Category: Movies

Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby: 2023 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artists

Posted on by James Hutchison
Photograph of Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

On September 16th, 2023, friends, family, and members of the Alberta arts community gathered in Medicine Hat to celebrate this year’s recipients of The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Awards. This year’s recipients include playwright and theatre artist Mieko Ouchi, film and theatre performer Michelle Thrush and film animators Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby.

Chair of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Arlene Strom said, “Albertans can be proud of the contributions of these Distinguished Artists who have pushed the boundaries of art to reflect indigenous identity and expression, present a more inclusive and diverse view of Alberta’s history, and highlight the art of film animation in Alberta and worldwide. Each has contributed immeasurably to the development of the province’s artists, arts communities and expanding art disciplines.”

L to R: Clint Lawrence, Mieko Ouchi, Michelle Thrush, Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby, Photo Credit Randy Feere
L to R: Clint Lawrence, Mieko Ouchi, Michelle Thrush, Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby, Photo Credit Randy Feere

Her Honour, the Honourable Salma Lakhani, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta said, “The women receiving the Distinguished Artist Award this year have offered important contributions to the arts in Canada. We have all been granted the opportunity, through their work, to learn and grow in our understanding of the human condition. Artists such as these are essential to the lifeblood of our communities, and we are truly fortunate to have them as cultural leaders in their respective disciplines, in our province and our country as a whole.”

I contacted Michelle Thrush and Mieko Ouchi to talk with them about their work and creative process. You can read those interviews by following the links above. I also spoke with Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis who are celebrated Oscar nominated and award-winning contributors to the art of film animation. Their unique visual style has captured the hearts and imaginations of audiences worldwide in ground-breaking short films that explore themes of human connection, environmentalism, and the fragility of life. In our conversation we talked about how their work has evolved over the years, the relationship between the artist and the audience, and what it means to be recognized for their work by receiving The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award.

JAMES HUTCHISON

After thirty-plus years you have created a body of work including the three films you’ve produced together and those are:

When the Day Breaks nominated for an Oscar in 1999 and is a story about a pig living in a large city who witnesses the accidental death of a stranger.

Wild Life which was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 and tells the story about a young remittance man sent from England to Alberta to try ranching in 1909 and who is not in any way prepared for the harsh conditions of prairie life he encounters.

And The Flying Sailor which was up for an Oscar this year and is inspired by the true story of Charles Mayers a sailor who was blown two kilometres through the air and landed naked but alive after the Halifax explosion on December 6, 1917.

So, I’m wondering how have the types of stories and themes you’re interested in evolved over the years. What kind of stories did you tell when you began your careers and what type of stories are you telling now, and do you see any sort of path from that early work to the work you’re doing now?

WENDY TILBY

Well, it’s funny, having completed our third film together we’re only now realizing that they’re really all the same. They have similar themes. Preoccupations. When we’re coming up with an idea we’re not thinking, “Oh, yes – let’s do something along the same lines of the previous one.” In fact, we actually specifically don’t do that. But we have noted, and other people point out, that there is a kind of a common thread that I suppose could be described as connectedness. That’s one theme that keeps emerging. And we do seem to touch on death a lot. We’re not obsessed with death, but death is an element of each of the three films and it seems to be a way to talk about life, or aspects of life. If you look at When the Day Breaks, Wildlife, and The Flying Sailor that idea has just become a little more distilled over the years.

When the Day Breaks Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

AMANDA FORBIS

I think death is a part of every one of them. In The Day Breaks it was primarily about the unseen and often unappreciated ways in which we’re connected to others. In Wild Life it was more about what happens when that connection is severed. And in The Flying Sailor he seems to me to be going solo. He may be reviewing his life and reviewing his connections but he’s on his own and I’m reminded of the line, “You’re born alone, you live alone, and you die alone.” It’s a very bleak statement but we hope that The Sailor isn’t as bleak as that.

WENDY

The explosion and the near-death experience of the sailor is a way for us to explore, in a nutshell, who he was – which is what often happens in near-death experiences. There is a review of life that many people have written about and so we wanted to get at that question – what is life? Is it our physical selves? We’re made up of bones and cells and vessels, but really what our lives are is a collection of experiences and connections and relationships and memories, all encapsulated in this bag of flesh.

The Flying Sailor Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

JAMES

You’re talking about connections and earlier today I was thinking about how social media has changed the way we connect to the world just as an individual experience. Have you been pondering social media and these connections between people and has that interested you in any way as something you want to explore in your work?

AMANDA

It certainly interests us on a personal level and on how you navigate it because it changes all the ground rules. I’ll just speak for myself. I sometimes say extremely rude things about other drivers from the safety of my own car, and what social media does is it provides us all with our own cars and everybody feels free to say horrible things to other people.

