Tim Wolochatiuk

0:03Hey Tim, how are you? I'm very well. I thought yourself doing well. Just just finished the film actually. Oh, did you? Yeah It was not and that's actually where I want to start because you see a Canadian movie and especially a Canadian war movie When you hear about it first you're like, okay It's it's it's not gonna be you know Private Ryan, but it actually was Thrilling to hear you say that it's like the first Canadian war film I've seen that actually doesn't look like a Canadian war film, you know what I mean? Yeah, I'll pick that as a compliment and it should be yes It's the most it most definitely should be and maybe we should start there. How difficult is it to to go on a Canadian budget to make a war film? well, you know as you can imagine there's a lot of challenges and

0:49You know the period piece we had challenges not only from finding locations where you can you know put a tank on the beach and Lots of pyrotechnics and guys running around with guns, but there's also the budget right, so we were hard-pressed in both counts and it was one of those things when When the broadcaster came to me and said hey, we would love you to help us make this film I Would be late it and I was very proud to be a part of it and then about Three hours later as I was sitting at home. I thought to myself how the heck are we gonna pull this off? What did I get myself into you know hopefully it came off and in as a very positive piece and we've had some great feedback so I can give you more details if you want in terms of the locations and and the budget all that kind of stuff

1:36Well, yeah sure I heard it was filmed up on Lake Huron in Ontario It was we we shot in various locations, but the all the action sequences on the beach war were unlike Huron, Sable Beach and You know we had a bit of a snag because we were hoping to use Ipperwash which is an amazing Resemblance to to Geno Beach back when the government expropriated the land back in the in 42 I think it was From the First Nations people who were living there they did so because it's so resembled normie and they And so they wanted to train on that land and so they this is wonderful dunes there We had a deal with the the band

2:22in Ipperwash and It was actually the Department of National Defense. It said we got a problem here a it's not really their land We kind of got in the middle of a dispute You know whose land it was because the Indians of them were there for quite a while, right? and But they said there's lots of unexploded ordinance and it would be a for us to film there We'd have to do a number of things that would basically from the time we needed to shoot it couldn't have happened when did you fill out? we filmed last May June of 2010 so this time last year Wow and of course we had a remembrance day premiere on history television and So it was you know with all the special effects in the editing and it's a long piece

3:10You know we we delivered it. I think to the broadcaster about 12 hours before I went to air Wow. Yeah, it was kind of we're on the edge of our Edge of the edge of the razor on that one Yeah, I'm sure the storming of the beach scene that you were just talking about did you shoot it in like 50 takes or was it? 50 cameras in just a few takes or maybe about 50, but it was a it was a bit of both. I know exactly what you mean Yeah, the key of shooting those scenes on the beach was initially we had not initially We had five days to pull it off. Okay, and essentially we had to have the You know, we worked at a game plan And I had an excellent first assistant director by the name of Joel Hay and basically Joel I worked out a plan whereby Day one would be getting the guys out of the landing craft

3:58Day two would be hopefully they make it to the beach in terms of our filming schedule day three They would advance to the first line of defenses with the the mines and the in the in all the wire barbed wire concertino wire and Day four they would advance up to the machine gun nest and take out that machine gun nest and day five Would be sort of the remainder of the scenes that we still had to do including a rather complicated scene at the end where where grayson our hero comes out After capturing a number of Germans and you know sees all those dead comrades on the beach and realizes the price that was made So it was five days and so we had two red cameras that were rolling all the time a third camera that was rolling on occasion and And we we went like anglers at a great professional crew that allowed us to move at a at lightning speed and

4:51Our young actors were gunho for anything we threw at them and And yeah, we we moved like lightning on that beach. Did you try and get name actor or did you want unknowns? Well to be perfectly blunt We didn't have the budget to go with what you call actor or union actors, right? The price difference was was substantial. It was hundreds of thousands of dollars Yeah, you can and to be quite honest It wasn't something that at the end of the day I was crushed by because the fact of that is that all the the soldiers at so bravely stun june beach were We're all young men They were 18 19 20 21 year old guys and And so we wanted to cast people who who were likewise in age and so we we scoured a lot of different theater schools in and around

5:42uh, toronto montreal autowah and came up with what we thought were were the best of the best and these guys had very little Acting experience in terms of being on camera, but uh what they delivered. I think speaks for itself today. Yeah, we're just Remarkably young actors. Yeah, it sure does the and they certainly are The title storming june. Oh, this is still normandy though. Correct It is indeed there was five beaches that were that all had code names. You had sword you had gold which were Uh to be assaulted by the british. You had june, which was taken By canadians that was the codename and then you had omahan utah, uh, which were um american designated codewords for further two sections of beaches. Did you fear using june oh in the title would be to um Unknown for most of the public or did you care?

6:31Well, you know, there was some debate about that I don't think it's you know, some people when they hear storming june, they might say ah that must be you know, a world war two Canadian story or others might uh might not have a clue but hopefully uh if you see You know if it's a if it's a poster or if you see the dvd cover or if you see uh a promo clip on television um Hopefully you'll be able to connect the dots you mentioned television that got me thinking did you shoot knowing there would be commercial breaks? We did. Yeah. Oh, okay. That's always a challenge you uh, you know, we when the script was written We we basically chunked together the film You know once it's assembled so that it's one contiguous piece and uh, and then we sort of look for what is the best

