Director's Cut

(serene music) (upbeat percussive music) (speaking foreign language) Nothing beats drinking root beer I am full of good cheer All I get now is carbonated Root beer, sizz and sizzle Root beer, sizz and sizzle Root beer (car horn honks) (bright music) Hi, welcome to Director's Cut. I'm Pete Schwaba, and that was a clip from The Alley Cat, a film about a woman who participates in an alcohol fueled bike race through the streets of the Chicago night. I'm joined today by the film's director, Marie Ullrich. Marie, welcome to Director's Cut. Thank you, it's wonderful to be here. Yeah, great to have you! So the characters in this film are all bike messengers. I read in your bio that you were not a bike messenger. That's right. - How does a non-bike messenger come up with a story set in this world? I first encountered the world of bike messengers when I was living in Boston. I went to undergrad at Emerson College in Boston. We didn't really have them in Nashville, Tennessee, where I'm from, when I was growing up. They do now, but, so I was really kind of fascinated, and I had a couple friends who were kind of doing it but I just was like, really intrigued by it. Even though I've never done it, I also was a bike commuter for a long time living in Boston and elsewhere, like in Chicago, so it just felt like a good vehicle, if you will, to tell a story. Pun intended. Pun intended, and then I did a ton of research, just tons of research. So, this film was based on a thesis film you did at Columbia College in Chicago, tell us about that, how it sort of transformed into this feature film. So weirdly, the thesis film is based on the feature film that I wrote before, as I was applying to Columbia, so it was part of my application package. I wanted to make it then, but you can only make a short film as a thesis. And I didn't want to do just a part of the film, or a trailer or something, so I rewrote the film entirely, and it became Faster!, my thesis film, and then-- It's titled Faster! It was called Faster! with an exclamation point. And then I wanted to make the feature, but I was kind of tired of that story, which was more about her working life. I was still really interested in the character and sort of her struggles that I could imagine. So I rewrote the feature completely to what became The Alley Cat. When you have a title like Faster! you have to have an exclamation point. You do! A period doesn't work, it just doesn't seem right. So, were they similar, were the two films? How similar did they end up, close? Not really at all. - No? Okay. So Faster! is all about her work life. It's all during the day. It's like during a brief time period during one day where she, you know, is having some struggles and it's really about her life as this sort of underclass, I wanna say, or at least viewed that way by some of the people she's interacting with-- That was all during the day. This was all during the night. The Alley Cat is all one night. We'll talk a little more about that. Let's take another look at a clip from The Alley Cat. -

Titus

Woah, wheel off! Deflate, inflate. -

Briggs

I'm gonna thank you for the beer. -

Kitten

Sure! It's been real. You can keep that. - Just, take it. (belches) Yeah. Alright, good luck. I don't need luck, I got skills! Peace! ("7x3" by Starlight Girls) Six by three with the information Leaving track with the population Six by three for the current affairs In the know and going nowhere Good time, bad time, new crime Making my mind, making my mind Making my mind, making my Good book, bad time, new crime Making my mind Good book, bad time, new crime Making my mind, making my mind Making my mind, making my Good book, bad time, new crime Making my mind (bike tire inflating) -

Ian

Dude, #### you, man. What kind of bull#### checkpoint is this? Keep crying my friend. Should have heard the other ideas I had for this checkpoint. -

Briggs

You know it's true. This is actually easy by Titus standards. Last alley cat, he had us carry in this big, ####ing thing, I don't remember what it was. Good story Briggs. I've never launched a Kickstarter campaign myself or done any kind of crowdfunding, but you have kind of an interesting story behind yours. Talk about how you found your funding. Yeah so, I did a Kickstarter campaign. I believe I was asking for $25,000 which is really minuscule for a feature length film but we thought we could get it done, with some buy-in from my cinematographer willing to work for cheap and stuff like that. So I launched the Kickstarter and right away, right out of the gate, it was like nine thousand, ten thousand, and then it sort of plateaued. After a while, it was a 30-day campaign, and after a while it became clear that it was not gonna make it really. I had to talk to my cinematographer who's-- He's based in New York, so he was gonna have to travel and stuff, and my producer as well had just moved from Chicago to New York. So I had to let them know, it looks like it's not gonna happen, I'm sorry guys, we'll try again, we'll make a trailer and we'll try again next year or something. So while the campaign was running during that 30 days, a lot of people contacted me and they would say like, "Oh do you need talent, do you need a composer, "do you need this, do you need actors?" And so one of those people was saying like, "Hey, I think I can help you make your film." And I was just like, okay great. I don't know what that means, but sure. And they were asking me like, "Do you have any previous work "that you can show me?" So I showed them Faster! This is not anyone I knew, just random-- -

