Anthony Scott Burns (born 1977) is a Canadian filmmaker, visual effects artist and musician.[2] After starting his film career as a visual effects artist and director, as of 2015 he is directing three feature films in pre-production: Dark Matter, Holidays, and Plan B Entertainment's Alpha.[3] He also releases music under the moniker Pilotpriest. His film, Our House, was released in 2018.

Anthony Scott Burns
Born1977 (age 46–47)
Other namesPilotpriest[1]
Occupation(s)Filmmaker, visual effects artist, musician, composer
Years active1995–present

Early life

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Anthony Scott Burns was born in Kitchener, Ontario in 1977. He was interested in film at a young age, and began building small models he dubbed "parallel universes". He began working on films at the age of 16, and by 18 was making films, with several of his shorts winning local awards. He is a self-taught director, cinematographer, and animator.[4]

Career

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At 18, he moved to Toronto where he landed a job at a boutique design firm and later was hired by MTV Canada as Senior Designer, where he oversaw the creation and direction of all MTV's on-air interstitials in Canada.[4]

In May 2011, after viewing some of the work Burns had created over the years, Helios Productions announced it had hired Burns to direct a thriller/sci-fi feature entitled Dark Matter, written by Hugh Sterbakov. Filming began in November 2011 in Canada.[5] As of 2012, Burns was based in Toronto.[6] In 2012, he was the visual effects supervisor for The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh,[2] and that September he released the trailer for Epoch, a short film constructed from footage for a music video.[6] In 2013, he also continued to do commercial shorts[7][8] and trailers for his then unreleased short narrative film Manifold were released in September 2013.[9] A "tech-noir narrative"[10] and starring Stephen McHattie[11] and Greg Calderone,[10][11][12] Manifold premiered in the United States at Fantastic Fest 2013.[11] The online release of Manifold was a Vimeo staff pick,[12] and was named "Short of the Week" at ShortoftheWeek.com in January 2014.[13] In November 2014, he was brought in to direct the sci-fi thriller Alpha, which is being produced by Brad Pitt and Plan B Entertainment.[3][7] In February 2015, XYZ Films hired him, as one of the directors, who will direct the anthology film Holidays, along with directors such as Scott Stewart, Nicholas McCarthy, Kevin Smith.[5]

According to vice.com,[14] Anthony Scott Burns started to direct a film called Breathing, and hired Bronwyn Griffin and Austin Garrick to score it. However, due to differences in creative direction during post-production, Burns left the project, shortly followed by Electric Youth. They then chose to release the 23 tracks score they composed in an album called Breathing (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack From A Lost Film).[15]

He was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Director at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022 for Come True.[16]

Filmography

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Selected film credits for Anthony Scott Burns[2]
Year Release title Type Role
2012 The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh Feature film Visual effects supervisor
Epoch Short film Director, visual effects, story[citation needed]
2013 The Last Exorcism Part II Feature film Visual effects artist
Manifold Short film Director, cinematographer, writer, editor
The Flying Man Short film Cinematographer, editor
Angels, Antiques & Apparitions Short documentary Appearance as self
2014 Darknet TV series Directed episode 5, cinematographer
2016 Holidays Anthology film Segment director
2018 Our House Feature Film Director
2020 Come True Feature Film Writer, Director

Discography

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References

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  1. ^ "PILOTPRIEST – ZIPPER (House/Club – Canada)". umstrum.com. October 20, 2009. Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  2. ^ a b c Anthony Scott Burns at IMDb
  3. ^ a b Kit, Borys (November 20, 2014). "Brad Pitt's Plan B Teams With 'Robopocalypse' Writer for Sci-Fi Thriller 'Alpha' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Anthony Scott Burns Signs to Troublemakers". Little Black Book. 2014. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  5. ^ a b Ken W. Hanley (September 30, 2014). "Horror Anthology "HOLIDAYS" gets "TUSK", "STARRY EYES" filmmakers". Fangoria. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  6. ^ a b Brown, Todd (September 15, 2012). "Anthony Scott Burns Embraces A Brave Old World Of Science Fiction With EPOCH". Twitch Film. Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  7. ^ a b Mack, Andrew (November 20, 2014). "Anthony Scott Burns Lands Debut Film, Sci-fi Thriller ALPHA". Twitch Film. Retrieved 2015-03-19.
  8. ^ Brown, Todd (February 7, 2013). "Watch It Big. Watch It Loud. Anthony Scott Burns, Chris Bahry And Tendril Tease The STYLE FRAMES Conference". Twitch Film. Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  9. ^ Brown, Todd (September 3, 2013). "Watch A Pair Of Haunting Teasers For Anthony Scott Burns' MANIFOLD". Twitch Film. Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  10. ^ a b Jalufka, Chris (December 13, 2013). "Anthony Scott Burns' Short Film 'Manifold'". Evil Tender. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  11. ^ a b c "Fantastic Fest 2013 Short Film Lineup Announced". Daily Dead. September 4, 2011. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  12. ^ a b "Manifold (2013)". Grace Movie. 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-03-06. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  13. ^ Munday, Rob (January 1, 2014). "Manifold". shortoftheweek.com. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  14. ^ "Electric Youth Announce New Album 'Breathing,' Share First Single". Thump. 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2018-08-08.
  15. ^ "Electric Youth's Deeper Hidden Meaning". Vehlinggo. Retrieved 2020-08-30.
  16. ^ Brent Furdyk, "2022 Canadian Screen Award Nominees Announced, ‘Sort Of’ & ‘Scarborough’ Lead The Pack". ET Canada, February 15, 2022.
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