tend to make a big deal out of the lights-camera-action! that happen during production - and it IS a big deal - one element that cannot be overstated is created far from the hustle and bustle of the cameras and actors. In a small, dark studio we visit singer/songwriter, producer, recording artist, and all-round awesome guy to work with: Brian MacMillan.

Can't say enough about how great it was to work with Brian. It takes a special person that would not only tolerate, but thrive off of Jon and I watching over his shoulder as he brought new life to our film. We dropped in periodically to "workshop" with Brian and it was inspiring to watch him create the perfect score for The Volunteer, right in front of us. 

The Volunteer: Update #2

An update on post-production on The Volunteer... and it includes some big news: we secured a $10,000 grant from the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund to help us through post! This a HUGE boost because it allows us to call on pros to help us polish the raw materials into a beautiful gem.

The Volunteer: Update #1

Finishing production was (and is) such a monumental achievement that for a second there, we let ourselves forget that we're only halfway there. At this stage, we're still thrilling at the footage we're seeing. All the hard work that our dedicated cast and crew put in is paying off on the screen and we're very gratified (and grateful!).

Here's a little update video to give you a peek into where we're at. Thank for your continued support!

Production Highlights

Well, we did it. We survived our gruelling production schedule - one that saw us shoot, on average, 3.28 scenes per day for 28 days.

There are no words to describe the gratitude we feel for the cast and crew who worked ridiculous hours and produced such satisfying results. It was amazing to watch a crew gathered from all over the world gel into such a cohesive unit!

Here are a few photographs from the shoot, captured by the brilliant Jonathon Bowman.

Brandon biking down the halls of the old cheese factory outside Wellesley, ON.  A great location, thanks for the hat tip, Murray Bender!

First Assistant Camera Ozvaldo Sepulveda and our young star Katy Adam.

The dynamite camera crew: (L-R) 2nd AC Alex Mielke, Director of Photography Christopher Schneider, Director Jonathon Steckley, Camera Operator Ben Barber, and 1st AC Ozvaldo Sepulveda.

Ben and Chris preparing for a push.

Prepping a scene, L-R: Andrew Cherry, Cheryl Lee, Ken Ogasawara

This is our Production Manager Trevor Hunsberger's parents dog, hogging the limelight,  surrounded by some of our brilliant cast.

Ken had to pretend to struggle to carry this mattress up the stairs so many times it became a real struggle.

There are many more photos and screen shots and you'll see them in good time!  

Jon is currently starting the arduous process of post-production, cutting rough scenes together. Eventually we'll need to raise some more cash to pay for sound design, a score, and colour grading, among many other things... stay posted!

And again... THANK YOU for everybody who has been supporting, encouraging, and praying for us during this epic journey.  We could not have made it this far without you.

Seeing RED!

Well, friends, it's been awhile since we've posted but that does not mean we've been resting on our so-called "laurels".

Since we (well, really, YOU) hit our fundraising goal at the end of May, we've been busy locking locations, wrangling camera, lenses, crew, and all the other pieces necessary to make an awesome movie!

The most exciting thing we've done so far is to take the RED ONE digital film camera for a test drive. For those of you who don't know, the RED ONE is a professional film industry camera that has been used to shoot masterpieces like The Social Network (skip to 0:54 mark to get to RED footage).

We packed in a full 16-hour day with a nearly full crew: 2 sound guys (boom + mixer), 3 camera guys, (Cinematographer, 1st Assistant Camera, 2nd Assistant Camera).

Here's our director Jon peering into the monitor of the RED ONE. On the monitor and in the background you will see Ken standing in a river, in Elmira ON.

What you can't see is that Ken mucked around in that water for about an hour and was thoroughly soaked by the end of it. When we came out of the river, a young guy wearing a camouflage mesh-back hat and a Three Wolf Moon t-shirt saw us, laughed, and said:

"You're not from around here, are you? I wouldn't step into that water unless I was wearin' hip-waders. You're gonna be glowing in the dark tonight!"

