Tilt, a short film based on the novel Don Quixote, began as a film school project for writer/director Lance Peverley. Although it did not initially get off the ground, Peverley continued to revise his script as he toiled away as a production assistant on the various Hollywood productions being shot in Vancouver.
It was on the fifth (and last) season of the wildly successful series The X-Files in the fall of 1997 where Peverley met then-trainee assistant director Patrick Stark, who was hungry to kick start his own career as a producer. They discussed Peverley’s project, but did not actually hatch the plan to produce Tilt until the summer of 1998 when David Duchovny’s prayers were finally answered and The X-Files flew south to LA’s sunnier skies.
Stark and Peverley’s intent was to push the production value of the project, and started making calls and asking for favors from every single person they knew in the industry, drawing much of the initial talent from The X-Files. Immediately, they managed to secure Tom Braidwood in the lead role as the Sancho Panza-inspired character, Sam Penzer. Tom had found his fortune as the first assistant director on the famed television series, but his fame derived from being cast as “Melvin Frohike”, one of the popular “Lone Gunmen”. Other X-F alums to commit were Director of Photography, Marty McInally and Emmy-award-winning sound mixer, Michael Williamson.
The fledgling filmmakers were off to a tremendous start save for the most important factors needed to drive the project forward: money.
With nearly all of the elements in place to shoot, they did not want to lose momentum – and the decision to shoot one day at a time, with two months between each day in order to raise the necessary funding was their only choice. The plan worked, pushed forward by the support from one of the drivers on The X-Files - Barry Shelton, who would become the film’s executive producer.
It was during these fund raising efforts where Stark would meet his future producing partner, Nicolas Awde. He was already a successful entrepreneur when he helped fund Tilt, and he immediately stepped up into a producing position where he demonstrated his leadership skills that helped to finish the project.
In the end, over 700 individuals from Vancouver’s film community donated services, gear or money to finish Tilt, and the filmmaker’s efforts were well-publicized in newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs throughout the world. Even Hollywood stars such as Hugh Jackman stepped forward to lend support to the short film that would ultimately be screened in Vancouver, as an official entry in the Boston International Film Festival and the Toronto Filmmakers Festival.
