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September 15 2010
Short Filmmaker Profile: Tim Hyten
As part of the upcoming ‘One Hundred Mornings’ run at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, Cinema Speakeasy, CineFist, Downtown Independent Theatre, and Slamdance Film Festival have come together with the WorkBook Project to jointly curate a short film program to highlight new independent directors. What follows is the last of six director profiles.
TIM HYTEN
No stranger to hard work, and with a clear sense of determination, Tim is of the new generation of filmmakers reared on accessible technologies and everpresent distribution outlets, a generation that would see a felled tree blocking an icy one-lane mountain road simply as an opportunity to break out the 4 wheel drive.
Case in point: When he realized he would never be able to afford film school, Tim set about finding a rigorous learning strategy, regardless. He offered his services for free, and was taken up on it by the city’s producers. Net result? He learned every aspect of filmmaking through the school of hard knocks- and perhaps gained an equally effective education, to boot.
Indeed, Tim seems to actually embrace the no-budget-no-problem approach endemic in independent film, theorizing that a dedicated crew is worth the same, perhaps more, than a stack of cash. As he puts it:
“Listen to any filmmaker and you’ll quickly learn how time consuming, meticulous and painful the process can be and I think one of the best things you can do is take the time to assemble a group of talented people that can all help move projects along. That’s why I was lucky to meet Mark Johnson and Luis Sinibaldi, through which we’ve founded the company Fat Monster Films. We continually work with a tight group of film makers who work for next to nothing, sleep on our floors and don’t bitch when we forget they’re vegetarians…This, I think is the key to getting shit done.”
One begins to see his latest directorial foray, ‘O2′, as a big fat metaphor for Tim’s life, and for filmmaking in general: In deep space with a crippled oxygen supply, a three person crew grapples with the notion that life support will only allow two to survive the trip to a neighboring freighter.
Were Tim one of those three people, I’m pretty sure he’d find a solution.
We caught up with Tim for a little Q&A in anticipation of O2’s upcoming screening in support of WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award Winner ‘One Hundred Mornings’.
What are the biggest issues you’ve faced, as a filmmaker?
In this town I think it’s probably somewhat common to have a sort of epiphany (in my case it occurred around the 16th or 17th time I found myself working on a screenplay in a coffeeshop when I recognized most of the people around me were also working on their own scripts.) It all comes into focus as to just how difficult the road stretching ahead is and how, for most of us, moving forward is going to require a lot more work and having to borrow money from family and friends to get anything done. It is a bit scary jumping into an endeavor with such a negative return factor, but there’s no real choice to be made for many of us. We do it because we’d rather eat Top Ramen, smoke “re-lights” (the part of the cigarette left over after it’s owner tossed it to the ground), and subject ourselves to uncountable ignonomies just to stay on “the ride.”
How do you typically distribute your short films? What has worked, for you?
We are currently looking at all the different routes (many that are still emerging on the net). With all the different models available today, you just have to figure out what makes sense for the particular project at hand. Unfortunately our pace is so frenetic that we often move on from a given project before giving it a proper run anywhere. We’re changing that now, though, in part due to the mentoring of our good friend, Zak Forsman at Sabi pictures, who has been slowly educating us on the subject.
How do you define success as a filmmaker?
If you’re going to be making films you had better be unflinching, determined, self aware, passionate, etc. etc. …. the list goes on and on. That being said, I think too many filmmakers actually believe they’re saving babies or something. It only takes getting stuck in a few conversations with these elitists [to make] you think “Jesus Christ, man, it’s a fuckin’ movie!!!” Don’t get me wrong, if you’re going to make a film and you want it to be of any quality you have to treat it as if it’s the most serious thing in the world at the time (especially if there is other people’s money involved.) But when it’s all said and done, we’re here to entertain people, hopefully in a way that can add a bit of something to their life and if we can get a few bucks in the bank while doing it…That’s success in my opinion.
