Nick Shields talks tumours, vids and flicks
By Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor
September 24, 2008
 Would you rather live your dream, causing you to die early but also making a name for yourself, or would you rather live a long life without ever being able to achieve your dreams?
UWindsor graduate Nick Shields examines this quandary in his latest film, Planting Vines.
Shields has spent most of his life being either in front of or behind the camera. Realizing acting wasn’t for him, he’s been happy working at his own production company, Suede Productions, since 2003.
Shields has been in the business since he was a child growing up in Toronto. His father was a set designer, so Shields spent a lot of his time on commercial, television, and movie sets. He has appeared in many films and television programs, but found he didn’t enjoy acting. “I didn’t enjoy that job at all. I prefer telling people what to do,” laughed Shields.
Shields and his business partner and fellow UWindsor communication studies graduate Cameron Hucker created Suede, a company that serves all of North America. Suede has two divisions: client-driven (music videos, television commercials, and corporate videos) and self-generated (feature films, documentaries, and television programming).
Planting Vines is about a young architect who has the ability to visualize the structures he designs.
“He can see them completed. He draws those designs based on what he sees,” explained Shields.
Just before his dream of designing a building that actually gets built is realized, he has a seizure and finds out that he has a brain tumour.
“It’s the brain tumour that’s been giving him his gift all his life. It’s been growing and it’s now become a problem. They want to do surgery right away and of course, he doesn’t want to. He wants to realize his dream. At risking his own life, he postpones his surgery to try to realize his dream,” Shields continued.
Production on Planting Vines is right on schedule. “The team has been dynamite. So we’re in really, really good shape, no bumps,” said Shields.
The first cut of the film should be ready in March. “At that point, distributors will have the first look and then from there it will hit the festival circuit,” Shields explained.
The first thing Shields had to do when writing the film was to decide what kind of a statement he wanted to make. “You have to go to wanting to tell something. You have to want to make a comment about something in the world. What that is, to any writer, is up to them. You have to intend to make a statement,” said Shields.
“My favourite part of it is writing dialogue. Although, those that are sitting in on me will think I’m a lunatic, but I have a tendency to want to act it out. A lot of talking to myself,” explained Shields.
“Then it also leaves for far less revisions because you’ve actually heard it out loud, which makes it a lot more natural. People don’t speak with proper grammar; they don’t speak in complete sentences. You have to catch that groove,” he continued.
As for his most memorable experience filming so far, Shields says his was during a shoot for Chrysler when he and Hucker were filming in Costa Rica. “We were hanging off of these ropes about 400 feet off of the jungle floor and both he and I were filming from up there. That was a blast,” he said.
Shields recently shot a piece for Discovery on the Caesars Windsor sign.
“They had me hanging off that building as well. So that was kind of cool. Those are fun. When you talk about favourites, I look at it more about what I’m enjoying about it on the way less about what the final product is. Every final product has its good and bad moments,” he explained.
After Planting Vines wraps up, Shields and his crew will be working on some more commercials. Shields will also be producing a film tentatively titled Saving Grace, and working on music videos—definitely not one of his favourite things to do. “We don’t enjoy those, but actually the band was great,” said Shields in reference to Windsor-based band, Michou. Their video, “Control,” is currently on rotation on MuchMusic.
For more information about Suede Productions and their projects, visit http://www.suedeproductions.ca/.
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