Interview about short film 'Knight to D7' with Angelo Salvatore Restaino & Greg Wilson

Knight to D7 directed by Nathan Scoggins,
Premiered August 17th 1030pm
Angelo Salvatore Restaino- Co-writer & Actor,
Greg Wilson Co-writer & Producer
Emily Moss Wilson Producer
film also with actor Hector Elizondo

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

-Would you like to tell me a little bit about the film?

It's about 2 best friends Brady Collins and Dustin Harper. Its a single day in their friendship when Dustin comes back from a business trip to see his friend on his way stopping through. His friend lays some heavy news on him that his cancer has come back, so it becomes serious. Its two young guys.. so the last thing Dustin wants to do is talk about that kind of thing ..and tries to deflect, dodge and joke and does anything but talk about the main issue.. We set out to capture how do guys deal with serious stuff?

-As the co-writer - I am curious to know where this idea came from?


Well the other lead actor Brett Mack and I had met a couple of times for coffee and we wanted to do something that had a little more substance, than a lot of the audition stuff that we go out on. We started chatting and he told me a story about his stepdad and how he had lost him to cancer. I almost lost my Mum when I was little too, she had rheumatic fever,so we identified on loss and set the context... from there it was just writing and discovering the friendship - whats at stake,whats really on the table and some of that is inspiration and some of it is just hard work and discovery

-Just goes to show for the budding screenwriters etc... just starting out in Hollywood, that they could take a real life situation and turn it into something great...

Correct, the difference is that with film all the 'fat' is trimmed off all the dialogue is clear. As humans we say things we don't mean, we stutter,we stammer,or we don't use the best word, we repeat ourselves 'uh, umm and pause' and all those other things. In writing you have taken all of that off and given the best essence...

-What you are saying is that for a short film you have left literally in the script only 'the essence' and just left all the 'relevant' stuff in?


Correct. There are often times in other films where part of the style is more conversational, more dialogue and more real to life in the way that people talk. We had to deal with this being a short film and only having a certain budget for the short film which was 9 minutes.

The short was 9 and a half minutes long without the opening and closing credits

Have you guys enjoyed this Hollyshorts Film Festival this year?

This is our first time, I have to say the red carpet was a little un-organised we spent 2 and a half hours outside, everyone was nice though and there was a red carpet event which was fantastic. The screening went well, it played well and that made me more excited than anything else

Thank you for your time
*this interview for me showed that creativity can stem between good friends where the audition and casting may seem bland, also bringing to screen something that is true and relevant to life without the extras..note by Jasmina Nevada*

Interview about Short Film 'Street Pillow' or the Sidewalk Sleep

Interview with
Charles Drexler -Actor,Director,Writer & producer
Michael Green- Executive producer & Editor

'Street Pillow' premiered Wednesday August 17th 12 noon

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

-Would you like to tell me a little bit more about the short film?

The film tells the story of Walt who is a dopey down on his luck bike messenger,who falls in love with this girl on his route and in order to win her over he brings her a flower every day to try to win her heart.His friend Pike doesn't like what is going on so he tries to prevent them from from getting together

-Is there a bit of a sabotage situation going on here?

Yes, more than a bit the friend is 'actively' trying to get Walt from getting together with this girl

-How did you come up with the idea for this movie? What inspired you?

I wrote the script and I was sent this idea and both of us fell in love with this idea and some of the secrets that I cant give away. I thought it would be a great little short film. Years later when we dusted it off, I was looking for a project to actually make I went back to that source email outlining the ideas etc I looked at it and changed a few things but we remained very true to that original idea and that original ending

-Which format did you shoot the movie?

We shot on the Panasonic HVX200 and it was all digital

-Are you enjoying this festival so far? What are your expectations after the festival?

Well the festival has been amazing has been a lot of fun met a lot of film makers who are like me making films and it has been interesting to see everything on the big screen. Also to see how it works on the big screen.

We are excited as this was our world premiereand has been a great time

The Hollyshorts staff has been great and helped us to connect with other film makers and meet other people

-Thank you for that comment!

Thank you for the interview

An interview about Commercial 'Freaky Old Man”

Premiered on Tuesday 16th August 5pm
Interview with
Imani Shakur Producer,Director, Writer born in Trindad and Tobago, Caribbean, grew up in Miami, Florida
Alisha Liliana -Actress, Writer and Co-producer - from Austin Texas has been in LA 2 years
Daniel Taylor from Indiana, Actor in the 'commercial' freaky old man

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

-Will you be submitting this commercial to the Trinidad and Tobago film festival in mid September?

If there is one 'hell yeah'
(under investigation whether this festival accepts commercials... watch this space..)

-Would you like to tell me a little bit more about your commercial? What's it's about? Where the idea came about? What inspired you to make this commercial?

Well it all started from Alisha suggesting that we compete in the Superbowl Doritos contest. I had seen it and decided that I did not care about that, but there would be big money if you win. Alisha and I came up with the idea together. Originally Alisha had something about a blind guy and a stoplight or something and a car, I elaborated on it and said we would take him to the park...... it just went from there

We sat and wrote the script and went over and revised it a few times and put it together and shot it

-How long did it take you from concept to filming it to the final product?

Maybe a few months – we spent over a month thinking of an idea, we had tonnes of ideas.....

So did you change the original idea etc during the shooting process?


No we changed it during the pre-production and the casting process.

After we had the casting we saw how the actors were reacting to the lines, how they were saying them, we revised it at that point to sound better, more conversational,when you hear it it is different from the written. We even had to change the character at first - it was the father and the son and then I thought it would be a better idea to have his wife catching him

-So there were some last minute modifications.... great.. So how long is your commercial?

1 minute

-You crammed all of this into one minute?

That's where the good film making comes in

-The climax, the climax and the climax!! and nothing else! High action,high energy and it's done?

Exactly

So what is next in the pipeline for you?

He has a couple of big things going on (Imani Shakur). We are am working on a short film 'Laced in' he will direct I will be the lead actress. It's a good story about 2 sisters trying to work out their troubled past but in 2 different ways and coming to a resolution. The resolution will surprise you........

-Are you enjoying the film festival so far?
Yeah, opening night was great, we came last night and was a lot of fun. Absolutely


-We look forward to the future to seeing that in it's totality....

