Au Pied de Cochon

On my last night in Montréal I crossed another goal off my bucket list. Dinner at Martin Picard's temple of sin, Au Pied de Cochon.

This restaurant is notoriously difficult to reserve. Rumour has it that they give preference to les Quebecois, but even so you have to phone weeks in advance and pray to god that someone returns your call. So on my last night I tried my luck at a solo walk-in 15 minutes after opening, fully expecting to be laughed out the door. But it worked! I was immediately seated at the rail and promptly ordered a cocktail. This was gonna be good.

The cooks were just finishing up their prep and readying themselves for the imminent onslaught of tickets as customers continued to pour in. This calm before chaos, as experienced in any busy restaurant, usually involves beer and dirty jokes. Cooks have a particular brand of dirty that usually goes over the heads of diners like you and I, but if you listen you might catch a nip of it. I certainly did, and one of them noticed this and promptly locked eyes with his frying pan for a solid ten minutes.

My server brought over a menu, which I briefly examined and was overwhelmed by the options. Blood pudding tart? Head cheese croquettes? Pickled tongue!? How is a girl to choose?! I am notoriously indecisive when it comes to pleasurable things.

So I just asked the kitchen to send me anything they wanted, as long as they were mindful that I was a tiny person and I had no one to share with. Nix the roasted pig's head, please! As lovely as that sounded, I fully intended to leave the restaurant alive at the end of the night.

At this point things were in full swing and the cooks were rocking it. I munched on house made bread and butter until the arrival of my first course, fresh and creamy sea urchin.

The house was packed and the rail was hot. A lady next to me fanned herself with the menu as her husband pleaded with the server for a proper candlelit two-top as refuge from the heat. Meanwhile the cooks were pounding out orders and one nearly dropped a boiling pot of oil on his legs. The service versus the served. Moments like these are what drawing is all about.

A young suit, slightly inebriated, chatted up the Sous in an attempt to impress his girlfriend with some witty banter. Right in the middle of service. Meanwhile, I buried my face in a plate of duck carpaccio.

The room was on fire. I dug into my tongue dish with reckless abandon. Someone rang a cowbell from across the kitchen and the line pushed harder than ever.

Then they brought out the big guns. A gleefully perverse plate of seared foie and lardons perched atop a pillow of buckwheat pancake, potatoes and cheddar drenched in maple syrup. They called it Plogue a Champlain. If you could encapsulate what it means to be Canadian into a single dish, this would be it. And that's where I tapped out, entirely satisfied.

AU PIED DE COCHON

536 Duluth Est
Montréal (Québec)

Final Mix

While in Montréal I had my Final Mix at NFB HQ, which involves sitting with Serge (Sound Mixer) and Luigi (Sound Designer) to balance the assembled audio track. I only did this single drawing of my mix during a little break half way. The rest of the time was spent combing over each sound to get things just right!

Later I popped into Aimee's session and drew a bit. I wanted to capture the scale of the theatre, which is a little intimidating when you first walk in for the first time. But man, does it sound good!

There are so many tiny details that go into the mix. On top of everything that was recorded in the foley session there are also loads of sounds Luigi had grabbed from the giant library of archived recordings from over 70 years of NFB history. Not to mention the actual music track, which is also prominently featured in the soundscape!

Darren, one of the composers, sat in for the session to share his input.

Sound is a very strange thing to describe with language. Kind of like trying to explain colour to someone who is blind, but somehow we manage. Often to hilarious effect!

This was also the first time we all saw our films on a big screen, and inevitably you start to notice some things that you wish you could change. But it's kind of liberating to notice some small mistakes, then just let them go instead of stressing over it.

I'm really happy with the way my sound turned out. For a film with such a prominent musical component, it's terribly important to develop a rich layer of other sounds to compliment what is already there. All those tiny noises add believability to the movements on screen.

Twilight Picnic

One of the best things to do in Montréal is picnic and Parc Jeanne-Mance quickly became our destination of choice. As a Torontonian I can appreciate both the freedom of public beer drinking and the surprising absence of goose droppings in the park. A revelation!

Eva, one of the other NFB Hothousers, wore an adorable jumper that day which I found irresistible to draw.

This park is pretty huge, and from what I hear a group of LARPers congregate around the corner every Sunday to pretend they're wizards.

Martin came by and brought some tea lights and Aimee brought beer.

Andrew was there too, and later Brandon and a few others dropped by on bikes.

You really can spend hours lounging around in the park. And unlike in bars, you can actually hear the conversation.

Someone brought over this Cheval Blanc beer, which I have never tried. Man is it good! It's a small brewery, kind of like Mill Street. I don't typically drink beer, so liking one this much is kind of a big deal for me!

And there was cheese too, because the sun rises and sets on a good bloomy rind.

Avenue de L'Esplanade, which runs alongside the park, has been home to many filmmakers from the NFB over the years. It's cool to think that they might have picnicked here too!

Direction Côte-Vertu

Hey everyone, I'm BACK! (waves hands with enthusiasm)

After what was nearly a month-long blogging hiatus, I'm finally done my film and ready to get back to posting! Late May was spent powering through the animation to get it finished in time for my Online Edit session and Final Mix at NFB HQ in Montreal. There are many stories and drawings to share, but first off I thought I'd show you a slew of pics I did in the Montreal Metro system during my daily commute to the NFB. 

Some Hothousers were staying downtown near Concordia University, so to get to HQ we would pop on the green line and transfer to the orange where we'd shuffle out at Du Collège.

As with any good subway ride, there are many cool people to draw. Part of the fun is grabbing their likeliness before they get off at the next stop.

Unlike the TTC, Montreal's subway cars are small and use rubber tires to get around on the track. Even through the drawings are fast, I wanted to add details to make it clear that I wasn't in Toronto.

For fun, I tried playing with proportion on some of the characters. 

Here's a girl waiting for the 128 bus that takes us to the NFB.

Bike on the Metro.

The close proximity to your neighbour sometimes makes for intimate portraits.

Barely fitting.

This man asked me if this was the bus that went to the discount shopping mall. I told him it went to the NFB. He had never heard of the NFB.

Ladies love their enormous handbags.

Sleeping till the next stop.

Looking a little rough.

Pretending he doesn't see me.

Sitting at the front of the bus, drawing the driver and his manly arms.