Things I Do For Money: A film about music, identity and family

Two McMaster students and brothers, highly gifted cellists, JUNO competition winners and now actors look to create the an indie film along with director Warren P. Sonoda (Trailer Park Boys, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and more).

The film, Things I Do For Money, both directed and written by Sonoda, as he looks to move away from his career in comedy. Looking to reinvent himself as a drama director, Sonoda has written a film exploring the powerful bond of family and the search for identity many young people experience.

The film also features heists, kidnappings and a fierce violin performance.

McMaster Engineering students, Maximilian and Theodor Aoki, are the two stars of this film. The two brothers have been classically trained for the past twelve years in cello and created VersaCello in 2014. VersaCello arranges and performs current popular music on a duo of cellos. They have won the 2015 JUNOs Turn It On: Sound Off competition and worked with JUNO winning producer John “Beetle” Bailey. The film looks to add to their ever growing list of accomplishments while also touching on something close to home.

Sonoda hopes the film will also assist in the changing representation of diversity in media. He pledged at least a third of the call sheet to consist of persons of colour. This mission is personal to Sonoda, as he, just as the two brothers, are of Japanese descent.

The film revolves around, Eli and Nick Yaguchi, two Japanese Canadian brothers who share a lot of DNA with myself and the way I grew up. I was no cello prodigy, but I was wondering who I was… while also wondering what it meant to be “normal” and maybe be less “Japanese” – this is the world the two brothers are navigating.

The film is currently running an Indie Go Go campaign to help raise the remaining amount of money it needs to have a successful production and they are close. At the time of writing this the production only needs to raise just over $2,000 dollars before hitting its goal. They ask that you back it with what you can and be sure to look into the different sponsorship packages they have as your money will not come without reward. Depending on how much you send their way they will repay you accordingly with different perks ranging from exclusive soundtrack recordings all the way to a personal dinner with the director and two stars.