CineFist & WorkBook Project present:
‘02‘
Directed by Tim Hyten
Written by Mark A. Johnson and Jack Daniel Stanley
Produced by Mark A. Johnson and Luis Sinibaldi, with Barry Green and Blaine Golden
Wednesday 22 September
7:30 and 9:30
Followed by the WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award winner ‘One Hundred Mornings’.
Click here for screening tickets
Short Filmmaker Profile: Tim Hyten
As part of the upcoming ‘One Hundred Mornings’ run at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, Cinema Speakeasy, CineFist, Downtown Independent Theatre, and Slamdance Film Festival have come together with the WorkBook Project to jointly curate a short film program to highlight new independent directors. What follows is the last of six director profiles.
TIM HYTEN
No stranger to hard work, and with a clear sense of determination, Tim is of the new generation of filmmakers reared on accessible technologies and everpresent distribution outlets, a generation that would see a felled tree blocking an icy one-lane mountain road simply as an opportunity to break out the 4 wheel drive.
Case in point: When he realized he would never be able to afford film school, Tim set about finding a rigorous learning strategy, regardless. He offered his services for free, and was taken up on it by the city’s producers. Net result? He learned every aspect of filmmaking through the school of hard knocks- and perhaps gained an equally effective education, to boot.
Indeed, Tim seems to actually embrace the no-budget-no-problem approach endemic in independent film, theorizing that a dedicated crew is worth the same, perhaps more, than a stack of cash. As he puts it:
“Listen to any filmmaker and you’ll quickly learn how time consuming, meticulous and painful the process can be and I think one of the best things you can do is take the time to assemble a group of talented people that can all help move projects along. That’s why I was lucky to meet Mark Johnson and Luis Sinibaldi, through which we’ve founded the company Fat Monster Films. We continually work with a tight group of film makers who work for next to nothing, sleep on our floors and don’t bitch when we forget they’re vegetarians…This, I think is the key to getting shit done.”
One begins to see his latest directorial foray, ‘O2′, as a big fat metaphor for Tim’s life, and for filmmaking in general: In deep space with a crippled oxygen supply, a three person crew grapples with the notion that life support will only allow two to survive the trip to a neighboring freighter.
Were Tim one of those three people, I’m pretty sure he’d find a solution.
We caught up with Tim for a little Q&A in anticipation of O2’s upcoming screening in support of WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award Winner ‘One Hundred Mornings’.
What are the biggest issues you’ve faced, as a filmmaker?
In this town I think it’s probably somewhat common to have a sort of epiphany (in my case it occurred around the 16th or 17th time I found myself working on a screenplay in a coffeeshop when I recognized most of the people around me were also working on their own scripts.) It all comes into focus as to just how difficult the road stretching ahead is and how, for most of us, moving forward is going to require a lot more work and having to borrow money from family and friends to get anything done. It is a bit scary jumping into an endeavor with such a negative return factor, but there’s no real choice to be made for many of us. We do it because we’d rather eat Top Ramen, smoke “re-lights” (the part of the cigarette left over after it’s owner tossed it to the ground), and subject ourselves to uncountable ignonomies just to stay on “the ride.”
How do you typically distribute your short films? What has worked, for you?
We are currently looking at all the different routes (many that are still emerging on the net). With all the different models available today, you just have to figure out what makes sense for the particular project at hand. Unfortunately our pace is so frenetic that we often move on from a given project before giving it a proper run anywhere. We’re changing that now, though, in part due to the mentoring of our good friend, Zak Forsman at Sabi pictures, who has been slowly educating us on the subject.
How do you define success as a filmmaker?
If you’re going to be making films you had better be unflinching, determined, self aware, passionate, etc. etc. …. the list goes on and on. That being said, I think too many filmmakers actually believe they’re saving babies or something. It only takes getting stuck in a few conversations with these elitists [to make] you think “Jesus Christ, man, it’s a fuckin’ movie!!!” Don’t get me wrong, if you’re going to make a film and you want it to be of any quality you have to treat it as if it’s the most serious thing in the world at the time (especially if there is other people’s money involved.) But when it’s all said and done, we’re here to entertain people, hopefully in a way that can add a bit of something to their life and if we can get a few bucks in the bank while doing it…That’s success in my opinion.
