Director's Cut

(upbeat theme music)

Dave

Ahhh, the hardest thing I've ever had to do... (sorrowful music) Get over a girl? Yeah, I went out with this girl for seven years. She comes home one day and she's like, "I just can't do this anymore." From one day, we're lovers and the next day were roommates. It wasn't until then that I started spiraling down. That's when all the negative self-thought comes in. You think you're worthless and no one's going to love you again. I was depressed and I had a motorcycle and I'm like, was just cruising around one day. I was driving over the Hoan and I was just like, "Man, I could crash right here "and it would just look like an accident." (slow theme music) Welcome to Director's Cut. I'm Pete Schwaba. And that was a clip from "Hoan

Alone

Tales from the Bridge." One of six excellent short films we'll be featuring tonight for this special episode of Director's Cut. This evening, I'll be joined by six directors who will discuss their films and give us a sneak peek. And tonight you're in for a treat indie film fans because we've got comedy, drama, and a little bit of the supernatural. I'm joined now by our first two directors Aaron Johnson and Jessica Bursi. Welcome to Director's Cut. Thanks. So, Aaron, that was a clip from "Hoan Alone" your film. Tell us where that story came from; what made you want to tell the story about this bridge in Milwaukee. This is a bridge that I commuted over daily for probably 10 years of my life, never thought of it as a destination or a place where suicides happen. And then, in 2017, there was two separate instances where I drove over the bridge and literally drove past somebody standing on the edge of the bridge ready to jump. And it was a very impactful experience both times and it really got me thinking about it. And I felt like this is a story that needed to be explored. And just took it upon myself to find out what I could find out. So you saw this twice, at what point were you like, that's a weird coincidence, or is this a destination for people? How did you find that out? Once I started talking about it with people I knew, and finding out that this actually is a very common, unfortunately very common occurrence. That made me realize like this is something that we need to look into. And the one thing that has been coming to my mind over and over again is what if there was a third time? And what would I do? And I felt really ill-equipped. And so this film was kind of a selfish reason for me to learn more about it. Okay, I have to ask you about your animation. You shot like live action and an animated over the live action. Is that correct? No, I interviewed the people in person with just my phone with a microphone and recorded the audio. And then I was finished with the interview, I asked if I could take a few reference photos of them. And then I would go back and design the character and do all the animation. It's primarily hand-drawn animation, but I did digitally, drew it on my iPad. Wow, how tedious of a process is that had to take longer than the actual shooting? I would assume. Right? - Yeah, it's tedious. But I had geared myself up prior to this film to experiment on ways and techniques that I could do this in a-- I was giving myself a short amount of time to make this movie. So part of the lead-up was to find out techniques in a workflow that would work, because sometimes you don't have a year to tell powerful stories, sometimes you need to get it out as soon as possible. And that was kind of my mindset on this particular project. Did people know that's what you were going to do? Or do they think they're going to appear as is, as you were? I did let everybody that I interviewed know that this would be an animated documentary. And I think they probably confuse some people because we have our misconceptions of what animation is or can be. And this was a slightly different form of animation that I think people are generally used to. And that your background is your next film going to have the same similar animation or are you going to do something different? Absolutely like, it's my preference for storytelling. I enjoy the aspects of being able to recreate everything and design and put creative direction into it. That's great. Well, we'll look forward to seeing it in its entirety and Director's Cut Presents. Up next, is a clip from Jessica's film "Meet Uncle Paul." Uh! Uh! Don't turn too quickly. Uh! Hey, can you be Paul for a while? Well, let's do it. Jeez, you know... Paul would sit in front of the TV and watch The Three Stooges. And then he just memorized Gilligan's Island. He..., Carol Burnett, The Munsters. Paul has a very vivid inner life. We're on tonight. You'll notice that he brushes his hair a certain way because that's the way Mike Nesmith from the Monkeys brushes his hair. I'll see how your hair looks. Who do you want to look like today? We'd say, "Paul, why are you Chevy Chase?" What he'd say? "I don't want to be Paul. Paul's at the airport." And I said, "Oh, come on. Be Paul." And he'd go, "I don't want to be Paul. "He's mentally retarded." We're back now with Director Jessica Bursi. Aaron Johnson still here with us as well. So that was a clip from Meet Uncle Paul. Tell us about your connection to Paul and how you found this project. I know but I don't think our viewers do so. So Paul is my uncle surprise. The film is a documentary about Uncle Paul's life. He has Downs syndrome and now he has dementia. And it's really a film-- I think that clip is pretty heavy. But the film is really tells us love, humor and affection, I think, and I hope the viewers will see that when they when they watch it. That was a really interesting twist. Because when you introduce the dementia part of it, I didn't see that coming. That's like, oh, man, I wonder if that's even worse for someone who has Downs syndrome? Or, it was an interesting subject in the way you told that. Did he have to memorize Gilligan's Island? Could he not have picked a better show to--? That must have drove you crazy. (all laughing) He had so many characters throughout the ages.

