Ever wondered how social media and historical epics can come together in the world of filmmaking? We sit down with the innovative writer and director Jordan McKittrick at Mammoth International Film Festival to talk about why he likes to see TikToks that capture an actor’s true essence instead of polished self tapes. We delve deep into his latest work, “We Have Notes,” which stole the spotlight on the festival’s opening night. McKittrick offers a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of staying true to historical accuracy while receiving external feedback, and he shares the overwhelmingly positive audience reactions.
In our discussion, we uncover the unconventional casting process for the Joan of Arc project and learn why it’s crucial for actors to create their own content. We also explore the collaborative visual planning process with cinematographers, drawing inspiration from iconic films like Macbeth, Euphoria, and Chicago. If you’re passionate about filmmaking or looking to make connections at film festivals, this episode is filled with invaluable insights from Jordan McKittrick that you won’t want to miss.
For our listeners, CFA’s teamed up with We Make Movies to get you a discount on production management services, including access to comprehensive production insurance and workers' comp for your next shoot.
Visit wemakemovies.org/insurance and use code CFA23 on your intake form for 10% off your quote.
Calling all actors! Take 25% off your membership at WeAudition with code: CFA25
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Cinematography for Actors is a community aimed at bridging the gap between talent & crew through our weekly podcast & community events. Our weekly show supports the filmmaking community through transparent, honest & technically focused interviews with the goal of elevating the art of effective storytelling.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I like it when the actors film themselves doing a
character like TikTok style asopposed to sort of filming a
scene and getting it on its feetand stuff, because it's like
it's immediate, you see theirface right in front of the
camera and you really sort ofget a sense of their spirit,
whereas if they're in a shortfilm and they're, you know,
playing a DA or something likethat, it's like they're doing
acting, yeah, yeah.
(00:21):
Okay, I can.
I find it easy to imaginesomebody who, when I'm looking
at them, do something that theyreally love and really sort of
expresses themselves.
I can easily imagine them beingJoan of.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Arc.
This is the Cinematography forActors podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
More than a podcast.
Cinematography for Actors is avibrant community devoted to
bridging the gap between talentand crew.
Each week, our show offerstransparent, insightful
(00:57):
conversations with industryleaders.
Thank you than just cameras andlenses.
We aim to inspire, educate andempower as we peel back the
curtain on the art of effectivestorytelling.
Now on to the episode.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Hi everyone and welcome back to another CFA
Podcast episode here at theMammoth International Film
Festival.
I'm joined with my co-host,Haley Royal.
I'm Indiana Underhill and weare joined by, as well, writer
and director Jordan McKittrick.
Hey, I'm here, we have notes.
That's your film.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
McKittrick.
Hey, we have notes.
That's your film, that's it.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And you were the opening night, yeah, premiere.
I was pretty honored to be thatat the festival.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Yeah, how did that happen?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I just submitted through Film Freeway and Tanner.
I got a call from Nicole.
I got an email from Nicole thatsaid that she wanted to do that
.
She's one of the festivalmanagers.
And then I got a call from thefestival one of the co-founders.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
They really were just like this one's, one of the
best.
Let's do it Well.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I remember like CFA wanting to be on board because
we have a film here.
But then I was also like let'sdo coverage and Tanner, I was on
the phone with him and he goesand we have a short that is so
good I would not be surprised ifit didn't win the whole fall.
And he was talking, I guess,about we have Notes because it
was the opening night film.
So I think everyone is veryexcited about we have Notes and
it's screening so many timeshere.
(02:09):
I think now, right, Well, it'sscreened.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's a complicated question.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, we screened last night before Invisible
Raptor, which was really fun.
That's cool.
Yeah, it was a rowdy crowd.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, yeah, which was perfect.
Okay, let's go into logline abit, so we have notes.
