Trading in his chef’s knife for a director’s chair, David Husereau never does anything half-baked.
Owner of Tekarra Restaurant, Husereau was tired of spending thousands of dollars advertising in glossy magazines every year and decided to try something new—a mockumentary trailer.
“My cooking has never been better, I’ve never worked harder at it and I want to showcase it and this is just another way to get eyeballs,” said Husereau, who has owned the restaurant for 21 years.
Going all in, Husereau spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars directing a Hollywood-style trailer about the historical lure of his restaurant.
“I love film and I love creating,” said Husereau, a trained actor and comedian.
“I don’t take myself very seriously, but I take what I do very seriously,” he said, referring to his food and soon-to-be released trailer.
Husereau, who is starring in the trailer, cast several professional actors, as well as his parents and two local residents. Several scenes were also shot in Edmonton.
“The luxury of doing a trailer is I don’t need to have closure. I don’t need to have a beginning, middle and end, I just need to create mystery and curiosity.”
Retaining that mystery, Husereau declined to reveal a lot about the trailer, but hinted it’s a story about his restaurant’s haunted past and it’s Hollywood connection to Marilyn Monroe, who stayed at Tekarra Lodge in the summer of 1954 while filming River of No Return.
“Anybody that ever works in my restaurant always says it’s haunted,” said Husereau. “Who’s to say it’s not, but it creates a great narrative.”
He said he hopes to release the two-minute trailer by Aug. 15. In the meantime, he’s already released a 54-second mock credit reel, which includes the entire cast.
Despite the fact the trailer is for a film that doesn’t exist, Husereau said he ultimately made it because he wanted to learn how to create a movie.
“I thought I’d learn how to make a credit reel, then I’d learn how to make a trailer and then if I can make a trailer that’s effective then I should be able to make a 10-minute short feature,” said Husereau, who said he hopes to one day make a 75-minute feature documentary.
He admitted the film has cost him a lot more than he initially planned, but blames that partly on the fact that he wants it to be done right.
“I want to have a good product,” said Husereau, who has spent the past two months working on the film. “I want people to watch the end of it and go, ‘is this f--king thing coming out or what?’”
Paul Clarke
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