We all have to eat. Here's a few tips on saving money and the environment, all while keeping your crew happy and healthy.
We all need it, but here's how to get it without the waste and toxins. http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com/blog
It's like a bad horror movie. These are simple things you can do around the office and home to save energy and money.
GOT POWER? Here's the next installment in our Green Production tips. Saving energy will save you money and with a small production, every penny counts. Tomorrow we will have a guest Blogger. One of our producers, Amy DeCorte, will be talking about her experiences with the 100 mile diet. Should prove to be very entertaining as well as informative.
Cutting back on paper is easier than you think. Check it out. Don't forget to sign in with your facebook account on the right to leave comments and share with friends. And if you're not a producer yet, become one by clicking here.
Check us out every Monday for a new tip. Today's is on the Post Production picture process and how you can save some money and keep the planet beautiful. Thanks to the good folks at REDLAB Toronto for their support. Click on the "HQ" button in the player for a higher quality image. Don't forget to sign in with your facebook account on the right to leave comments and share with friends. And if you're not a producer yet, become one by clicking here.
In honor of this day reserved for keeping the planet beautiful, and our commitment to making our productions green, I present to you the first video in a series on greening your production. Get out today and do one thing that will help make the world a little cleaner and in doing so, you'll be helping future generations enjoy the same beautiful planet we do today. Cheers Casey Or download the podcast by clicking here
QUICK POST BEFORE GOING TO SET TODAY.
THIS LOOKS AWESOME!!!
AND YOU KNEW THIS WAS COMING. HE’S BACK AND THIS TIME HE’S PISSED OFF!!
Have a great weekend.
mymilliondollarmovie.com/blog
So the most exciting part of the 100 Mile Diet for me was when I started my balcony garden. I decided that the best way for me to succeed was to grow some of my own food, but since I just have a small-ish balcony and I have the opposite of a green thumb, I knew it was going to be more of an experiment than reality.
I went to a local garden centre and walked up and down the many aisles of foliage deciding what I was going to plant. I ended up picking up tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant (because I thought it would be kinda cool), chocolate mint and parsley. My friends Amanda and Bryan had brought me dill, basil, and mint earlier so I think I’ll have a good little garden.
I also picked up a few planter boxes and hanging pots and a lot of soil. I can’t even begin to explain how excited I was to do this! I was actually going to have my very own garden!! When I dug into that bag of soil and started placing my little plants in their new home, it was a really awesome feeling.
It’s been a few weeks now and everything is starting to grow wonderfully. I’ve picked off some of the cherry tomatoes from the hanging basket my dad gave me, made a salad with the lettuce I’ve grown and respectfully named my now flowering eggplant Fred. There are already plans for next year, to build bigger boxes with more veggies. There’s nothing more satisfying than sitting down to eat a meal that you’ve grown yourself.
This got me thinking about the other, more hard-core, locavores out there, the ones that practice the zero mile diet.
The commitment that these people have for their lifestyle is inspiring. Every time I struggle, I read some of their stories, blogs, postings, and I feel rejuvenated. I also am able to get some ideas that I can scale back to fit my new lifestyle. One of my favourites is from a group of 60 bloggers that follow the 100 Mile Diet.
For anyone who is thinking of starting this challenge, you should really start checking out what they have been writing. There are some really great articles! I know it certainly helps me. It also was part of the reason why I decided to even start a garden. So I guess my hope is that their stories, or even my struggles, will help inspire you too to start making environmentally friendly decisions when choosing what to have for dinner.
Legion doesn’t look like the most amazing film ever, but my old friend, Kevin Durand(Mystery Alaska, Lost, Smokin Aces), plays the arch-angel Gabriel, and that’s enough reason for me to go see it. I think it will be a fun ride.
A few years back I had the good fortune to be befriended by the very talented(and at the time, not so well known) Gerrard Butler. I think this is his best film since 300.