Can you give us like the oneliner?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It's about a movie studio making one scene in a
Joan of Arc movie.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Fantastic, and so it feels always really appropriate
to be at a film festival withtypes of movies like that,
because, like you're surroundedby film industry and so people
connect to it immediately.
What have been some of thereactions you've had from the
audience thus far?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Honestly, people have been really pumped.
Yeah, a lot of people like it,a lot of people relate to it.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, and which?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
is exactly what I was hoping for that people in the
industry like it and relate toit, and that people who don't
work directly in theentertainment industry still get
it.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Because it's about anybody who's trying to do
something creative experiencesthis.
You bring something into theworld and then you get feedback
and you try to recruit people towork with you and it changes
and there are surprises andfrustrations and difficulties
and little blessings.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah, and what have you found like making this film
kind of, why come back and likeevaluate it from a film industry
perspective?
What interests kind of do youhave around that when making
narrative films?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
my interest in this.
Well, so I chose joan of arc.
Yes, because I kept rewritingthe script many times and I
wanted a story that thecharacters, the writers, the
directors, the actors in thestory they felt a responsibility
to tell the story right.
Okay, so that when you startgetting feedback and people
telling you to do it differently, you feel you're betraying your
(03:51):
own values when you actuallystart to implement those and
betraying history.
Yeah, totally, yeah so that's,those are sort of the emotional
stakes, I think, for thecharacters in the film.
Okay great and I and I guess inthe film industry, because I
think there's some inherentvisual interest to the film
industry Everyone sort of knowsthat a slate goes in front of
(04:13):
the camera.
There's a big camera and whatactors do-ish.
So I like that sort of milieuto set the film.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Amazing and I know Haley is always so excited to
dive into the casting processbehind behind the movies that we
interview, so I'll let her takeit away because you had to cast
actors who not only were goingto play, like jonah, who aren't
going to play jonah barkcorrectly.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
You also had to play.
Cast an actor.
Who would play an actor playingjonah bark correctly?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
yeah, how'd you go about this did you?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
was it just a regular casting call?
Or did an actor playing Joan ofArc correctly?
Yeah, how'd you go about this?
Did you?
Was it just a regular castingcall, or did you know people
already?
Did you have people in?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
mind, it was a little bit of both.
We did, we did like backstage,and then a lot of it's mostly
comedians, a lot of comedians, alot of Instagram comedians that
me and the producers were justfans of.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Did you just see them on your reels and like
scrolling, oh cool.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
And then you're like that person, totally Nice, yeah,
you just DM them.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Actors we keep thinking about, like the ways
actors.
You know, actors are alwayslike how am I going to get this
job?
How am I getting this job?
And it is daunting to put yourown stuff out.
I know that I suffer from afear of being seen.
You know I don't want to put mywork on Instagram because what
if you know if it's silly orlike?
What if it doesn't look good?
But this is literally howyou're finding people.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
No, I love it when people are like doing character
work, where they're just doingbits and they have like they
have like a just one germ of anidea and they're just doing it
for 45 seconds.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I think that's so funny I have I some of the
directors I work.
I'm a cinematographer and someof the directors I work with
have talked about how, in thenext project, they're like oh, I
saw this person on Instagramand I think they're hilarious, I
need to get them in my nextmovie.
And I just sit there and I'mlike what a wonderful thing for
actors, because you're taking itout of other people's hands and
you're putting it into your ownpath and control, and a lot of
(06:05):
actors are being told right nowto create their own content, and
I think this is a really greatway to become accessible if you
have something to say, and soit's wonderful to know that that
was in the methodology of yourcasting process.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, in my opinion, for what it's worth.
I like it when the actors filmthemselves doing a character
like TikTok style, as opposed tofilming a scene and getting it
on its feet and stuff, becauseit's like it's immediate.
You see their face right infront of the camera and you
really sort of get a sense oftheir spirit, yeah, whereas if
they're in a short film andthey're playing a DA or
(06:35):
something like that, it's likethey're doing acting.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, yeah, I can.
