The Road to Sundance: Bobby Yeah, directed by Robert Morgan

Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it?

My film is called BOBBY YEAH. It’s playing in the Shorts Competition. It’s a crazy 23-minute stop-motion horror film about a petty thug who gets into some very, very deep trouble. I’d made a series of successful short films before, and was writing some feature projects and was sort of trapped in development hell with them. After a few years of this, I just dropped everything and decided to burn off some creative frustration with another short. I was sick of writing, so I decided to make this film without a script. So I just started shooting the first thing that came to mind, watched it back, then basically made up the next moment, shot it, and so on. The entire film was made up chronologically as I went along, so I had no idea where the story was going as I shot it.

How long did it take you to make your film?

I shot it in my spare time over a 3 year period. 

How did you finance your film?

There was no budget as such – pennies really - I paid for the main bulk of the production myself through a teaching job. When I’d finished my final cut and sound edit, I showed the film to Alain de la Mata and Geoff Cox at blueLight, who agreed to finance the sound mix, picture grade and mastering. 

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?

The actual shoot was great fun. Because of the nature of the process, it was constantly surprising to me where the story was going, so I was discovering it as I went. I was my own producer and financier, so the film was able to find its own natural pace of production. The hardest part was handing it over to the picture-graders at a certain well-known post-production house in Soho. They have a great reputation, but because we didn’t have much money, they clearly didn’t give a shit about the film, and did a very lackluster job. I ended up getting blueLight’s money back and grading it myself from scratch in After Effects. Lesson

to filmmakers: don’t collaborate with people who are not passionate about your film!!

Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance. Are there any pointers for filmmakers for getting accepted? 

BlueLight and I entered it very late because for some reason we had it in our heads that it would need to be a premiere to be considered. At the last minute I realized this wasn’t the case and we got it in just before the final deadline. I didn’t think we’d be selected, because the film is really, really far out, but figured it would at least be worth trying. Of course I was wrong to doubt – Sundance has a track record of supporting weird and wonderful films. As you can imagine I was pretty thrilled when I found out! As for pointers to other filmmakers, I can only speak from my limited experience – don’t try and second guess what an audience will want – just make the film that you want to make.

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?

I’m happy with the film, but if I were to make it again, I’d do all the post-production mastering myself, and only go outside for the transfers to tape. I'm a complete control freak! 

What’s next for your film? Do you have distribution? If so, when and how can people see it and if not, what are your hopes for the film?

I’m touring festivals with it at the moment. I think blueLight may have some plans for distribution but I’m not sure I can talk about that just yet. I have a facebook page for the film, which is the best place to go for screening / distribution news: www.facebook.com/bobbyyeahfilm

Can you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films made and into Sundance?

I think you need to listen to your instincts and make films that you really want to see. And nowadays you don’t need loads of money, so just get on with it! Plus, there’s nothing worse than finishing a film and not being proud of it (I’ve been there in the past). With this film I just made sure it was everything I wanted it to be, with no compromises. I think that’s why people respond well to it.

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The Road to Sundance: Dol (First Birthday), directed by Andrew Ahn

Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it?My film is titled Dol (First Birthday). It is in the US Narrative Shorts category at Sundance this year. The film is about a gay Korean-American man who attends his baby nephew's "dol," a traditional Korean first birthday celebration. I made the film to come out to my parents. I wanted to show my parents a complex portrayal of a gay Korean-American man, someone they could sympathize with. I thought that by showing them a film, I could give them a better understanding of who I am.

How long did it take you to make your film?The entire process took about a year and a half.

How did you finance your film?I self-financed my film, but found many ways to save. I received a lot of support through my school, CalArts, and also looked for unique programs like Panavision's New Filmmaker's program that help offset costs for low-budget productions.

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?The most difficult part of the filmmaking process for me was the edit. I struggled with the fact that I knew I was going to come out to my parents by showing them the film. I felt like I had to make the perfect film, a film so good that they could accept their gay son. It was excruciating! I had to compartmentalize. When I was in the edit room, I was editing, trying to shape story and character. I couldn't worry about my parents.

Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance. Are there any pointers for filmmakers for getting accepted?  
Getting into Sundance has really helped me find motivation to keep going. Filmmaking feels less and less like a hobby, more and more like a career.