WENDY

Yes, the trolls come out.

AMANDA

But on the other hand, it is a fantastic connection tool. Even at my darkest moments on Facebook I still like seeing my cousin Barbara on her recumbent cycling trips in Oregon. And so just like every single human endeavour it’s a huge mixed bag. But as to whether that will filter its way into our work remains to be seen.

WENDY

Obviously, we contemplate it in a way that everybody does. We marvel at it and how we are able to connect with people virtually. In our film When the Day Breaks – which was made in the late 90s – connectedness is illustrated by way of the plumbing and wires, the telephone and subway – the vessels that literally connect us in cities. That all looks very quaint now.

When the Day Breaks Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

AMANDA

I never thought of that but it’s true. It looks totally quaint.

WENDY

How much has changed in a couple of decades is remarkable.

JAMES

I think about the telephone a lot because I remember the family phone. And so the family phone was in the kitchen, and people would call the family. So, I would end up talking to my aunts and my parent’s friends, and when my friends would call my parents would end up talking to my friends. It was more of a community and you touched base with many different people involved with the family because it was a family phone. And that has gone away. Now we have our individual phones and I’ve lost all those unexpected connections to people that just don’t happen anymore.

WENDY

We even had a party line for a while.

AMANDA

Yeah, a party line. That’s a connection you don’t want. It is weird how we’re simultaneously much more disconnected to people and much more connected to them.

The Flying Sailor Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

JAMES

My next question was about how people access your work now. We have YouTube we have Vimeo we have all these ways for me to access stuff through the internet on my desktop on my home TV. Not that long ago about the only way to see your work was if they ran it before a movie or you sought out the NFB library. Do you think that connection has changed the relationship between the filmmaker, the product, and the audience?

AMANDA

Well, yes. Short NFB films used to seem more precious. Now content feels really disposable. How much do they upload on YouTube every day — it’s astonishing. When we started out you could work in the short-animated film area and if you made a good film it would have a shelf life of at least forty years, and it would be in the pantheon of NFB films, and I’m not even sure that pantheon really exists anymore. So that’s one way in which it’s changed.

And people used to ask, “How do we see your work?” And we’d say, “You can go to the library or you can go to the NFB library or if you’re really lucky you might be able to see it at a theatre or on TV.” And so, it’s really lovely to be able to just direct people straight to your work. And also to have our film, The Flying Sailor, on The New Yorker site brought us a massive audience we hadn’t had before.

So, there are tremendous advantages like that, but then there’s the horrible prospect of people watching the film on their phone. I don’t think there’s any filmmaker that likes to see that happen. A couple of times we’ve had people say. “Oh yeah, I watched it on my phone.” And they don’t say much about it – and then if they happen to see it in a big theatre they’re much more profoundly affected. It’s a totally different experience.

The Flying Sailor Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

WENDY

And we really struggled with that, particularly with The Flying Sailor, because the sound was mixed in a new technology called Atmos, which is a souped-up Dolby with a lot of speakers. We’re not really fans of a lot of the gimmicks with sound but in this case when you experienced the film in a theatre with Atmos in just the right circumstances, it was fantastic. You felt the sound of the explosion viscerally and not in a gimmicky way. We’ve had to accept that very few people are going to see it that way.

JAMES

So, in theatre ten-minute plays are very popular. And I think ten minutes as a platform lets you break some conventions and look at stories in different ways and I’m wondering in what ways do you think the short film format allows you to explore things differently – to look at different subjects – and topics and to examine story.

WENDY

I think the length is appealing to us as animators because of the way we work. We’re like a little cottage industry. We like to do everything ourselves and there’s a handcrafted quality to what we do. The more people you get involved the more diluted that process is and it’s hard to find ten people to paint the way we paint or to draw the way we draw. And if more people are involved it becomes an assembly line. Animation, no matter how you do it, is onerous – it’s tedious – and it’s going to require a lot of hands the longer it gets. So, feature length animation always looks a little watered down in terms of the technique.

AMANDA

Well not always. It depends on who’s doing it.

WENDY

Well, they’re less idiosyncratic because it’s an assembly line. And also the budgets are such that to get the money needed to make a feature it has to be a money-maker. And what we do at the Film Board is not reliant on it making money. We’re making films as art and there’s no expectation it’s going to turn a profit. And so as a filmmaker and as an artist that’s a…

AMANDA

…gift…

WENDY

… and greatly appealing. So, nobody’s going to be after us about it being popular in that sense. And we like the concision. It’s like a poem or a short story. Everything we put in there is in there is there for a reason because it’s so much work. We wouldn’t put it in there if it wasn’t furthering our story. We’re striving to convey character in as few strokes as possible and that’s challenging and that’s interesting to us.