*This interview proved that even the actor at an audition can change everything for the director etc,important therfore in my opinion for those actors auditioning to show their scope and variety which can influence a director etc and his script- note by Jasmina Nevada*


Thank you for your time

Interview with Jeffrey P Nesker 'Apocalypse story' Filmmaker

Short film premiered Sunday 14th August 230pm

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

-Would you like to tell me a little bit more about the short movie you have entered into the Festival?

Apocalypse story is my 2nd short film and it's about the end of the world and a boy and a girl meet mid to late teens and have an awkward sleepover at the end of the world sort of thing.

There is only one line of dialogue in the whole film. Its funny as I don’t like to give context to one film by talking about another. My plan was always to make 2 shorts and then segway into features and the idea was is that the 1st short which was called Nightclub Story and just loosely the plot is a boy and a girl meet in a line up to a night club and have an entire relationship before they get inside. Very much a dialogue heavy piece,tight shots in a single location. So for this short I wanted to do something more expansive and visual and a lot less reliant on dialogue and in addition I am a huge sci fi freak so I really wanted to try my hand at a sci-fi film but essentially they are both stories about relationships - boy meets girl kinda thing and it's a little bit over 10 minutes long it's proudly Canadian. The first shot in the film is a street sign for Toronto

Just to confirm you are from Toronto?

Yes, Toronto Canada

We are easily over 20 festivals for Apocalypse story. We have won quite a few awards and we will keep it going. Club story did the same

Having a great time here at Hollyshorts the quality of the program has been absolutely fantastic its hard to watch so many short films as they are all little worlds and you literally are flipping dimension to dimension, every 15 to 20 minutes but I found that that easy because of the strength of the overall films.

-So did you find overall that the shorts program was generally of good caliber?

Different strokes for different folks! There were some that I thought were just 'flipping' fantastic!

-I am curious to know why did you decide or want the film to be more expressive in terms of not having much dialogue? Is that the reason for not putting dialogue in?

That's a very good question.. the first answer is that when I was at film school, one of the 1st lessons that was hammered home at screenwriting and production classes is that dialogue is the least important aspect of film that it's all about structure.

Additional to that I don’t know if they do this anymore because the technology has increased exponentially,but when I went to film school in our 1st year we were shooting on a Super 8 Canon. Canon cameras don’t have the sound unless you get a Super 8 camera with sound in which case the sound is recorded on a feeble little magnetic stripe. In a way it was very much like shooting proper movies where you have a guy with a boom and the separate sound equipment ,the camera department but as a consequence of this most of our films were silent.

-Now you have told me about the silent aspects of film which you admire I wonder whether you were inspired from silent films from the past? Did this influence you in any way?

It did absolutely as I said before I wanted to make something that was less dialogue based and in this instance this is the most important everything is rooted in story. These 2 characters are nomads,they have been wandering around alone so it felt very dis-ingenious to me that they would be speaking English all the time. In the world of my story I would expect that if you don’t have to use a skill it sort of disappears

-Where did the concept or idea come from?

I think it has been in my head for a very long time,in different ways. I knew that I wanted to make 2 shorts and originally I wanted to make this one first but I talked to a lot of mentors and colleagues that I really respect and they said no this one is a lot bigger make nightclub story. First to get that out of your system and then approach this one and they were absolutely right I knew that I had them both on deck and ready to go and would say that I had the initial idea from the mid to late 90's

-When you decided to pin the nail down and decide that you were going to do this right now... how long did it take from the initial step to the final product?


Writing did not take very long pre-prroduction I had a great crew and many people invested in the project

-How many did your crew consist of?

Probably about 30

We shot for 3 days and the edit and post production is the longest process between 5-6 months from wrapping to printing the tapes

-What expectations did you have from the audience? And were your expectations met?

Absolutely every festival is worth attending. Personally there is always a moment where I would hope to hear laughs then I know that I have achieved my tone that I am going for and I got that at this screening and I haven’t at other ones where I thought people are still a lot on the fence I thought people were in to it and was well received,I am certainly proud of it. I thought the Q and A went well.

We are all sensitive artists we can all live in our head and scratch that itch of self reflexivity......

-a message to other artists that we are humble at the end of the day and have feelings about everything....

Or completely self obsessed and can fall into the pit of despair and dis-illusion

Fantastic experience and was great that it screened here

Thank you for your time...

*and thank you for the DVD copies I look forward to seeing them at home in my personal cinema- appreciated- note by Jasmina Nevada*

Interview with Evan Hart Director,Writer 'Nice tie Italiano'

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

Premiered at the Hollyshorts Film Festival 730pm August 16th

-Are you are actor, writer, and/or Director for this short film?

Writer and Director, I have acted in the past this is my writing & directing debut

-If you would like to tell me a little bit about your movie?

The movie is a homage to old Italian cinema mixed with noir thriller. Its a love story,basically about 2 people who want love but they can't have it. The job gets in the way.. what do people do when they have the opportunity they choose love?..... they choose something else?..

-Its a movie based on making a choice?

Yes

-Where did this idea/concept for the movie come from?

Well Tom Stoppard once said it's all about love at the end of the day, a great screenplay, a great movie - it's all about the love story. This is sort of a slice in time of two people if they can make it happen if they can choose to be in love or choose a different fate in their jobs and the rest will be seen in the film..

-How long did it take from the initial story to the final product?

It took a long time I wrote it in a day, and wrote a true story in 30 minutes in between writing a feature. I was stuck and I needed to check out and check in to something else and this thing just sort of hit me. I was like an animal I had to get it out and it worked. It was simple and that was probably 3 years before I filmed it. We ended up filming it very quickly here in Los Angeles

We shot it in one day, in a bank foreclosed house that had been re-possessed,we were essentially squatting without a permit. We went in dressed the set, made it look like an Italian villa. The crew and cast did not know about this,just the producers and myself.

So whilst we were filming every minute we were wondering whether the Sheriff would show up and luckily they didn't!? We wrapped in that one day. Editing the short film from beginning to end was probably 3 and a half years. But when we really got down to it we started to get the money pre-production in June and shot it in August edited it and had it done in October.

-During shooting the movie did you make a lot of changes to the original script or did you keep it more or less the same?

