I’D HOPE THAT YOU’RE PRETTY HAPPY WITH YOUR FILMS. Um, well there’s always . . . I feel that about everything I make. I’m like, oh, next time I’m really going to nail that. That’s what keeps you going, you know? But it’s probably for the best to like, live a little, before even knowing what I’m going to make the next movie about.
I’M GOING TO GO OUT ON A LIMB AND GUESS THAT YOU HAVE AN IDEA, THOUGH. I do, though it’s probably not a good idea for a movie. I can’t tell. I mean, it has to stand the test of time a little bit.
GOING BACK TO ME AND YOU, DID YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY GETTING IT MADE, GIVEN THAT IT WAS YOUR FIRST FEATURE? It was oddly easy. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think it was the very end of an era when people were like, okay, here’s a million dollars — or a little less than that — for a movie. Maybe this person has talent. Like, that just doesn’t happen quite so much for a movie without stars.
DID SOMEONE APPROACH YOU ON THAT ONE? No, we went to IFC and Film4. Film4 was involved in this one, too, but I don’t even think IFC is financing anything like that anymore. But, yeah, I remember with this one, I’d say to people, like, well, my first one wasn’t this hard, and they’d be like, ‘you’d never be able to make your first one now. It’s just the landscape has changed. It’s not like that anymore. You would have to get a star attached, especially with no one knowing who you are, and, you know, I was looking for money right in the heart of the recession, so it was, like, a little grim. [Laughs.] And I think everyone went through that, and now there’s suddenly all these movies after there not being any. I think a year ago, from what I hear, there was less sales, partly because there was less movies.
THE MAJOR STUDIOS ARE DEFINITELY PRODUCING FEWER MOVIES NOW. Uh-huh.
BUT THAT’S INTERESTING. I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT IMPACT THE RECESSION HAD ON THE INDEPENDENT SCENE. IS IT SAFE TO SAY THAT FUNDING IS COMING BACK? I don’t know. I mean, there’s also different budget concerns. A lot of people who were able and willing to make their movies for really cheap, you know — like thousands of dollars instead of hundreds of thousands, or millions? That world, I think, there’s only ever more movies like that, which is kind of great.
WELL, ONE OF THE REASONS I HAD ASKED WHAT FORMAT YOU HAD SHOT ON WAS DUE TO THE FACT THAT I’VE BEEN SEEING MORE AND MORE FILMS THAT HAVE BEEN SHOT USING CONSUMER-GRADE DIGITAL CAMERAS LIKE THE CANON 7D, AND THEY’RE GETTING GREAT RESULTS OUT OF THESE RELATIVELY INEXPENSIVE CAMERAS. I am curious. Like, this budget level, you’re kind of caught in between. You don’t have the flexibility of being really cheap, you know? I mean, it’s still just a little over a million. And you have all of the problems of, like, unions and all the real movie stuff to deal with, and industry stuff, so yeah, I think next time I either have to go cheaper, or make it for a lot more. This in-between is a pretty brutal realm.