I find it easy to imaginesomebody who, when I looking at
them, do something that theyreally love and really sort of
expresses themselves.
I can easily imagine them beingJoan of Arc.
Production insurance andworkers comp for your next shoot
.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Visit we make moviesorg slash insurance and
use code cfa23 on your intakeform for 10 off your quote,
right, yeah, okay, well, that isamazing, okay.
And then, once you find thoseactors, what are you sharing
with them as far as, like, um,your idea for the story?
Are you sharing any visualplanning with?
Them Like storyboards, or Iknow that personally I really
love a mood board.
Did you have anything like thatto kind of sell what you were
bringing to them?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I didn't do that with the actors, the cinematographer
and I did that a lot.
We pulled a lot of stills fromthe 2016 Macbeth movie.
And from what else did we pullstills from?
That was the main one.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Honestly, we found the look for the first scene and
then, oh yeah, we pulled looksfrom Euphoria, we pulled looks
from Chicago, the movie, and sothose, those were sort of the
main looks for actors.
I think I just probably sentthem my first short film.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Great Because then they know what what they're
working with.
Main looks for actors.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
I think I just probably sent them my first
short film nice great, becausethen they know what what they're
working with as far as likewhat you what you like to do if
you don't like this, don't, yeah, don't respond, because it's
going to be more of somethingjust like this great now with
the longer form screenplays thatwe kind of talked about
beforehand before this interviewstarted um, do you find that
there are a lot of like whenyou're talking about I sent my
first short film because itgives them an idea of kind of
(08:24):
the stories I'm telling, withthe stories that you're
currently prepping for indevelopment, with what are like
the common themes or what arethings that you know that you're
always going to be pulled to,or a way of shooting it
specifically.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
One theme I really like is when sort of stressful
situations are thrust uponnormal people, right, and they
don't rise to the level of.
They don't rise to greatness,they just continue to be normal
people in a very stressfulsituation.
So almost all of my scripts areabout that.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Cool yeah, normal people who are in a high stress
situation, who just stay normalinstead of like becoming a hero.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, Now, what are your biggest?
So is this your first time atMammoth Film Festival.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Sure is.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Oh fantastic, Us too no-transcript.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's a good question.
I do have one tip.
It's that I don't think verymuch comes from submitting to a
festival that you don't go to.
You actually have to go to thatfestival with your film and
I've made real friends at filmfestivals I've made.
I work with people in this filmthat I met from like at dances
(09:42):
with films in Los Angeles.
But even fairly prestigiousfestivals that I've played at,
that I didn't attend forwhatever reason, because
pandemic or whatever.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Nothing really came of that yeah, right, and so,
yeah, I think Haley and I arealways talking about the
community building aspects ofyou know, whether it be
conferences or festivals of theimportance of kind of, yeah, the
follow-through, totally yeah,going there being there, showing
your face, making making thefriends, making real friends,
connecting from these blizzardyconditions, kind of things
exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Um, I want to talk about your workflow with your dp
, actually, because youmentioned that you were pulling
visual.
Um, what is the word Visual?
References Referencesinspiration together, and then
are you storyboarding together.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I don't storyboard, in fact I don't.
Even I don't shot list takeabout this much time on this
shot and is there ever a wrenchthrown in those gears?
Maybe six, seven or eight years, and I worked with a lot of
directors that were very.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
That's why I work with mostly comedic actors.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I work with a lot of directors that did a lot of
improvisation.
So it's like if something isn'tfunny, don't keep shooting it,
it has to be changed.
If something isn't reallycoming to life to me, we'll just
change it.
If that angle isn't working forthat actor, they might not be
in a position to be able to tell, so we have to change it.
So that's my attitude aboutstuff.
(11:40):
And it is difficult for DPs toget on board.
They have to know what they'rein store for, because we might
throw out everything we shotthis morning and it's nothing
personal, but I had.
I did that on my first shortbecause it just wasn't coming to
life.