Pete

Random guy, contacts you out of nowhere, okay. Yeah, random email. I sent them that and they're like "Oh I really enjoyed that, "and I think I can help you make your film." And again I was like, I'm all set for, I know, like composers or whatever. This film's not getting made, right. And then as the window was closing, the actual day that it was closing, ticking down to like, the hours of it was being done, I got another message from them saying, "Hey, you know, I'm trying to make your film go, "and Kickstarter won't let me donate more than $10,000." Oh my gosh. I was like, okay, interesting. Okay, now you have my attention. Sorry, those are the rules. No they are, for tax purposes, I think, so it's no longer a donation, blah blah blah. So I was like, can you invent another identity, and donate again? So it was like ticking down and I tried contacting Kickstarter headquarters in New York 'cause I'd already met some of them at a panel. They were already closed because of the time difference, and so this person was just like, "Screw Kickstarter, let's make your film." That is like, a story you rarely hear. Yeah. Usually you're scrimping and saving, and those people do come out of the woodwork. "Hey, you need a composer, you need actors?" It's like, "That's the easy part." As talented as they may be, you just need money. You just need money at the end or none of it's happening. So then I had to meet with them and their financial advisors and give them a business proposal, which was really just my budget at that point, which I increased to $50,000 'cause I thought, you know. Why not! And I met with them and they were talking to me about why do you wanna make this film, why are you a filmmaker, and all of this stuff, and after about an hour or so, they turned to the financial advisor and were like "What do you think?" and I was like, "This is where my dream just dies a horrible death." And the financial planner said, "This is something "you've been wanting to do, and I think you should do it." Good financial planner. I know, it was like-- So they said, you know, "Open your LLC, open a bank account in the LLC's name "and then we'll wire you the money." Oh my goodness. So I walked out of that meeting just completely stunned. And I had to call the cinematographer and say, "We're back on, we're back on!" And that's why we're sitting here talking. That's why we're sitting here today. Well, well done! Let's see another clip from The Alley Cat. -

Mark

Three! Two! One! Go! (bike clatters) First out, our poker race hopeful Briggs. Dude I only have four cards. -

Mark

It's okay, we'll get you another one. All right. (bike clinks) -

Mark

Sawyer's out and he doesn't even drink! Damn, damn, damn, damn! One hand! Come on, let me hit some of that man. (exhales loudly) Don't fall. Mother####er. (Briggs laughs) Oh! Oh, check it out. Brilliant psych-out move over here by Ian. (bikes clattering) -What the ####? -That ###hole! I told him to go to a hospital. Yeah, I need an ambulance. At City Plaza. Yeah, Day City Plaza, now. -

Man

Why didn't you make him go to a hospital before? You were there, you should have made him go! I called an ambulance, but he wouldn't go. You should have made him. You were the one giving him alcohol over there. What, no! He said he was fine. -

Man

What the ####, happened? Ian got hit by a car. Just stand back.