Wild Life Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

AMANDA

You come up with an idea for a shot and it has to convey a number of things. You’re trying to pack as much into every shot as you can and then you tweak it so it goes in a slightly different direction and it says more. And then you throw it out. Then you put it back in again. It’s a bit of a puzzle. A creative puzzle. And it’s a lot of fun and that’s something that I don’t think the long form does in the same way.

And as you say it frees you up from conventional dramatic structure. You don’t necessarily have to have a dramatic arc and a climax three-quarters of the way through and then have the character be changed and be a new person at the end of the story. You don’t have to follow those conventional structures because you’re not holding the audience that long, so we’re big fans of the short structure.

WENDY

Short animation is also is also a very rich form of expression. If you go to an animation festival and you see an evening of animation with one film after another it’s almost too much. It’s like too many candies at once because each one is so rich.

Wild Life Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

JAMES

I’m curious about your thoughts right now in regard to artificial intelligence. We’re just on the cusp of something changing and I’m not looking for any definite answers. But in the six months, it’s just been in the conversation. There are good things and bad things about it just like you mentioned before with social media. What are some of your general thoughts about AI and how do you feel it’s going to influence your work and the future of creation?

WENDY

A friend of ours, Jay Ingram, just published a book called The Future of Us. He was writing about AI just as ChatGPT was coming out – along with other major developments – and he kept having to update it. It was frustrating because even by the publication date the landscape was still changing. And so, it’s one of those things that’s almost impossible to talk about because the ground is shifting beneath our feet.

In our field people are nervous about it. And I think it’s actually more nerve-wracking when you think about it in the context of news and people imitating other people’s likeness or voice. And we work in advertising too and that’s a whole other ball game. I think in advertising it’s going to put a lot of people out of work, particularly in storyboarding or visualizing.

It’s actually a helpful tool because you can ask it to visualize a scene in three dimensions which is helpful for storyboarding and blocking the action. Whether it will replace what we’re doing remains to be seen, but what we’re doing is so specifically aimed at something that’s not AI that I hope that distinction will continue to be appreciated. But I don’t know. It is a little bit frightening and intriguing at the same time.

AMANDA

I think one of the things that bothers me is that since 1830 or whatever we’ve been looking at the extinction of craft. People who craft. Craftsmen. And what Wendy was saying is the people who storyboard and who do previsualization – these people who are deeply committed to that part of filmmaking – they’re out of a job. And that’s regrettable because humans are built to craft, and craftspeople always bring a depth to what they’re doing that cannot be imitated – in the same way that a handmade box is a completely different thing than a box that’s slammed together in a factory.

And then if you consider that we don’t even really understand how AI learns at this point and how it’s producing what it does we can’t really know where it’s going to end or if it’s going to end. And that’s pretty alarming.

So, the thing I have to lean on as an artist and I’m talking about the realm of really great art – that I’m not going to lay claim to – but a really great piece of art takes you somewhere that you didn’t see coming, or makes a point to you that you understand but it comes from way back in the depths of your brain and you recognize the truth of it. I would like to believe that’s beyond AI.

So, I trotted that thought out to our friend Jay and Jay said, “Oh, bullshit.” (laughs) He said, “It’ll get there.” And then I thought, “Well he’s not an artist. I don’t know if he necessarily feels that in the same way as I do.”

WENDY

Well, it brings up so many bigger questions about consciousness and what it is to be human and the big question of whether or not machines will ever get there. We’ve played a little bit with Midjourney and it’s a program where you can tell it to give you an image of a man running down a hallway…

AMANDA

…in the style of Picasso…

WENDY

…carrying a briefcase and see what comes up. And it’s very good at ultra-realism and it’s astonishing really what it does but it’s quite boring. A lot of people would be seduced by it and enraptured by the images that it gives you. We didn’t really like them but we were impressed by it that’s for sure.

L to R: Arlene Strom, Chair Lg Arts Awards Foundation Board, Distinguished Artists Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby, Her Honour Salma Lakhani, Photo Credit Randy Feere
L to R: Arlene Strom, Chair Lg Arts Awards Foundation Board, Distinguished Artists Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby, Her Honour Salma Lakhani, Photo Credit Randy Feere

JAMES

You’re one of this year’s recipients of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards and so what was that evening like – you know – where everyone gathered to honour the recipients? What sort of weekend was it like and what does it mean to be recognized for your work by receiving that award?

AMANDA

The evening itself was – what’s the right word – it was elegant. It was really a wonderful event, and everybody involved with it did such a great job, and Salma Lakhani was fantastic. I don’t know how to get past saying all these effusive things, but it was a beautiful evening, and it was actually a genuine honour to be there. The whole weekend was really fun.