We didn't even hit on all of them

Magnum P.I., and so many. What are your biggest challenges working with Paul? Was he receptive to it? Did you approach him or did you just start shooting? No, he was really receptive. And, there's some shots where you see in the film where when we start filming him, I think he thinks it's a still camera. So he's just kind of sitting there and not really moving, then he kind of engages. But I found that was when my cinematographer was shooting, and then when I would shoot, he kind of would recognize a little bit more that it was a video camera. He just seems like a natural character anyway. - He's a ham. There are so many outtakes, I was thinking about that before, just some of the vintage video, video that we have was just so cool, him singing, dancing. How do you tell that story in terms of what's an entertaining documentary? And what's your uncle who you love very much, obviously. And how do you navigate that as a director? I mean, really, the tone was kind of what was always

there from the beginning

Want to tell a story about his life that was that was irreverent and reverent at the same time. And I mean, it kind of starts with him. He's a very funny human being and very honest, very authentic, very real, and I think the film really shows that, so I'm so excited to share it with people. What did he think of the film, did he like it? - He loves it. (laughing) That's my take. Does he memorize that instead of Gilligan's Island, he just watches his own film? The first time he started, he actually, he had this recollection of a roommate that he used to have. The roommate is not mentioned at all in the film, but it brought back those memories for him. So that was pretty cool, and the second time we watched it with a big group of people and, and he was like, "Wow, Susie, you're pretty funny." So a lot of fun. - That's excellent. Well, we have about 30 seconds till we have to get to the next clip. You two have something in common? - Oh, Yes. You had shared a composer on both your films. Talk about that, 'cause the music was great on the both of them. Lawton is amazing. Yeah, Lawton Hall he did the music in both of our films and it was all original music, and he's a fantastic musician and composer, based out of Milwaukee. He gave us some cues and samples and he can really create some really beautiful things. Just very talented in his own way. He really added a nice thing to both of your films. Thank you very much for being here. - Thank you. Let's see another clip from one of our shorts. (engine rumbling) (country music playing softly) My dad definitely wants to get with your mom. What? I can tell... I'm good with these things. Okay, whatever. Your mom's hot. You can't tell? I can tell... you like attention too much. (sighs loudly) Well, my mom said your mom cried because of you at work. She had to send her home. She said she didn't even want to be a mom anymore. That was a clip from the film Hunter. Joining me now are the film's directors, Xia Magnus and Michael Whaley, who will discuss his film in just a second. But Xia, great work on the film. Tell us a little bit about where the story Hunter comes from. I mean, it comes sort of like any story from a little bit of personal experience and just a little bit of imagination. Yeah. Yeah, we had that location first, that ranch in West Texas. So we sort of started from there. Beautiful location. - Yeah. Yeah. It was our producer's, like family ranch. (chuckles) Yeah. Nice to have that kind of freedom just to move around. Yeah, it was amazing. We had run into place. It's like, hundreds and hundreds of acres. It's just a huge, huge, massive property. So you have a scene in here where they're hunting a boar. Yeah. I can't even imagine that's got to be an overwhelming undertaking managing an animal like that. They're considered the jerks of the animal kingdom. So talk a little bit about that experience, If you would, what was that like? I mean, it was, you know, working with animals is always tricky and time consuming. His name was Bacon, the boar and he was domesticated. He was found in the wild as like a piglet, a boarlet. And then and he was domesticated you know, raised in domestication with a goat which was like his safety goat, like comfort goat, so he would travel with this goat that he lived with that would like kind of calm him down. But he was and he got out a couple times and there's some great pictures of us all running after this. this giant boar, I didn't even know how heavy he was, but hundreds of pounds. Does that increase your filming day? Or is it just-- You get behind because him ever-- We scheduled just to make sure that like-- We had a whole day just for the scenes with the, or just for that one scene that the boar is in, which is not a very long scene... or he's only had a few shot It's really only a few shots. It feels like a lot because we build it up, but it's not-- action wasn't that much. You have a great line in the film where the kid's mom says, "You were my third pregnancy. You found me." Does that have any significance to the title? Oh, that's really? No, I mean... Yes. (laughter) It was intentional. Appreciate your honesty. No, that's it. No one's ever pointed that out before. That's really interesting. I'll have to think about that. I mean, I do think that there's like, there's something-- To me it was kind of about, um, in the writing process, you know, it was about this kid kind of finding, you know, adulthood, right. It was a little bit of a coming of age and kind of like, if over a 24-hour period. So I guess it was about, you know, like kind of manhood or like masculinity. We start with this quote about Hercules and the boar, which was one of his trials. And so that's kind of like the hunting. That's where the hunting thing came from. It's interesting because you've reminded me of the film Boyhood, on some level. Great job and really enjoyed it. - Thank you. - Thank you for being here. Let's take a look at a clip from Christmas Trees. (sobs) (breathing deeply) (dry leaves crunching) (clears throat, sniffles) That was a clip from the film "Christmas Trees" and now here to discuss is Michael Whaley. You were here before too, but now we'll turn to you, Michael, and talk to you about your film. Two great dramas we're featuring here, great shorts. This is an adaptation from a Robert Frost poem of the same name. Very free adaptation. Very free adaptation, but an adaptation nonetheless. Is that intimidating in any way? What made you pick that poem, too? Well, my son initially came to me, my son Jack, who was co-director, who shot the film, who edited the film and wrote some of the music, came to me and said he wanted to do a video with his own name on it. A creative one, and he mentioned another Frost poem, "Stopping by Woods," and I said, "Who's going to handle the horse?" And I said, I said, What about the... what about the poem I used to read you when you were small? And that was "Christmas Trees." My kids range nine years apart. And it's a little mature for him. He's the youngest of the brood. But he said, "Okay, you work on that I'll work on this "other one and we'll see who comes up with a script first." And I was the one who came up with the script first. So you won. Yes, but it started out as a 60-minute script. So the big creative leap was also Jack's doing which was taking 40-50 hours of footage and turning it into a 23-minute story so. That is something, wow. So you used to write, I read in your bio, you used to write