CineFist & WorkBook Project present:
‘02‘
Directed by Tim Hyten
Written by Mark A. Johnson and Jack Daniel Stanley
Produced by Mark A. Johnson and Luis Sinibaldi, with Barry Green and Blaine Golden
Wednesday 22 September
7:30 and 9:30
Followed by the WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award winner ‘One Hundred Mornings’.
Click here for screening tickets
September 14 2010
Short Filmmaker Profile: Jack Daniel Stanley
As part of the upcoming ‘One Hundred Mornings’ run at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, Cinema Speakeasy, CineFist, Downtown Independent Theatre, and Slamdance Film Festival have come together with the WorkBook Project to jointly curate a short film program to highlight new independent directors. What follows is the fifth of six director profiles.
JACK DANIEL STANLEY
Jack Daniel Stanley is a short filmmaker, and a short filmmaker par excellence.
Subsumed by the format, he has gleefully and prolifically explored his unique blend of horror, tragedy, comedy and – often – tragicomedy, releasing his films exclusively online long before there were panels on the topic. He amassed, in this manner, a (very) substantial audience. Moreover, this support base helped buoy a unique career path that was perfectly in sync with the emerging era of shifting distribution strategies.
But: Jack wanted to come out of the online closet, as it were. He wanted to connect with audiences in person. Thus, he did away with his self-described “festival-phobia” and in 2008 began his foray into the festival world. He writes about this frankly on his Myspace page: “I’ve let most of my films languish on the internet to the point that most fests will no longer be interested in them [...]. Probably, to be frank, I let them expire, so to speak, due to a fear of failure or fear of success or, most likely, a little of both.”
In actuality, this timid excursion turned into a raging success, with premieres at Slamdance, SXSW, Tribeca, and a slew of other festivals that would make any indie auteur green with envy.
Internet film never looked so cinematic.
In anticipation of his upcoming screening in support of ‘One Hundred Mornings’, we caught up with Jack for a question and answer session. In his unique, honest, terse manner, he divulged a little insight into his trajectory.
What are the biggest issues you’ve faced, as a filmmaker?
The biggest challenges I’ve faced as a filmmaker are too personal to talk about and have to do with my own growth.
The next tier of challenges have to do with finding my own voice and feeling confident with that voice – saying it my way [and] finding the film that really comes from within me amidst all the clutter of what other people are doing and the way they are expressing themselves.
How do you typically distribute your short films? What has worked, for you?
I’ve given then away for free online, and this has helped build an audience. Recently I’ve partnered with IndieFlix for online and brick and mortar distribution and plan to self distribute an anthology of my genre work soon.
How do you define success as a filmmaker?
Finishing a film. Finding a way to make a film. Not getting evicted or going to jail in the process.
CineFist & WorkBook Project present:
‘Unawakening‘
Written & Directed by Jack Daniel Stanley
Produced by Barry Green and David Jimerson
Friday 17 September
7:30 and 9:30
Followed by the WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award winner ‘One Hundred Mornings’.
Click here for screening tickets
Click here for his site
Follow him on Twitter @JackDanStan
September 13 2010
Short Filmmaker Profile: Fabian Euresti
As part of the upcoming ‘One Hundred Mornings’ run at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, Cinema Speakeasy, CineFist, Downtown Independent Theatre, and Slamdance Film Festival have come together with the WorkBook Project to jointly curate a short film program to highlight new independent directors. What follows is the fourth of six director profiles.
FABIAN EURESTI
Raised in a dusty agricultural town just north of Bakersfield, Fabian Euresti is the son of migrant farm workers in California’s citrus groves.
Attracted at a young age to storytelling, he made his first film as a senior in high school with his brother’s Sony DV camera- learning quickly that one of the hardest parts of filmmaking is commitment. Nonetheless, he carried on these attempts though his undergraduate studies in English Literature, replacing written essays with what he calls ‘essay films’, wherever possible.