The scene wasn't on its feet.
They walk in, they getthemselves all amped up and
(12:01):
they're like no, there's no waythis possession is real.
This is just like they have alittle bickering fight outside
this bedroom and then they gointo the bedroom and then they
walk in and then this girl'sfloating over the bed and then
the door magically shuts andlocks behind them and they're
stuck in there.
And the scene just wasn'tworking for me.
So, yeah, so we reblocked itand reshot it that afternoon.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Are there any tools that you use when you see that
that's not happening and youknow you have to go back and
reblock and reshoot?
Are you doing anything inbetween to kind of get everyone
in the right headspace to beable to?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
do that?
That's a good question.
You should ask the actors.
By and large, I think actorsrespond to the way we're working
because it's all aboutperformance.
It's literally the story andthe performance, the
cinematography.
You know, cinematography,production, design locations
Like I'm hyper focused Everyoneis fully focused on.
(12:53):
Is this coming to life?
Is the performance reallytaking off or is it dragging or?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
is it?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
forced or whatever.
So I think that I hope that itcomes through that I really care
about the actors' performances.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
I think some of the success of your workflow is also
because you understand lightingand cameras so much that you
are able to understand how ascene is going to get built
together because, like, dpshould be thinking about the
edit, but directors areobviously constantly thinking
about, like, what we're doing inproduction and what we're doing
in post in their head on set.
And so, with the experience ofbeing a DP and then
transitioning into directing,you know, I think you probably
(13:28):
have a lot of success of beinglike no, no, I know that's going
to work and we did that in thepast scene, so let's do that
again, because we'll create thattheme, and so it's really cool
that I think directors who arelistening can hear that having
the context for how camera andlighting can come together and
that relationship with the DPcan allow you to shoot on the
fly in terms of setups and thetechnical yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
If I were doing a bigger project that was shooting
out of chronology, then I woulddefinitely want to go in having
a visual vocabulary.
But because it's a short film,I can shoot chronologically, so
we can build the visualvocabulary of the piece in the
first two days and then you cancall back to it in subsequent
days and shoot in a consistentapproach.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Well, that's going to be used as a social media clip.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
That was a great little tidbit.
I love that.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Now Jordan.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
We have Notes.
Is your film here at MammothFilm Festival?
What is next for we have Notes?
Is it premiering anywhere elseor as of now.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Next is the Phoenix Film Festival.
Okay, great and it's currentlyrunning in the Boulder Film
Festival.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Great.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Congrats, thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Two colds and then one hot.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I know, and then after that DVD.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Great, we'll see you at the next festival.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Thank you so much, Bye everyone.
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(15:01):
make it easier for otherlisteners to find us.
I like it when the actors film themselves doing a
character like TikTok style asopposed to sort of filming a
scene and getting it on its feetand stuff, because it's like
it's immediate, you see theirface right in front of the
camera and you really sort ofget a sense of their spirit,
whereas if they're in a shortfilm and they're, you know,
playing a DA or something likethat, it's like they're doing
acting, yeah, yeah.
(00:21):
Okay, I can.
I find it easy to imaginesomebody who, when I'm looking
at them, do something that theyreally love and really sort of
expresses themselves.
I can easily imagine them beingJoan of.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Arc.
This is the Cinematography forActors podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
More than a podcast.
Cinematography for Actors is avibrant community devoted to
bridging the gap between talentand crew.
Each week, our show offerstransparent, insightful
(00:57):
conversations with industryleaders.
Thank you than just cameras andlenses.
We aim to inspire, educate andempower as we peel back the
curtain on the art of effectivestorytelling.
Now on to the episode.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Hi everyone and welcome back to another CFA
Podcast episode here at theMammoth International Film
Festival.
I'm joined with my co-host,Haley Royal.
I'm Indiana Underhill and weare joined by, as well, writer
and director Jordan McKittrick.
Hey, I'm here, we have notes.