And for today’s laugh, I give you the new film from Jared Hess, director of Napoleon Dynamite.
and here is a little bit of supplemental material for Gentlemen Broncos: Dr. Ronald Chevalier – The Art of inspiring oneself.
Have a great weekend!
mymilliondollarmovie.com/blog
I figured I finally had a grasp on this whole diet and then one of my best friend’s sister came to town and we were all going to go out for dinner. Uh oh…I hadn’t put too much thought into this. Was there even a restaurant that I could eat at that followed the locavore diet? And even if we found something, would everyone else be willing to go to that restaurant for my sake?
So I came across a couple of websites that gave me a list of restaurants in Toronto that offered local cuisine, including Locavore (a restaurant in Bedford park).
So after doing some research, we decided on a place we all could find something that we would enjoy. Unfortunately that’s about as far as we got. We ended up being much later than we thought we would be, so the consensus was that we just go to a nearby restaurant before going out – we ended up at The Keg…
Here’s the thing, not a single item is produced locally. In fact, everything at The Keg is shipped in so that everything on the menu will be the same whether you’re in Vancouver or Halifax or downtown Toronto. As everyone else ordered food, I argued (in a friendly nature of course) with the waiter on what could be considered local anything. The only thing we both could agree upon? A VQA wine! So I started to drink. On an empty stomach. Not a good idea.
Eventually I caved. I needed something, anything, and since I knew we weren’t going to end up anywhere where they served local cuisine, I decided to eat a few items that could have been local like cheese, asparagus, potato, and a small piece of bread. But cheating is a slippery slope you see, because once I started, I felt like I could justify anything that night. Needless to say, this became a night of cheating…
Which brings me to a few nights later. I had a bad day at work and after talking it out with Mike, we decided to meet up at a pub, and I drank two pints of liquid gold aka Guinness, and I thoroughly enjoyed fries and a veggie burger. I know, I know. Weak. But come on! This is really difficult. The whole diet was really starting to wear me down. I was eating next to nothing while on set because I couldn’t guarantee where any of the food came from, and then at night I was so tired I would have some veggies and water and then go to bed. This wasn’t healthy by any means. And to be perfectly honest, after my cheat night with Mike, I felt better than I had felt in about a week and a half when I woke up the next morning.
So my question now is, is it worth it? I have lost weight, sleep, strength and patience. This is not as simple as a diet change, it is simply a complete lifestyle change, and if no one else around me is doing it, it’s becoming a little too much. Either I begin trying to recruit people I know, try to meet other groups doing this, or I may just need to give this up.
On a side note, when I was at a loss at one point this week, and a friend of mine, Harald, who is visiting from Germany, made a crude joke about him knowing where I could find a source of “local protein” which then sparked the discussion about whether or not he would qualify!
Well, as I continue to say week after week, it remains to be seen if I can do this, and it is going to be a continuous learning process, full of ups and downs, but hopefully I can hit my stride soon and be able to make this work for me.
Amy
We all need it, but here’s how to get it without the waste and toxins.
http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com/blog
Another Treat for you today.
One of the members of our cast, Nicole Arbour, has a new film coming out this week. And it looks INSANELY funny(not to mention a tad fucked up).
Support Canadian Film and get out to the theater and see this. Bring friends too.
Well since the unfortunate passing of Heath Ledger, we’ve all been waiting for a peak at this gem. I’m very excited for this film as I think Mr. Gilliam has outdone himself…again.
And if you don’t love Chris Rock, well then Fuck off. Not only will this will be killer funny, but will illuminate some of society’s flaws associated with beauty.
Have a great weekend.
http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com/blog
Not a producer yet? Come join us by clicking here.
Have you ever looked at where everything is from when you go into a grocery store? I mean really looked? This is the one thing that has started to bother me a lot in the past week. Every time I go to my regular grocer, I end up walking out with less than three items since a) packaged foods don’t actually tell you where all the ingredients are from just where they were packaged and b) almost all produce is from the USA (mostly California) even though on the little pricing signs above the bins it says “Product of Canada”.
