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Filmmaker Shawn Linden has been chomping at the bit to get back in the director’s chair after an almost four year hiatus.

After spending many years learning the ropes on local film productions as a set dresser, Linden made a big splash on the filmmaking scene in 2007. His self-financed film Nobody garnered great reviews, awards and played in festivals around the world.

His latest project, Rose By Name, which he will direct from his own script, is being produced by Suki Films and has just begun preproduction in Quebec. It will shoot in both Quebec and Manitoba this summer.

Linden recently talked with On Screen Manitoba’s Trevor Suffield about Rose By Name and what he has learned about the industry since Nobody was released.

Q: Why such a long break between films?

A: Nobody came out of nowhere and it was made before I had any kind of real contacts in the film industry. Nobody was privately financed and it was made outside of the normal film system. So at the end of Nobody I still didn’t have many of the things that normal people have when they’re able to get to their second film. So it took a little while for that.

Another reason is that Rose By Name is one of a group of screenplays that I was trying to get out all at once and those are kind of all coming into fruition right now. Everything is coming together at the same time and all four are optioned and three of them have Telefilm development money. It’s all happening at once instead of one after another.

Q: How did you initially make the transition from being a set dresser on such projects as Falcon Beach and 2030 C.E. to writer/director?

A: I went to university with the goal of becoming a writer and director so I took Film Studies and Philosophy and once I got out I though the best way to learn how a film is made from the ground up was to actually go to the ground and take part. So I joined the union and spent the next seven years on film sets for 13 hours a day. That gave me the know-how and the experience to handle a set for Nobody, which was out of nowhere. I had never even done a short film before Nobody, it was the first time I even picked up a camera.

Q: Would you consider yourself primarily a writer or director?

A: The job is mostly done by the time I’m finished writing a script because it’s kind of visualized at the time I’m writing it out. Directing is just a natural extension of your writing if you’re doing both.

Q: How did you get involved with Suki Films?

A: We sold Nobody to Super Channel that was one of our first sales of the movie. About four months later after that sale, Suki (Films) had phoned them just asking if there were any interesting directors they had come across and I guess my name was mentioned.

Q: What experiences from your first film will you be using to direct Rose By Name?

A: Not as much as it might seem because all of my really close friends are top-shelf movie crew here in the city, so when my friends volunteer it means I had all of the really great camera guys and a great first A.D.

They’re vastly different movies but I would be bringing a bit of the style of Nobody, which had a lot of involved shots, kind of complicated single shots that cover a lot of stuff, as opposed to machine-gun-fire editing. I would still probably stick with that style because I like that with other movies.

It was so long ago since I’ve actually sat down and acted as director, but I think it should be very comfortable to slip back into because I am so familiar with the material and I’ve been working so consistently with it.

Q: Can you tell me about the other projects you have on the go?

A: Hunter Hunter is a production that I’m doing with Frantic Films here in Winnipeg. It is a horror/thriller and it just got development money in January and I’ve just finished the rewrite for it this month and hopefully we’ll be shooting it in the fall of this year right after I’m done doing Rose By Name.

There is also Kill or Die, which will be a Quebec production and was optioned by the same company, Suki Films that has Rose by Name. It just got its development money in January as well.

The other one is The Dualist, which is a script that was optioned by Gold Circle Films, which has been here for New in Town and A.T.M. and all kinds of movies here, but they actually optioned it without having any connection with it at all. But I’m just writing that, not directing or producing.

Q: With so many story ideas in your head, how do you decide which one you will pursue and write?

A: There are vast stories with a whole lot more scope in my head but the bigger stories take more time, and right now they are just vague little ideas. Those stories need time to grow by themselves wherever they are stored in your head until you’re mature enough to handle them properly.

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Linden also has another film coming out soon that he wrote, The Doomsday Scrolls, which will soon air on the SyFy network.

For more information, visit here.

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