7:18Places to break it up for commercial breaks, right? And uh, and you know, there's uh won't party with the details, but there's a guideline that the broadcasters give you and You know, it's best to go for a break Much like you guys would do on your on your radio station, right? At the given time, you know, exactly I like um, it reminded me of traffic and the fact that the color treatment changes right after They storm the beach. I don't want to give away too much. Obviously the film for people haven't seen it But uh, yeah, but I thought that was really cool a way of breaking breaking Breaking up the film also to two separate pieces of happy and and just terrified and nervousness Yeah, well, that was uh, I'm glad you picked that out. You've got to get eye and uh, you know for for much of the audience those kinds of things are very subtle and uh, some people take it up and some don't but uh, there was a lot of uh, a lot of thought and uh, a lot of

8:06um, you know decisions that were made uh, not only throughout the shooting of the film but also through the uh, Through the post production phase How hard was it to get some of that archival footage or was the government pretty open with getting it to you? Yeah, no, they were they were great, but what we what we managed to pull off was to to go back to the original sources and uh, and have copies made of the original film and uh, wow So you've got that footage from grant. Um, I think it's the first time it had been done in decades. So the quality is it's absolutely remarkable Yeah, it looked good. It worked well interspaced with all the new footage didn't look Um, I don't know how you pulled that off. Maybe maybe that that was part of the color treatment, but well we had seen that footage in advance of shooting and then the process was then to to order it and and and see if we could get to the actual uh,

8:53uh, the originals and have uh, copies made and uh, Yeah, it's uh, you know one thing that I think people have in mind and I certainly did uh, in the very early days of this project is that you expect You know, like private ryan the next landing craft to be you know 30 yards away from you But by the time these guys actually hit the beach, they all spread out And there was about a football field distance between the next, um, next landing craft So but the time these soldiers hit the beach they are very much alone And and the only thing that they're interfacing is their enemy and which are in pillboxes and and the The concertina wires and the mines that are both in the water and on the sand and uh, you know, 88 punkers with these uh, terrifying anti-tank guns

9:39um, and you know, the canadians reality is uh, We landed on one of the most fortified beaches that day. Um, so, uh, you know, hitlers, uh, Atlantic wall as they called it. It was uh, uh, uh, an incredible beast to tackle and uh, And the key was for these soldiers just to make it first out of the landing craft and second out of the water and from there You know, I think it's a bit of god's grace and uh, you hope that uh, You're just gonna make it up to that seawall Yeah, what brings you so close to world war two because I know you worked on nazi hunters too back on the history Um, I I guess I've always been a war buff. Um, always been a history buff And uh, much like michael caught who was at the time the lead broadcaster Uh, you know, he said it's uh, it's uh, high time that we make a Canadian film that can celebrate what our uh, what our vets did

10:32while some of them are still alive and um, and I agreed wholeheartedly with uh, with michaels ambition And um, and so this is really a film for the vets Uh, and it's also for uh, for I think some of the younger generation of Canadians who Who if they hear the words june up deach they mean on though exactly what that means and hopefully this one will go a long way towards Uh, not only entertaining but uh, as importantly informing Canadians about the sacrifice that soldiers made that day. Yeah, you said something earlier. They got me thinking and I'm sorry I didn't mentioned this earlier Shooting on lake here on in may and june is cottage season. Are there any crazy stories of people wandering onto the set When we shot in lake sable we uh, you know the people of the town were fantastic and we shot um

11:18In an affection of land Uh, that was cordoned off for us and uh, but but mind you there's a lot of people standing around watching and From what I understand there's a number of phone calls to the local ontario provincial police department People's complaining. They heard very loud explosions and gunfire at all hours. And uh, of course they didn't know we were filming But like a little unsettling for trying to relax in your cottage and you're hearing these enormous explosions going off You think the world's that would be so funny and horrible at the same time, but yeah, but uh, but no the the locals were were very kind to us and uh, very patient with us and uh, You know one of the practical challenges of shooting on sable beach is that Um, the water was great. It was nice. Uh, nice and shallow which is great for our soldiers to jump out of a landing craft on

12:10Uh, a nice long expansive beach to to work their way up to the to the obstacles like the bunkers and mission gun For an s etc. But uh, and and we also had some nice rolling dunes But beyond those dunes which are very very short Is uh is lots of cottages and lots of decks. So uh, if we tilt it up too high you would see Um literally people's cottages, right? And uh, and so with the magic of uh cgi and computers We were able in in in certain shots to literally cut out above the doom line And uh and replaced cottages with uh, what were um, exact replicas of what the architecture and buildings were like Based on archival photos and uh in footage of chorcel samir the town that was actually there

13:00That was all cgi That's all cgi Wow It's coming a lot of way that's great We would have needed a budget like prouder rind to uh to do a build this That was a hollywood film. They would have just built the town of yeah, pilser mare Or at least the facade facing the beach. Oh, you couldn't tell it was cgi not at all Well, these guys were excellent and they worked powerless hours to to pull that off and uh, again, they were working right up until the deadline Yeah And uh, it was a real collective effort. What's next for you? What do you want to do next? Right now i'm actually uh, spending a fair bit of time in uh in manateoba I'm doing a feature like film for the national film board of canada with eagle vision and entertainment one based on uh indian residential schools How interesting if we've interviewed a number of survivors

13:47Uh, we've written a script based on their actual testimony uh of their experiences at the uh at perry schools And uh, it's going to be um a two-hour docket drama. So we have the interview subjects uh, um, basically telling their own story and then they're all dramatized uh, faithfully, uh To uh, to what they experienced. That's fantastic. We do something on the show called five questions five quick questions One more to answers make a music for me. Oh, well, one world war two was one one d day was Yeah, don't worry. They're they're they're simple, but they're they're kind of tricky Uh, it's ron mattey spielberg or scorsese Scorsese lennon or mccartney Have to go with john lennon kubrick or hitchcock Oh, that's a toughy, but uh hitchcock's my man on that one. Cool. Uh film you're most proud of

14:36I would say starman jino. Cool in one word tim wallica truck Uh thankful