Augusto

Dude, this is ####ed up. -

Man

He's got a kid. -

Kitten

No way. -

Man

Yeah, way. - He's out here doing this ####? This is-- (ambulance siren wails) This was the first film you directed, I saw in your bio, first feature film. Feature film, yep. Like most indies, it's not a very big budget. We just talked about that. How challenging is that to pull off in a city like Chicago, where it's permits and locations and all that kinda stuff? That's a big-- did you ever-- Did you have the police come up to you say, "Hey, do you got permits?" Or how did that work? So... it worked from my producer, Kathryn Henderson, really did all of the permitting kind of leg work. As it turns out though, if you make a film in the dead of night... (laughs) It wasn't quite as challenging as I expected in that respect. Anytime that we're planted at a location, we have a permit for that. So all of the checkpoints and the starting and ending-- It wasn't total guerrilla. No, but on the streets when we're just riding around... We just run and gun. There was one point where we were shooting, Jenny, the main character, Jasper, is on this long ride. It's really just her-- Oh no, we had a car. We had the creepy guy car following her, and this long stretch of shooting down this-- I think it was Milwaukee Ave, like way on the northwest side, and some cops drove by and I just thought, "Well, we're done for the night, you know." They just sailed right on by. They're like, "Hey hey." Wow, nice. (laughing) Some positive stuff about the Chicago PD, which is nice. That's great. - Yeah. So if you had shot during the day, this would have been a totally different film. Yeah. - Let me ask you this first. Do these alley cat races exist, or is this-- Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. No kidding. Yeah, they're a social event. Sometimes it's to raise money for something. Other times people pay to race, but then the pot goes to the winner, or they win a bag, or just bragging rights, or whatever. And it's a big social event too. It's kind of like-- Because bike messengering is a specific skill, you don't necessarily-- You have some places you need to go and it's up to you to decide what's the quickest way to get there. Is it all bike messengers in The Alley Cat, or are other people allowed to take part? Some of them are really open-- Can I sign up? - Yeah! Some of them are. I have training wheels on my bike, is that a problem? Not at all! - Okay, good. So, I volunteered at a couple, doing checkpoints. Just to get a feel for how they work in real life. So yeah, it was really fun. That brings me to my next question. You obviously, it was a conscious effort, I assume they take place at night. These races. - Not all of them. Some of them are broad daylight. So then talk about the, it was obviously a conscious decision then to shoot at night. What does the night, or the Chicago night I say, bring to this film? In a sense it's a great setting. You've got some great night shots. But what does that do for your film, shooting in a night setting like that? It's beautiful. I think though part of it for me is that living in Chicago and riding my bike everywhere, sometimes the night was when I felt like you just kind of own this city, because sometimes you're just the only vehicle out there. It just, I don't know, it's like a wonderful, just a wonderful city. It's a wonderful city to ride a bike in. It's also about Jasper's internal struggle, and the morning is really metaphorical I guess. Right, well I thought maybe the night was too, for what she was going through. She's obviously in a very dark place-- Yeah, yeah. You're right though, you do feel like you own the city at night when there's not as many people around. And Sunday mornings in Chicago too, if you're downtown are like-- ghost town. Empty. - It's crazy. So what does that do, when you pick a camera to shoot with, did that alter your cinematographer's choice of equipment at all? Um, in a way. We used his camera package. We got some different lenses for it. It's the RED Epic. We got an Easyrig to help out, because there's a lot of handheld, but to take the strain off the back. And then he lit a lot of it with LEDs, like portable, battery-operated LEDs. And then... We had a wireless monitor for me to look into, to look at stuff when I wanted to do that. Sometimes I'm up with the acting and just focusing on that. Other time's I'm looking at the frame. It was cool. - Very cool. Let's see another clip from The Alley Cat. (evocative music) -

Woman

Okay, I've gotta finish dinner. -

Jasper

Can you tell her I say hi, please? Can you tell her I said hi, please? -

Woman

Yeah, I will. Talk a little bit about the relationship between Jasper, your main character, and Ian, who's the character we saw that passed away in the clip previously. So it's never directly stated in the film that he's the father of the little girl. But, he is, in the story. They're no longer together, and that's part of the reason that Violet isn't living with Jasper. It's not that she's attached to him emotionally anymore as a partner, but the whole thing with what happens in The Alley Cat really kind of like creates this real need for her to go see Violet and kind of just, you know, upsets her. Right. And that comes across. She's not really still connected to him. But she's not really connected with the daughter either at the start of the film, seemingly. Seemingly, right, exactly. But she obviously sees her from time to time, and that's her sister raising the child? Yes, so I don't know if you want me to give up all the-- No, no, no spoilers. Well, we're sort of already there, I think. So in my mind, this was a closed adoption. So in the beginning, when the daughter-- When the sister says "You can never tell her," that's because they've decided like, "I'll raise this kid for you but, "I'm mom and you're not." And that's not all that uncommon from, you know-- So it's a great scene, the scene where Ian dies, all the other participants in the race create this little vigil around his bike. Where did that come from? Is that something that you, when you were doing your research, really happened, or is it just something that kind of organically came out of the script? That's something that happens. It's called a ghost bike ceremony. So if a cyclist dies in traffic, usually someone will erect their bicycle or another bicycle representing their bicycle, and paint it white as a memorial. Some of them, a lot of them have signs that indicate, you know, who it is representing, and who died at that spot. Their name and their dates of birth and death, and it becomes a memorial. It also becomes kind of like a signal, maybe, to drivers, be careful maybe to cyclists. Well I just kind of thought of another question while you were telling me, how often does that happen, because those bike messengers in Chicago, or in New York too, they're flying around. I'm surprised you don't hear about that more often. Well, I think it's actually usually not bike messengers necessarily. Or just cyclists? Because they're so good at what they do that cars can just ignore them and they'll just-- They're like cab drivers. - Yeah. You think you're gonna die, and it's like, "Oh! This guy's pretty good." - Yeah, if you just ignore and let them do what they're doing, they're fine. So a lot of them, a lot of the ghost bikes represent like, commuters. So I was living in Andersonville, and there's a young woman who died on Damen, at one of the smaller, little intersections, but she as crushed by a truck. So that bike, and I used to ride that stretch of road a lot, and I saw that bike go up, and candles and flowers. And she was really young. I wanna say like 22. It just, it really affects you as a human being. It was a very interesting scene. Tell me about the title The Alley Cat. It's based on the race, but also Jasper. She's kind of an alley cat. She's gritty, she's flawed. Talk about that double meaning in the title. It was obviously-- That was on purpose. Absolutely. She's kind of a loner, whether that's by choice or not. I don't really know, but she's very scrappy and she also, I think, is a survivor. She's not like-- I personally as the author, I don't ever necessarily feel sorry for her, because I know she'll pull through. You kinda got that sense as the viewer too, so that's interesting. Let's take another look at a clip from The Alley Cat. -