No we shot a couple of inserts and that was it. We kept it unanimously the same and I needed a blurprint to go by we had one day to shoot and if we darted all around the place it wasn't going to work

-I'm curious to know as you seem to be a person that likes to delve into many projects at the same time.. What is your next project in the pipeline?

I just sold a show to Fox TV – TV Pilot which is exciting, I have some meetings around town. I have a script that I wrote that Eric Watson has signed on to direct and produce and he is the guy behind Requiem for a Dream also Protozoa with Darren Aronosfky. He(Eric Watson) is directing the script that I wrote and I just finished another TV show that we will go around town with next month and I am also getting ready to be a Dad.

-You certainly have a lot on your plate and many things to balance up, but of course the most important thing is becoming a Dad?

I think so and its going to form everything, my life as a person, as a film maker it will provide balance and it will be the best.

-I congratulate you on that and I hope that everything goes well with your wife and the birth?

I hope so too otherwise I might have to make another movie very quickly......

-Are you enjoying the festival?

Yes I am I was part of this festival 5 years ago in it's second year as an actor with a film that screened here but unfortunately that Director is no longer with us. He was an amazing director, a young kid and we had a huge connection, so I am sad that we did not get to work more together and that's how I originally heard about this festival

Thank you for your time

Interview with Winner Grace Huang Best Actress 'Bloodtraffick' Jennifer Thym Director & Gerrit Wunder, Film Composer

Interview by Jasmina Nevada


-Can you outline the plot of the short?
It's a universe where angels are fighting vampires and we have human vigilantes which is the character of Eva played by Grace Huang. Evas is looking for her 2 missing sisters and she walks into the den of a vampire

-How did this idea come about?

I was actually working on a comic about street traffic and then at around the same time I met Grace Wong at an acting workshop. We talked about different roles and things that we could work on together and I realized that she would be a really good actress for this character that I had been thinking about. Combined that with a couple of vampires and other things and boom you have a super natural action flick.

-Just goes to show for us actors in the business- Its good to know that even if you go to an acting workshop you never know what will come out of it, if you are personable and you know how to interact with people, look where you can reach today.....

Yes

At Gerrit Wunder (Film Composer) - I would like to know more about the score music how did it come about? How did you decide on the theme?

What I always do is take a character motif, the main idea of the movie or story and try and find a theme for it In this case it was Eva I wrote a theme for Eva the main character.

-What theme did you have in mind for Eva the main character?

It is epic also emotional I tried to capture both sides of her character

-What type of theme did you end up with?
The music is orchestral with rhythm and synthesizers too but mainly orchestral sounding

-How long did it take you to come up with the score for the short?

I think I worked on the movie for about 2 weeks

-From the initial idea to the finished product? How long did that take? And did you tweak the script here and there?

The original idea had been with me for a while but when we started to actively work on it probably about 3 months. We were in post production for probably another 9 months after that. It was a fairly long process but we really wanted everything to be what we envisioned it as, and I think that these things take time when you are starting out.

-What is the message you are trying to convey to your audience?

What I would love to see from them is that they want to see more of this character especially since we are working on a feature film version of this. We would like to see them excited about seeing her on screen with this kind of environment and this kind of really cool music

-How long is your short?

11mins and 15 seconds

-15 seconds! That must be the vital component I am sure?

That’s right

Thank you for the interview

Interview with Hollyshorts 2011 Winner Best Student Short Film 'Goldenbox' Director Matt MacDonald

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

Goldenbox premiered at Hollyshorts Film Festival Tuesday 16th August 730pm

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

-Would you like to explain which genre is your movie and what your short film is about?

Goldenbox is an action comedy following 2 best friends who have to break into a UPS like facility to steal back a package and hope that their friendship survives the adventure.

-I have already seen this film so I wont give too much away but it was extremely action packed and I was curious to know where did this concept or idea originate from?

Well Goldenbox came from being 11 years old and playing a lot of video games. Back in the day there was a game based on the James Bond Movie, Goldeneye that came out and it became this instant classic because you could play it with your friends. I started thinking well what would be a fun thing to do - so my writing partner and I started to think what would be really fun....
We both came around to this game that we both played as a kid and thought that we had so much fun with our buddies having a great time. OK we have this great game lets just do some kind of heist and it went from there..

I love action movies ….I love James Bond

-Did you change the original script whilst you were shooting, or did you pretty much go with the original script?

It was pretty close to the script. One of things that I really wanted was this improv. feel between the 2 main actors so we did a lot with them so maybe 80 per cent of the actual dialogue is scripted

-I noticed that you had submitted this short also to the LA Short Film Festival as well as this one, so will you be submitting to any more ?

I think so, we have tried to target some of the most prestigious festivals and material that we think the audience will really like. The cool thing about the Hollyshorts Film Festival is it feels like a very hip, fresh, perspective and it is still new and up and coming. I thought what a great opportunity, situated right in the center of Hollywood, what could be better than that? I have so many friends here and it's a great place and a great venue...

-I take it then that you are enjoying the festival very much?

I love it. It has been great so far. The films have been really solid. The panels have been awesome I have really enjoyed it.

-What format did you shoot in & how long is the short?

We shot on the Red MX camera and the film runs 18 and a half minutes with credits

-How long did it take from the initial idea to the finished product?

I started writing summer of 2009 and then we shot the summer of 2010. We finished post production everything up in May 2011.

-What are the expectations and perceptions you are expecting from your audiences?

I want people to have fun I think it is a fun movie and it is meant to be nostalgic and show the fun of video games and having a good time

Thank your for your time

*It was of course an honor for me to be able to interview one of the winning entries- note By Jasmina Nevada*

Interview with Pedro Castro, Director & Writer – Twenty Something Ninja Turtles

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

-Please state your full name, involvement in the short film - whether you are a director, writer etc?

Pedro Castro. I am the director and one of the many writers for Big Dog Eat Child's web series, Twenty Something Ninja Turtles.

-Where are you from?

I am from Alsip, IL and making plans to move to LA next summer.

-When had your movie premiered at the Festival?

The film premiered Tuesday Aug 16th at 10pm. The web series block.

-Could you outline what your movie is about?

