Independent Film-Maker Interview, part one

Here is part one of an interview I conducted for Sojourn's news journal, Travelogue, with two indie filmmakers from our community. Their film is set to debut at the Can't Dance Film Festival, here in Louisville at the Kentucky Theater, on Saturday, April 29:

This month we meet two of Sojourn’s filmmakers -- Bryan Miller and William Wallace. God led both men to him through the lives of others -- Bryan, through his wife Winona, who turned their first date into a witnessing experience, and William, initially through a Christian room-mate in Reno. Each man went through a series of experiences that deepened their walk with God and led them to Sojourn. They sat down with me to talk about their current joint film project, the intersection of Christianity and the arts, the merits and difficulties of making movies in Louisville, and many other aspects of film during an evening at Sunergos Coffee.

Travelogue: How did you get started as a filmmaker?

William: I was told early on when I decided to get into film that the way to get started was simply to start working in the industry, no matter what the project or the position. But I had no idea how to do that. I started doing short films and music videos. Then, while I was working a “normal” job at Humana, I took a vacation to intern on an indie feature. By the end of that first week I knew I couldn’t go back to Humana.
Film is such an incredible medium. You’re combining the visual arts with music, and of course at the most basic, you’re telling stories. So you’ve got writing, music, performance and visual arts, all in one format. And it’s crazy hours -- twelve hours is a short day when you’re making a film. But working on movies is the one thing I’ve done that I’m driven to do, to push myself.

Bryan: Yeah, when a person has a passion for film -- twelve hours, fourteen hours, sixteen, whatever, you don’t even feel it. It’s like nothing, because you’re doing what you were meant to do.

Travelogue: Bryan, how did you get started?

Bryan: William and I have both always been students of film in general -- not in an actual film school sense, but just lovers of film in every sense of the word.
I started out in technical theater production, though. I was working for a live theater production company that got hired to build a set for a movie called “Lawn Dogs.” Through that I got to know some people in the film who said, “You should come on board.”
I said, “Sure.” Within a couple weeks I knew that film was for me, that I didn’t want to do theater any more.


Travelogue: Is the film you’re working on now the first one you’ve made together?

William: Yes.

Bryan: Yes, and it’s our first full-length feature, writing and directing.

Travelogue: Do you consider yourselves primarily screenwriters, or directors?

Bryan: It all goes together. Everything. Even jobs like PA (production assistant) or working in the art department -- I don’t want to ever get to the place where I feel I’m above any of it. It’s all filmmaking.

William: To go along with that: we also work construction, to help pay the bills. But any day I can be working in film -- even the most mundane, lowest paying position on a film, is something that I’d rather be doing than construction, because when I’m working on a film I’m taking part in something I love.

Bryan: Yeah, that’s my mind-set. Because no matter what I’m doing on the set, I’m part of that filmmaking community, and I’m still learning and contributing.

Travelogue: Speaking of community, is Louisville supportive of filmmaking? How is the overall environment for film? This area is a hotbed for live theater, with things like the Humana Festival Of New American Plays. Do you sense that kind of buzz about film?

Bryan: Not yet, but it’s picking up steam. Kentucky is realizing it lost some opportunities, but it really does have everything you need, as far as landscape, for shooting. It has a riverfront, small, quaint towns, city scenes, hills -- everything but a coast.

William: Ernie Fletcher went to L.A. last year to pitch Kentucky to the major studios as a place to shoot films. So there’s definitely a realization and a desire to be more supportive of this art form, and to start offering more incentives and things of that nature.

Travelogue: What about red tape? For instance, obtaining permits for shooting scenes in public?

Bryan: Kentucky is great in that area. Very easy to work with.

William: We just got a permit to shoot on Bardstown Road. It’s supposed to take thirty days to receive your permit but we got ours in two days.

Bryan: And another good thing here is that most people haven’t had the opportunity to be around that experience. If you ask a business owner, “Can we use your business in a scene,” they’ll say, “Sure,” whereas in New York or L.A. you get a lot of “No, I don’t want you wrecking my place.”

Travelogue: You’ve each worked with some pretty big name actors: Kirsten Dunst, Gwyneth Paltrow, Orlando Bloom, Kurt Russell, Susan Sarandon … how is it to work with stars? Do they seem like “real people” or are they hard to deal with?

William: Typically big stars are fine. Most people who have more of a “diva” attitude are young, insecure people who are new to stardom or who haven’t quite made it.

Bryan: And you have to remember with some of the stars who have been famous for a long time -- they always have people doing things for them and giving them the “star treatment.” It really is a different reality than ours. It’s not their fault, it’s just the world they live in.

Travelogue: What are some of the bigger movies you’ve been in?

William: I worked on “Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story” and “Warm Springs,” which won an Emmy. Other than that I’ve worked on indies.

Bryan: I also worked on “Dreamer,” and I worked on “Elizabethtown” and a Turner Network Television movie called “Monday Night Mayhem.”

Travelogue: Tell me about the current project.

To Be Continued ....