That's your film.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
McKittrick.
Hey, we have notes.
That's your film, that's it.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And you were the opening night, yeah, premiere.
I was pretty honored to be thatat the festival.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Yeah, how did that happen?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I just submitted through Film Freeway and Tanner.
I got a call from Nicole.
I got an email from Nicole thatsaid that she wanted to do that
.
She's one of the festivalmanagers.
And then I got a call from thefestival one of the co-founders.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
They really were just like this one's, one of the
best.
Let's do it Well.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I remember like CFA wanting to be on board because
we have a film here.
But then I was also like let'sdo coverage and Tanner, I was on
the phone with him and he goesand we have a short that is so
good I would not be surprised ifit didn't win the whole fall.
And he was talking, I guess,about we have Notes because it
was the opening night film.
So I think everyone is veryexcited about we have Notes and
it's screening so many timeshere.
(02:09):
I think now, right, Well, it'sscreened.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's a complicated question.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, we screened last night before Invisible
Raptor, which was really fun.
That's cool.
Yeah, it was a rowdy crowd.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, yeah, which was perfect.
Okay, let's go into logline abit, so we have notes.
Can you give us like the oneliner?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It's about a movie studio making one scene in a
Joan of Arc movie.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Fantastic, and so it feels always really appropriate
to be at a film festival withtypes of movies like that,
because, like you're surroundedby film industry and so people
connect to it immediately.
What have been some of thereactions you've had from the
audience thus far?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Honestly, people have been really pumped.
Yeah, a lot of people like it,a lot of people relate to it.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, and which?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
is exactly what I was hoping for that people in the
industry like it and relate toit, and that people who don't
work directly in theentertainment industry still get
it.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Because it's about anybody who's trying to do
something creative experiencesthis.
You bring something into theworld and then you get feedback
and you try to recruit people towork with you and it changes
and there are surprises andfrustrations and difficulties
and little blessings.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Yeah, and what have you found like making this film
kind of, why come back and likeevaluate it from a film industry
perspective?
What interests kind of do youhave around that when making
narrative films?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
my interest in this.
Well, so I chose joan of arc.
Yes, because I kept rewritingthe script many times and I
wanted a story that thecharacters, the writers, the
directors, the actors in thestory they felt a responsibility
to tell the story right.
Okay, so that when you startgetting feedback and people
telling you to do it differently, you feel you're betraying your
(03:51):
own values when you actuallystart to implement those and
betraying history.
Yeah, totally, yeah so that's,those are sort of the emotional
stakes, I think, for thecharacters in the film.
Okay great and I and I guess inthe film industry, because I
think there's some inherentvisual interest to the film
industry Everyone sort of knowsthat a slate goes in front of
(04:13):
the camera.
There's a big camera and whatactors do-ish.
So I like that sort of milieuto set the film.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Amazing and I know Haley is always so excited to
dive into the casting processbehind behind the movies that we
interview, so I'll let her takeit away because you had to cast
actors who not only were goingto play, like jonah, who aren't
going to play jonah barkcorrectly.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
You also had to play.
Cast an actor.
Who would play an actor playingjonah bark correctly?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
yeah, how'd you go about this did you?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
was it just a regular casting call?
Or did an actor playing Joan ofArc correctly?
Yeah, how'd you go about this?
Did you?
Was it just a regular castingcall, or did you know people
already?
Did you have people in?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
mind, it was a little bit of both.
We did, we did like backstage,and then a lot of it's mostly
comedians, a lot of comedians, alot of Instagram comedians that
me and the producers were justfans of.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Did you just see them on your reels and like
scrolling, oh cool.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
And then you're like that person, totally Nice, yeah,
you just DM them.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Actors we keep thinking about, like the ways
actors.
You know, actors are alwayslike how am I going to get this
job?
How am I getting this job?
And it is daunting to put yourown stuff out.
I know that I suffer from afear of being seen.
