Films/Music

A selection of the odd, eccentric films, ambient tracks and spoken word pieces I’ve created in the last few years. You’ll also find some flicks by my talented little family.

Films:

My favorite short movie so far, a science fiction effort that will blow your mind:

My homage to cowboys, western movies and fiction—a film with accompanying verse, shot on location in Grasslands National Park (southern Saskatchewan). Check it out, “’76 Corral”:

Combine a violent summer storm and a suspenseful subplot and you get…”Storm”

“Beautiful Desolation” is a celebration of nature, with humankind noticeably absent. Our presence persists…but for how long?

“Suspicious Mind” is based on a short prose piece that appears in my Stromata collection (available from my Bookstore)

“July 20, 1969″–my first short film, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing

Remember “Robot Boy”, a short-lived series produced by a Yorkton TV station back in the late 1960′s or early 1970′s? Well, here’s some Super 8mm footage from the show, discovered in a back closet some years back. A rare find…especially since no other trace of the show seems to exist:

A brief look at the books that changed my life. Bibliophiles will love this one:

Here’s the book trailer for my supernatural thriller, So Dark the Night. Beautifully shot by my wife, Sherron, and edited by my son, Sam:

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Family Films: (movies created by or with my wife and two sons):

Beginning with our most popular film by far, “Winter Light”. Sherron gets credit for the lion’s share of this one:

…followed by another short film by Sherron Burns, set to one of my musical interludes. This one’s called “Eyes Open”. It draws its inspiration from a quote by film-maker Stan Brakhage.

“Snoop” is a noirish number from my youngest son, Sam. The editing in this one is nothing short of amazing.

…and, finally, a screamingly funny (and brutal) stop motion movie my son Liam made when he was around twelve years old. Beware…”The Twilight Kitten”:

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Audio & Spoken Word:

Below, you’ll find a good proportion of the audio work I’ve created over the past few years.

I love spacey, ambient music and, thanks to Garageband, now I can noodle about in my own l’il ol’ homegrown sound recording studio, creating all sorts of weird, creeeeepy tunes. And then there’s my spoken word stuff, dramatic presentations of my best short stories and poetry, with accompanying music and/or sound fx.

And I’m happy to share this material with one and all—you can download and listen to music or some of my spoken work pieces, short stories, novel excerpts, poems, commentaries and rants.

It’s been great fun creating these works over the past few years. Music has opened up bold, new horizons for me and it’s been fantastically challenging and rewarding for this non-musician (can’t even read a scale) to play with a virtual orchestra, stocked with all manner of instruments. The results haven’t always been great but I’ve saved the best of them and hope you find these snippets and soundscapes to your liking: