SVFF 2013:SHORT FILMS & MUSIC VIDEOS

As mentioned previously, an eclectic assortment of short films and music videos have been selected for screening at the upcoming Sun Valley Film Festival (March 14-17, 2013). The 20 short films and 15 music videos were selected based on their focus on story, no matter the medium. These additional films and videos will complement the outstanding lineup of 33 feature films to be presented throughout the festival weekend. Of the selected short films, five are world premieres and one is a North American premiere. Idaho is well represented in the film and music video selection as 8 of the shorts were filmed in Idaho, and 9 of the music videos were made by Idaho filmmakers. Here's a sampling of the Idaho output.

SHORT FILM LINEUP

Exit Wound (Director: Hunter Holcombe)—Sgt. Chess Johnson was shot through his eye while fighting in Iraq, and told he was no longer fit to serve. After struggling with alcoholism, drug dependency, PTSD and traumatic brain injury, he is invited to a unique program in Sun Valley, Idaho helping treat veterans and their spouses. The goal: to channel their addiction to adrenaline through outlets like skiing and paragliding. Exit Wound is a 26-minute documentary film about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It follows Chess, a veteran of the war in Iraq, from his hometown in Washington State to a camp in the mountains of Sun Valley, Idaho, as he learns to cope with PTSD. Programs like Higher Grounds in Sun Valley are helping veterans learn to deal with the mental and physical problems that arise when soldiers return from war. Official site. IMDb. Facebook. Vimeo.

Holcombe is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley's documentary program, with a master's degree from the journalism school. He's lived in the Bay Area for the last 12 years, working mainly as a magazine editor and writer. During a year in Buenos Aires, he had a chance to work with a producer of a short project, and immediately fell in love with shooting and producing video. He went straight to Berkeley, where—under the expert guidance of Jon Else and Spencer Nakasako—he learned how to make films, Exit Wound being the result. Holcombe launched a Kickstarter campaign in July 2012 that proved unsuccessful; however, the film was accepted into Chicago's United Film Festival in September 2012 and now returns to SVFF.

Magpie (Writer / Director: Joel Wayne; Producer: Troy Custer)—Morris is a middle-aged, recently-divorced man recovering from pica, an addictive disorder characterized by an appetite for inorganic food, like chalk, metal, or detergent. When Morris' son, Peter, checks himself out of a sober living facility, Morris spends the day searching for him and finds himself relapsing in the process. IMDb. World Premiere. I've recently interviewed Joel Wayne for The Evening Class.

STZ (Director / Producer / Editor: Kirsten Strough)—"Is one night of passion worth roaming the earth as an undead monster?" At their freshman orientation, students are shown a PSA warning against more than just the dangers of drugs and alcohol, but also against the recent breakout of STZ: Sexually Transmitted Zombies.

Kirsten Strough began experimenting with video production as a sophomore at Fruitland High School, which had a good broadcasting program, so she was lucky to have access to equipment and learn from talented people. During her senior year, she was accepted into several colleges and offered good scholarships, but decided to go with Boise State University where she was offered a full ride as a Legacy Scholar through the Alumni Association. With some decent experience under her belt (for her age) and a peaked interest in the field, she decided to study Mass Communication / Journalism at BSU. The Communication Department had several media production and theory classes. By the time she graduated, they had a Cinema and Digital Media Studies certificate which she received along with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mass Communication / Journalism and a minor in Political Science. She now works for the Bureau of Reclamation as a Visual Information Specialist shooting and editing photos and videos for the public, technical reports, archival purposes, etc.

STZ was written by her cousin Betty Kim Ryan, a screenwriter in Seattle, and her screenwriting partner, David R. Larson. Strough had half-jokingly suggested to them that they should write her a script and they decided to write something that would be feasible to make on a college campus that would appeal to a collegiate age range. Strough absolutely loved the script from day one and decided to make it happen, even though she's not actually a huge genre fan. She finds horror movies generally far too gratuitous and tends to gravitate toward more dramatic films, but enjoys a good suspense film from time to time.

Being a shorts filmmaker in Idaho has been somewhat difficult for her. In one respect, Boise's small filmmaking community is composed of individuals who are generally good about give and take and working on each others' projects. But the barter system can only get you so far, Strough admits, and good luck with trying to make a living as a filmmaker in Idaho! Though she concedes it's not impossible. It's just difficult to find funding and people who have the time to work on her projects. Nearly every Idaho filmmaker she knows has a day job. It is what it is. Notwithstanding, she would love to pursue a career in filmmaking, especially as a producer or an assistant director. But for now, she's enjoying her job with the Federal Government, which is allowing her to pay off the student loans she acquired from a semester studying abroad.

