...Some shameless self-promotion...
An article about my projects in the Montreal Mirror, Noisemaker 2009 issue
by MARK SLUTSKY
Aisling Chin-Yee goes by a relatively new job description: “I’m a multimedia producer,” she says. With irons in the fires of documentary filmmaking, short narratives, online distribution and musician-filmmaker collaborations, the term is perhaps the best way to describe the multi-talented Nova Scotia native.
Originally, she says, “I wanted to be a director, but I started working on other people’s projects. I loved working on tons of different films at the same time, rather than just focusing on one project and saddling myself to that for the next two years of my life. I like collaborating with people.”
Chin-Yee was a co-producer on the NFB’s Making Music project, which, together with Pop Montreal, hooked up local musicians with emerging directors. She’s since taken on a variety of projects, most recently producing Daniel Shacter’s short film Three Mothers, now making the festival circuit, for Périphéria Productions, as well as preparing to launch video site Snacker TV.
For Chin-Yee, the Internet has opened up an entirely new venue for indie directors and producers to show their works. “You don’t need to shoot 35mm to have something that looks good online. And it’s short format, it’s quick, you’re accessing people in their daily lives, you’re not asking them to remove themselves, come to a theatre—you’re just part of their regular workflow. That’s how I like to work, I’m pretty all over the place, multitasking a lot, so that’s how I like to consume a lot of media too.”
Finding quality work in the sheer amount of video uploaded every second can be a challenge, and that’s where Snacker comes in. “The idea for Snacker TV is basically good quality episodic films, online,” she says. “It’s basically an online television station—simple format, not too much going on on the screen. We’re going to try and do it like seasonal television—one 10-episode series that’s going to be on at a time, and then when that’s finished, going on to another series.”
And that’s not all, as Chin-Yee’s got a couple of her own projects up her sleeve. “I work on a lot of hard-hitting documentaries so I like making stupid documentaries,” she laughs. “So right now I’m developing a project about hold music. Which is funny, because I’ve spent a significant time with people on tech support and having to deal with their hold music. There’s a whole crazy psychology of how to keep people sane and not want to kill you when you’re keeping them on hold!”