WENDY

And two dear friends of ours were also there. Part of the award is you are able to honour one other artist. We actually sneaked in with two because there are two of us after all. And they were there and that made it especially fun. It was more fun than the Oscars.

AMANDA

It was more meaningful than the Oscars.

WENDY

And much less stress.

AMANDA

And I don’t think we’ve necessarily been on Alberta’s radar (if I can even say a strange thing like that) so to get that honour at a provincial level and to be declared someone of note in the Alberta Arts scene felt pretty great. Of course, at the Oscars, you talk to lots of people who have interesting things to say about your work and care very deeply about animation, but really that kind of all gets swept aside for the grand pageant and the promotion. But to be nominated for the LG award by somebody in the Arts community and then have it juried by the Arts community is very meaningful. It’s much more meaningful than measuring success by whether or not our film was on a billboard on Sunset Boulevard.

Interview with Griffin Cork – Actor, Producer, Filmmaker

Posted on by James Hutchison

Griffin Cork
Photo by Tim Nguyen

When I was eighteen I was freaking out about paying for theatre school and doing this career because I’d been told how hard it is and there are so many unknowns, and my dad sat down beside me, and he was quiet for a moment, and then he put his hand on my back and he went, “Do the thing that you want to do until you don’t want to do it anymore. And then find something else to do.” And I stopped freaking out. And of all my mentors, that sentence is the best piece of advice I ever got, because you wouldn’t want to be forty and going, “God, I wish at eighteen I’d gone and done what I wanted to do.”

At twenty-four Griffin Cork has already stacked up an impressive list of film and theatre credits and several awards that illustrate his artistic talent, hard work, and dedication. In 2017 The Alberta Foundation for the Arts named him one of the top 25 Young Artists in the province, and in 2020 he was one of ten recipients of a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award.

Griffin has worked extensively on stage appearing in productions for Theatre Calgary, The Shakespeare Company, Lunchbox Theatre, and Birnton Theatricals. He made his film debut at the age of twelve alongside Matthew Perry in the feature film The Ron Clark Story and can currently be seen in the Alberta produced Abracadavers by Numera Films which is available on the Fantasy Network and Amazon Prime.

Griffin is currently working on several film, television and theatre projects while also launching and co-hosting The Breakfast Dish Podcast along with his mother Karen Johnson-Diamond. The Breakfast Dish offers listeners get-to-know-you conversations with a variety of artists creating dance, music, visual art, and theatre online.

I contacted Griffin over Zoom back in July and we had a far-ranging conversation about theatre, acting, Dungeons and Dragons, and his experience at Alberta Theatre Projects as part of the D. Michael Dobbin Apprenticeship Program.

GRIFFIN CORK

I heard about the D. Michael Dobbin Apprenticeship Program at ATP and I applied and got in and it was phenomenal because you are cycled through almost every department at the theatre. So, my first couple of weeks were in props and costumes. And then, marketing, and then play development, and fundraising, and youth education and outreach. And as part of the apprenticeship, you get to assistant stage manage a show during the ATP season, and I worked on the Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst with Ghost River Theatre.

My stage management team was Jen Swan and Patti Neice, and I had an appreciation for the acting side of production, but I don’t think I had a full appreciation of stage management until that show, because Ghost River Theatre Shows are very tech-heavy. I think Jen was working with something like a thousand to fifteen hundred cues and there were a million props. It was very Brechtian, and the audience sees everything working. That gave me such an appreciation and love for stage managers everywhere.

Braden Griffiths in Alberta Theatre Projects’ production of Ghost River Theatre’s The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst. Photo by Benjamin Laird. Set and Costume Design: Patrick Du Wors. Lighting Design: Kerem Çetinel. Sound Design and Video Technology: Matthew Waddell. Video Design and Technology: Wladimiro A. Woyno Rodriguez.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Talk about being thrown into the deep end.

GRIFFIN

Totally and you know, Eric Rose and David van Belle from Ghost River Theatre and everyone were as accommodating as they could be. But because of the nature of that show and how intense it was no one really had the chance to sit down and explain things. Which is also kind of how I prefer learning anyway is trial by fire. I like going in and figuring it out in the moment. That’s how I learn best. When there’s a little bit of pressure.

JAMES

What was that show about?

GRIFFIN

So, basically there’s this British race to sail around the world solo – you don’t bring anybody with you – it’s just you in a boat sailing around the world. And Donald Crowhurst isn’t really a sailor. He’s more of an inventor and things went poorly on the ship.