The first of these — a deeply disturbing yet oddly meditational film about water contamination and injustice in his hometown (‘Everybody’s Nuts’, 2004) — came to exemplify his style. His graduate studies at Cal-Arts allowed him to further refine his directorial vision and documentary thematics, while serving to support his burgeoning interest in narrative filmmaking.
His work examines alienation, loneliness, injustice, and the slight sense of the surreal that typifies existences in Southern California- where people live surrounded by lush groves, migrant workers, modern subdivisions and forgotten lands, all the while remaining haunted by a faint sense of unease. To that end, his first narrative short ‘Dos Por Favor’, presents us with the story of Jose, a man in transition. Or is it about a world in transition…?
In anticipation of the upcoming sceening of ‘Dos, Por Favor’, we caught up with Fabian for his two cents on film, success and consistency.
What are the biggest issues you’ve faced, as a filmmaker?
The biggest issue I face is evolving as a filmmaker. I strive every day to learn more about my craft, so I can be a better storyteller. I do not feel it is prudent to discuss issues of pre-production, production or post for one reason. Problems arise at one time or another and you solve them, or you don’t, and life goes on. The thing about problems (whether on set or off) is everyone has them. So then, my biggest issues personally as a filmmaker are about potential new projects. I do not want to make films if I feel there is no need.
How do you typically distribute your short films? What has worked, for you?
Being a recent graduate from Cal Arts’ Directing Program, I have two strong pieces that are. I have been fortunate that both films have been well received so far and are starting their respective runs in the film festival world. That said, I have no real experience in short film distribution.
How do you define success as a filmmaker?
I define being a successful filmmaker means making films consistently. In other words, am I making work? For me, it’s really that simple. I am lucky in that Cal Arts encourages their student artists to express themselves how one see fit. For example, my other film is not narrative fiction. “Everybody’s Nuts” is an essay, a portrait film about my parents. I like that I am able to make smaller, more personal films where it is just me and the camera. I know these films do not have any real commercial future. And that is ok. But do they have an audience? Yes? Than all is well. This said, I do want my work to find an audience, and thereby (possibly) a market. Certainly, making narrative fiction films can be a costly endeavor.
Slamdance, Cal Arts, & WorkBook Project present: ‘Dos, Por Favor’
Directed by Fabian Vasquez Euresti
Produced by Benjamin Rodkin
Sunday 19 September
7:30 and 9:30
Followed by the WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award winner ‘One Hundred Mornings’.
Click here for screening tickets
September 10 2010
Short Filmmaker Profile: Burke Roberts
As part of the upcoming ‘One Hundred Mornings’ run at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, Cinema Speakeasy, CineFist, Downtown Independent Theatre, and Slamdance Film Festival have come together with the WorkBook Project to jointly curate a short film program to highlight new independent directors. What follows is the third of six director profiles.
BURKE ROBERTS
Burke Roberts’ first film debuted in the midnight movies section of Cannes Film Festival and then went on to achieve an underground cult-like status (‘Jesus Rides Shotgun’, 1997). Not bad for a suburban punk kid from Colorado.
Roberts is singularly – some might even say aggressively – devoted to the underground. His projects, best described as diverse and communal in nature, run to the very edges of the arts spectrum: From running his art film collective (Bizzurke Army), to creating jaw-dropping contraptions such as the Engine Theater, a 1000 pound light and steel kinetic projection system, complete with 17 foot screen.
Helming some truly experimental stuff (“techno-primitive”, actually), Roberts is a self-described addict, but his devotion is primarily angled towards the process– which he likens to the hip-hop battle attitude of the Parisian film scene. As he puts it. “My brand of guerilla filmmaking is basically making really complex, high production value somethings out of nothings.” (Suicidegirls.com, ‘A Plague Called Complacency: Guerilla Filmmaker Burke Roberts Talks Film and Fanaticism’, 2007).
We caught up with Roberts in anticipation of the upcoming screening of ‘Some of An Equation’, a short film in one take exploring JUST how wrong things can go in the space of a few minutes.
