AFF's 2009 Season Opens With Michael McGowan's 'One Week'

The idea for making One Week came to writer/director Michael McGowan because he was interested in exploring the notion of what you would do if you had one week to live. He had always wanted to make a road movie loving the serendipity that travelling without an itinerary allows and also wanted to create a narrative that was a love-letter Canada. “I think we all have this escapist notion—this dream that we can escape from our life and hit the road. I kept putting myself in situations, imagining what would happen and what characters could be encountered that would seem organic to the story,” explains McGowan. And when it comes to hitting the road, what better road to choose than the Trans-Canada highway? Making this film about Canada, I really wanted to romanticize the country.”

Though the lead character Ben has cancer, McGowan didn’t want the film to be about that. Instead I wanted to use the diagnosis as a fulcrum to examine the fleetingness of life. As the narrator says, “We’re all on borrowed time.” Ben just happens to be more aware of it than most.

Perhaps because of his Irish ancestry, and their notion of joyful wakes, McGowan tried to juxtapose laughter with seriousness to open the audience up to a wider range of emotions. This is hard to do in a film that deals with cancer. To help lighten the tone further he let the narrator have a sense of playfulness

One Week was an ambitious project given the emotional depth of the script and the sheer magnitude of its backdrop. Navigating the broad landscape of Canada with a lead actor on a motorcycle poses challenges not found on most productions. The film was shot in thirty different locations from Toronto to Tofino (on the West Coast of British Columbia). On One Week, they maintained a very lean crew that allowed them maximum flexibility to shoot basically whenever they found a suitable location. Making the film in this way also allowed more room for improvisation. This type of guerrilla filmmaking mirrors the spontaneous nature of the story and the lead character’s journey.

One of the quirks of Ben’s character is his love for the “World’s biggest” monuments. “My research revealed that Canada has a proud tradition of erecting these edifices that lay claim to world bests,” McGowan explains. “I like to think that this tilting-against-windmills industriousness says something both about our national character and about Ben.”

As Ben, veteran actor Joshua Jackson turns in a poignant performance, delving into his character’s vulnerability and courage. Confronting the character’s internal struggle after learning of his illness allowed Jackson to reflect on the basic connection he shared with Ben. “Everybody has had those moments in their life,” says Jackson. “They sit back and examine their life and they ask ‘Why am I here? How did I get here, and what were the choices that I made? And does this in any way resemble what I had wanted? And while I’m asking the question, what do I want from my life?’”

Liane Balaban was able to embrace the role of Samantha, Ben’s fiancée, who wonders if he will return and fears he will not survive. The honesty of the relationship and was one of the reasons she signed onto the project. “I remember reading the audition sides for an emotional scene between Samantha and Ben in Banff where she’s begging him to go into treatment. And I was reading it at Starbucks, and bawling by myself.” Balaban has high praise for the writing, which helped her connect with her character

Through the work of its talented cast and crew, One Week allows the viewer the opportunity to reflect on life and the unexpected situations that can arise. The Canadian landscape is a beautiful counterpoint to the difficult story that unfolds.

Both source and score music play an integral role in the film. “This is a very music-heavy film,” McGowan admits. “The episodic nature of a road movie and the number of montages in the film made music an essential part of One Week. Without being didactic, we tried to incorporate songs that not only worked emotionally, but also told Ben’s story. In a way, they are the soundtrack to his emotions.” “Because our country has such a great musical tradition, I really wanted to feature Canadian singers in the source music.” To that end, McGowan has assembled a great mix of names in Canadian music both off and on the screen--starting with the lead singer for The Tragically Hip, Gord Downie. Downie had worked with McGowan previously on Saint Ralph, where he sang a version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

During the writing of the script, McGowan played Joel Plaskett’s “A Million Dollars” as the reference for the scene where Samantha decides to meet Ben in Banff. “It had all the emotional beats I was looking for,” McGowan explains. “Having said that, I never imagined that we’d get Joel to actually play the part of the Busker.”

Another singer, Emm Gryner, was also cast in the role of Tracey. “Because the song, “Un Canadien Errant”, features so prominently in the scene, I really felt that if we could get a great singer who could also act, we’d be in a much better position,”

The other songs featured in the film read like a Who’s Who of the Canadian indie music scene. Great Lake Swimmers, Stars, Sam Roberts, Wintersleep and Patrick Watson are among the artists featured in the film. “Our music supervisors, Jody Colero and Marco Defilce, have a long history in the music industry and have relationships with all artists, labels and managers. They used the patriotism card to convince artists to get involved with One Week,” McGowan explains.

“Un Canadien Errant” (A Wandering Canadian or The Lost Canadian) is a French-Canadian folk song written in the 1840s. The song is used three times in the film: once young Ben sings it for his parents, again in the scene with Tracey and as the closing credit song. For the end credits, the filmmakers wanted to marry some of the elements of the score with a re-imagining of the song.

“Our composer, Andrew Lockington, and I felt that thematically, using the song in the end credits would be fitting. Since we’d already heard it twice, Andrew wanted to make it feel more anthemic.” For the score, McGowan again teamed up with Andrew Lockington. This is their third collaboration. Lockington is quickly establishing himself as one of the world’s top composers as evidenced by his recent completion of the score for the summer blockbuster Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D. For One Week, the filmmakers wanted the instrumentation to be simpler, to reflect the intimate nature of Ben’s journey. "There's a raw intimacy to the sound of someone playing guitar and singing in front of a campfire,” Lockington explains. “Those moments always promote personal reflection and I wanted the score to achieve that same goal." Because the piano parts were recorded at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Lockington was able to use the same piano world-renowned Glenn Gould played on. “It seemed appropriate to use the instrument of a Canadian musical icon in a film that exudes so much national pride,” Lockington explains.
(Taken from the official website. For more info visit
http://www.mongrelmedia.com/press_info/?id=1441)

Leonard Cohen sings 'Un Canadien Errant)'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk4RDVs1M7I&feature=related

Joel Plaskett’s 'A Million Dollars'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjD564Q52jc

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Julian D.