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| VIFF ‘06 Interview – Run Robot Run director Daniel O’Connor |
Run Robot Run at VIFF (www.viff.org) |
by Jason Whyte
“Run Robot Run! is a comedy that takes place in the near future. One day Kent Weston is replaced in his comfortable job by a robot. A good looking robot. Well programmed. Sexy. When Kent’s pretty colleague Allison starts to show interest in the robot over Kent, Kent declares war. But proving he is better than a machine isn’t as easy as he’d hoped. Winning Allison’ s heart will require Kent to do things he wouldn’t have thought were possible…” Daniel O’Connor, director of “Run Robot Run” which screens at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival (Sep.28-Oct. 13)
Is this your first film in the VIFF? (Or the first film you have) Do you have any other festival experience? If you’re a festival veteran, let us know your favourite and least-favorite parts of the festival experience.
This is my first VIFF film. I’ve been to many other festivals and they are generally a lot of fun. You get to meet other filmmakers and talk about your projects, your challenges, your dreams and more challenges. My favorite part of any festival is sitting in the audience as my film screens and enjoying the audience reaction. I can’t think of a least favorite part other than going to festivals where you have to pay your own air and hotel.
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?
I’ve been writing since I was a kid. Then I studied music for six years (still as a kid). Then I got into photography. My entrée into film was when I went to the Ontario College of Art to sign up for a darkroom course. It was “Meet the Teacher” night and there were desks set up all around the room. I went to the desk where the darkroom teacher was supposed to be and no one was there. So I asked the guy next to him what he was teaching, and it turned out to be filmmaking. You got to write, direct, shoot and edit your own film. I signed up. Once I saw my finished film, I was hooked. It was a combination of everything I loved doing.
My brief biography is that I did a master’s degree in counseling psychology then started working as a corporate coach working for Fortune 500 companies. At the same time I began making my own short films. Over the past 18 years I’ve been doing both, everything leading to where I am today, celebrating the birth of my first feature film.
Growing up, you were no doubt asked the eternal question “When I grow up I want to be a …” Finish this sentence, please!
When I was growing up I wanted to be a carpenter. I liked the idea of building things. That hasn’t changed. I just don’t like splinters.
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?
When I was making the movie, I was thinking of only one thing – How can I make this movie the best movie I can possibly make? I knew that to be successful it would have to do well on the festival circuit and please customers. I probably thought about that a little more when I was writing it. But once we were into pre-production, I was just trying to be as true as I could to the vision of the film I had in my head. It would scare me to think of anything else because if you
How did this project come to fruition? If you could, please provide me with a rundown, start to finish, from your involvement.
I wrote the script over three months. It came easily and the first draft isn’t too different from the last. Then I went to Telefilm who were very encouraging but chose to support a different film that year. So I spent a year trying to get a manager in LA, which I did. He suggested a shoot a 10-minute film as a calling card, which I did. A Wing and a Prayer did very well on the film circuit and is a film I’m very proud of. So I took the film to him, he liked it, everything seemed fine but ultimately he never shopped my script around. So, I got fed up and decided that if the film was going to get made, I was going to have to find the money. I got a group of actors together, held a reading at a local bar then presented the business plan to friends and family. My Executive Director Nicholas Tabarrok of Darius Films was very helpful and has a great track record. It impressed the investors that he’d been through the cycle from development to distribution many times. Ultimately, we rounded up enough money for a low budget film.
What was the biggest challenge in the production of the movie, be it principal photography or post-production?
The single biggest challenge was the tight time frame we had to shoot. We shot the whole film in 18 days. That meant that we never really had time to experiment, to try things a few different ways, to fool around. We had to get our shots and move on. Everyone was very good about and thank God we had a great cast. But next time I’d like to have more breathing room. It just puts too much pressure on people.
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.