The series was about how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were grappling with being in their 20's. For those who are unfamiliar, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a cartoon show that rocked my brain and ruined my chances to do well in school.

-Where did the concept for your short movie come from?

Our group was talking about the stupid stuff people in their 20's have to go through (marriages, divorces, getting older) and thought it was funny to imagine what the TMNT would be going through. At first we wanted to be live action and get into costumes but every other parody we saw did a bad job in costuming. And there was no way we could pull off the Animatronics the feature films had. One of us had the brilliant idea to use the action figures as well as to simply take photos and build sets with doll furniture. Even with no sound and small set pieces the shooting took over 12 hours to complete.
- How long did it take from the concept to written script to finished product?
About 2 months from concept to finished product. We recorded all the dialog, built the sets, remade the musical intro and editing all the episodes.

- What was the message you were trying to get across to your audience?

That being in your 20's is a hilariously difficult time and we wanted to see what we could do with familiar characters in quasi realistic settings.

-Your short film is 92 seconds- could you please tell me why you decided on this length of time and was it hard to achieve?

We thought that was the best length for the internet audience and it gives them more incentive to replay the film and share with their friends. We also had a very successful series of viral videos. Called Jones Big Ass Truck Rental and Storage

Here are some related links and contact details for Pedro Castro
Website -bigdogeatchild.com
youtube page: youtube.com/bigdogeatchild
email :pedro@bigdogeatchild.com
Also :www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0gb9v4LI4o

Thank you for your time

Interview with Pedro Hernandez - Lead Actor for Their Eyes Were Watching Gummybears

That's an interesting title, how'd you come up with it?

My roommate from college wrote it, I think he just liked the play off Their Eyes Were Watching God.

What's it about?

It's a coming of age story, a guy in his senior year in college trying to choose between a career and a woman, and gummy bears play a big part in that.

Did you have any part of writing it?

I'm the lead actor in it, but I did have a big part in the development of the script...like I said the writer is my best friend, we were college buddies, frat brothers.

Is this your first lead in a film?

Yeah it sure is, it's the biggest thing I've done to this point you could say, and it felt really good. It was alot of fun to do.

So what's next for you?

What's next for me, well we're still riding this short out, still have a few festivals to go to. I've gotten a couple of best actor nominations, so just trying to shop it around. We would like to pitch it as a series so we're treating this short as a pilot. So yeah, trying to move on from there. I'm also a stand up comic so I'm always doing that.

What do you want people to take away from this film after they've seen it?

I'd like for them to first of all laugh, it IS a comedy. And after that I think the whole point of us doing this is to showcase black people in a light that you haven't quite seen us in. It IS a black movie but it has nothing to do with being black. We were just seniors at Princeton University, we shot at Princeton, we're alumni from there, so we just sort of wanted to highlight our experience from there, and our experience there wasn't about being black, it was about being human, it was about being normal, and growing up and having fun.

Their Eyes were watching Gummybears premiered at the Holly Shorts Film Festival on Thursday at 12 pm.

You can get more information about this movie at http://gummybearsthemovie.com/

Interview by Elesia Marie

Interview with Mark Cote Singer/Songwriter "Fun House" Director Daniel Mitchell

Mark Cote Singer/songwriter -wrote the song 'Fun House' and performed in the music video Fun House which premiered on Monday 15^th August 730pm

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

-Would you like to tell me a little bit about the style of the video and how did it come about?

I would say that the video evolved, it was a process that began initially with my sitting down with my director Daniel Mitchell. He heard the song Fun House that I had written and pitched to me a concept. The concept involved the use of a flip book in which images would take place as the pages turn and I like that kind of whimsical idea,that had a retro feel that I thought was appropriate we had some more discussions and eventually presented me a rough story board of his whole vision from A to Z. When I saw his vision I was sold and from there he brought on the producer Steven Sweeney who had a production company called Devil's Table productions. They produced the video and we used an incredible cinematographer Jazz Shelton as well as an amazing art director who flew over from Sydney to art direct the video called Bob Hill. He did all the incredible dressing of the sets with the props

-How long did it take from the initial concept to the finished product?

After Dan and I met, we agreed and approved where we were going forward with the video & we sat down with the producer. We had probably about a week's worth of meetings to work within the budget and kind of tailor the vision to work within the dictation of what the budget was and from there we worked out a shooting schedule. We had a two day shoot prior to that. There was about a week spent in terms of getting the permits, getting the props and getting everything approved as far as assembling the crew. The actual shoot was a 2 day shoot, the first day was all exterior, we shot that in Topanga Canyon in a grotto of trees which actually had a standing film set. It was a house(where we got the permit to film) which had been built for a movie filmed about 15- 20 years before there was no working electricity and plumbing,it worked as far as an exterior house. We shot the interior on day 2 in a nightclub in Los Angeles called the Bordello bar

-What is next for you after this video?

We are using this video to bring about public awareness and to promote about the release of the CD

-Is this the message you were trying to bring across?

I think our goal was to give the audience an idea of what we can expect from the album and the sense of fun and style of just whimsical playfulness which characterises the music and the CD. We are using this to kind of launch the CD which is called 'Fun House of your Mind'. From here we would like to build out and do more music videos in the same style

How would you describe your style of this particular video?

The style I would say we were definitely trying to think outside the box and approach this, and give it the production values of a feature film in terms of the cinematography and just the overall production values we were trying to do more than just a traditional music video. Something more along the lines of a short film that actually had music in it and it incorporated sound effects just to kind of bring the viewer into the story and bring the story along

-What kind of format did you shoot in?

We shot with a red camera

-Where are you from?

I Mark Cote am based in L.A. My website is

http://markcote.com/

Director is Daniel Mitchell he can be found at his website which is

http://steelypictures.com/Steely_Pictures_Main.html

-I certainly hope that viewers will have a look at both these websites because your music video was very inspiring interesting tasteful and stylish and it touched a few hearts..

Thank you for your time

3 Minute Interview with Ashley Scott-Writer/Co-director (with George Mays) of Women

What is this film about?

Well we wanted to do something that was a wink back at the French new wave films and the predicament women fall into in society to become wives and mothers or to become independent.
We decided to shoot it in French because French women embody femininity differently than American women.

Where did this concept come from?