You know I don't want to put mywork on Instagram because what
if you know if it's silly orlike?
What if it doesn't look good?
But this is literally howyou're finding people.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
No, I love it when people are like doing character
work, where they're just doingbits and they have like they
have like a just one germ of anidea and they're just doing it
for 45 seconds.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I think that's so funny I have I some of the
directors I work.
I'm a cinematographer and someof the directors I work with
have talked about how, in thenext project, they're like oh, I
saw this person on Instagramand I think they're hilarious, I
need to get them in my nextmovie.
And I just sit there and I'mlike what a wonderful thing for
actors, because you're taking itout of other people's hands and
you're putting it into your ownpath and control, and a lot of
(06:05):
actors are being told right nowto create their own content, and
I think this is a really greatway to become accessible if you
have something to say, and soit's wonderful to know that that
was in the methodology of yourcasting process.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, in my opinion, for what it's worth.
I like it when the actors filmthemselves doing a character
like TikTok style, as opposed tofilming a scene and getting it
on its feet and stuff, becauseit's like it's immediate.
You see their face right infront of the camera and you
really sort of get a sense oftheir spirit, yeah, whereas if
they're in a short film andthey're playing a DA or
(06:35):
something like that, it's likethey're doing acting.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, yeah, I can.
I find it easy to imaginesomebody who, when I looking at
them, do something that theyreally love and really sort of
expresses themselves.
I can easily imagine them beingJoan of Arc.
Production insurance andworkers comp for your next shoot
.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Visit we make moviesorg slash insurance and
use code cfa23 on your intakeform for 10 off your quote,
right, yeah, okay, well, that isamazing, okay.
And then, once you find thoseactors, what are you sharing
with them as far as, like, um,your idea for the story?
Are you sharing any visualplanning with?
Them Like storyboards, or Iknow that personally I really
love a mood board.
Did you have anything like thatto kind of sell what you were
bringing to them?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I didn't do that with the actors, the cinematographer
and I did that a lot.
We pulled a lot of stills fromthe 2016 Macbeth movie.
And from what else did we pullstills from?
That was the main one.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Honestly, we found the look for the first scene and
then, oh yeah, we pulled looksfrom Euphoria, we pulled looks
from Chicago, the movie, and sothose, those were sort of the
main looks for actors.
I think I just probably sentthem my first short film.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Great Because then they know what what they're
working with.
Main looks for actors.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
I think I just probably sent them my first
short film nice great, becausethen they know what what they're
working with as far as likewhat you what you like to do if
you don't like this, don't, yeah, don't respond, because it's
going to be more of somethingjust like this great now with
the longer form screenplays thatwe kind of talked about
beforehand before this interviewstarted um, do you find that
there are a lot of like whenyou're talking about I sent my
first short film because itgives them an idea of kind of
(08:24):
the stories I'm telling, withthe stories that you're
currently prepping for indevelopment, with what are like
the common themes or what arethings that you know that you're
always going to be pulled to,or a way of shooting it
specifically.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
One theme I really like is when sort of stressful
situations are thrust uponnormal people, right, and they
don't rise to the level of.
They don't rise to greatness,they just continue to be normal
people in a very stressfulsituation.
So almost all of my scripts areabout that.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Cool yeah, normal people who are in a high stress
situation, who just stay normalinstead of like becoming a hero.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, Now, what are your biggest?
So is this your first time atMammoth Film Festival.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Sure is.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Oh fantastic, Us too no-transcript.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's a good question.
I do have one tip.
It's that I don't think verymuch comes from submitting to a
festival that you don't go to.
You actually have to go to thatfestival with your film and
I've made real friends at filmfestivals I've made.
I work with people in this filmthat I met from like at dances
(09:42):
with films in Los Angeles.