Lisa

I have to go get ready Aunt Jasper. Would you mind hanging out with Violet for a little bit? Sure, of course. Honey I made you some toast. (kissing) (knife clattering) Is that coffee? Yes. -

Violet

Gross. Smells good though, doesn't it? Yeah, but it tastes gross. Some day you might like it. I don't think so. I used to hate butter, but now I love it. How could you hate butter? How could you hate coffee? 'Cause it's gross. Is that your bike outside? Yeah, her name's Sparkle. Can I go ride? Sure. She's an alley cat. Yeah. (laughs) The whole film takes place in 24 hours. What does that do, as a filmmaker, on a small budget? Did that cause any problems with continuity or anything like that? I don't know how long your shoot was, but-- No, I think in a way it's easier because you don't have different outfits necessarily to coordinate different looks. Or are we in day one or day three in this location? Right, interesting. So from a wardrobe perspective certainly- A little easier. Would make life a little easier. What did not make it easier was all those moving parts. I always say like, my next film, I'm just gonna have two people in a room talking, that's it. Hasn't happened yet. That will not be a studio film, I'll tell you that. It's easy to find actors in a city like Chicago. How difficult is it-- As spoiled for choice as you are with actors, how difficult is it to find actors, most of whom have day jobs, to shoot at night? And then have to go to work during the-- Yeah, that was kind of a challenge. Jenny, being the lead, was committed whenever we needed her. And we also paid her not a lot, but like, enough I guess. But paid her. - Paid her. And then the other actors, a lot of them-- Some of them we paid, most of them on deferment, so they were a little you know, less maybe motivated at times. It was just like whoever was able to come out that night, we would shoot with them. That's great. So all right, I swear this brought me back to my childhood, the scene you were talking about before where the car's kind of harassing her, driving, and she's on her bike. Later, she's in a park, right before crazy woman, she has an interaction with a seemingly crazy person. I swear I heard a baseball card in spokes, as the sound effect there. Oh! - Did I hear that, I did, right? Yes, yeah yeah yeah. It's actually a memorial card. So it's laminated, in her spokes, in the bike, which you don't necessarily see it in the film, but it's there the whole time. It added a lot of sort of texture to that scene. I was like, I swear that's my old, Barry Bonds baseball card or something. Just as the wheel's kind of spinning out, yeah. But it was good. It was a nice sound effect. And it added to the tension of the scene, so I thought that was great. So aside from Wisconsin Public Television, where else can people see this film? It's available on iTunes and Amazon, and perhaps I wanna say Google Play as well. Google Play, that's pretty good for a budget like this, that's pretty good distribution for a film of this size. Yeah, we have Gravitas Ventures is our distributor and I'm still looking for international distribution. Well I'm gonna wait and see it when it comes out as "Alley Cat the Musical." I always joke with Bryan, who played Briggs, that we're gonna do Briggs the Musical. That's what you've gotta do, a little soft shoe dance numbers. Thanks a lot for being here. Nice work on the film. Pleasure's all mine. Thanks for having me. You're welcome. For more information on The Alley Cat please go to wpt.org and click on Director's Cut. While you're there, send us an email or find out how to submit a film. Also, don't forget to like WPT on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. I'm Pete Schwaba, please don't drink and ride. We'll see you next time on Director's Cut. (upbeat music)