MyDocumentary.ca: I’m super good. So let’s start out with having you tell us about your movie, ‘Clubland’
‘Clubland’ is a documentary about Toronto’s club scene; an area of about 22 square blocks with currently about sixty nightclubs, at its’ height there were probably about 90. It was at one time North America’s biggest night club district and became a focal point for much debate and sort of battle for the heart of the city; you know battle between clubbers, condo owners in the area, and city officials, so that’s what we’re kind of exploring.

MyDocumentary.ca: what made you want to tell this story?
Well, I have always been interested in Toronto; in the history of the city, and neighborhoods, and I used to work evenings at the CBC, which was around the corner from there, and I thought I’d bicycle home on weekends, and I’d see these masses and masses of people, and that’s how I discovered club life. I was sort of too old to go to nightclubs by that point, but, I think it’s the kind of thing everybody knew about but no one had explored what goes on in there, so that’s what I was curious about.

MyDocumentary.ca: once you had the idea for ‘Clubland’, what was the method you used to explore that?
The project came along together very quickly actually; some discussions with the director and my producer from Global; we had the commission fairly quickly, and then we had to move along very quickly. Partly because we had to capture the summer. The challenge was to get to know everybody, find our characters within just a few weeks, and then start shooting. We only had a certain number of weekends before it got too cold for people to be outside in their, you know, whatever it is they wear in the club scene. Things kind of quiet own in the fall as kids go back to school and things get cooler. The challenge was to just get it done quickly.

MyDocumentary.ca: were you telling the story as an outsider, and was that particularly strange for you?
I was always a live music guy. My producer was, back in the 80’s was a club guy; but was it difficult? No, I mean people are the same no matter what kind of music they are in, young people are, you know, whatever generation we are part of we all have the same interest of concerns; getting laid is a big one.

MyDocumentary.ca: getting high?
Yah sure. Drugs were different back in the day, but not that different. I think its boring to tell stories only about your own scene; what you know about your own family or your friends, or your whatever. I’m always interested in exploring another world. That’s the cool thing about documentaries is that it gives you a chance to kind of go into places that you wouldn’t normally be allowed in.

MyDocumentary.ca: speaking of that, can you tell us about some of the insides that you discovered, or is there anything you kind of profoundly learned about yourself or what did you learn in telling this story?
What I learned is there is really only a certain decibel level that I can stand comfortably, and I think that decreases with age; that’s kind of the main thing I learned about myself.

MyDocumentary.ca: was it depressing to learn that?
In a way it was depressing and in a way it was strangely liberating.

MyDocumentary.ca: we like to ask our directors what was the total amount of footage shot was and what the total length of the movie was?
The film is 44 minutes long, and we probably shot, I don’t know, probably about 60-70 hours.

MyDocumentary.ca: did you know going in what the final length of the movie was going to be?
Yes, because it was a broadcast project, there was very specific requirements; there’s commercial breaks, and the broadcast hour in this case was 44 minutes.

MyDocumentary.ca: did you know going in what your story arc was going to be?
Well, we knew we wanted to do a night in the life; so we knew we wanted to focus on all the various kind of players. We had the kids form the suburbs, who come down on the party bus, we had the promoter, we had the aspiring R&B singer who goes down there to network; and we had the club owners…and then we had the politician who was trying to get the place shut down, the condo owners who sort of hunker down, wear ear plugs, you know, in their bunny slippers and house coats trying to just get through the night.

MyDocumentary.ca: so just in the selection of the people the movie you were going to have in the movie you created a natural dramatic element.
Yah. It’s a night in the life, and that’s a pretty simple kind of over arcing structure, and then you sort of inter cut that with whatever other issues you want to talk about.

MyDocumentary.ca: where can kids learn more about the movie?
Webland.ca

-Thanks Eric