JAMES

He and several others set off on this voyage and he decided he’d never make it. So, he went down and pretended to be going around the world, but all the time he was just floating off South America. His plan wasn’t to win the race but then everyone else ended up dropping out of the race for various reasons and he was the last one, and he knew that if he finished the race he’d be found out.

GRIFFIN

Totally. He’s faking logs. He’s faking radio check-ins. And the craziest part is the only real evidence we have of his race is his black box entries, his fake logs, and his journals. There’s not actually a clear picture of what happened and what he did and where he went, because eventually he goes absolutely insane. And I can’t remember if this is true or not, but in our adaptation of the story he jumps off the boat and drowns.

The cast of Alberta Theatre Projects’ production of Ghost River Theatre’s The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst. Photo by Benjamin Laird. Set and Costume Design: Patrick Du Wors. Lighting Design: Kerem Çetinel. Sound Design and Video Technology: Matthew Waddell. Video Design and Technology: Wladimiro A. Woyno Rodriguez.

JAMES

It’s true that the boat was found abandoned.

GRIFFIN

Yeah, they did find the boat. So anyway, it’s a combination of sea madness, and guilt, and you know everything that he would put his family through if he came back and it was revealed that he faked it. It was an outstanding production.

JAMES

So, looking at that experience, and the people you’re connected with now. How has that helped you in your career making those connections and working on those shows?

GRIFFIN

That’s the number one benefit of the MDA is that it allows you to meet people in the profession. ATP is in the Arts Commons which is Calgary’s central arts building. And so you’re around there all the time working in the office when actors and directors are coming in to pick up their scripts or when you go down to the cafe and get your lunch for the day and you meet people there. It’s a phenomenal networking opportunity.

The cast of Alberta Theatre Projects’ production of Ghost River Theatre’s The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (on screen: Griffin Cork (Apprentice Stage Manager), Braden Griffiths and Vanessa Sabourin). Photo by Benjamin Laird. Set and Costume Design: Patrick Du Wors. Lighting Design: Kerem Çetinel. Sound Design and Video Technology: Matthew Waddell. Video Design and Technology: Wladimiro A. Woyno Rodriguez.

JAMES

Who are some of the folks who have been significant for providing you some guidance and what are some of the key pieces of advice they’ve given you over time?

GRIFFIN

I remember there was a point at the University of Lethbridge where I had to decide between two shows and I called Braden Griffiths who played Donald Crowhurst, and I aspire to have a career trajectory like his and also to be as well-liked as Braden is. He’s a phenomenal actor. He’s a lovely man. I consider him a very close friend, and the best advice he gave me about choosing a role was, “Don’t think about the production, don’t think about the company, don’t think about the money, none of those things matter. If there’s a conflict, you go with the one that serves you artistically at the time.”

JAMES

What role was that?

GRIFFIN

I had to choose between an ensemble part in the UofL mainstage production of Carrie, or a decently larger part in Dennis Kelly’s show DNA but with Theater Extra which is the student company at the University of Lethbridge. It’s about a group of teens that do something bad and then they have to decide how to cover it up and deal with that guilt. I eventually ended up going with the DNA role because it was a little meatier. I’m glad I did. I loved that show so much that my company Hoodlum Theatre produced it the summer after.

Hoodlum Theatre’s Production of DNA by Dennis Kelly 
(From L to R): Taylor Sisson, Walker Nickel, Ciaran Volke, John Tasker and Miku Beer
Photo by Griffin Cork

GRIFFIN

And I have to give love to Samantha McDonald. She was one of, and still is one of, my greatest mentors. When she was production manager at Lunchbox Theatre she would look over some of the grants I wrote and she gave us rehearsal space for Hoodlum’s first show. And she took me out to dinner one time and the piece of advice that she gave me was, “There are going to be so many things in this career that try and break you. Don’t let them break you. There are going to be so many things in this career that don’t mean to deter you but will. Don’t let them deter you.” And I think that’s a really elegant and poignant way of saying this career is hard work but it’s possible, and there’s a lot of things that really make it worthwhile.

And my mom and dad are Karen Cork and Kevin Cork. Karen is better known by her stage name Karen Johnson-Diamond. My mother is still an actress and a director, and my father used to be one. He went to Stratford for a few years and I think he had too many productions where he was guard number three and he got kind of disillusioned. So it was like, I don’t want to do this anymore, and now he’s a financial planner. And having someone who has a financial brain in your family, who also knows what it’s like to live on an actor’s budget, is insanely helpful.

Kevin Cork and Karen Johnson-Diamond in As You Like It RIGHT before they got married!

JAMES

How does he allow his artistic side to still get sunlight? What does he do?