What are the biggest issues you’ve faced, as a filmmaker?
I’ve run the gambit of the guerrilla filmmaker’s challenges: shut downs, injuries, arrests, etc. But the biggest issue is the constant life state of suspense. It begins when an idea wants to be born then escalates throughout a production and remains ever present around the film for as long as it shall be screened.
How do you typically distribute your short films? What has worked, for you?
I do not make my work readily available to the public at this point. I tour with my films like a band to theaters, galleries, festivals and music venues – domestically & overseas. To see them, one must come to a screening or purchase directly from me.
How do you define success as a filmmaker?
A true filmmaker is attentive to every detail of the craft, from theme to shot design, from performances to lighting, story structure, location, sound design, pacing, color timing, subtext… and so on…
The best a filmmaker can hope for are fleeting moments of satisfaction throughout the process: in which the entire puzzle snaps together to match, or even exceed, the vision in their mind.
Audience approval, wealth and celebrity are only relevant when a filmmaker with strength of character is able to funnel it into extended freedom of exploration on the screen.
Slamdance, Cinema Speakeasy & WorkBook Project present: ‘Some of An Equation’
Directed by Burke Roberts
Cinematography Jeremiah Tobias Gurzi
Tuesday 21 September
7:30 and 9:30
Followed by the WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award winner ‘One Hundred Mornings’.
Click here for screening tickets
Click here for Bizzurke Army website
September 09 2010
Short Filmmaker Profile: Michael Medaglia
As part of the upcoming ‘One Hundred Mornings’ run at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, Cinema Speakeasy, CineFist, Downtown Independent Theatre, and Slamdance Film Festival have come together with the WorkBook Project to jointly curate a short film program to highlight new independent directors. What follows is the second of six director profiles.
MICHAEL MEDAGLIA
Los Angeles-based filmmaker Michael Medaglia is a singular human being, and not only for the broadness of his talents (writer, director, web designer AND computer programmer). He’s a filmmaker uniquely prepared for this new era of innovation, and is particularly adept at utilizing technologies at the service of his storytelling.
Utilizing an idiosyncratic palette, his films tend towards the surreal, the dark, and the unexplored sides of the human psyche. His 2006 short ‘Ratsnitch Angel’, for instance, premiered at SXSW to an audience gamely sporting old-fashioned 3-D glasses. Without them one was treated to visual noise. With them, one was able to decode a subtle and very – dare we say – creepy narrative, what Michael calls a ‘dirty secret disguised as a short film’, nudged along by a breathy, whispered voice over.
His newest film is similarly curious, but requires no special eyewear. Inspired by a real-life disease, toxoplasmosis, which has recently been linked to altering human behavior, Kitty Kitty is a short horror film about love, cats and brain parasites.
We caught up with Michael for a little question and answer session, in support of the upcoming screening of Kitty Kitty at the Downtown Independent Theatre.
What are the biggest issues you’ve faced, as a filmmaker?
For me the hardest part is balancing all the work, while still staying creative. Now that self-distribution models are a reality (and sometimes a necessity), the typical indie filmmaker is doing a lot more legwork than before. Finding the time to nurture the creative side of your brain can be a real challenge.
How do you typically distribute your short films? What has worked, for you?
If you asked me that question six years ago, my distribution strategy for Kitty Kitty would be simple: get it into the biggest festivals possible, then try to strike a deal with a short film distributer. Of course, chances of making a profit were extremely slim, but that’s what people tried to do. For Kitty Kitty we’re trying something different. The project’s Director of Marketing and Distribution and I have decided that our goal is simply to get as many people to see the film as possible. This has freed us from worrying about going the conventional route and giving us license to really experiment with reaching an audience.
How do you define success as a filmmaker?
I was listening to an interview of a well-known director and was shocked to hear him say: “Failure in film is not falling down, failure is not picking yourself back up again.” I remember thinking: here’s an incredibly commercially successful director whose work I admire and he STILL has the same problems I do. So for me success is just continuing to make films.