I don't know exactly. I just sat down one day and said this is something to write about.

This is your first film. How did you feel about directing and the whole process?

I loved it. It's the most fun I've ever had.

What's next for you?

I've got a feature script that's almost finished and ready to go. It's a dark comedy with a "what if" situation.

Where are you from?

Right here in Los Angeles

Women premiered at the Holly Shorts Film Festival August 17th at 2:30pm
You can find out more about Women on Facebook at Women- the movie.

Interview by Elesia Marie

filmmakers and hollyshorts fans don´t miss next panel at The Mondrian Hotel, Moviola panel with Johnathon Amayo....live streaming at hollyshorts.com :D

An Interview with Geoffrey Caple, Craig Cochrane & Terrence Leclere - Sweepers.

The Sweepers directed by Justin Davey, Emmy Award winning Director

Geoffrey Caple-write, actor, co-producer, and is from Perth Western Australia

Craig Cochrane co-producer, actor character Agent Hanson. Craig is from Adelaide, Australia

Terrence Leclere Actor - character 'Bo' the bad guy & the music composer, he is originally from Paris, France but grew up in New York

Premieres at 10pm Wednesday 18th August

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

-I have some inside information that told me that this is kind of a competition to 007.. Would you guys like to give me a little more information about your action thriller short, I believe was a 10 minute short?

Yes, well essentially what it is, is 2 Australian Secret Service Agents are sent to Los Angeles to retrieve the Prime Minister's wayward daughter. So the Australian Prime Minister's daughter has come to L.A, no-body is really sure why. He has a re-election campaign that is going on and word is getting around that she is getting into trouble over here so he needs her back in the country putting on a good family face. So our 2 characters are sent to L.A. to retrieve her without the press knowing about it, much fuss, once we get here, we don't know why we are coming here, we do know that we will receive our assignment once we get here, once we get here we discover that we are supposed to retrieve the Prime Minister's daughter. As it turns out, I was conducting an affair with her back in Australia secretly she is now pregnant carrying my child. So I see a light of hope saying I am going to leave all this behind abort the mission and try for a life albeit somewhere and try and flee the government and that's when the complications start. The other character says we have to abort the mission and go back to Australia and tell everybody. I say that there is no way and it is a real conflict between the two agents, one wants to continue with the mission, one doesn't and I don't want to give away what happens...

-Best to keep it as an enigma...

Therein lies the conflict basically is a race against time to try and retrieve her

-How long is your short film?

10 minutes

-How did you come up with this concept and idea?

Well I can give you the short version, we had a development deal at ABC family for a comedy that we had done, the three of us were in, so our management ended up threatening to sue us and threatening to sue the network and that fell apart. So we wanted to keep the momentum going and do something immediately and take advantage of the fact that we were Australians in L.A. I came up with the idea of the Jason Bourne type world and doing an epic drama in a short film. I came up with this world started running ideas with Craig sort of developed an outline of a story went off and wrote the screenplay and there we have it

-So you were able to turn this negative situation into something full of drama and action.... and how long did it take you from the concept to paper to the final short film?

Well to be honest it happened quite quickly I think the screenplay was originally 26 pages which took about 3 or 4 weeks to write and took 3 days to shoot and we shot at LAX completely guerrilla style at LAX which we could have gotten arrested for,

-So it was very gung ho then you just did it off the bat?

Completely

We were very much in the habit Justin Davey who directed the short did the film, that's how I met 'the dingo brothers' Craig and Geoff so Justin and I actually we had met doing a lot of short films, we all got along so great that we were just pumping out content whether it was small Internet films we already had a working model of making content, so I think in answering your question as to how quickly it got made was pretty quick- 3 days

-I think that you guys are setting a good example here in Los Angeles to those of us from different countries, pursuing artistic dreams here, so you all put all your heads together and come up with something like this?...

Yeah,

To add to that we could think off a thousand reasons not to make a film and then justify that, but we have to think of what we can do, not we haven't got enough money, we need this location etc.. no we have everything we need we just need to make it

The example then would be to be creative and just go with it..

Right

What we don't like is that there is all this technology and everyone think they are a film maker in a way it's good in another it's bad because there is this glut of ideas that are just thrown together and only a small percentage of them are really worthwhile. So if you are going to do something and have actors and producers and create something make it worthwhile

-Basically what you are saying is put 100 per cent effort into it..

Don' t waste people's time with garbage do something that's quality at least

-What expectation then do you have for your short?

Academy Award....

-OK watch this space.....What kind of response are you expecting from your audience? What are you perceiving?

We look at a lot of short films and we see credits and they have 30-40 crew. We have basically 3 maybe 4 of us shooting, with this and seeing the quality of the film we have made I think we are going to get a good response and imagine we had $50,000 behind us and a crew of 30 people it's going to be something else

We also have a feature script written for it, and a 1 hour TV pilot so basically we have follow up..

What's appealing about this movie is the 2 lead characters Handsome and Wenks story where 2 Australians orphans become Secret Service Agents, it's a very cool premise that could be additive to a pilot and a feature I think that is the appeal of this film. I think that people will definitely get into that and also the way it's shot. Justin Davey has a great gritty style of shooting that we explored and this film played on a lot of peoples strengths

The thing is that Justin is an Emmy award winning Director, he won an Emmy Award for his Snickers commercial and is he is a real student of Michael Mann so he loves that visual gritty style so its like incorporating that visual style into a 10 minute action thriller so we have always maintained that short films are not that so at the very least what we are doing is something different that you don't often see in 10 minute short film and if people can walk away saying at the very least it was different and it looked great and the performances were good That's great!

I suppose you are hoping for something that captures the attention from the beginning to the end with no waiver in the middle...?

It moves.. and some of behind of the scenes we chopped it......chopped it up..

-Oh, would like to ask you then..Did you change the original script when you were actually shooting it?