GRIFFIN

I’ll tell you, James, him and I have really connected over the past three or four years over Dungeons and Dragons. Which is the tabletop role-playing game and I think the way he gets his creative side out is by being the dungeon master. And in Dungeons and Dragons you can buy books of modules and campaigns to send your characters through, but my dad doesn’t do that. My dad creates his own worlds and rules and settings and characters and plot events. He basically writes a campaign or a quest. And what’s great about it is, if we make stuff up in the session as the characters, he’ll write down the names and what we said and bring them up in a later session. And keep in mind that a lot of Dungeons and Dragon sessions are three to four hours apiece, and campaigns can last from twenty-five to thirty sessions.

JAMES

So, what have you learned from your mom?

GRIFFIN

From my mom I learned kindness, and empathy, and a lot of human values, but if we’re talking career one of the most important things she taught me from a young age is the career and real-life applications of improv. Improv is a phenomenally useful tool for anybody. It teaches you listening, positivity, empathy, and critical thinking. It will literally help you with anything you do, and it’s mind-numbingly useful for acting. A lot of directors like actors that come into the room and can offer a lot of different things on a line or a scene. And that’s what improv is. Improv is having an offer ready.

JAMES

So, I’m wondering when you sit in the audience and you’re watching a show what are your expectations of a production?

GRIFFIN

So, my grandmother, my mother’s mother started seeing a lot more theater after my grandpa, her husband, passed away a couple of years ago. She’d go to the theater and then come home and go to bed and it became like a bedtime story. And a very crucial part of that was because it let her not think about anything else except the story and what was happening in front of her.

She says, “I don’t want to be thinking about my shopping list when I go to a play. If it’s a matinee, I don’t want to be thinking about the thing I have to go to after this matinee. I don’t want to be thinking about any other life event. I want this story to grab my attention. Hold it. And hold it for however long they asked me to be there. An hour. An hour and a half. Two hours. It doesn’t matter.”

And so, for me, I don’t know if there’s any formality or structure or trope or story elements that I have come to expect or demand from a production when I go to the theatre. My expectations have kind of shifted to what my grandmother has described as her expectations, and I think they’re really simple, and I think almost any production can achieve it. “No shopping list,” and that’s a Sandy Moser quote.

Shooting Abracadavers – Photo by Rachael Haugan

JAMES

I know you do some film work so tell me a little bit about how you got involved in film and what you’re working on right now.

GRIFFIN

I started acting in film when I was in grade five, and there was a TV movie coming through town called The Ron Clark Story, and it was about a teacher who goes to this rough and tumble school and has to change things. Matthew Perry, who plays Chandler on Friends, was the teacher, and when he got to this new school the camera pans over to see twelve-year-old Griffin. And I had a rat tail, and vanilla ice lines shaved into the side my head, and a mohawk. And I’m standing in a garbage can. Basically, I was the dumb kid being abused by the teachers. I’m so dumb I have to go stand in the trash. I’m standing in a wastebasket. So, that’s how I got started in film.

And I have a buddy named Josef Wright who I met at Theater Alberta’s ARTSTREK which is a week-long Summer Intensive that happens at Red Deer College. And he was like, “Hey man I’m in film school at SAIT and I’m doing a student film, it’s kind of goofy, do you want to come be in it?” And I was like, “Sure.” And it was about a guy who gets a genie lamp and he’s really lonely and he wishes for a date. And I met the camera operator on that film whose name was Morgan Ermter. And Morgan and Joseph have a film company called Numera Films.

And in 2014 they entered the STORYHIVE Web Series competition which provides winners with funding for the project they’ve entered. And they asked me to be in it, and it was called Abracadavers. So, we did the pilot and sometimes as a film actor you kind of show up to set and you do your bit. You get your cheque. You leave. You’re not usually involved in any of the other parts of the project. But something about the content of this particular project and the people involved and the way they were talking was pretty cool.

And we didn’t win STORYHIVE so I was like, “Okay what are we going to do with it?” And so, we took it to the Banff World Media Festival, and we pitched it to a bunch of distributors and financers. And basically, I just bugged my way into Numera Film. I pestered Morgan and Joe, as much as I could to just let me help out more. And then Abracadavers got funding and we did it for a season and we got a distribution deal. And I really found a lot of joy in film producing just because of how much you are involved. It’s really satisfying. It’s a different feeling to sit in a screening as an actor and then to sit in the screening as the producer, because as a producer you’re involved in every stage of making a film. There was something really fulfilling about that.

And so now me, Morgan, and Joe are Numera Films and we have a couple of things in the works. Right now, we’re pitching a few features. We filmed another web series pilot called Restless Sleep, which is kind of like a web Black Mirror. It’s like a horror anthology where every episode is a different story.

