Genies Contest, Day 3: The Title Track

We're continuing our quest to create the ultimate Ottawa movie (albeit an imaginary one), and if you submit a wining contribution, you've got a chance to head to the Genie Awards gala next Thursday at the NAC.

On Tuesday we asked for locations (Herb & Spice store, City Centre, and the Mayfair Theatre), and yesterday we wanted your best character sketches. Here are our winning submissions, whose names move on to the next stage of our contest, and whose entries were judged by filmmaker Kaveh Nabatian (nominated for a Genie for his short film Vapour)...

• "Lee", by listener Heather: This is me: Lee Phun, 20 year old Health Food Store cashier, voted most likely to go places by my graduating class. Yeah right. The furthest I've gone is from Grandma and Grandpa's dusty convenience store on Somerset East a few blocks to Bank St, Ottawa. I scan barcodes from acidophilus supplements and organic rutabagas all day, and try to suppress my screaming boredom. I measure the distance between what I wanted and where I am.
  Everyone thinks I'm Chinese, quiet, shy and naïve. I am actually a Thai punk anime artist with a serious affinity for Absurdist philosophy, a hatred for small fluffy white dogs, and a collection of velvet Elvis paintings that I trade on EBay on the side; I also harbor a fatal attraction to the baddest guy in the room. So let's just say I have trouble with optics. My folks don't understand why I am so restless, all the time complaining and changing things. Mom would have an aneurysm if I ever wore a bathing suit. Lately Snake, my buddy the tattoo artist, has been transferring my best graphic novel strips onto my chest and thighs, and trying out new inks: Dude! Such receptive skin!
• "Louis", by listener Dave: As a senior civil servant leading hundreds of staff, Louis Blanc has never been able to muster the courage to reveal his secret hobby as a stand-up comedian.
  He has not told his wife, his kids nor his friends. To his wife he is the stranger she regretted marrying and whom she only sees between her yoga classes. To his kids he is a silent bespectacled ghost who sits upright at the kitchen table and floats silently through their lives. He has kept his secret from everyone by faking frequent visits to his senile mother - and practicing in the decrepit coach house behind her sprawling property. The only person to whom he has confided is the tattooed and inconsistently clairvoyant young woman who works at the health food store where he fetches his wife's remedies.
  Soon now he will be vindicated for all the years of telling his jokes to the cobwebs and dark unpainted walls of his secret stage. Soon comes the Mayfair. If his inaugural performance goes well he will come out of hiding and reveal himself as he truly is. But his strange muse failed to warn him of all that would happen that night.
• "Old Man Coyote", by listener Colin: Old Man Coyote is an evil trickster. He spends his days stealing, cheating and copulating with the wives of others. He is a magical shape shifter and likes to copy the magic of Glooscap, the Great Creator. He tricks winchinchalas, beautiful young women into sleeping with him. He is a good friend of Iktome, spiderman.

So here's your chance to get creative and get in on this Genies contest...

We need a song for our imaginary film -- a song by an Ottawa artist that will fit in with the locations and characters we've already chosen. And this song's title will become our film title, too. So give it some thought, and send us your song suggestion, the lyrics, and why it's perfect for our imaginary film by 8PM tonight (Thursday). Send it to us here, and you could be on your way to some Genies tickets if we pick your entry.