Absolutely. Originally was 26 minutes and Justin went away after a couple of weeks and cut it down to 10 minutes and sent it to Jeff. It was a 26 minute cut to a total of 6 minutes and we thought that this was 'brutal' and then came back again with 10 minutes Jeff viewed it amazed and that was it 'wow' and that cut all of the fat out and got to the point it moves so well kept wandering but you understand it the whole way

Which is a crazy thing as writing the 26 page screenplay and I have written a pretty tight script and then you realize in the editing room and with a total of 10 minutes all the essential elements of the script were there

So it's an amazing experience to see this from 26 minutes to 10 minutes and the pace of the short is bam, bam, bam and the pace of it is pretty frenetic

-In summary then what advice would you have to lets say to 2 young film makers, actors directors etc who are trying to do the same thing as yourself in terms of what you guys have just told me?

(they all shared their opinion)

Probably give me a call,

Get your cheque books ready

1st class airfares.... (all laughing)

For me, (Terence) keep making stuff even if you don't think it's good enough, keep making it and almost as important more importantly in some senses if you can find people you like working with keep working with those people because really creative energy, when you are with a certain group of people you think certain ideas and you really execute different ideas differently

-So like minds then...

Like minds & inspiring minds and so me (Terrence) Justin, Geoff & Craig. Every time we hang out we have a blast and so I know that every time it will be a good product.

Thank you for your time

*I think that this interview provided a great insight into the movie and also great pointers, advice for those of us trying to find our path way into the industry from different countries etc-Jasmina Nevada*

3 Minute Interview with Willaim H. Simmons - Writer/Director/Producer of Source

What is Source about?

It's a post apocalyptic sci-fi movie that takes place a century after a nuclear holocaust in a world without oil. An enslaved mercenary discovers the source of an alternate energy supply. He must decide whether to remain bitter and isolated and keep the truth about it to himself or sacrifice for the greater good.

Where did the concept for this film come from?

It actually came from watching the news. Imagining a future without oil with an alternate energy source and how it would come about.

Are you based here in LA?

Yes, we're based right here in West Hollywood.

What's next on your agenda?

I've got a couple of features in the works. One is a crime thriller called The Undertow.

Source premiered at the Holly Shorts Film Festival on August 16th at 5 pm .

Interview by Elesia Marie

3 minute Interview with Maggie Franks Writer/Director 'The Board Meeting'

My name is Maggie Franks and my film is “ The Board Meeting' it's a documentary

-Are you a Director, Film maker, producer?

I am a writer and director

-Would you like to tell me a little bit more about your documentary?

The film is about two 79 year old guys with one goal on their agenda to keep surfing until they are 80.

-What inspired you to come up with this movie about surfing?

I have surfed with them for about 20 years, I have surfed most of my life I used to go and see my Dad at an Alzeimers facility in the morning and in the afternoon I had to go surfing I would take all my boys and that's when I first met them, they were in their 60's then and that's when I realised there is an alternative to growing old

-How long did it take you from concept to paper to screen?

It took us about 3 months to nail down 2 retired surfers, is not an easy task

(laughing) I agree

So I had to convince them to break away from their surfing day of course that's like pulling teeth. From there we had to work around their schedules and their naps

-When is your documentary film screening?

Monday 15^th August afternoon 5pm slot. I am hoping that it being screened at 5pm it will be a happy hour and will put a smile on their faces and make them think that there is alternatives

Are you from here?

I was actually born about 6 blocks from here and now I live at the beach, native Californian

-So you are taking a contrast between the beach and the city and taking advantage of the film festival?

It's a great life!

I thank you for your time

3-minute interview with Bailey Kobe Director 'La &Prochaine & Producer/Director Commercial 'Your Shape' for the X Box system

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

La Semaine Prochaine premiered at the Festival August 15^th 730pm, Commercial 'Your Shape' for the X Box system will premiere August 18^th at 5pm

-If you would like to state your name and your participation in the films, and the name of your 2 films please?

I am Bailey Kobe Director “ La Semaine Prochaine' a music video that's being shown here as well as a producer and director of a commercial called Your shape for the X Box system

-That's very interesting! If you would like to tell me a little bit about your 1^st and 2^nd entry into the Festival?

'La Semaine Prochaine' was a music video that I did for a French icon called Marc Lavoine and it immediately never won in French speaking countries and I am so excited to show it here in Los Angeles, even though it is kind of has been distributed all over the world it really hasn't had much of an LA presence.

-So 'La Semaine Prochaine' means 'the next week'?

Yes

-Is it subtitled?

No not for the Festival, so everyone will have to learn French before the screening and if not you are uneducated....

-Where did you get the inspiration to produce 'La Semaine Prochaine'?

Working with the artist, asked me to collaborate with him find a photographer Moona Koone on a kind of one piece that he thought would be kind of emblematic of the entire album and the collaboration was just so beautiful, that Universal asked for 5 more music videos right after. We were just like Wow! this is just what we want and exactly what we are talking about when it comes to music videos that have a variation on the formula that still deliver what's impactful about the music, interpreting the music in an individual form

-Do you feel that you have achieved all your goals in interpreting and bringing what your goal was to screen?

For “La Semaine Prochaine' Absolutely, it realLy struck a chord for me emotionally because the artist wrote this album when in the same month his Father died his son was born and there was so much emotion just saturated in each line ?

-So every emotion was real in that case?

My gosh, it's overwhelming and so pleasing for me to bring this to the screen as was so deep

-Sounds wonderful of course I will be present at the screening, so now I have very high expectations..

Oh great I have raised the bar.. darn it..

-I would like to talk to you about your 2^nd entry into the Festival that you mentioned? A commercial?

They saw the music video and said could you do something for us Unisoft and paired me with the Salter Brothers very experienced commercial directors, we shot very sort of top secret piece which about what was then called the project Natal which is now commercially known as X Box Connect where the controller looks at you with a 3D camera and there is no physical control that you push buttons with, it reads your body motions it was very exciting as no one had seen what it looks like before and I was literally one of the 1^st to see and they brought it down and covered it and everyone signed NDA's and so was exciting to work on and the product itself is fantastic to see at E3 where they show all the video games and to see Steven Speilberg trying out the game was amazing and he commented on it

-Steven Speilberg ! That must have really tickled your bones!

Yes every one all over every one of my bones

-Its nice that you have 2 entries in the Festival and I wish you lots of luck with that

Thank you very much for your time

-You are welcome

-Are you from here?

Yes I am from Los Angeles, one of the few native sons.

-Great! one of the native sons that has done good and put 2 short movies into the Festival

Has gone International with it and brought it home....