Apparently nobody thought to tell Ken that there was a chemical plant spill across the street some years ago and that nobody but foolish outsiders go swimming in that water. Awesome. Noting the panic on Ken's face, he added hastily, "You'll be fine, though... I'm sure."

Later on in the day we shot at our favourite location at Roadside Farm outside Wellesley, ON. Beautiful, filmic, friendly farmers, and lots of space and privacy.


Here's a sample screen grab from our day featuring Andrew Cherry.

(We've posted this image despite the fact that our DP, Chris Schneider, is not completely happy with his lighting in this shot. C'mon, Schnitz - it's looks pretty amazing for an ungraded test shot).

So - we learned a lot and are super super grateful for our crew for volunteering a FULL day with us. Shout outs to:

Sound: 
Luke Bennett (www.theredcarpetstudio.com)
Ian Reynolds

Camera:
Cole Bennett (www.colebennett.com)
Andrew Musselman (www.eclinmedia.com)
Christopher Schneider (imdb.com profile)

Y'all rock.

16,000 THANK YOUS!

	Dear friends, family, "volunteers", THANK YOU! Our 30 day online fundraising campaign to help fund the production of our feature film, The Volunteer, ended with a bang! You supported us to the point of overflowing... we reached our $15,000 goal with 9 hours remaining and you made the most of it! The final tally is $16,210!! And we're still getting cheques in the mail from people who want to support us! We can now get down to the nitty gritty of preparing for our month-long shoot in August. Lots of rehearsals, locations scouting, equipment scrounging, crew-building, etc. But knowing what we have to work with, budget-wise, is a huge load lifted off our minds and we thank you so much for your generosity. As the old saying goes, "It takes a village to raise an independent film." In closing, check out this video, we mean every word of it. Humbly, gratefully, sincerely yours, Jonathan, Trevor, & Ken
	To follow our progress, check out any of the following: - Like us on facebook: www.facebook.com/roscofilms - Follow us on twitter: @roscofilms - website: www.roscofilms.com

Random Acts of In-Kindness

There is a reason why most people leave when the credits start to roll - there are a LOT of people involved in making a film and in fantasy-land where everybody gets paid what they're worth, that adds up to a LOT of money.  Money that most indie filmmakers don't have.

So how do we do it? Recently crowd-sourcing platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter have been a boon for independent projects of all kinds.  We have our own campaign going (ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT!!) if you're wondering what to do with all that pesky cash lying around.

But the REAL secret to making big things happen is the in-kindess, if you will, of others.

Just yesterday we got word that Conrad Grebel University College at University of Waterloo have provided us with one of their apartment units at a considerable discount to help us house our cast and crew!

Our crew will be super happy when they learn that though they will be working for free (in-kindness, holla!), they will be sleeping on real beds, not just on available floorspace like at a 24-hour Korean bathhouse:

And MCC Thrift Shops in our area have let us use their entire store as a prop house. Costume, furniture, anything that could be in a thrift store, it's ours for the using. That so incredibly in-kind of them!

This isn't even getting into our cast and crew who are donating huge amounts of time and talent to help make this production something we can all be proud of.

In other words: THANK YOU. To everybody who is giving cash, to the organizations and individuals who are pitching in to pull things together for us, we can't do this without you... and for a film about helping and community support, we wouldn't have it any other way!

#TrueStory - The car.

Yesterday afternoon Jon, Cheryl, and I were leaving the New Hamburg Thrift Centre with an armful of costumes for our film (thanks guys, you'll get your clothes back eventually!) and Jon said,

"Where in the world are we going to find a car for Becky and Rick?"

5 seconds later, we see this car in a parking lot:

One U-turn and 60 seconds later, we're talking with Paul, the friendly owner of this beauty and we've got a fantastic car for our two fantastic characters! Thanks Paul!

If only it were always so easy...