The Yellow Wallpaper (Director: Jesse Cordtz; Executive Producer: Jane Merrow)—The Yellow Wallpaper takes place in the old nursery of a dilapidated Victorian home. The woman, played by Jane Merrow, is nervous and high strung, therefore her husband, a doctor, has confined her to this nursery to help cure her disposition. This however has the opposite effect as her neurosis begins to take over and the wallpaper in the room begins to come to life. After its World Premiere at SVFF, The Yellow Wallpaper will screen on PBS and then be made available online. Official site. IMDb.

Mandrake Estate (Director / Writer / Producer: Zach Voss)—Mandrake Estate is the most prestigious golf course within 35 miles, according to its loyal groundskeeper, Brooks Llyodman. But the staff and members become divided over budget decisions, risking the peaceful nature of Mandrake across all 18 holes, and beyond. World Premiere.

Voss and his film Mandrake Estate were the recipients of an Idaho Film Office film grant in 2012. My interview with him is included within my initial survey of Idaho film production, published in Fusion magazine.

Morning Mic (Director / Writer / Producer / DP: Andrew Crawford)—A popular radio DJ struggles to find meaning in life. IMDb. World Premiere.

The Seed (Director / Co-Writer / Editor: Christian Lybrook; Producer / Co-Writer: Chris Brock)—When a curious seed arrives in an unmarked envelope, it leads a broken man on a journey to uncover its meaning. IMDb. World Premiere.

For a more detailed overview of The Seed, visit my interview with Lybrook published on Fandor's Keyframe where both his shorts The Seed and last year's SVFF entry Crawlspace (2011) will be streaming concurrent with the festival.

MUSIC VIDEO LINEUP

"Benchwarmers" by Finn Riggins (Director / Animator: Jason Sievers)—Jason Sievers's Vimeo page (which includes SVFF entry "Benchwarmers") offers several of his other music videos as well. Sievers's background is as a graphic designer and—aside from a couple of photography classes and a video production course at BSU—he's had no real background in film; but, he's always loved animation and realized about 13 years ago that he could make rudimentary animations with his Mac, his webcam and inexpensive software. As cheap digital camera technology evolved, he quickly moved away from webcam projects to a DSLR. Although he concedes his video skills are limited by equipment, he recently provided video backgrounds for an Opera Idaho production that he shot using GoPro cameras and video applications on his iPod Touch.

Aside from his early stop-motion experiments and a couple of commercial projects, nearly all his work in animation has been in the form of music videos. Music is a major passion in his life and he's a huge fan and supporter of Boise music and has several musician friends. Motivated to make music videos is a great way for him to explore different animation techniques and media. Whether he's initiated a project or been invited by a band, knowing there is a potential audience helps him accomplish the work. As animation is time-consuming, especially when working solo, a 3-4 minute song can take up to a couple months to complete and a few of his videos have taken considerably longer. As a father with a full time job in advertising it takes Sievers a lot of late nights and weekends to get things done, but—because it's something he genuinely loves—he's enjoyed collaborating with amazing artists who are grateful and appreciative of his work. There's no question that the internet has advanced video as an important tool for bands to gain exposure and his own work has been furthered through association. Although many music videos boast big budgets, all too often they're negligible. Sievers operates under the premise that—if people can spend half a million dollars on a video that ends up being devoid of artistry or meaning—then, conversely, someone working without any budget but with a great love for the music—can turn an interesting idea into something beautiful and meaningful.

Although some of his work was shown at a Portland music video festival, being accepted into SVFF means he'll actually get to attend. Sievers doesn't have specific expectations associated with having "Benchwarmers" screen at SVFF, but is thrilled for the exposure and is grateful SVFF has seen fit to include a program of music videos, granting them credence as an art form. He's happy to be representing Boise alongside fellow Boise artist Tyler Williams. As for the pros and cons of being an imagemaker in Boise, Sievers appreciates the city's small but vibrant art community and how artists from different disciplines support each other. The downside is the lack of exposure outside of Boise and the state. On the whole, however, he loves living in Idaho and raising his family here and has confidence his work will continue to grow and evolve and, hopefully, receive some attention along the way regardless of location. He understands the allure of big cities for young artists, but claims Boise is enough of a city for him and his artistry.

 
“Benchwarmers” by Finn Riggins (10+1 pt. 3, fall 2011) from Jason Sievers on Vimeo.

"Done To My Love" & "East Coast Dying" by Gayze Director: Tyler T. Williams

 
Gayze - "Done To My Love" & "East Coast Dying" from Tyler T. Williams on Vimeo.

"You Are Minez" by Jean Sebastien Audet Director: Tyler T. Williams

 
YOU ARE MINEZ from Tyler T. Williams on Vimeo.

Tyler T. Williams grew up on a ranch outside Santa Barbara, California and early on developed a love for the outdoors. Then he became obsessed with skateboarding and would film his friends shredding the streets around town after school and on weekends. After capturing a week's worth of footage, he would edit day and night until he thought he had a perfect little film, which meant a lot of trial and error.

When asked how he interacted with musicians to develop a concept for a music video, he responded that typically he's approached by an artist with a specific track in mind, which he listens to for hours until an idea pops into his head. "I usually go by what sort of feeling the song makes me feel and then create characters for these feelings," he explained. "The atmosphere is then built around them." Sometimes the musicians will have a certain direction they want to go, but can't really put a finger on an actual visual that will translate correctly.

Visually, I find Williams's music videos interesting for their desaturated color pallette, even as in each video he retains some colorful element as a counterpoint: the green car in one, the blue shirt in the other, the yellow jumpsuit in the third. He couldn't quite articulate what informs that visual choice other than to say he likes "the stark contrast between these props and their characters."

I wondered why his concepts were so violent? Williams qualified that it wasn't the violence that fascinates him, but the moment his characters are driven to violence and the thoughts that might be going through their heads. It's nearly unfathomable, yet such moments of violence happen every day.

As for coordinating the visual rhythm of his editing with the rhythm of the music, he admitted the process usually involves "millions of hours" tweaking the edit repeatedly each day. One week he'll like his edit and the following week he'll hate it. So he'll cut it again and again until it reaches a point where he's finally okay with it. Sometimes he'll already have editing concepts in his mind before he's shot any footage and—once he sees what he's shot—is forced to go in a totally different direction.

Given all its beautiful locations, Williams finds Idaho absolutely fabulous. Thirty minutes outside of Boise and he's in a killer location, which is great for guerrilla filmmaking. The down side of being a short form filmmaker in Idaho is he hardly ever has a budget for a music video and/or trying to coordinate a proper crew is tough. He has DoP friends who live in LA that he'd love to work with in Idaho, but—without a budget—it's hard to get them North. Further, the lack of camera rental shops in Boise make securing equipment tough. "So I guess that it's not that Idaho is necessarily bad for filmmaking; it's just that all of the people I'd like to collaborate with live out of state." He loves making music videos even though there's no return financially. They're like building blocks for him in learning how to tell stories. Eventually, he'd like to try to tell stories through feature films.

"Breakers" by Local Natives Director: Jaffe Zinn

 
Local Natives - Breakers (Official Music Video) from PIASGermany on Vimeo.

"DUHNK" by Owlright Director: Owlright




"GreyHound" by Jonathan Warren and the Billy Goats Director: James Hansen Producers: James Hansen, Ben Molyneux




"When Frida Became" by Project 213 Directors: Stephanie Michelle Lokelani, Gene Eilebrecht—Combining masked dance, animation, and an impassioned title song, "When Frida Became" harkens to Frida Kahlo's redemption from pain through art.

 

SVFF 2013: SHORT FILMS—MAGPIE (2011): The Evening Class Interview With Joel Wayne

An eclectic assortment of short films and music videos have been selected for screening at the upcoming 2013 Sun Valley Film Festival (March 14-17). The 20 short films and 15 music videos were selected based on their focus on story, no matter the medium. These additional films and videos will complement the outstanding lineup of 33 feature films to be presented throughout the festival weekend.

Of the selected short films, five are world premieres and one is a North American premiere. Idaho is well represented in the film and music video selection as 8 of the shorts were filmed in Idaho, and 9 of the music videos were made by Idaho filmmakers. One that caught my eye was Magpie (2012) [IMDb], written and directed by Joel Wayne, and produced and shot by Troy Custer. Magpie boasts its World Premiere at Sun Valley. As synopsized at the festival's website: "Morris is a middle-aged, recently-divorced man recovering from pica, an addictive disorder characterized by an appetite for inorganic food, like chalk, metal, or detergent. When Morris' son, Peter, checks himself out of a sober living facility, Morris spends the day searching for him and finds himself relapsing in the process."