3 Minute Interview with Sean Mc Carthy Writer/Producer and Elizabeth Mitchell Producer/Actress - “ Simoom Cutting Seams” Director Sean O'Hare

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

-Would you like to tell me your names and your part in the short movie video?

I am Sean Mc Carthy, writer director of the music video cutting seams

Elizabeth Mitchell, producer and actress

-When does your short film premiere here at the Festival?

15^th August 730pm

-What inspired you to come up of the concept of this particular music video short? Where did the idea come from?

I guess the writer she came to me by doing a video for this band and I went through some surgery and I was having a lot of nightmares from these painkillers that they prescribed me, so I was having a very vivid nightmares and just like really weird dreams and then I just wanted to kind of perceptive based storytelling, like from someone's perspective and I just wanted to create the feeling of what it feels like to be in a dream mixed in with a music video and the feelings that you have in a music video like fear and anxiety and paranoia I wanted to kind of visualise that

-You wanted to express this feeling?

I wanted to create the primal feelings that you have in a nightmare and still do justice to the song and the band. Our Executive producer and Manager of the band he basically was really into horror films and allowed us really like let me go loose and the 2 of us really attacking it. There is no instruments in the video and wasn't what nightmares are based of, it would break the reality for the viewer

-Would it be right to say that it was more of a literal dream that you wanted to put into reality in terms of film?

Yes, blended with like a movie that we both saw, -Phantoms of Paradise really obscure like that Brian de Palma horror musical I just wanted to do something that was very horror based, nightmare orientated and kinda like what Polanski does with perspective and there is like some singing, but that works within the nightmare There is a little bit of music video like the genre of the music video what it is but I did not want to ruin it with the instrumentation and just wanted to have that fluidity that nightmares have

-So it would be right in saying that you did not want to mix a dream with the actual physical?

Yes we don't really think of it so much as a music video but more of a short film that happens to be set to music. There is no dialogue just a short film and there is a song playing in the background?

-What is your message that you are trying to put across to the audience? What are you hoping that they perceive?

There is no rules in dreams that's what really fascinates us and you know that feeling you get when you are with your best friend but it is not your best friend, so the thing about dreams is that there are no rules and can look like yourself, not look like yourself, you can see yourself in the dream and not see yourself in the dream. It's universal everybody dreams and some of them are really terrifying

-How long did it take from start to finish to make this short film/video?

10 months, pretty much a year with the pre-production talking with the band

-How long is the video?

About 6-7 minutes with the credits

-Are you enjoying the festival so far?

Loving it! Meeting people and saw some great films

Thank you

12 minute interview with Jonathan Martin Filmmaker/Director/Writer etc ' An Evening with my Comatose Mother'

Interview by Jasmina Nevada

*This originally was intended to be a 3 minute interview but the film maker was so happy to discuss his film with me and kept demanding more interview time which I gave, on listening and in transcribing the interview I thought I would leave the original interview intact and by enlarge unedited as in my opinion I considered that the interview provided a great depth & insight into this short film providing many pointers for those in the industry behind and in front of the camera. Also that it would provide readers into an idea of the personality behind the whole idea, production and execution - Jonathan Martin. * Note by Interviewer Jasmina Nevada*

This short film premiered at the Hollyshorts Film Festival Friday August 12^th 10pm

-Where are you from?

Born and raised in Houston Texas, but I currently reside in Provo Utah

-What was your inspiration where did this concept for this particular short film come from?

What happened was I was asleep one night, suddenly I woke up in a cold sweat and I heard a voice, it was in a deep some might say satanic tone 'Jonathan, Jonathan - you must make a movie about my comatose mother' - I said what if I add 'an evening with' to that 'that's good enough make the movie put a clown in it put a tiny Tim make it funny make it good' (comments made in character!) (very funny)

-Having seen your screening as were aware from my response in the theater, what kind of response did you anticipate from your audience? also what kind of perception did you hope for from them?

What I always appreciate is when the audience laugh, and they are getting the joke and the fun of the film and I think by enlarge the audience bought into the fun spirit of the film. I think it is creepier than it is scary

-Was that your intention?

Yeah, I did not necessarily want to like to scare you to death, but again it depends what you are scared with? Are you scared of clowns, are you scared of old people are you scared of crippled children? I think there are all sorts of things that you know it is a little bit of a carnival of thrills in a sense and so if that stuff scares you then you might actually get scared but the intention was more to have creepy fun. It's more of a throwback to the classic horror film that I think that we have drawn away from, and it was really nice to see that the crowd really, really responded well, but to be perfectly honest we played at a lot of film festivals and every crowd that I experienced it with has loved it, really have and we have gotten fantastic responses.

-Fantastic, I am glad to hear that I am curious to know what format did you shoot the short film in and why did you choose that particular format?

We shot it in high definition we did it 16 x 9 and also shot on the Canon 5D. Honestly the reason why we shot the short on that format was because the cinematographer owned a 5D and had a whole cannon range of lenses and when I looked at the footage that he had done of his previous work I was like that was going to work great and we will touch it up here and there and we will do some things with the lighting and all that to make it even more cinematic. For my and our purposes it was what we needed you know, I am sure that we could have shot it on a Red or any of these other devices but if it cost's more money why? Well it would look just as good and all that.

-With regard to your last comment about cost are you pleased with the finished result?

As pleased as one could be I would say I am tickled like a pig in a pen

I like that response.

-How long will you be here in Los Angeles? Just for the Festival?

Yeah, through the end of the Festival then I actually fly catch a flight to DC, a red eye after the Festival is over, for another one we are up for 6 awards.

Wow! I Congratulate you on that

(at this stage the intent was to conclude the interview- however Jonathan wanted to talk some more..)

-Are you enjoying the Festival so far?

I think it is the best Festival we have been to

-How long did it take you from start to finish for this short?

From the beginning of the script, I started writing the script in late November beginning December 2009 didn't finish the draft really, got about halfway through and didn't finish the draft until January, but basically that's not your question that you are asking fully.

Basically from the very beginning of the concept, very beginning of writing was like November December and finished the film, sound design everything getting done was March 2011

-Just to clarify you are the writer and director for the movie?

