Buddies, blood and bud: Visiting the set of THC+

Ambitious, motivated, and Sudbury-centric; those are the trademarks of the cast and crew on THC+.

From a homegrown cast and crew, to familiar local hot spots, to calls for Sudburians to take part in the film as extras, this stoner-vampire flick has its roots planted firmly in the community.

Writer/producer/actor Shawn McLaren invited NorthernLife.ca on set to get an inside look at the movie-making business, as well as to discuss the community nature of the project.

“This is really an opportunity to showcase what Sudbury has to offer,” said McLaren. “We basically had to call in every favour we had to get locations to shoot and get people to work on this film.”

The plot is a mix of B-movie horror and stoner tropes. Chuck and Doug are best "buds" for life, typical young stoners — expect that Chuck just happens to be a vampire. Doug catches a buzz from pot, while Chuck catches a buzz from Doug — or Doug's blood to be more precise. When Doug is fired from his job, Chuck comes up with a plan: Sell his friend's weed-laced blood to other vampires. Sounds like a winner, but can their friendship withstand the trials and tribulations?

McLaren reached out to Canadore College film students to take part in the project, but the producer believes in throwing the youngsters into the deep end rather than having them act as gophers on set.

“We wanted to get these students into key roles and really see what they can do, and they've been killing it for us, so it's been great,” said McLaren, who plays Doug.

Liz Williamson, a 20-year-old digital cinematography student who just finished her first year at Canadore, has been trying her hand as first assistant director on the project and has jumped in with both feet.

“I've been kind of learning on the fly,” said Williamson. “School definitely prepared me to a point, but there's always new challenges and unexpected things every day.”

Williamson is one of four Canadore students on set and is yet another important cog in a large machine with dozens of moving parts.

“This is almost like a big art project,” said McLaren. “You've got different contributors from different areas contributing. From local bands offering to play music in the movie, to places like Fuse Nightclub and Little Montreal letting us into their establishments, to people letting us into their homes, everyone has been awesome and we're just trying to do them proud and be respectful.”

If there is a such thing as black sheep in the tight-knit cast, it may be actor Damien Gulde who hails from Toronto and has been lodging at director William Andrews' parents house throughout the course of shooting.

“William and I worked on two projects together in Toronto where the productions folded,” said Gulde, who plays Chuck. “After that happened, he told me that the next project he worked on he would have a part for me.”

There is a common theme of passion among the actors on the film, and it's evident being on set with them, that they're all glad to be doing what they're doing.

Actor Callam Rodya works by day as a communications director with the Sudbury Theatre Centre, but there's no place he'd rather be than in front of the camera.

“Living in Sudbury you just can't really be a full-time actor, you need to have another job,” said Rodya, who plays Carl. “It's exciting to be working on an indie project like this and it motivates you when you see so many people volunteering their time to make this happen. Most of all it gives us an opportunity to do what we love and that's act.”

The film also stars Marty Guimond as Darryl, Marie-José Dionne as Camilla, Queen of the Night, and Colin Eady as Vilo.

THC+ began shooting on June 24 and will wrap on July 7.

“We're swinging big on this one,” said McLaren. “We'll wrap on July 7 and go right into post-production and we want to have this out and ready to be screened in October, sometime close to Halloween.”