It ends up that pica is not only an eating disorder characterized by an abnormal appetite for earth and other non-foods; but, it's also a genus for the magpie, thus the wry title to this edgy narrative that daringly visualizes the stressors that trigger such an unusual and provocative disorder. By comparison, a son addicted to drugs seems normal and tame. My thanks to Troy Custer for putting me in touch with Joel Wayne for a conversation.

 
Magpie (Director's Cut) from Joel Wayne on Vimeo.

Michael Guillén: Joel, I take it you come from a writing background?

Joel Wayne: Yeah, I went to school for English and creative writing and I'm currently a part-time grad student in an MFA program for writing at Boise State.

Guillén: Your writing style is dark and edgy. Who are your influences?

Wayne: It depends on the medium. Influences in terms of screenwriting would probably be in the vein of the Coen Brothers or Woody Allen. I'm interested in relationships more than anything else. Those two influence my prose as well.

Guillén: Has any of your prose been published?

Wayne: Yeah, I've just had my first short story "Deliquescence" published last year in a small magazine called apt, based out of Boston.

Guillén: Congratulations on getting your first short film Magpie into the Sun Valley Film Festival. You've written, directed, and acted in this film, which is a strange, but effective story. I had never heard of pica before. How did the subject of this eating disorder come to your attention as a writer?

Wayne: Different reality shows have shown people with this eating disorder, who a lot of times eat the same thing over and over and over. They'll eat toilet paper or dryer sheets or something like that. It's a habitual, self-comforting activity. I've taken some liberty in Magpie because my character Morris (Chris Thometz) eats a few different things: detergent, paperclips, bullets (although there are people who eat metal in general). A number of years ago there was an artist who made collage work out of the stomach contents of people suffering from pica; nails and things like that.

Guillén: Oh, my God!

Wayne: I find addictive disorders like that interesting in general. In film, you tend to see the same disorders depicted over and over, usually OCD—people tend to write about OCD—but, there are so many other interesting disorders, whether they're dibilitating or not, like synesthesia (the mixing of senses). I find all of that interesting.

Guillén: As subject matter, these disorders are intriguing. Why your script worked for me, however, was because of the juxtaposition of the father's pica eating disorder triggered by and contrasted against his son's drug addiction. Usually an audience would feel sorry for a drug addict, but in this instance Peter—who you play—comes off quite normal by comparison to his father. I thought that tension was both unexpected and comic. I loved the exchange when Peter asks his dad, "What are you doing to yourself?" and Morris answers, "I'm working on it. What are you doing?" And Peter protests, "I'm working on it too!" A very funny, yet poignant, moment.

Wayne: I tried to look at the influences in Morris's life—his recent divorce, his son's problems—as stressors that might be leading to his eating disorder. As I said earlier, I'm interested in relationships, especially familial relationships where—in this instance, let's say—the father is obviously at a certain point influencing his son without having to take responsibility for his actions.

Guillén: With regard to writing for different kinds of short form mediums, how do you approach that? I understand you wrote the script for Troy Custer's I48 entry Closure and in that film there was no dialogue at all. How did you negotiate visualizing that story with Troy?

 
Closure from Bumblebird Films on Vimeo.
 
Wayne: Well, as you probably know, there are very strict parameters when you're making a film for I48. You basically draw a genre out of a hat (not literally). What we drew was a silent film. Years ago I remember Troy doing another silent film in more of a vaudevillian style about a guy getting ready for a date. When you go into a competition like I48, you already have a couple of ideas or stories in your head that you try to turn into whatever genre you get. For Closure, this was not a story that I had in my head; it was actually a play off a story Troy had; but, we switched it up: it wasn't a man killing his wife but two lovers killing this man who was cheating on both of them with each other. We tried to turn it into something of a dark comedy; to give this dark idea a little levity. I argued that the idea of a guy killing his wife was something that had already been done a lot and that it would be more interesting to have the woman kill her boyfriend instead.

Guillén: Well, I have to be upfront here and say that I thought it was the best selection that I saw from I48, both in style and atmosphere. I think it deserved the top prize and was surprised it didn't win. It certainly drew my attention to both your work and Troy's.

Wayne: Good, I'm glad to hear that. I wrote Closure but Troy directed it. We've worked together now for a couple of years; but, we're starting to switch back and forth now with the directing.

Guillén: As someone who's come from outside who's monitoring Boise's film production, it strikes me that there are creative teams at work here: you, Troy Custer, actors Jim Lile and Kristy Lussier, you're working with each other again and again and familiarizing yourselves with each others' talents and developing an ensemble style. Would you consider that a fair assessment? The fact that you're working together a lot?