Also, Producer and uncredited Art Director and I did a few things that are uncredited I even built the set with my assistant director it was just me and him

-Did you go with the original script or did you change a lot of it when you were into the practicalities of it shooting it etc..?

In the first draft we had the Tiny Tim and the clown spoke a lot more and then in the 2^nd draft I actually switched it to a headless horseman with Tiny Tim, and that would have been really cool but in the 3^rd draft we switched back and I streamlined it a bit more I wasn't too happy with the talking clown bit and so it was pretty much the same to the 1^st draft but tweaked up, I believe we had 3 drafts on the film.

-I am curious to know where did you come up with the character of the Mother? How did you develop that character?

Well as I was saying earlier the satanic voice spoke to me in the night and told me, well commanded me to make Mother come to life

-How was it casting for the role of 'Mother'?

It was pleasurable,.. so good, all the stories about the casting couch all true!

-The lead actress in it – how hard was it to find the right person that would understand the material in the way that you had written it?

Well the film has a very tongue in cheek playful tone, and I casted a girl, in fact we had a really great demand in the casting, so by the time we got to the 2^nd half of the casting just had everyone read 2 lines and have them get in and out, because there was a lot of people reading for it and she was the only one in that 2^nd half Wendy Macey who stood out in that group so I had her read a little more than others. She wasn't my favorite there were 3 that we called back, she wasn't the favorite of my 3 initially but she became kind of the obvious choice in the callback but even then we still had to work with some things as a tongue and cheek approach to things is not necessarily what you are asked to do a lot so you have to kind of understand that but I think that she did a really great job. I think that sometimes to have a very honest answer is sometimes that it doesn't work for some people, I think it is a matter of preference I think that it if you are buying into it and seeing the tongue and cheek performance and the fun that is being had, I think that you can really enjoy a performance but if that is not something that is up your alley or that you are seeing you might not fully appreciate or understand the performance and you might not like it in the end but for me I think it for me I think it is fantastic

-I have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly and you know from my laughter in the theater it was absolutely excellent

Yes like a hyena,

You kind of went for it, maybe the honey badger even

-I don't know if I am going to accept that from you, your short movie was really funny and really touched me in the heart and I expressed that so it was nice

Of course you are nothing like a hyena, truthfully, you were just having a great time I could see it

-Yes I was having a very fun time and I have to say that horror is not my best genre but I am kind of warming to it now

That's right

-Where did the development of the clown come from? The actual makeup and everything etc..

The clown is I think, not like people know, people actually think it is an actor in there, but it is an animatronix doll, there were 3 of them and obviously we did some trick photography, little tricks here and there. I gave him the perception I said really wanted to be creepy on the edge of pedophile, with this clown so I wanted to really make him creepy, you know what I mean and even give a little harlequin sense and even in his makeup on the clown doll himself has a little bit of a Geisha quality to it that I asked him to do. The actual modelling of the doll itself came out after Freddie Mercury. If you look at the credits his name is Ready Mercury

I thank you for your very informative interview!

3 minutes interview with Bailey Kobe, La Semaine Prochaine

Bailey Kobe , new talent and co-worker with French artist Marc Lavoine.

La Semaine Prochaine is one of the first music video where Kobe had the challenge to experiment with boundaries , work in a good team researching for the little pleasures of daily life for a better appreciation.
The music video shows a subtle and delicate treatment on the images,shot in old Red with especial Photography effect, creating a soft atmosphere which involves the audience into the inspirational moment of the main character, where you almost feel the breeze.

-In our routine we can find certain changes in life; things as people can evolute and evolve into new experiences as well as new characters-explains Bailey .

This is the main theme which attracts Bailey looking for contrast of different aspects in life to enhance its natural beauty .




With an incoming project Ghost 's Office, a thriller/comedy, we have at Hollyshorts another selection from this young filmmaker, the commercial "Your Shape".



All the best from Hollyshorts Bailey, Vive Le France!

Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4knfD2OA6I

post by Kapneanimation

3 minute interview with Friederel Fisher, The Almost Runaways

Today we had the pleasure to meet Friederel Fhisher who shared some details of Hollywood Superhero, written and directed by Jonathan Pezza.

This is the 4th work of Friederel who has been trained since very young within the world of filmmaking becoming a producer of several web & Tv shows, besides making short films to explore human reactions confronting real life versus ideals based on heroes from childhood, either real life.




Among his favorite directors Kurosawa and Kubrik; even though if his work doesn't reflect a direct influence of such directors, he is very interested in people reactions, how we argue with each other, what is behind of our daily masks, what is the story of our lives.

He focus more on the figure of female hero (heroine): protective and strong as the main character .
Hollywood Hero is a psychological drama which explores the way we create and wear masks, and the nature of true heroism, and cowardice.
Friederel is currently working on several shorts, a TV pilot and two future feature films.

Thanks for your time Friederel , we wish you all the best.

Shot on the Canon Eos 7d with a especial glow effect
Length: 13 minutes

More at http://www.hollywoodsuperhero.com/#!

Post by Kapneanimation

3 minute interview with Utku Celik – Producer & Chas Ryan Fatur Producer/Editor/ Screenplay- 'Bisqilet'

Good afternoon, where are you guys from?

I am from Turkey.

What is the name of your movie in the Festival?

'Bisquilet' – The Bicycle

Ok, and what was the inspiration for making the film, where did the idea come from?

I am the Producer of the film,well the idea came from the Director of the film he had a bicycle with a missing tyre in his basement so he wrote that script like a few years ago and one of our Professor's asked us for a short film from us for graduation, short film without dialogue, so we made a team together and shot the film

Did you say it's a short film without dialogue?

Yes,

It's all in the expression..

Yes

Are you pleased with the finished product?

The finished version yeah actually I am more pleased with the American version it was like a 17 minutes film but Mr Chas when he brought it to the United States he decided to make a shorter film and he made it 10 minutes duration of short film. I am quite pleased about the latest version of the film.

I am happy to hear that.. and when does it premiere here at the Festival?

Premiere was today at 12pm

How long are you here from Turkey? Or do you live here?

My cousin is American and lives in Los Angeles so I am visiting him, I came a few months ago

So you came to visit your cousin and take up the opportunity with your film too..

Yes

Thank you for the interview

Interview by Jasmina Nevada