And I am working with a company right now called Thousand Year Films. They’re producing Father of Nations which is a post-apocalyptic film that’s being filmed in the Badlands. They’re doing pickup shots today, as we speak, because they got shut down by COVID.

Screen Grab of Griffin Cork in Father of Nations from Thousand Year Films

JAMES

You were in a one man show and I’m sorry I missed it, but you won an award for best actor for the show from…

GRIFFIN

…Broadway World. That was for Fully Committed by Becky Mode.

JAMES

Tell me about being in a one man show. What type of challenges do you face? How do you work the day? What is that experience like for an actor?

GRIFFIN

I find there’s usually a point in a run of a show say, anywhere from like forty to seventy percent of the way through the run that you feel like you’re in a groove. Not that you can go on autopilot. You still have to connect with your fellow actors, but you can do the show confidently. With Fully Committed I never hit a groove.

Every night, I was unsure if the show was going to go well. But there’s something really exciting about that and my stage manager, Meg Thatcher, was my lifeline. Fully Committed unlike a lot of one-man shows doesn’t interact with the audience at all. No asides. No inner monologues. Nothing. And there’s a lot of tech, and seventy cues that were all phones.

The story follows Sam who works at an expensive restaurant’s booking line. That’s his gig. He’s a failing actor and he’s trying to make a living. So, we slowly discover the plot and meet all these characters through three phones. There’s the main phone line. There’s one phone line that goes directly to the chef. And then there’s a cell phone.

So, throughout the play one of the phones will ring. And sometimes that’s in the middle of me being one of the two characters that I’m talking to and playing on stage. And then this phone rings and I have to remember who’s on the phone. And frankly, there were one or two times where I totally goofed and I picked up the phone and went – “Hello.” And I went with a different accent than the person I’m supposed to be in the play at that moment and thank God for Karen’s improv because I improvised a conversation that kind of revolved around what was happening, and then I put the phone down.

And God bless Meg that phone would ring again, and she’d give me another shot at remembering who that person was supposed to be. I don’t know if stage managers get enough recognition, because they are your scene partner, technically, in a one man show.

Birnton Theatricals Production of Fully Committed by Becky Mode
Starring Griffin Cork, Directed by Chris Stockton, Lighting and Design by Kathryn Smith
Photo by Chris Stockton

JAMES

Here’s an interesting question for you to ponder. Actors look at human nature. So, in your exploration of human nature what do you think is the fundamental force driving human behaviour?

GRIFFIN

Holy crap, James. Oh, man. Are you asking what I hope drives human nature, or what I actually think drives human nature?

JAMES

I like truth.

GRIFFIN

I think one of the largest driving forces for humanity and human nature right now and the way that people act in today’s world is a sense of identity. And I mean that in the simplest ways in terms of who am I? What values do I have? You know, kind of the more metaphysical questions, but also in the more social questions of how am I seen? 

But I think human nature is an ever-growing evolving beast. I know who I was at seventeen is not who I am right now, and I think my understanding of human nature and my understanding of what drives human nature is not the same as it was then. I think everybody would like to say that they know who they are and what their values are, but I think it’s always changing. So, I think what drives human nature is to kind of keep up with the ever-evolving nature of your identity. And I think that is really exciting, and I think it also explains the surge and use of social media.

I use social media as a work tool for marketing and also for acting. When you’re know as an actor, you’re marketing yourself, which I think is a weird phrase, but it’s kind of true. That’s why social media became so popular because it gave people a sense of identity.

It’s like on a very basic level deciding whether you’re a cat person or a dog person so if you’re having a conversation in the group, and the other person goes, “Oh I’m a dog person too” there’s that brief moment where you go, “Oh, you and I are part of something.” So how you’re perceived on social media is not a separate identity but a part of your identity, but for those who don’t know you personally it’s your only identity.

It’s so scary for me to just declare what I think drives human nature because I think I only have such a small sliver of what human nature is. Like I bet you someone who works in literally any other profession will have a totally different answer. But I think because my job is so focused around people and relationships, and sometimes pretending to be other people or adopting the qualities of other people that it requires you to constantly re-examine your own identity.

  • Lenin’s Embalmers by Vern Thiessen
  • Broken
  • But Hark! A Voice! With Thou Art Here Theatre
  • Concord Floral
  • D-Day Plus One
  • John, 316
  • Calgary Young People’s Theatre Production of Holmes and Watson

JAMES

After playing a role have you ever afterwards adopted a perspective or had a character you’ve played influence your identity?

GRIFFIN

Interesting. (Long Pause) Yeah, kind of. It was a production of All for Love by John Dryden at the University of Alberta. You know the show?

JAMES

No, I don’t.