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?No, I've learned so much by making this film, artistically, personally, and professionally.

What’s next for your film? Do you have distribution? If so, when and how can people see it and if not, what are your hopes for the film?
Dol (First Birthday) does not have distribution yet. I hope to secure that soon! However, it will be playing in the festival circuit throughout the next few months. Hopefully it plays in a town near you!

Can you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films made and into Sundance?Make personal work -- films that you are passionate about, that are unique to your experiences. Establish a point-of-view, a voice that audiences haven't heard before.



Dol Trailer from Andrew Ahn on Vimeo.

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The Road to Sundance: L Train, directed by Anna Musso

Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it? 
L TRAIN was conceived in Hawai’i. I was there working on a film, THE DESCENDANTS, as assistant to the director, Alexander Payne. I’ve been very lucky to work for Alexander and to have the extension of my education that comes with watching him make films. Yet, for a young aspiring filmmaker, sometimes it can also be torturous watching someone else live your dream every day, waiting for your chance.

One day we got to talking during one of our long car rides through the islands. He sensed in me what I was just about to discover: I needed to stop watching and make my own chance. Thus began a series of conversations in which I’d throw out ideas. After a litany of disconnected ramblings, I began to really think about why it was that I needed to make a film. We spoke about great filmmakers who have this thing inside them, this wonderful “Sit! I must tell you about this.” quality. Film can be a beautiful tool for social consciousness and I couldn’t help but think about those things that I needed to tell stories about, people that I felt needed to be seen on a screen. Finally, I found myself talking Alexander’s ear off about these two women to whom I felt the world owed its attention. Two women to whom I owed my own attention. And their story is our film.


How long did it take you to make your film?  
About a year from soup to nuts.


How did you finance your film? 
I begged, borrowed and stole.  I took loans from kind and generous people and I saved as much as I could.  I also received amazing donations from Ad Hominem, The City of Chicago, FotoKem, Kodak and the extraordinary Fletcher Camera of Chicago.


What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?
I woke up on the morning of the Third Worst Blizzard in Chicago History and looked out the window. Whiteness. Nothing else. The streets, shut down, the 'L', shut down. I cursed the Film Gods and all twenty-two people who sent me text messages congratulating me on getting the snow I'd wished for. I looked out the window again in a panic. My mother called me and the first words out of her mouth were, "Hope you got a good alderman." What? What does the alderman have to do with this? In Chicago, a lot. The only way to get our truck down any street would be a city plow. We'd have to spend the day digging out a spot and wait for the plow. It's funny where our fate sometimes rests.  And then I looked out the window again only this time, I realized something: "Sure I don't have a camera, I don't have a crew, I can't open my front door. But holy cow look at all this awesome snow!!! This is going to look amazing on film!!!"  Before the storm was over we would get 21.2 inches of snow. And the plow did come. (Thank you, Alderman Levar.) And let's just say, the irony is not lost on me every time someone asks if the mounds of snow in the film were created by visual effects.


Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance. Are there any pointers for filmmakers for getting accepted?
Sundance is a dream come true.  It's like getting to the top of some mythical mountain you've been thinking of forever.  Except getting to the top of any peak one instantly turns around and discovers there is some other higher peak.  But Sundance is a dream come true.  My advice would be, "Only have fun and have no stress at all."  And, "If you figure out how to do that, tell me how."


If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?
How much time do you have?!  No, really, there were lessons learned.  It was a giant extension of my education.  I can honestly say though, that, at the end of the day, I would not alter a single frame.  The mistakes ultimately turned into my film and directing is, I think, sort of the process of discovering the film through the experience, warts and all. 

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The Road to Sundance: CAN, directed by Rasit Celikezer

Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it?

 “CAN” is about families and their children. It tells about parenting as well as individuals who try to hold on to their lives; and suit themselves in the standard of judgements of the society.

Can is one of the 14 films, which will be competing in the Sundance 2012 World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

Still having people struggling inside the Turkish family structure and social values, has always inspired me. I always thought of it as a fact of our lives  that had and has to be told . And recently being a father has increased my desire to do it.

How long did it take you to make your film?

With every single process of filmmaking, It took me 11 months to finish the film. The 6 months of this time was for the story and script-writing; The remaining 5 months for pre-production, production and post production. But it took me only 3 weeks to shoot it.