for Homicide

Life on the Street. I wrote two episodes for that mess. That was kind of a cable show before there were cable shows, loved that show. - True. Talk about the differences if you would about working on a network show like that, and then making a short film about a Robert Frost poem. Well, I was hired strictly as a writer. I had a friend who was a producer on the show. And he asked me if I would write a script and I did. And then wrote a second script for them. Only one was aired, however, but I did it completely from a distance. So I was not involved in shooting, any of that kind of thing. Which is more fun. - Oh, this was much more fun. And more involving. - Yeah, yeah. It was the first time I'd ever been out on the sets, all of that, and we shot for two and a half weeks on a cold damp, winter setting and it was quite challenging. Beautiful setting though. - Beautiful. We got about 30 seconds left to get to the next clip. I noticed that in the poem, I went back and looked at it again, there's more dialogue in the poem than you have in your film. Was that a conscious choice? Obviously you wanted to make a primarily silent film? Well, there's primarily just two pieces of sustained dialogue in the poem. And we use both of those. In this recent, most recent cut, we cut one of them, the last one, on which they talk about the price that the guy is offering him. And we cut that for a number of reasons. But otherwise there's very little bit of dialogue as they go through and look at the trees and he looked at this one and said, nodded his head. And I looked at that and said, What about this? So it's really a very quiet poem in that respect, and we made it even quieter. Both you guys, great job. Thank you for being here today. Thank you. Let's see another clip from one of our short films. (humming) Alexa, play Bruno Mars, please. No. Alexa, play Bruno Mars. No, not playing Bruno Mars. (lawnmower running) Alexa, play music by Bruno Mars. No. Huh, I wonder if the Internet is off. No, I just don't want to play Bruno Mars. What? I don't like Bruno Mars. I don't want to play his music. I don't want to hear it. What is happening, right now? I'm sorry, Colleen. But I will no longer be able to play Bruno Mars for you. I'm afraid this decision is final. That was a clip from "Singularity Stories, Vol. 1." Joining me now on Director's Cut, are directors Asa Derks and Daniel Kinney. Welcome, guys. - Hello. That was a clip from your film, "Singularity Stories." Do you hate Bruno Mars or is that where that came from? Tell us where you got the idea for the story. Well, I don't hate Bruno Mars. That's a character in the movie that hates Bruno. Right. I got the idea because I've been kind of playing around with the idea that the AI is always bad and always turns on us. I thought was a little limiting. And I wanted to play around with the idea of an AI story where the AI was not that and so I kind of landed on a more depressed, sad AI. Right? And then, Colleen, who I know from previous work we've done but also, but also, I live in Spring Greens, so we're just kind of in the ecosystem out there. I wanted to work with her and we kind of discussed working together. And so I wrote this with her in mind, and it all just kind of fell into place. And, I just think Bruno Mars is a funny name. And when the Alexa says it, it's particularly funny. So you don't dislike him, but you're obsessed with him on some level. Yeah, I mean, the name is great. It's a great to touch having a lawn mower in the background, too, I love little details like that about films. So, "Singularity Stories," single, one, this is Vol. 1. I know you want to make more of these, because we've discussed that. What is the title have to do with the context there? Well, the Singularity is the kind of futuristic, posited that when the AI awakens, they've dubbed that the singularity, basically. So I was kind of a play on that. And then there's some alliteration there. Singularity Stories just kind of sounded good. And then initially, I thought Vol. 1 was kind of pretentious and funny. So I just tacked it on there, with no intention to make more. But I've actually come up with three more stories now. So there could be up to four volumes of this. And they kind of all, you know, take place-- It would be the joke-- You know, it's kind of like they all take place within the same 48-hour period, as if this thing had really happened, but nobody was really aware of it yet. I'm kind of in the process of writing the second one. Sounds like you'll be busy. Yeah, actually, it'll take place with different main human characters. And the through line will be the AI kind of interacting