Cinema Speakeasy & WorkBook Project present: ‘Kitty Kitty’
Directed by Michael Medaglia
Saturday 18 September
7:30 and 9:30
Followed by the WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award winner ‘One Hundred Mornings’.
Click here for screening tickets
Click here for the Kitty Kitty website
September 08 2010
Short Filmmaker Profile: The Younesi Brothers
As part of the upcoming ‘One Hundred Mornings’ run at the Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, Cinema Speakeasy, CineFist, Downtown Independent Theatre, and Slamdance Film Festival have come together with the WorkBook Project to jointly curate a short film program to highlight new independent directors. What follows is the first of six director profiles.
THE YOUNESI BROTHERS
Putting aside the usual stresses and pitfalls inherent in even the best of fraternal relationships, brothers Justin and Michael Younesi have been working together making films since they were, as Michael puts it, “very young”.
“The biggest advantage of this is that when we’re making a film, we have two leaders on set who are on the same page” says Michael. “This tends to really boost the morale of the crew and give everyone involved the confidence that there is a coherent vision behind the project. Certainly, there are pitfalls – as there are with any collaboration – but I think history shows that there is a unique, very special quality to making films as brothers.”
The proof of their collaborative success can only be discovered in the metaphorical pudding, and their second short film ‘Look Not At the Mountains!’ does not disappoint. A lush film with a fanciful subject, it presents the story of a team of hunters being led through the deserts of Africa by a mad Colonial zealot, in 1904. What follows… Well, that remains to be seen.
In anticipation of their upcoming screening at the Downtown Independent, we caught up with Michael Younesi for a quick Q &A.
What are the biggest issues you’ve faced, as a filmmaker?
Herzog once said, “There will always be some sort of an obstacle, and the worst of all obstacles is the spirit of bureaucracy. You have to find your way to battle bureaucracy. You have to outsmart it, to outgut it, to outnumber it, to outfilm them.” Bureaucracy is a challenge to filmmakers at all levels. At the top, it’s in the form of agents, development people, and the spineless executives that run the studios today. In the indie world, these same politics come in the guise of festivals. The challenge is that you either remain in the marginal film world, making work for yourself or your small audience, otherwise you deal with inevitable, unmovable bureaucracy. People have a lot of faith in the future, digital distribution and all of that, but I’m not convinced that is the answer. I don’t want to see more small films seen by more people, I want to see better, big films. It’s not about the technology, it’s an issue of ideology.
How do you typically distribute your short films? What has worked, for you?
We haven’t had a variety of experiences because this is only our second short film and we just recently finished it. With our first short, LIBERATION, we had quite an interesting experience. We had a private screening with another filmmaker, and invited everyone we knew who was someway involved in the industry. Fortuitously, one of the attendees was Udy Epstein who runs 7th Art Releasing, a legitimate arthouse distribution company. They liked our film and felt it went well with one of their feature titles, so the film was put on a limited theatrical release along with their feature. Eventually it went to Netflix, Amazon, etc… We didn’t make any money of course, but it got the film seen and even qualified us for the short film Oscar. With the new film, we’re just starting to submit to festivals, but I don’t have a lot of faith in that process. Some kid who went to film school and is now interning at a festival is gonna watch my DVD on a crappy screen and judge it? Give me a break. I’m more interested in holding private screenings and making relationships with arthouse theaters myself.
How do you define success as a filmmaker?
Success to me is quite simple – it’s making a film that you are happy with on a creative level, and from it, gaining the opportunity to make another. Ideally, with each one the resources, the palette gets bigger.
The Downtown Independent Theatre & WorkBook Project present: ‘Look Not at the Mountains!’
Directed by Michael Younesi and Justin Younesi
Produced by Leah Fong, Brian Pasternak and Josh Zingerman
Cinematography by Max Well.
Monday 20 September
7:30 and 9:30
Followed by the WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award winner ‘One Hundred Mornings’.
Click here for screening tickets
Click here for YounesiBrothers.com
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