Hey everybody!  Eva Madden here, blogging all the way from Halifax, Nova Scotia, home of the first documented sighting of a UFO in North America (October 12, 1786!). 

I’m a writer/director, working my way up through the ranks in the film and television industry. Meanwhile I keep the bills paid as a sound designer at a local post house for many of the projects that come out of this region. I studied filmmaking at Concordia University in Montreal, my favourite color is blue, and I was born in St. John’s Newfoundland - If I didn’t tell you that, they’d never let me back home. Welcome to my blog! (And UFO nuts – please don’t pick up the alien-ball and run with it. This is a blog about FILM, not UFO’s. Okay?)

As filmmakers, ideas are our gold. Great ideas come from inspiration. And to be inspired, we need to be stimulated. That can come from many places and in many forms - taking a walk around the block, listening in on a conversation, flipping through a photo album, reading a how-to book or surfing the internet. These days we have more potential sources of inspiration than ever before – and perhaps that is why we sometimes feel overwhelmed, over stimulated and our imaginations just shut down, turn on the TV and get lost in an episode of Lost.

In this blog I will try to sift through all the noise – some of what’s happening out there and some of what’s clamouring around in my head. And then I’ll pick out the most interesting bits I find and share them with you.

Being self referential in nature – what filmmaker isn’t? – I’ll start with the power of blogs. In preparing for my own blog, I naturally spent some time reading other people’s blogs – and was amazed at the wide variety of topics I found. 

Did you know there's a blog just about cupcakes? Maybe you don’t like cupcakes (is that possible?),  maybe you’re more of a pie kind of guy or gal – but when you sit down to write that character who quits her day job at the bank and decides to start her own little cupcake shop, well you might find some gold. 

Just like real estate is about location, location, location, filmmaking is about research, research, research (and raising money. Lots of money!). Whether you’re a writer, director, producer, production designer or make-up artist, the more you know – well come on, that’s an easy one – the more you know. Knowledge is power. The resources are there to inform us, caution us and keep us amused now and then. 

Hopefully this blog can add to the discussion. Along the way I’ll stop and share my own experiences in the filmmaking world. There are so many workshops, programs, opportunities and resources available to our community it’s hard to keep track of them all, and impossible to take advantage of most of them. But I’ll tell you want I can. And if you have some advice or experience to share with us, please feel free to join the conversation. And remember – no UFO’s.

So welcome. Come back often and spread the word.

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