Art on Fire, bitches
Lots of laughing and live music
Where are the flames? / Art on Fire
On Feb. 13, Art on Fire will be hosting their first comedy film screening at the Artful Dodger.
The five members of Art on Fire — Rob White, Nathan White, Steve McNeil, Neil Adams, and John Mailhot — have been collaborating since 2010.
“We’re huge sketch comedy fans … and we just kind of felt like we could do something like that, but we had absolutely no experience in film making,” director and writer Rob White explains. “You think you’re going to be an awesome film maker the first time you pick up a camera. You don’t realize it’s going to take three hours to even figure out that you need to shoot coverage of scenes, and it’s not going to edit together the way that you had in your head.”
Though the group seemingly blindly jumped into filmmaking, and White says, “It took a while to actually figure out how to do things properly,” the group is creating some funny films.
Late 2014, Art on Fire applied at screenings across Regina and the country, but did not find any success. They decided to take matters into their own hands and make an evening of comedy of their own.
“I was kind of angry, and I was like ah! I am just going to book a screening now, and we’ll work it out at some point. I booked it in November. I picked a random date, and it turned out to be my anniversary. But she’s cool with that,” White says. “It was kind of arbitrary, but I knew we kind of had a plan and had some sketches that we haven’t put up yet.”
In addition to the three brand new shorts Art on Fire will be showing, there will be works from Justin Ludwig, Over the Fence, Tim Thurmeier, and Split the Bill. The exact number of films that will be played has not yet been finalized, but White promises there will be an hour’s worth of hilarious material. After the screening, bands The Bad Comrade and The Jump Off will be playing.
“We don’t want to make a big deal out of it,” White said after I excitedly pointed out that the bands would make for a party of sorts after the screening. The laid-back filmmaker said it would be a fun time, but nothing crazy, inviting people to “just come out and enjoy yourself.”
Seeing audiences react to their films will be a more rewarding experience for the group who usually posts their sketches online.
“You want to see the people laughing at it. You don’t want to be in your house while someone is laughing at it on their laptop in the South End of Regina,” White says.
Ultimately, Art on Fire is looking to establish an annual or semi-annual screening and eventually work towards creating a television show or podcast.
“Since we don’t have a lot of time, but we have so much material, we kind of try to pick the best stuff. The rest of it is still good,” White explains. “We have tons of back log of material. We are actually talking about making a podcast format…You can get away with more with audio. You can have someone explain a fantastic sequence instead of shooting a fantastic sequence.”
If you are into free events, laughing, and live music, Art on Fire’s first ever comedy film screening is probably the best way you can kick-off your reading week.
Full disclosure: Neil Adams, a member of Art on Fire, is also the Carillon’s advertising manager.
