Orange Hat Film Productions was established by two Fanshawe College Alumni of the Advanced Filmmaking program, Darryl Ayles and Jamara Forbes. From the beginning, co-founder Darryl Ayles of OHFP has helped shape the London, ON film community by involving many facets of the independent creative landscape to take part in his productions.

Beginning with the short film “Conscious” that premiered at the Hamilton Music and Film Festival in Fall 2014; Darryl, Jamara, and family all attended the festival screening in Hamilton, ON.

Darryl was involved in the production of a local feature film. Itching to create something else on his own accord, Darryl then began development and pre-production on the project that would set the bar for OHFP.

In 2015 the production and release of the web-series “Look What You Have Become” was a giant success and step in the direction of widening their film network.

Co-founder Jamara Forbes stepped in as the creative force behind the web-series heading the Art Department and captaining the ship as Production Manager.

The web-series began filming throughout the summer.

Editing overlapped with filming, so post-production was well underway as the final seasons of the series were continuing to be filmed.

On October15th the web-series LWYHB debuted on YouTube and after that weekly episodes were released on Wednesday nights over the next few months as later seasons continued to be filmed.

The web-series continued to release weekly on YouTube until the bittersweet finale.

It was on this project that OHFP first collaborated with Negative Underground Society; the visual effects company assisted with the series finale episode “Awake Part 2.”NUS provided additional blood, muzzle flash, and impact effects to our ensemble gunfight bringing it much closer to our intended vision.

Assigning key crew, solidifying delivery methods, and determining special effects early on helped OHFP to stay organized throughout the pre-production process. Eventually all the ducks were in their rows after gathering supplies, purchasing equipment, and constantly revising the shooting script.

Finally it was time for auditions for what was planned to be the very first feature length film project.

Principal photography began in June and continued until the early fall, filming on weekends only to accomodate the busy Summer schedules of actors and crew.

Post production took place in Toronto, ON executed by Christian Mitchell, a fellow graduate of the Advanced Filmmaking program at Fanshawe College. The project was edited on Adobe Premiere through the creative cloud to allow for collaborative editing on multiple adobe programs.

After having completed this large project, OHFP took a well deserved break from filming and focused mainly on screenwriting, development, and pre-production of other collaborative projects. A script of about 116 pages was developed in this time.

.44 went through multiple rough cut and fine cut stages to achieve the intended finished product.

After a picture lock was established in the early Summer, Christian sent the film forward to Negative Underground Society in Guelph, ON.

Special Effects were completed by Zachary Litt with supplementary work completed by Tad Brock of Auteur Independent Films out of Petrolia, ON.

In the midst of post production of “.44” OHFP partnered with Auteur Independent Films to produce and film a feature length project over 7 days in Petrolia, ON entitled “Vent.” With a small cast and skeleton crew, the film was 95% shot after the week of shooting and the next project was well underway. This feature film was written and directed by Tad Brock. Principal photography began in July 2019 and continued into fall.

Finally the feature film was complete.

The world premiere screening for “.44” took place at the Western Film theatre at the University of Western Ontario campus on Saturday October 19th, 2019 at 1:30pm.

Arriving around 1pm, friends, family, crew, and cast came together to enjoy refreshments and the premiere screening of “.44” on the big screen. The screening took place from 1:30-3:30pm and was followed by a Question & Answer session lead by Writer/Director Darryl Ayles.

The projection, seating, and concession were all fantastic.

Response to the event was overwhelming, contributing to the first box office revenues for the film and OHFP as a company. Following the screening, physical copies were available to take home on Blu-Ray disc for the first time at this event. approximately 100 people attended and 25 Blu-Rays were sold on that first day.

Darryl Ayles announced the name of the next Orange Hat Film Productions project is entitled “Vent” from Auteur Independent Films. This was exposed after the question was posed in the Q&A session to the reference of a billboard shown briefly in an opening scene of “.44.”

Currently in Principal photography for the latest feature film titled “Door Into Darkness.” A supernatural drama written and directed by Darryl Ayles based on a short story podcast by Richard Wayne Anderson called “Door In The Woods.”

Principal photography for Door into Darkness pickups continued into October, as the crew returned to Petrolia, ON to get remaining shots of the forest. Final shots have been placed into the film and final sound mix and colour grade are complete.

Door Into Darkness has reached the stage of picture lock.

On October 30th, 2021 Tad Brock premiered his directorial debut “Vent” on Vimeo Pro for a limited time rental. The initial response has been positive and the comedy seems to be hitting home with audiences worldwide.

Recently featured on a YouTube series hosted by Justin Smith, both Vent and .44 received glowing reviews. Watch the reviews here:

We are ringing in the 2022 New Year with a fresh change; the reveal of the updated company logo.

Recently announced are two new feature films that are set to go into production in 2023 and 2024.

Door into Darkness begins it’s marketing and distribution phase. A poster has been created and plans for festivals and theatrical release are underway.

Principal photography begins for new feature film T.A.S. starring Angelique LeBlanc and Brent Baird. filming takes place in Petrolia, ON.

After two long years of waiting Door Into Darkness has a theatrical debut at the local Hyland Cinema! We were beyond excited to have our premiere screening at a beloved hometown theatre.

With approximately 100 in attendance, the film was well received by the audience and was spectacularly displayed on the Hyland big screen. Many members of the cast, crew, and friends were able to attend as well as fans of the independent filmmaking scene.

We are proud to show support to one of the oldest theatres in the area.

Following the film was a crew Q&A where many audience members stayed behind to participate in. We look forward to what else is to come with this film in the new year.

