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| VIFF ’06 Interview – So Much So Fast director Steven Ascher |
So Much So Fast at 25th VIFF (www.viff.org) |
by Jason Whyte
“A black-humoured cliffhanger of romance, guerrilla science and the redefinition of time, So Much So Fast unfolds like a nonfiction novel. Stephen Heywood finds out he has ALS. His brother Jamie becomes obsessed with finding a cure. And the woman who’s falling in love with Stephen has a decision to make.” Director Steven Ascher, whose film “So Much So Fast” is screening at the 25th Vancouver International Film Festival (Sep. 28 – Oct. 13).
Is this your first film in the VIFF? Do you have any other festival experience? If you’re a festival veteran, let us know your favourite and least-favourite parts of the festival experience.
Our film Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern screened at VIFF. Been to many festivals; favourite part is watching the film with an audience and talking about it after.
Could you give me a little look into your background (your own personal biography, if you will), and what led you to the desire to want to make film?
Out of college, Steve was interested in a lot of things and saw filmmaking as a way to get access to many of them. He started working in New York, then in Boston at the MIT film section, which was then a terrific place for documentary. After the University of Iowa, Jeannie went to work for Iowa Public Television in a small documentary unit where everyone did everything and it was a film school in and of itself.
While you were making the movie, were you thinking about the future release of the film, be it film festivals, paying customers, critical response, and so forth?
Yes, we always try to put ourselves in the minds of the future audience when we’re making a film. That’s how we shoot, write and edit.
How did this project come to fruition? If you could, please provide me with a rundown, start to finish, from your involvement.
Jeannie's mother was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) just as we were finishing Troublesome Creek (about Jeannie’s parents and the Jordan family). We were looking for a way to address the impossibility of ALS ever since without falling into depressing clichés. The Heywoods were profiled in The New Yorker and had the right combination of black humour and a fascinating and varied cast of characters.
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What was the biggest challenge in the production of the movie, be it principal photography or post-production?
We’re always trying to make films that have layers of meaning. Hopefully there’s a plot or storyline to give it shape, but the real interest for us is around the edges and under the surface. In this kind of documentary, the only way we know to get those moments that reveal character, or suggest metaphor, or take the audience to an unexpected place is to spend a LOT of time filming. Or not filming, but being there just in case. Weeks, months, years--it’s an insane way to work! It’s not about rolling endless amounts of tape, but becoming interwoven with what’s going on so you can capture those moments that makes all the difference. It’s also about letting time pass, and seeing on film the power of time to change people’s lives. We did it on Troublesome Creek, which involved traveling back and forth to Iowa, and actually had a much shorter schedule than So Much So Fast. The first time we started filming this film back in 2000, we looked at each other and said, “Are we really ready to do this again?” Fortunately, we live in the same city as the Heywoods, so it was possible to keep this and other projects going at the same time. But making the commitment to doing a film like this is a huge challenge.
Please tell me about the technical side of the film; your relation to the film’s cinematographer, what the film was shot on and why it was decided to be photographed this way.
Steve is the cinematographer. We shot on widescreen DVCAM with a fairly big camera, the Sony DSR-500 because it has a gorgeous image, and this film had too high a shooting ratio to shoot film.
Talk a bit about the festival experiences, if any, that you have had with this particular film. Have you had any interesting audience stories or questions that have arisen at screenings? (This can also apply to non-festival screenings as well, if you have had one.)
This is an emotional film, but humour is a very important part of it. It’s important to the Heywoods and it’s important to us as filmmakers. In some rough cut screenings people got very quiet, and seemed to feel that maybe laughing was disrespectful in some way to what the Heywoods were going through. But the first time we showed it to a big audience, we actually said beforehand that it’s okay to laugh and it was incredibly gratifying to hear these waves of laughter all the way through the film. The film is meant to be emotional but not sentimental, and audiences get that. In the end, we want the audience to see that it’s a film about themselves as much as about the Heywood family or about ALS. A lot of people have responded that way.
Probably the best thing has been that families coping with ALS have reacted so powerfully. One man said, “it’s realistic but it gives me hope.” When Jeannie’s mother died, we felt like we had to do something, and what we do is make films. Our biggest hope is that the film will make a difference for ALS and the way our society approaches -- or avoids – illness. People everywhere are going through similar things, and it’s incredibly lonely and isolating when you’re in it. A story like this can make it not so lonely.
Who would you say your biggest inspirations are in the film world (directors, actors, cinematographers, etc)? Did you have any direct inspirations from filmmakers for this film in particular?
When we met, a key moment was when we discovered that Badlands was maybe each of our favourite films. Jeanne probably saw Herzog’s Aguirre -- The Wrath of God 20 times. Both of us have always loved the inherent drama of documentary and the lucid, documentary-like moments in dramas. Documentary and drama flow together as inspirations for all our films.
How far do you think you would want to go in this industry? Do you see yourself directing larger stories for a larger budget under the studio system, or do you feel that you would like to continue down the independent film path?
Do you think that you have “made it” in this profession yet? If you don’t believe so, what do you think would happen for that moment to occur?
Filmmaking is always a struggle. We’re fortunate to be able to make our films, and make a living doing it. Response from audiences is very important to us, and being at festivals gives you a chance to experience it. “Making it” is being able to make it, show it, and have it work for others.
Do you have an opinion on the issue of “A Film by (Insert Director Here)” ? Is this something you use? Many people collaborate to make a film yet simultaneously, the director is the final word on the production.
We work in many different modes, with big production units and small. This film was made by two people (we did everything but the music). “A film by” is exactly what this is.
What would you say to someone on the street to see your film instead of the latest blockbuster playing at the Paramount?
People tell us this film stays with them for a long time, and they think about it and feel it for days after.
No doubt there are a lot of aspiring filmmakers at film festivals who are out there curious about making a film of their own. Do you have any advice that you could provide for those looking to get a start?
Technology is cheap these days, so there’s not much to stop people from trying if they’re curious. See if it’s something you really like, and are capable of staying with it long enough to finish.
The 25th Vancouver International Film Festival runs from September 28th to October 13th, 2006. To see when this film is playing, and for more information on other screenings, happenings and what is going on at this year’s VIFF, point your browser to viff.org. – Jason Whyte, jasonwhyte@efilmcritic.com
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=1951
originally posted: 09/28/06 04:08:18
last updated: 10/31/06 20:38:31
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