April 3, 2004

Film forum highlights 3 pictures

By Bill Choy
Ashland Daily Tidings

It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get a feature film made, let alone one on a low budget.

And trying to attract a distributor and audience to an independent movie on a minuscule budget is another matter altogether.

The trials, tribulations and joys of filmmaking on a shoestring budget was the focus of a filmmakers forum at the Ashland Independent Film Festival on Friday.

Producer Andrew Scott Bryner of the film "The Second Degree" and directors Nathan Kurosawa of "The Ride" and Jaques Telemaque of "The Dogwalker," answered questions from the audience and moderator Darrel Pearce, who is on the festival's board of directors. All three films are showing at the festival, which runs until Monday at the Varsity Theatre.

All three were shot in about 17 to 21 days, not including pick-ups, although it took each filmmaker more than a year to have a finished product.

The panelists talked about their films and their craft. They agreed a film festival is the best place for low budget film to attract distributors and audiences to work that might otherwise go unnoticed.

'The Ride'

"The Ride," a family drama set in Hawaii, concerns an arrogant modern day surfer who gets magically transported back to 1911 and meets legendary Hawaiian surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku. From his experiences in the past, he learns respect for surfing and the Hawaiian culture that gave it birth. The total cost for the film was well under one million.

For Kurosawa, it's a thrill to talk to those attending a film festival.

"I love sharing my experiences," he said. "And I'm constantly learning something from the audience. They might bring up a point, or ask a question that forces me to think about things I haven't been thinking about.. That's what a film audience is - a community. It's always wonderful to share the film with them."

A key part of being a director is knowing that each day you have to make sure everything is running smoothly and fix any problems.

"It's crisis management every day," Kurosawa said. "You're always fixing problems and that's no exaggeration."

But the end results can be magical.

The film was shown at the Hawaii International Film Festival in November, and was projected on a 30-foot screen on Waikiki Breach. An audience of 15,000 watched in the film. It was the winner of the audience award for best feature at the festival.

Kurosawa enjoys being in the theater during a showing of his film.

"It's always nice to get a reaction from a live audience," he said. "It's one of the most enjoyable experiences when it goes your way. It's great to hear their reaction to what's going on. It's terrific."

'The Dogwalker'

"The Dogwalker" is about two troubled women, one who is a dog walker, and their rocky friendship, full of disillusionment and hard lessons. The total cost for the film was well under a million dollars. It won best first film at the 2003 San Jose Film Festival.

Telemaque went though several drafts of his screenplay. The story started as a comedy until his vision for a dark drama came to light.

"I wanted to do something in that world," he said. "I went though several drafts and it evolved ... I wasn't really in a mood to do a flat out comedy. I wanted to do something with a more serious subject matter. It was a story that found me."

Telemaque wrote the screenplay for his leading lady and wife Diane Gaidry, an actress who was once a dog walker herself.

He has taken his movie to approximately 35 film festivals. It will be distributed in movie houses in August, followed by release on DVD a short time later.

For a low-budget filmmaker, film festivals are a vital way to gain exposure to their work.

"It's an opportunity for my film to get exposure and perhaps get some special notice." Telemaque said. "And most importantly, for it to have the life that it was meant to have - to play in front of an audience ... It's difficult in the independent film world to get any type of mass distribution for your films, so festivals are a way to take your film to places that normal distribution wouldn't take it, like Ashland."

'The Second Degree'

"The Second Degree" is a romantic comedy about a group of 20-somethings who enjoy watching movies and playing the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," and waiting for something to happen. Nothing much happens, until the lead character decides to peel away the degrees that separate him from Bacon - and discovers something special and unavoidable about the second degree. It was made for $17,000. The film won the audience award at the Breckenridge Film Festival.

Bryner had the task of going through 20 hours of film to make a 95 minute movie. Besides being a producer, he did much of the editing.

"My job as a producer is to help wherever needed," he said. "And that's where I was needed the most."

He told the audience he encourages budding filmmakers who want to learn the craft to go out and make a film.

"Just do it," he said. "There's no experience like going out and actually shooting a film."

Afterward, Bryner said he appreciated talking to audiences about the film.

"I'm a big guy on perceptions an audience has," he said. "It helps me as I collect ideas that I can use on my next film ... I love festivals like this where we can meet the audience and share ideas."