I’ve been trying to go to the farmers markets or local places, but honestly, that requires a whole lot more time than I actually have. When I am working during the day and these places close at 6pm what am I supposed to do? The solution? I’ve literally cut back my food consumption to a third of what it used to be. I now feel weak from hunger, and ready to cave.
Part of what I’ve come to realize is everything that I have to give up. This is much bigger than I ever imagined and to be frank, I question why I’ve decided to give this all up. Here are just some of the foods that no longer are part of my menu:
Salt, Pepper, ALL alcohol (excluding VQA wines), Chocolate, Sushi, Coffee, Tea, Wheat products, Rice (unless it was wild rice), Garlic, and did I mention alcohol, especially Guinness?
Urgh!!
Thankfully I’ve had a few of my friends really step up and try and support me or help me hide the evidence when I’ve cheated. One of the best meals I’ve made so far was with Mike. We went down to St. Lawerance Market on Saturday and decided to do a fully local meal. There we were able to buy local peppers, mushrooms, asparagus (which we didn’t end up eating), onions, spinach, potatoes, flour, breadcrumbs and a whole local organic chicken. Excitedly we went back to his place and cooked up a storm. I was even able to make a gravy for the potatoes and chicken! It was the first meal I’d had that was fully local that filled me up and tasted phenomenal! Seriously, if anyone wants the recipe let me know!
Maybe this is my turning point. Now that I know I can make a great meal like this, and that there are options out there, I’ll be more willing to put some more effort into seeking out my foods. One incredible meal doesn’t necessarily make up for everything else I’m giving up (mostly the Guinness and chocolate) but it does give me hope that I can do this.
It does raise other questions with me though. I’m trying to do this diet for a few reasons, one being that I’m trying to reduce my environmental footprint. That being said, am I really doing the environment any favours by driving around the GTA to get a bunch of asparagus, or to buy certain artisan breads or whatever the local product might be that I want to eat? I realize it’s not a flight full of produce coming in from California but… since it is already here, is it wasteful to not use up what is already readily available?
I am going to have to do a little more research on this to really find out.
It’s like a bad horror movie.
These are simple things you can do around the office and home to save energy and money.
Got quite a few for you this week.
This premise is a genius.
A new one from two of my favorite filmmakers.
This looks AWESOME! As a kid, I used to watch a lot of these movies when I worked days at the local indie video store. Thanks for the education Video Village.
And here is a new Documentary that should act as another wake-up call. I would love to see this as mandatory viewing in all schools.
Have a great weekend. Check back Monday for a new Green Video. http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com/blog
Cheers
Casey
After a trip to California, I was mesmerized with this new (to me) concept of being a locavore – someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a set radius, not generally larger than 150miles or 240km. Around where I was visiting, it seemed to be so easy, there were plenty of restaurants and markets that catered to this sort of thing. I had decided that once I got back to Toronto, I needed to try this out, see if it was just as viable here.
Flash forward to day one, today, and me going through my fridge. Okay, I admit, I thought this was going to be a piece of cake – hmm, can’t eat this piece of cake anymore, nothing in it is local. I honestly believed I already had a lot of foods that would be found within the 100 mile radius, but it turns out, as I move everything around in the fridge looking for something to eat, there is next to nothing in here that qualifies. Clearly this needs more research!
I’m already hungry, and to be honest, can’t see how this is going to last. What am supposed to eat? What’s in season? What’s in season that is considered local? I guess fish is off the table…I miss sushi already…If this is day one, I’m pathetic.
So I go to the one place that won’t fail me: the internet! Here are a couple of sites that I found that I think will help me a great deal:
Both of these sites offer lists upon lists of information, and direct you where to buy. The Food Network’s site however is fantastic because it also pin points exactly where you are and you can even select local businesses within 5-10 miles of where you live!
Alright, this looks promising! Off to Green Earth Organics to see what I can get!! I will do this one shop at a time and work my way through this. If Californians can do this, so can I!
