ASU Professor Kevin Sandler hosts a Q&A with magician Teller after the screening of his film 'Play Dead with Teller. (Photo courtesy of Michael Brilliant)Opening weekend of the Phoenix Film Festival was full of quirky individuals looking forward to films that encompassed everything from horror and sci-fi to rom-coms and dramedys. But the most endearing and eccentric of the crowd turned out to be the directors, producers and writers of the unconventional and phenomenal films showing at the festival. The following are excerpts from a questions and answer session with directors, actors and audience members after the showing of select films about the inspiration behind the movies.
“Waking”
Feature-Length Film Competition
Director: Ben Shelton
Writer and Lead Actor: Skyler Caleb
In "Waking," Ben is in the prime of his life. He has the perfect girlfriend, a job lined up taking over his soon-to-be father-in-law's practice and a best friend who provides comic relief to the dullness of everyday life. But when Ben begins meeting a beautiful girl while he sleeps, he realizes he may be missing out on the girl of his dreams.
Skyler Caleb: I’d been kicking this one around for at least 10 years. Right after high school, I had a really intense dream about a girl I went to school with. I don’t know if anybody here has ever had a dream like that where you wake up, and you’re almost like, "Were they there, too?" I somehow found her phone number and called her, and she said, "Skyler? I’m sorry; who are you?" So I don’t think she was there. She ended up being in the bathtub too when I called her — really awkward. And then a friend of mine a couple years ago was having really intense dreams about an ex of his and I thought, "OK maybe some people are having similar feelings about this."
Ben Shelton: Skyler had written the script, and when I read it, they were looking for directors. I absolutely fell in love with the script, but obviously had my own thoughts and approach as a director.
SC: He wanted to recast the main actor.
“SuperFuzz”
Animated Short
Director: David Towles-Moore (former Sun Devil)
In "SuperFuzz," a ninja and a psychotic, metamorphic teddy bear fight over chocolate milk.
David Towles-Moore: There wasn’t really an inspiration. I just wanted to make something really crazy and insane.
Audience member: I’d say I think you succeeded! (applause)
DTM: I actually did the voice casting for it, but it took a long time, and I had to have a lot of sugar to get that level of intensity. No one else could get that kind of crazy, so I just spent a whole bunch of time in the sound booth sitting, screaming and yelling. People were like, "Are you OK?" And I was like, "Yes, I’m just doing my thing."
"Putzel"
Feature-Length Film Competition
Director: Jason Chaet
Supporting actress: Allegra Cohen
In "Putzel," Walter Himmelstein, known by everyone on the Upper West Side as Putzel, is bent on taking over the family business of bagels and lox. In this comedy, Putzel will go to any and all extremes to keep his "40-year plan," but the arrival of Sally and her romantic involvement with his uncle, threatens to disrupt his image of the future.
Jason Chaet: The idea for the movie came from my writing partner. I realized one day that I hadn’t left the upper west side in six months, because I was working and living there and all our friends were there. I told him and he was like, "That’s a movie." It took a year and a half to figure out which movie.
JC: Most of it was filmed legally in New York. We had permits for everything except the subway; that’s the only footage we stole. We were on the subway from midnight to 4 a.m. just up and down the one train and the 2, the express, with a very small crew. Every time we saw cops, we’d switch trains. And Jack, (the title character) is very Putzel-like; he was freaking out the whole time. It was very cute. We should have shot behind the scenes.
JC: What’s a Putzel? What do you guys think? It’s a little putz!
Allegra Cohen: It’s now become a universal term of a guy who’s afraid of leaving his comfort zone. I think we know many, many Putzels in our lives.
JC: I think it’s harder to raise $200,000 then $10 million for a movie because of its scope. It’s definitely an indie, but it’s also accessible. A lot of indies are very dark, which I love, but that’s not the story we wanted to tell with this case. So financers are looking for things that are little bit darker, a little bit more ‘awards bait,’ and obviously this movie is way too weird and specific for Hollywood.
“Lonely Boy”
Feature-Length Film Competition
Director: Dale Fabrigar
Writer and Lead Actor: Alev Aydin
Franky, a schizophrenic bachelor, has recently liberated himself from medication and is attempting to pursue the world of dating. When he does discover a genuine connection with a girl, he wages a harder war against the illness that keeps hims from seeing reality.
Alev Aydin: Three years ago my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer, and the placement of her tumor manifested symptoms that were very similar to paranoid schizophrenics. I wrote the script mainly as a creative/personal outlet, which grew into something much more. ... The intention was to create an ending in which the film lives with you after the credits role. So you’re not wrong in thinking that; you’re also not right in thinking that. I’m just not going to validate what the answer is there.
“The Kings of Summer”
Showcase Feature Film
Directed: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
"The Kings of Summer" is a coming-of-age comedy about three teenage friends who run away from home to spend a summer in the woods living off the land, the film examines friendship, family and independence in a new light.
Jordan Vogt-Roberts: The script was written by Chris — he grew up in Staten Island. I don't know if you know, but that’s a pretty weird place. He is Biaggio (the eccentric kid from the film). The fact that I found a kid that looks exactly like him was just perfect. But that kid (Moises Arias) was on Hannah Montana for years, which means absolutely nothing to me, but we would be in grocery stores in Ohio and teen girls would come up crying "Are you the guy from—?" Because to an entire generation, he was like their Steve Urkel.
JVR: We didn’t want to cast 25-year-olds. We wanted to cast awkward teenagers. Getting the facial hair right was always really difficult, but we wanted it to be slightly idealized as if it was more what the kids thought the facial hair looked like versus what they could actually grow.
JVR: Hollywood doesn’t make that many good movies. When they first sent this script to me, I thought it was a joke, like "How is somebody not already attached to it?" There’s a bunch of comedians in this movie that you don’t know now, but I really think in five or six years will be running sh-t. ... This whole movie is a process of walking a very fine line tonally. I think a lot of people want to put comedy in a box. I think that’s bullsh-t. My favorite comedies are ones that are dark and weird and have challenges and characters that upset you.I think if you ground something, or root something in a character’s flaws that you can relate to, you can go to a world of slapstick and then go to a 17-year-old kid gutting a rabbit. Because if the audience is invested, they’ll go with it.
Reach the reporter at ljlieber@asu.edu
