New Filmmakers LA!

Making movies is a collaborative art. Just look at the credits. Even for short films with $1000 budgets, dozens of names roll. Most people in Hollywood are here because they like to tell stories, and the cool thing is that each person has a unique approach to that. The director sees the big picture. Sound people add music and sounds to convey and enhance the mood. Cinematographers and lighting people specialize in manipulating the visual to achieve certain effects. Actors actually live out the story. When great people in all of these areas come together, it's like magic.

Personally, I would kill for a chance to work with Scorsese or the Coen Brothers, but I know that it's equally important to get to know talented directors and producers who are also just starting their journeys.

So, last night, I decided to attend the New Filmmakers LA red carpet event and screening. This two-night event is held several times a year on the the Sunset Gower lot, and features documentary and narrative shorts from up and coming filmmakers.

The bill for the evening included:

The Extraordinary Fight of Atticus Walker and the Monster in his Mind: , written by, directed by, and starring Michael Karman: A comedy about Atticus Walker, a talented writer who is perpetually tortured by a big green monster, which Atticus must overcome if he is to make anything of his life.

Marigolds, directed by Stephanie Zari: When her adult son calls announcing that he is coming for a visit and bringing his girlfriend, an English housewife must rouse herself from a depression caused by a loveless marriage and an unwillingness to accept that her son has grown up, and come to terms with change.

Cage Shift, directed by Philip Bache: A magician Houdini-like prowess is held hostage by a mobster who demands to know how the magician does his most astounding tricking in the hopes of using it to his own advantage.

Spectrum of the Sky, directed by Tami Tamar Sasson: An absolutely mesmerizing cello rock music video which paints the picture of a tragic love triangle between Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf, and a handsome but hateful prince.

Happy Birthday Michael Peck: As fourth-generation American auto-worker Michael Peck, who has lost his job with Chrysler and now his home, gives an interview to a reporter, we learn about the history of the auto industry and the devastating effects that its decline have had on its workers, who used to be proud members of a specialized industry, but who are now without purpose.

The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, directed by Ari Aster: This very black comedy--and I'm talking about the genre, not the all African American cast :) --tells the story of an aberrant relationship between a father and son. If I said anymore, I'd ruin it. Let's just say you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll throw up in your mouth a little bit...or a lot.

The movies were all awesome, but almost cooler was listening to the filmmakers talk about making their films.

When asked what the hardest thing about making films in LA is, Phil Bache, founder of New Philms, and director of Cage Switch, said, "The hardest thing about making films in LA is LA. The huge studios are right here, you can touch them, but getting on the other side of the wall is a challenge." Phil also shared that this was his first short, which he did on a budget of $1000. He said that he didn't see the points of shorts because with the amount of time on preproduction and, sometimes, money that one spends, you could just as easily do a feature. Philip has produced two features and has others in the words, and has managed to stretch low budgets into high production value.

Michael Karman, who wrote and played Atticus Walker, when asked what are the challenges of writing AND directing AND acting in his film, he basically said, "Writing was ok because I knew the character really well and I knew the lines better because I wrote them, and the acting was fine because the character was kind of Schizo and paranoid, and this process made me that way, so that wasn't hard, but I wouldn't recommend doing them all. Acting is a 100% gig, and directing is a 100% gig." The film got a huge reception from the audience. The laughter was pretty much consistent throughout. Many of us who put ourselves out there as artists have our own giant green monsters to contend with, and this is a film that definitely hits home for a lot of us.

When asked how Tami Tamar Sasson was inspired with the idea and theme of her music video, first she admitted that she was prompted by an assignment for a pitch to get into a music video production class. But, once she made the decision to do the project, it took some imagination to get the wheels turning. She said, "I basically zoned out and listened to the song 1000 times and went back to my childhood and red-riding hood, and it grew from there."

James Breen, an AFI graduate, who wrote and directed Happy Birthday Michael Peck, is a native of Detroit and saw the effects of the changing auto industry had on the city and the workers, and just thought that it was a story that needed to be told. His goal was to entertain, but also educate people about the auto industry, unions, and protests.

Ari Aster,another AFI graduate and writer/director of The Strange Thing about the Johnsons, explained in his dry wit, that his film concept was sparked was sitting around with his college friends talking about what the worst, most taboo thing they could make a movie about would be, "and this was pretty much what we came up with." The relationship between Billy Mayo as Sidney Johnson and Brandon Greenhouse as Isaiah Johnson twists and warps the concept of what it means to be father and son.

The one thing that all of the filmmakers could agree on is that the best part about making films is working with good people. Ari and Brandon Greenhouse were students together at the University of Santa Fe, which is known for a studio used often by big budget Hollywood productions. Philip Bache and his producer Brian Manning were friends for a long time and this is their first project together. The process of creating a film is grueling and you want to make sure you like the people you're in the trenches with.

Tony Shaloub's line from Barton Fink about writers in Hollywood, applies to independent filmmakers too: "Jesus, throw a rock in here, you'll hit one. And do me a favor, Fink: throw it hard." But the six films from the New Filmmakers even last night have well earned their right to play on the big screen in tinseltown, and their makers are definitely players to keep your eye on.