How did you finance your film?

I am the main producer of the film, and I have two co-producers. We three, are the financers of the film as well; we didn’t have any sponsors or corporations to help us finance the film. (But I have to indicate that, we had a little support from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Turkish Republic, for the publicity of our film in Sundance.) 

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?

The most challenging part of the filmmaking process was budgeting. I didn’t have any difficulties, other than that. And I solved that problem by including my friends into the project. To be honest, I feel pretty lucky about that.

Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance. Are there any pointers for filmmakers for getting accepted?  

Sundance is a big and important “castle” for me, as it is for every other independent filmmaker. I waited for the call for their entries, easily submitted my film; and  I got selected! Now I’m taking the pride in and feeling the success of being able to share my dream there. I haven’t experienced anything yet. I think my experience will start as soon as I get there; and as soon as I get to see the reactions of the audience after ‘CAN’ is screened.

Pointers… I really don’t know, this could be discussed for long hours, but taking the previous Sundance films I have seen in to consider, I can say, over all, they have special stories regarding ‘people’ ; and story-telling wise they are deep, new, effective and surprising. Those are the points I have considered in making my film as well.

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?

For now no! But who knows what I will be thinking about it in time?!

What’s next for your film? Do you have distribution? If so, when and how can people see it and if not, what are your hopes for the film?

The publicity of Can has started in my country. It will be in the movie theatres in Turkey, by the end of March 2012. My distributer is Tiglon. We are planning to make it available for the theatres in Germany as well. But during Sundance, we will get together with my consultants to consider the calls we got from the festivals in Europe and the Far East and strategize our festival route. At this point, my expectation is my film to be effective in other continents as well. And I believe I will not have a problem in achieving that, considering the festival calls we are receiving each and every day.

Can you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films made and into Sundance?

Work without giving up! Work hard; and find the right, most importantly find your own expression. 

can subtitle (English) from Burak Akidil on Vimeo.

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The Road to Sundance: Spoonful, directed by Jenee LaMarque

Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it?
My film is called spoonful and it's part of the U.S. Shorts Competition.  The film is inspired by the strange event that followed my best friend Craig's memorial service in New York back in 2003. 

On the day of the memorial, my friend Megan's breasts became horrifically engorged with breast milk.  Her daughter was back in California and she didn't have a breast pump.  She tried desperately to manually express the milk and was in tears about her failure to relieve her pain.  On the couch at our friend Helen's apartment, I took the liberty of poking Megan's breast with my pointer finger.  It was as hard as a knee cap.  So Helen and I decided that we would "help" Megan drain her breasts ourselves.  That sounds weird, huh?  It was weird.  But somehow---in the delirium of our grief---it made complete sense to us.  Grief sense.

It was an event that I've always looked back on with fascination and wonder, a tangled sort of mystery that I've always wanted to engage with.  So the challenge I gave to myself with making this film was to take this bizarre (and thematically rich) situation and fictionalize it.  I wanted to create a story where the central conflict would be the engorged breast and the "helping out" would be logical outcome for the three women involved.  spoonful came out of this challenge, and the three of us mourning our friend's death morphed into three sisters mourning the death of their father.

How long did it take you to make your film? 
I wrote for three weeks, we filmed for two days and then we edited for about two months.                              


How did you finance your film? I financed my film completely from my own savings.  Because both time and funds were pretty limited, we decided to shoot the entire film in one location.  We knew going in that the "special effects" would have to be the story and the performances.  We borrowed a lot of our equipment from friends and our fantastic producer Steven J. Berger fought to get us deals on everything else.   

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?
The most challenging part was casting an actress who was a real lactating mother and also "got" what we were trying to do.  We overcame this by simply finding the incredible Robin Reiser.  I never dreamt we'd get someone as great as Robin.  She's an amazing stand up comedian and just brings so much life and light to what could have been a heavy performance. 

Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance. Are there any pointers for filmmakers for getting accepted?  
I found out that spoonful got into Sundance the night before Thanksgiving, and I promptly lost my mind with excitement.  There was screaming involved, there was jumping involved, there was a flurry of phone calls to the cast and crew involved.  God bless you, Kim Yutani, you made my year with that phone call!

