in 2004 while working at a mom & pop video store in fort mcmurray, alberta, cody bown began to write ideas onto scrap pieces of paper. these ideas wouldnt come to fruition, but this is technically where forest lawn began. instead of dusting shelves, or putting away inventory, he would jot down thoughts and doodle anything that would pass the time. with a marker board at work, he drew a square box in black marker, and left it colored in black. hours later when he was moving things around, a chair brushed up against the black marker square and left a design. cody took out his cell phone, took a picture and immediately thought to himself 'forest lawn'.
during a period of time in 2005 not knowing where his future would take him, cody had a very failed stint in college. he needed a back up plan. this back up plan was vancouver film school. cody thought that if he applied it might be just enough to show that he is making an effort in the right direction. a week later he was accepted into film school. during his time at vancouver film school he would hear people talk about life after school, and what people would call their production companies when they graduated. this was something he never thought of. on the way to a basement suite in the dunbar area of vancouver, which he called home, cody looked at everything and added 'productions' to it, but nothing sounded right. having done a bit of design work for friends over the years, cody went through a folder on his computer of over 2,000 images that he has made. one of those images was the black square that a chair rubbed on. 'forest lawn' was born.
he moved back to fort mcmurray to pay off his student loan in 2007, knowing that he could not be successful in film with monetary baggage holding him back. it was this time that the ideas flowed of what 'forest lawn' would ultimately be. the original plan for 'forest lawn' was to treat it like a record label. if a record label has bands that make music, 'forest lawn' would have directors that made movies. shortly after talking to a handful of his classmates and friends he found that not everybody shared a love for making movies, but instead wanted to write them. not wanting to exclude anyone he thought of sports teams. taking the idea of having positions being filled by players, 'forest lawn' would have different positions. alas, 'forest lawn: independent artists' was the new name. the positions would be 'directors' and 'creative'. with about 10 people housed under 'forest lawn: independent artists' he spent countless nights at work trying to type up what it meant to be apart of either position but unfortunately it just couldnt appeal to every member, and slowly the creative section dismembered. cody was sure that 'forest lawn' might be another failed dream. byron fudge, who cody had worked with and built a pretty good friendship with at film school, was still very interested in seeing this through. they exchanged emails every day, sharing short scripts they had written and talking about the future of 'forest lawn'. when it was agreed to put it on hold until cody moved back to vancouver, more focus was put on having material to make.
in 2008 cody wanted to spread the word of 'forest lawn' right before it got up and running again. t-shirts were made and given out for free to the first 12 people who wanted one. spreading across canada and on the east & west coast of the united states, 'forest lawn' had a fan base based on future plans and ideas. cody and byron knew that if people were interested in what could come from two minds, without any proof of existence, they might be successful.
late 2008 cody finally moved back to vancouver putting an end to the hold. they discussed what would happen in the immediate future and after getting a website up and running, their first film went into production. directed by byron fudge, 'near the end' is the first of many films to be released under 'forest lawn film'.
although we do not know what the future holds, we know that hard work and creativity will lead to some dreams being fulfilled for three aspiring directors.
2009 ended slowly for us. we didn't accomplish anything that we had set out to do. 2010 started the same as 2009 ended, but some good news hit FL in april of 2010. cody and byron welcomed friend and collaborator julia niendorf to the team. julia has had a handful of experience and sis a talented individual who will add great work to forest lawn.
2009 news archivemonday pre-production blog