We shot the film on HD. It was a very deliberate choice. Even if we’d had a few million dollars to spend, for this film, I thought that HD was a better choice than film. Our story is set in the future and I like the look of HD for these kinds of stories. It’s hard to explain but it’s a different feeling than film and it feels modern, slightly unfamiliar. It makes sense to me for a film where we aren’t trying to be a big movie, just tell a story in simple, clean way.
Even thought we chose to shoot on digital, we didn’t want the film to necessarily feel like one of those shaky-cam movies, you know, the low budget horror movies. So we shot in a more formal way, using a tripod a lot and, when we had the time, some dolly moves. We spent a lot of time on the colour scheme and working with our production designer. Making a movie that takes place in the future on a low budget without looking cheesy or that you’re trying to do more than you can accomplish isn’t easy. Luckily we had Vlasta Svoboda on our team. Vlasta has been in production design for more than 30 years. She art directed To Die For. She was tremendously helpful in selecting what we needed to achieve the look we were striving for. I think the sets look great.
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 my first festival with RRR.
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?
I’m a big fan of simple stories told well. One of my favourite films is The Straight Story by David Lynch. It’s beautifully told and very well acted. Lasse Halstrom’s My Life as Dog is another film that comes to mind. I also like the comedies of Woody Allen (his early ones) I think he’s a great writer and I like the way he stages scenes in long takes. I didn’t do much of that here but I have in the past and will again. I’m also a big fan of some of the directors of the past like Billy Wilder and Frank Capra. So, any influences on this film would be an amalgamation of things I’d picked up from many different artists.
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?
I think the lines are very blurry right now between what an indie movie is and what a studio picture is. Most of the films at the Oscars last year were technically indie but had big starts and multi-million dollar budgets. I would like to direct movies with the best talent available in whatever system gave me the most control over the final product.
If you weren’t in this profession, what other career do you think you would be interested in?
That’s easy. I would be a musician first, then a photographer like Robert Bresson. And if I had another life to live, I’d be a philanthropist; someone who helped others reach new levels of success in their lives.
Please tell me some filmmakers or talent that you would love to work with, even if money was no object.
Wow – my dream team would include William F. Macy, Holly Hunter, Molly Parker, Jason Lee, Stanley Tucci, TOM HANKS and Naomi Watts, to name a few.
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?
I think you make it when you’ve made a few movies that have had reasonable commercial and critical success, when you can get meetings and people come forward to finance your projects. I haven’t made it yet.
How important do you think the critical/media response is to film these days, be it a large production, independent film or festival title?
I might get in trouble for saying this but I think it’s clear that critics have never been less influential. It used to be that they could make or break a movie but these days the web is a much more powerful tool for getting word out on the quality of a movie. Of course, web noise can also be kind of fickle in predicting success. See Snakes on a Plane. That being said, for small films hitting the festival circuit with little or now marketing muscle behind them, positive exposure in the media can be a huge boost. We’re hoping to get some of that action on our film!
If your film could play in any movie theatre in the world, which one would you choose?
I would choose the one that held all my dearest friends and family, their friends, several hugely influential Hollywood players, all my favorite actors and every single one of the girls who rejected me in high school.
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.
Okay, here’s where I’m a bit of a hypocrite. I use A Daniel O’Connor Film. But we all know that the only film that has a director’s name in it like that should be one where he or she did the make up, built the sets, etc. Even Woody Allen doesn’t take that title when he’s one guy who could build a good case for doing it. However, I think that early on filmmakers need to get whatever recognition they can as they build their brand. We need for people to see our names and think good thoughts. So I’m doing it now for that reason but hope that in future I’ll stop. It’s the opposite of humble and just not accurate.
What would you say to someone on the street to see your film instead of the latest blockbuster playing at the Paramount?
I’d say that if you’d like to see a very funny movie about someone going head to head with a robot, this is the movie to see. No corny, predictable moments, just good, clever fun.
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?
Start today. Don’t wait. Believe in yourself. There’s no one else in the world exactly like you.
And finally…what is your all time favourite motion picture, and why?
I love It’s a Wonderful Life for the message it brings.
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=1974
originally posted: 10/09/06 05:52:20
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