You can watch the Q&A on YouTube now! *Spoiler Warning*

In the first half of 2023, we started things off slowly by gathering an ensemble cast to film the final scenes for T.A.S. in the London Economic Development Centre downtown. Once that was filmed we began working in the background with composer Telmo Gonçalo Miranda as we dove into pre-production with the intention to create our best score to date.

At the top of the Summer, production began on the feature film project A Night With Nathan directed by Brent Baird. Darryl filled the role of Director of Photography alongside their non-union crew working over the course of the next few months.

Meanwhile, Orange Hat were part of the writing and pre-production pertaining to an Anthology feature film including six unique directors telling one cohesive story taking place at a dingy bar during last call. This project is entitled “One Night In Lethargia”

It began in July with the filming of Tad Brock’s short film installment “Lucky #8” starring himself alongside Dottie Champagne, Pete Comrie, and more. Filming took place in London as well as Petrolia.

The next director arrived in London, ON from Hot Springs, Arkansas to put to screen his short film installment “Painkiller.” Stephen Beason brought many of his props and wardrobe with him when he was driven 15hr+ to set as well as an all-star cast. Filming locations spanned from Hamilton, to London, to Petrolia, and St. Thomas. Actors included August Kyss, Rafia Iqbal, Skeeta Jenkins and more.

As principal photography came to end on the feature film A Night With Nathan another feature film was just beginning to roll into gear. From the twisted mind of Michael J. Doyle comes a isolating story following Dearan, a deaf teen who befriends a nefarious spirit inhabiting a journal - find out more here.

Production continued on the anthology feature with the next short film in line which was Arron Kramers’ short film installment “Dead Frog.” Dead Frog is a crime/thriller following a vlogger on her birthday as she has a night she’ll never forget.

Amidst the non-stop filming, we took the time to premiere our latest feature film T.A.S. at the Hyland Cinema on Septemeber 2nd, 2023. Despite conflicting Labour Day weekend plans from many of our friends, a fair amount of the cast and crew were able to attend and received free limited run posters and had the opportunity to take part in the Q&A session that followed the screening.

The cast and crew Q&A can be watched on YouTube now!

Ending off the year with exterior snow filled frames, we continued the anthology with the short film installment “Frozé” a film tackling an important indigenous injustice a directorial debut by Indigenous director Derek Hill.

In the new year we began moving forward on a new venture brought to us by Director, Jerry Ziler. For the first two quarters of the year we worked alongside Jerry’s team of creatives and prepared his series pilot “Raising The Bar” for production.

Raising the Bar is a series that follows a Toronto Lawyer who returns home to London, Ontario to help her ailing father with his failing bar. This comedy is meant to bring together London’s artists of all kinds: filmmakers, actors, musicians, designers, puppeteers, comedians — Jerry has a dream of making this show an authentic representation of the London, Ontario creative scene and the struggles of artists in an ever-changing industry.

In May we filmed the pilot over two weekends using set locations around London such as Fanshawe College, Talbot Street offices, Poachers Arms, and more.

On April 20th, 2024 we celebrated 10 years of Orange Hat Film Productions! 10 full years since the inception of this company in 2014. We held a small party and reflected on how far we’ve come over the past 10 years and where we’d like to see ourselves in the future.

In July we began production on the final of the short film installments written and co-directed by Devon King entitled “Dark & Stormy” starring David Parisian. This short film follows an aged and uninspired writer who must battle his internal shadows in order to find himself once again.

Finally, after all of the short film installments were shot we were able to film the final segment of the anthology which is the baseline story from which all the short film branch. We filmed this over one week using the old bar building that was once the Fox & Fiddle in City Plaza. This final piece was directed by Darryl himself.

Now that the entirety of the anthology is wrapped we have switched our gears to post production and are beginning to assemble the collection of six narrative short installments as one feature film.

“Leatherbound” the feature film directed by Michael J. Doyle, had its premiere screening at Hyland Cinema on October 19th, 2024. Co-produced by Tiege Productions and OHFP with cinematography by Darryl Ayles and Colour Correction by Jamara Forbes, Leatherbound is a spooky, Halloween-time, fantasy-horror film that follows a deaf boy named Dearan who finds comfort in the pages of a leatherbound journal with nefarious intentions.

Michael J. Doyle is a first-time director as far as feature films are concerned, but has been making stop-motion short films for more than a decade. With many ties to the London film community, Michael had Hyland Cinema stuffed shoulder to shoulder with approximately 200 in attendance premiere night. Michael and his brother Scott wrote and are currently selling the complete film soundtrack and are continuing on to do a follow-up screening at Theatre Woodstock on Halloween Night.

On Saturday October 26th 2024, Orange Hat Film Productions was celebrated at the Chatham-Kent International Film Festival with the official selection of both the Raising The Bar TV pilot and the music video Quicksand by Laura Gagnon. We were so excited to have the opportunity to work with this London-native up-and-coming artist.

This music video featured a live band performance, a professional salsa dance routine, footage from the upcoming feature film A Night With Nathan directed by Brent Baird and additional footage of the band and cast from the film together at a bar. A lot of hard work went into that video and we are happy to see it getting the recognition it deserves.

Following the screening of Raising the Bar the cast and crew were invited on stage for a brief Q&A session (shown above).

The following day we were ecstatic to discover that Quicksand was nominated and won the Best Music Video award! Laura was there in person to accept it at the Sunday night ceremony. Laura is continuing to release music videos and new music, keep your eyes and ears open!