But even fairly prestigiousfestivals that I've played at,
that I didn't attend forwhatever reason, because
pandemic or whatever.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Nothing really came of that yeah, right, and so,
yeah, I think Haley and I arealways talking about the
community building aspects ofyou know, whether it be
conferences or festivals of theimportance of kind of, yeah, the
follow-through, totally yeah,going there being there, showing
your face, making making thefriends, making real friends,
connecting from these blizzardyconditions, kind of things
exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Um, I want to talk about your workflow with your dp
, actually, because youmentioned that you were pulling
visual.
Um, what is the word Visual?
References Referencesinspiration together, and then
are you storyboarding together.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I don't storyboard, in fact I don't.
Even I don't shot list takeabout this much time on this
shot and is there ever a wrenchthrown in those gears?
Maybe six, seven or eight years, and I worked with a lot of
directors that were very.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
That's why I work with mostly comedic actors.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I work with a lot of directors that did a lot of
improvisation.
So it's like if something isn'tfunny, don't keep shooting it,
it has to be changed.
If something isn't reallycoming to life to me, we'll just
change it.
If that angle isn't working forthat actor, they might not be
in a position to be able to tell, so we have to change it.
So that's my attitude aboutstuff.
(11:40):
And it is difficult for DPs toget on board.
They have to know what they'rein store for, because we might
throw out everything we shotthis morning and it's nothing
personal, but I had.
I did that on my first shortbecause it just wasn't coming to
life.
The scene wasn't on its feet.
They walk in, they getthemselves all amped up and
(12:01):
they're like no, there's no waythis possession is real.
This is just like they have alittle bickering fight outside
this bedroom and then they gointo the bedroom and then they
walk in and then this girl'sfloating over the bed and then
the door magically shuts andlocks behind them and they're
stuck in there.
And the scene just wasn'tworking for me.
So, yeah, so we reblocked itand reshot it that afternoon.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Are there any tools that you use when you see that
that's not happening and youknow you have to go back and
reblock and reshoot?
Are you doing anything inbetween to kind of get everyone
in the right headspace to beable to?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
do that?
That's a good question.
You should ask the actors.
By and large, I think actorsrespond to the way we're working
because it's all aboutperformance.
It's literally the story andthe performance, the
cinematography.
You know, cinematography,production, design locations
Like I'm hyper focused Everyoneis fully focused on.
(12:53):
Is this coming to life?
Is the performance reallytaking off or is it dragging or?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
is it?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
forced or whatever.
So I think that I hope that itcomes through that I really care
about the actors' performances.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
I think some of the success of your workflow is also
because you understand lightingand cameras so much that you
are able to understand how ascene is going to get built
together because, like, dpshould be thinking about the
edit, but directors areobviously constantly thinking
about, like, what we're doing inproduction and what we're doing
in post in their head on set.
And so, with the experience ofbeing a DP and then
transitioning into directing,you know, I think you probably
(13:28):
have a lot of success of beinglike no, no, I know that's going
to work and we did that in thepast scene, so let's do that
again, because we'll create thattheme, and so it's really cool
that I think directors who arelistening can hear that having
the context for how camera andlighting can come together and
that relationship with the DPcan allow you to shoot on the
fly in terms of setups and thetechnical yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
If I were doing a bigger project that was shooting
out of chronology, then I woulddefinitely want to go in having
a visual vocabulary.
But because it's a short film,I can shoot chronologically, so
we can build the visualvocabulary of the piece in the
first two days and then you cancall back to it in subsequent
days and shoot in a consistentapproach.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Well, that's going to be used as a social media clip.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
That was a great little tidbit.
I love that.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Now Jordan.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
We have Notes.
Is your film here at MammothFilm Festival?
What is next for we have Notes?
Is it premiering anywhere elseor as of now.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Next is the Phoenix Film Festival.
Okay, great and it's currentlyrunning in the Boulder Film
Festival.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Great.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Congrats, thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Two colds and then one hot.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I know, and then after that DVD.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Great, we'll see you at the next festival.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
Thank you so much, Bye everyone.
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