It's important to me to make films that circle thematically around the things that I feel most strongly about.  Consequently, there's a lot that speaks to my experience of life in the film: my dark sense of humor, my feelings surrounding the loss of a loved one,  my strong belief in breastfeeding, and my experience of becoming a mother and fiercely needing to draw new boundaries with the people around me.  These are all things that I know were interesting to the wonderful women in the film as well.

Speaking of those wonderful women, I can't help but believe it was beneficial to spoonful to have some talented Sundance alums in the cast; Marianna Palka is the writer/director/star of Good Dick and Frankie Shaw is in both The Freebie and this year's End of Love.  Frankie is also one of my closest friends and Marianna is one of Frankie's closest friends.  There was already this lovely pre-existing intimacy in the cast and I think these real relationships helped to make the film what it is.

As a director, I also worked hard to create and maintain an environment where the cast and crew felt safe to take creative risks.   We ended up all feeling incredibly close on set and this manifested in a lot of laughing and crying together.  There were many, many boob jokes.  Boob jokes (much like poop jokes) somehow never get old.  At one point, we also sat in a room and all cried while listening to Luther Vandross's "Dance with My Father."  Truly awesome. 

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?
Yes!  I wish I would have had more time writing.  But we wanted to make the Sundance deadline, so we ended up shooting a script that wasn't totally ready.  It gave us some grief in the editing room which could have been saved by some simple script trims.  It's so much easier to edit words on a computer screen.  Now my motto is "be ruthless about editing your script down to the bone."  I hope I've learned my lesson.

What’s next for your film? Do you have distribution? If so, when and how can people see it and if not, what are your hopes for the film?
I have no idea what's next for the film.  I'm at the point where I just can't wait to see how people react to it.  Sundance is our very first stop, although we've started submitting to other festivals.  We'll see what happens!  Steven and I are in the midst of casting our first feature, The Pretty One, so after Sundance that's what we'll be mostly focused on.
 
Can you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films made and into Sundance?
Well, I'm sure everyone's path to Sundance is extremely particular to them, so I'm not sure how instructive I'll be, but I can say something of my thought process behind making the film.

I think it's important to surround yourself with like-minded people that share your values and aesthetics.  My collaborators (Steven J. Berger, Mattias Troelstrup, Emily Batson, Emilio Ramirez, and Heather Mathews) are all people that I truly respect and admire.  I absolutely believe that each of them is a visionary artist.  spoonful also marks my first collaboration with my husband (composer, Julian Wass), working with him was one of my long standing dreams.  I realize I am quite partial but I think he's a genius composer. 


It was also important to me to make a film that felt authentic to me and in some way represents my point of view and my deepest beliefs.  And I knew I could only accomplish this by letting my freak flag fly.  I figured if I wasn't going to get in, I didn't want it to be because I had held myself back.

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The Road to Sundance: Meaning of Robots, directed by Matt Lenski

Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it?

US Documentary shorts

The benevolent Mike Sullivan has been shooting a stop-motion robot sex film in his apartment for the last 15 years. Obsessed with constructing the miniature robot porn stars, his apartment now overflows with thousands of them leaving him only tiny paths for him to walk and no place to film his epic.

In the Spring of 2011, after years of hiring him to build miniature sets for my films I asked Mike Sullivan for his help on an art project. During the process I got a peek into his world and discovered that it was anything but miniature.

What I found was a man dedicated, overwhelmed, slightly lost and happy to share it with honesty and a little humor.

I also found thousands of Robots with wieners.

This is a character exploration, a documentary, a Henry Darger-esque allegory set in one studio apartment on 27^th street in New York City. I was inspired to make this film out of love and respect for him.

How long did it take you to make your film?

From pre production to through completed post– 4 months. But if you include the time it took to build our relationship be invited in to his world you could say 4 years and 4 months.

How did you finance your film?

I funded this myself. And while technically the entire budget was 175 dollars to rent a wide angle lens,  countless dollars were spent in time by devoted crew. We shot, edited, reshot, and more. Whatever it took to make it better.

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?

It always felt easy. Like meeting someone who would one day become a dear friend. The most challenging part came after hearing Mike's story. And wanting to help him make his movie.

Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance. Are there any pointers for filmmakers for getting accepted?  