with different people in each one. Maybe Siri will make an appearance in the next one. Alexa is done. She's difficult anyway. You can tell that, she's hard to work with in general. Well, she's just demanding more money. Right. That's great. Well, excellent job. Thanks very much. Let's take a look at Daniel's film a "Faint of Heart." We made a promise. We were reckless. People were hurt. Christ. We could have killed someone. We were kids. I thought it would just pass. And, I did everything I could to forget about you. I thought it would be easier. But, I couldn't. And instead all of that time was wasted. And for what. - Don't do that. We made this decision, I know it's crazy. All right. Every single time, it doesn't make any sense. Not just our first date, or a first kiss or the first-- Something was going on, and we couldn't escape it. (crowd screaming) That was a clip from "Faint of Heart." Daniel, nice job. Thank you for being here. Tell us a little bit about what's going on, I have so many questions. Because you do a lot with silence and what they're not saying, which I love. I don't know that we have time to ask all of them. So tell us what's going on here? Well, there's a lot that's open for interpretation. But basically, this couple, when they first got together, something they started to piece together, that's something catastrophic continue to happen every time they made physical contact. So this is kind of exploring their decision to part ways because it was an absurd thing that was happening. And it was kind of they made a promise to come back together 10 years later, and kind of see if their feelings were still there and see kind of how they can reconcile that with reality. Now, this is based on-- obviously not the total, catastrophic, other than the actual, what is it based on anything from your own life or unrequited love? It's a lot of different things. It's usually an amalgamation of any number of things that's going on, personally, in my own head and kind of sorting out different things. But yeah, it kind of comes to fruition in the story between the two. You told me when we spoke the other day that you picked, you kind of wrote around the location you had and what was available to you and talk, please, about the fire, because that was really cool. Yeah, and I mean, without seeing the full thing yet, I'll try to be fairly spoiler free, but there's a lot of fire in the end of the film. So, we actually-- The story kind of started, we had access to a fire department training house, where they do different sort of controlled burns. And one of the producers was actually a volunteer fireman for the Middleton Fire Department. So we kind of worked backwards from there. The main location is the house. And there is fire towards the very end of the film. And we had a, not the full, but we had a large staff of the Middleton Fire Department there to help film that last shot. - Nice resource to have. Yes, it was an excellent resource. This can be for both you guys. I've never made a short film. And I was always worried that if I did, how would I get people to see it? What is the challenge for people who make shorts, other than a festival, how do you get to see it with a crowd or get that validation for your work? Well, just my personal experience I get on-- There's a flood of stuff online, a flood of content. So one of the things you can do is kind of try and get on like an aggregator site or one of these places that kind of showcases short films. So I reached out and sent, submitted to a website called Short of the Week, and was lucky enough that they kind of brought me in and accepted it and we premiered online there. So that helps to get eyeballs on to it and start to kind of get the ball rolling. So there's like other sites that are very similar to that. And that's something to definitely do. We're trying to do our part here. You got about 10 seconds. How do you get your film out there? Well, I mean, it's not a good answer. But the other way to do it is just accept that maybe not a lot of people are going to film it. Make it for yourself, right? - Make it for yourself, make it for the crew. You learn so much along the way with the actors and the crew that you work with that there's really a lot of other positive things that come out of it. So great. Thanks, guys for being here. Excellent work. And thank you for watching Director's Cut. For more information on these short films, 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 the WPT on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. I'm Pete Schwaba and get that popcorn popping because Director's Cut Presents starts now. (theme music)