Friday marks final showing of locally-produced “Hard Reset”

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The North Peace Cultural Centre will host the final screening of MacWood Productions’ film Hard Reset on Friday, marking the last opportunity to view the movie until later this year.

MacWood Productions filmmaker Grady MacTavish has announced that the Friday screening of Hard Reset at the North Peace Cultural Centre will be the final opportunity to both watch the film and purchase a copy on a USB drive for approximately six months. 

MacTavish and his business partner plan to take the movie through the 2024 film festival circuit.

“We’re sending it out there, and we can’t have it available online, and we need to focus on that,” MacTavish said.

“This is actually the last chance to watch the film for the next five to six months.”

MacTavish says Hard Reset is a comedy and drama mockumentary styled after the popular TV show The Office in the way it’s shot, where the characters interact with the camera.

“It follows a wholesome high school principal named Phil Danielson; he’s pretty well-loved,” MacTavish said.

“He’s the Dawson Creek equivalent of Mr. Rogers, and he’s forced by a documentary film director who discovers his secret, self-destructive life, AKA, his hard reset.”

The filmmaker says Hard Reset features several “crazy party scenes” but also a lot of drama as the main character tries to determine why he has self-destructive tendencies.

The film initially premiered at the Kiwanis Performing Arts Centre in November 2023 for three showings after a tight filming schedule around MacTavish’s and Ryan Leawood’s full-time work.

Leawood is the other half of MacWood Productions.

MacTavish says even with the rain and wildfires throughout the summer of 2023, it wasn’t stressful.

“It was never stressful because this is a passion project for all of us, and we’re all friends. It was a wonderful time,” MacTavish said.

Last year, MacWood Productions presented to the City of Dawson Creek asking for funding but was ultimately unsuccessful, as the council didn’t want to set a precedent for giving money to businesses.

The production company instead turned to crowdfunding through Indiegogo. MacTavish’s sister generously provided $3,000, and he received $1,000 from Dawson Creek Secondary School for a project he made for the school. In total, Hard Reset had a budget of approximately $7,200.

Besides the feature-length film, MacWood Productions also creates monthly short films on its YouTube channel.

MacTavish says either he or Leawood will write, direct, and upload it to YouTube, covering various genres, with a focus on horror as it’s easy to produce.

More recently, they’ve opened it up to other Dawson Creek writers and directors who want to give filmmaking a shot.

“We want to create a Dawson Creek film industry here, a little film community,” MacTavish said.

MacTavish says Back to Killing is MacWood Production’s most popular series on YouTube.

“It’s about a Jason Vorhees type guy who likes to vlog,” he explained.

Since the production company’s inception in 2016, MacTavish and Leawood have done around 50 short films, as well as commercials for local companies.

MacWood Productions’ film Hard Reset will be screened only once at the North Peace Cultural Centre on Friday, January 26th. The show starts at 7 p.m.

Tickets are available on the cultural centre’s website and at the door for $20 each.