I guess that was the other challenging aspect... what to do with it when it was done. I was encouraged to submit it by my dear friend, the executive producer, Jake Perlin. And I got the acceptance call the night before thanksgiving. Which was great because I actually had something tto talk about with my family on that day of dreaded face-stuffing, and awkward conversation – Thanksgiving

If I didn't get it in I wasn't going to be crest fallen though. I want to help Mike make his movie so I was planning to start a kickstarter page to help him with that and use the film to promote it. 

My advice? Keep making your film better and do WHATEVER you want. Go back change things. Be totally precious and and not precious at the same time... oh... and work with people you respect. If you respect them, respect their ideas and the creative process.

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?

No.

For More Information: 

Meaning of Robots Teaser

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The Road to Sundance: A Morning Stroll, directed by Grant Orchard

Tell us about your film. What inspired you to make it?

My names Grant Orchard and I’m the director of ‘A Morning Stroll.’ It’s a short 6 minute animated film that’s playing in the International Shorts section at this year’s Sundance Festival.

It’s about a man who spots a chicken walking down a busy Brooklyn street.  Basically it's like a 3 part riff on 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' 

Initially I wanted to make a quick one minute film. I’d loved a one paragraph story published in Paul Auster’s ‘True Tales of American Life’ about a woman who spots a chicken walking down a busy city street.

It got me thinking of how ordinary those elements are, but how subtly, slyly surreal they are together.

At the same time I was reading ‘Exercises in Style’ by Raymond Queneau.  It’s a book that retells the fairly ordinary story of a man on a bus 99 times in 99 different styles.

I think those two influences converged and gave the basis for ‘A Morning Strolls’ triptych structure. It’s the meeting of a man and a chicken on a busy New York street, told 3 times over three different time periods.

So what was originally a one minute film became a 3 minute film in 3 chapters. Basically I got a bit carried away.

How long did it take you to make your film?

Too long.  Just shy of 2 years.  The company I work for, STUDIO AKA, agreed to make it without any external funding for it, which was brilliant of them.  So we had to use people within the company when they weren’t working on paying commercials, which frankly isn’t very often. We’re usually very busy, so it was an incremental accumulation over two years. Also I got ill for about a year which didn’t help the process.  My puny body is such an inconvenience at times.

How did you finance your film?

As a company we self financed it.  Currently in Britain there’s absolutely no funding for short animated film.  TV channels can’t quite seem to find a way to air them, and the British Arts Council has been pretty much stripped by the government of funds.

What was the most challenging part of the filmmaking process and how did you overcome it?

It’s basically one story, told 3 different ways. But I wanted to keep all the compositions, camera moves and shot lengths exactly the same in all 3. The only things that changed were the designs and the characters reactions to one another. This required us to set up a template for each section and rigorously stick to it.  Sounds quite simple, but we had to find a way of telling the 3 different strands of the story within that template. Proved to be quite taxing and a little bit too much like hard work!

Tell us about your experience getting into Sundance. Are there any pointers for filmmakers for getting accepted?  

Just make sure you are aware of the submission deadlines. We only just managed to submit our film in time, so when we heard that we had been selected we were over the moon.

If you had to make the film all over again, would you do anything different?

Oh yes, always.  There’s always something I’m not happy about. Bits of animation, design.  I’m very fiddly and fussy.  In general I’m happy with it though. I think.  It’s just when I see it I see the faults, it’s the problem of working on something over a long period of time and seeing it so many times.

I made a film about 8 years ago called ‘Welcome to Glaringly’ that I’m thinking of re-making now. The story and timings work but the sound and visuals don’t do it for me anymore.  I just can’t leave it alone.

What’s next for your film? Do you have distribution? If so, when and how can people see it and if not, what are your hopes for the film?

It’s currently been Oscar shortlisted, so it would be nice if that could go onto the next stage.

It’s just started its festival run, and it’s already doing pretty well. It’s got another year or so of that then who knows, but I believe that we already have a handful of distribution offers on the table.

Hopefully it will have some kind of life beyond that.  There are so many short films, and so many good ones being made that I hope it will be one that’s remembered a few years on from now.

Can you provide any advice to other filmmakers who dream of getting their films made and into Sundance?

Just the terribly hackneyed bit of advice which is to make what you want to make, rather than make what you think people want to see. It’s clichéd but very valid.

Cheers

x

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