Local filmmaker Mitchell George is hoping the third time is the charm.
George has teamed up with local band Sealegs to try to win $10,000 to make a music video in the TELUS StoryHive competition.
George has competed for the StoryHive prize twice before, most recently making it through to the final round where he and his film company, Crooked Cinema, competed for $50,000 to complete a Web mini series to run on TELUS Optik TV, falling just short of the top prize.
“It’s such a good opportunity but this will be our last run at it, I think,” George said. “We’ve accessed all our support in Airdrie for this and I think three times is enough. We hope to get it. We hope to hit it hard and then just leave it.”
StoryHive provides creative individuals in Alberta and British Columbia with an opportunity to have their work seen. Previous editions have featured Web series, however, new this year is the music video competition.
In the first round, 20 winning ideas and their creators will each receive $10,000 to make a music video. The winners are chosen based on votes cast by the public on the StoryHive website.
The top 20 music videos move on to the next stage where one winner in each province – again based on public voting – receives $20,000 to create a music video and $10,000 to make a short documentary as well as training and mentorship.
George said deciding to partner with Sealegs was easy.
“It’s really supporting two local artists. It’s supporting a local filmmaker and it’s supporting local musicians. Sealegs is comprised of Calgary and Airdrie residents and I’ve worked with them before,” he said. “We’re going to bring forward their track ‘Shipwrecked.’ We want to create something completely different from any other music video.”
George said the final video will include three minutes of music and five minutes of documentary footage focusing on the band.
“Sealegs gets a music video to help further themselves as musicians – a little bit more promotion for them – but they also get to go on TELUS Optik TV,” he said.
“There’s distribution for Crooked Cinema and me as well.”
Sealegs frontman Drew Gusztak said the group is heavily influenced by East Coast music.
“We’re East Coast folk rock, highly Irish-influenced,” he said. “I’ve been writing music for well over 10 years. I learned how to play guitar using a down tuning, a specific folk tuning that makes it sound really rich.
“When I started re-writing some of my songs in this tuning, they sounded very folky, very Irish. The type of music we write includes a lot of repeatable choruses and sing-along parts – when you throw all of that together along with a mandolin and banjo player it sounds very folky.”
Gusztak said the band’s sound developed organically from there, something he said embraces Canada’s musical history.
“In Canada, the East Coast influence is our roots. A lot of the country that you hear out West includes that East Coast influence,” he said. “We’re just passionate about doing it the right way, staying a roots band. Instead of trying to break off and doing something new and experimental we decided to honour the true way and start writing that way.”
The band’s mandolin player, Adam Kolankowski, lives and works in Airdrie while the other members of the quartet live in Calgary. The current members have been together for approximately 18 months, according to Gusztak. Winning the StoryHive competition would have a positive impact on their future.
“We’re fairly popular in Calgary right now and that’s really what we care about. This whole thing is essentially a glorified hobby. Our passion is sharing with the community,” he said. “We believe our music really does enrich the lives of people that listen to it. The music video will give us a platform we can push off of to reach more people with music they hopefully really love.”
A link to vote for George and Sealegs is on the StoryHive website at storyhive.ca until May 18.
“You can listen to the song there and really get a sense for who these guys are,” George said.
For more information about Sealegs, visit sealegsyyc.com, and for more information about George’s Crooked Cinema, visit crookedcinema.com
