Several Harriston area locations provided the backdrop for a short film destined for the comic convention circuit next spring.
Chad Snider, a Harriston native and a recent Toronto Film School graduate, is producing and acting in The White Samurai, which he describes as “a noir film inspired by anime and Sin City.”
A portion of the filming took place locally from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1. Scenes local residents will recognize in the film include the exterior doors of the Harriston United Church, which pass for a temple, and two local farm properties. Filming also took place in the unused upper floor of Harry Stones Pizza Burger and Ale House and Snider said the film company will be returning to the area for more filming before the project is completed.
While the original plan was to shoot only part of the film in and around Harriston, Snider said White Samurai creator and film director Justin Peele was impressed with the locations available in the area.
“Once he saw what we had available he decided to shoot the whole thing here,” said Snider, adding that a number of other directors and producers have learned about the area’s potential as well.
“There’s a lot of people interested in coming here to shoot their movies. It’s good for Minto – it’s good for the filmmakers.”
Peele is an established comic artist, who regularly sells his drawings at comic conventions across the continent. He plans to use those connections to have The White Samurai premiere at next year’s FanExpo in Toronto and then screened ComicCons all over North America.
Peele is currently a student at the Toronto Film School, where he met Snider, who was graduating the year Peele arrived.
“When I heard he was producing films we got together,” said Peele.
The White Samurai is the first “budgeted” film Peele has worked on. He expects the project to cost about $7,000 by the time post-production work is completed next March. He hopes the production will help attract an offer to do a full-length feature film at some point.
For more information on The White Samurai, check out http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-white-samurai/x/1958899.