Wayne: We have. In terms of talent, it tends to rotate a bit. Jim Lile is always up for just about doing whatever so he's someone who's easy to involve. The lead in Magpie, Chris Thometz, used to be located out of Chicago and did some acting there. We had seen him do a character-driven piece in an I48 film and I talked to him and told him I would love to work with him on something else and he was into it. When I was writing Magpie, I was writing it for him, though I hadn't yet told him that or anything. Then I sent it over to him and he got on board.

Guillén: Along with Magpie being selected for the short films program, you've also earned a slot in the program of music videos with TW Walsh's "Pawn Shop Guns", on which you lent a directorial hand. Walsh, in turn, provided the unsettling score to Magpie. How has that collaboration come about and what is involved in working with a musician to create a music video? Did you approach him with a concept after listening to the music or did he approach you saying, "This is what I want?" How did that process work for you two?

 

Wayne: That project was sheer happenstance. I follow TW Walsh on Twitter and I'm a big fan of his work, both when he made music with David Bazan in the band Pedro the Lion, and then in his solo work. Walsh has come out with his first album in eight years or something like that and he had said something on Twitter about anyone wanting to make a music video for a song from his new album? I replied to him and asked if it would be my choice? He sent me his email address and we went back and forth a few times and I said I had a couple of ideas for a couple of different songs. He said that sounded like a lot of fun. So I said, "Why don't we do a little test shooting on one of these ideas?"—a time lapse shot on that song "Pawn Shop Guns"—so over lunch one day we did a test shoot and sent that over to him and he really dug it. I did more of a formal treatment and sent that over to him and he gave us his blessing and we shot it.  The cool part was that he said, "You know, I don't have a set budget for this but what I can do is pay you in trade. I can pay you with original music, if you want to do something like that?"

Guillén: What a great deal!

Wayne: Yeah, it was fantastic for us because I had already written Magpie and had originally created it for a film contest out of Chicago, and that specific contest required original music. So we needed original music for it and I worked with TW Walsh on it and he made some original music for us. Then we asked him if we could use one of his songs from the album for the final part of Magpie and he said, "Yeah. Absolutely."

Guillén: So to wrap up here, how do you subsidize your film work in Boise? How do you earn a living?

Wayne: I'm a copy writer in an ad agency. That's my 9 to 5.

Guillén: Any thoughts on what it means for you to have been accepted into the Sun Valley Film Festival with both projects? Is there anything you're hoping to get out of the experience?

Wayne: It's a big, big deal for me to be accepted because it was something totally that happened out of sheer luck. Our script supervisor on Magpie sent us an email alerting us that Sun Valley was calling for short films and music videos so we submitted both, just a couple of days before the deadline. When you do these short film projects like this, you kind of create it for one thing and you submit it to whatever that thing is and then you move on, y'know? If you win an award, great. If not, it doesn't really matter. You move on to the next project. But this is an instance where we were able to get a little more life out of Magpie and we feel good about the end product so we've been searching for something to spur us on a little bit, to maybe look at other film festivals that we can maybe submit it to. Sun Valley Film Festival feels kind of like a jump off point for us.

Guillén: You're developing your film festival cred?

Wayne: Yeah, and we didn't think that was a possibility but now we're thinking, "Maybe it is!"

Guillén: Most short form content—short films and music videos—usually inhabit a space online. Both Magpie and "Pawn Shop Guns" are already available on the Internet. However, the value of being accepted into a film festival such as Sun Valley means the project takes on a portfolio quality. It exists in both on and off line spaces, with their respective audiences. How do you feel about having an audience for the "in-cinema" world premiere of your images?

Wayne: I don't know if it's age or what—because I'm not sure if I necessarily value having the traditional audience in a cinema—but, I do like that aspect of it, of people actually going to a physical cinema to view something I've done. That's still something we do as a society. Granted, I don't know if the in-cinema experience is necessarily dying or not; but, it seems more likely that people watch a film in their home rather than go out. Yet people still do trek to the cinema so I think it's kind of a fun idea that people would physically go somewhere to see something that you do.

I did a reading recently at Hyde Park Books and, similarly, a number of people that don't normally go to those readings showed up when I mentioned I was going to read there. That meant a lot to me because these were people who made the physical effort to come out and hear me read.

Guillén: Your seeming unfamiliarity with in-cinema experiences intrigues me as characteristic of an online generation; but, I do believe that the portfolio approach I mentioned before—of being present on line and off—strengthens the flow of community and response, commensurate to scale. I'm hoping that your experience at Sun Valley proves to be a rich one for you.  Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today.