GRIFFIN

It’s basically just the story of Antony and Cleopatra. It’s not exactly Elizabethan, but it’s still a very classical text. It was directed by Peter Hinton, and I played Ventidius, who was one of Anthony’s lieutenants. And in our adaptation and exploration it was almost like a love triangle between Anthony, Ventidius, and Cleopatra. Ventidius didn’t have any romantic or sexual love for Anthony, but just a profound respect, and I don’t want to say platonic love because it was stronger. It was love and respect and admiration. But even those words aren’t enough. I think it’s something that gets generated by wartime and warfare and all those insane psychological pressures that come with that time. And there was just this phenomenal bond between them. For so long I had a certain way of expressing my love for my male friends and I walked away from that show with a deeper confidence to be vulnerable and honest, when expressing deep admiration and love and respect for a male friend.

All For Love with Sarah Emslie, Helen Belay and Leila Raye-Crofton
Production Design by Sofia Lukie, Photo by Ed Ellis

JAMES

So, I noticed there was a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Award announced a few weeks ago.

GRIFFIN

That’s right.

JAMES

I think they had one hundred and sixty submissions and they picked ten young emerging artists. You being one of the ten. Tell me about winning the award. What was that like? What does that mean to you?

GRIFFIN

It was really, really phenomenal. Since high school or junior high school a lot of my friends are like, “Oh, I can’t wait to get out of Calgary. I can’t wait to get out of Alberta.” And even when I was like thirteen I was like, “I think it’s pretty good here.” And I’m fortunate that my parents made travel an important part of my life, because I’ve been to a lot of places in the world and that’s kind of solidified my love for Alberta. I’ve seen other places and life’s pretty good here. It’s kind of like you don’t know what you have until you don’t have it, right?

It’s also kind of why I haven’t made the move to Toronto or Vancouver. It’s not that I think my life and career would be a lot different if I moved to Toronto or Vancouver, but I find I truly believe in Alberta. I think Alberta has a lot to offer. And I think the way I described it to the Lieutenant Governor is, I think Alberta has for the past ten or fifteen years had this compressed nugget of diamond potential that is going to burst soon. There’s a part of me that just believes it’ll happen, and I really want to be here when it does. And frankly a lot of my friends make fun of me for defending Alberta the way that I do so winning the award was a little Alberta love and a nice high five back.

Griffin Cork
2020 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award

JAMES

So, how old are you now? If you don’t mind my asking. About twenty-five?

GRIFFIN

Twenty-four. Oh my God, I think I’m twenty-four.

JAMES

Okay, I have a question for you. Where are you at forty?

GRIFFIN

At forty. It’s hard to think about. I’d like to get married. I love the idea of marriage. I’d like to have a kid. I don’t know how many. I can’t imagine more than one or two.

JAMES

It’s interesting to me that the first thing you think of is home life. When I asked you where you saw yourself at forty it wasn’t theatre. It wasn’t career first. The first thing that popped into your mind is I would love to be married. I would love to have kids.

GRIFFIN

Well that’s the result of a lot of inner exploration that I’ve been doing since I graduated in terms of what would actually make me happy in life. Like what is it that contributes to your quality of life, because from eighteen to twenty-two I was very business focused. Not that I’m not anymore. I just didn’t make time for anything else. I was just hustling – hustling – hustling – constantly going at it. And I don’t regret it because it benefited me greatly. But I think as I get older, I’ve started to explore what will make me happy.

JAMES

Give you a happy life.

GRIFFIN

Totally. Rather than just a good career. Have a happy and fulfilling life.

JAMES

Have you identified any of those?

GRIFFIN

Man, I want a partner for sure. Absolutely. I can’t imagine going through this life without a partner. I know people that do it. People that never marry or never date. I don’t think I could do it. I think there’s so many cool life experiences that happened to everybody but also different cool life experiences that happened based on the career you chose and where you live and are more special when you share. 

One of the first times that I travelled without my parents was when I went with some of my friends and my partner at the time to Australia and New Zealand. And it was euphoric experiencing a part of the world that I’ve never experienced before and having the experience of travelling on my own, but in my own generation with one of the most important people in my life at the time. I think it was that life event that I went, “Oh man, there’s more to life than work.”

JAMES

So where are you going to be at sixty? A grandfather I’m assuming.

GRIFFIN

Definitely a grandfather. Frankly, I don’t see myself, directing, I’ve only ever directed one thing, and it was a music video, and that’s about as far as I’ll go. I don’t think I have the skills or interest in directing. I would love to have a television series at some point in terms of being a character on a full season of a show because that’s four months of filming, and I think that kind of journey would be really interesting. And I love the idea of doing a touring show. I’d like to be teaching, a little bit. One of the most fulfilling experiences of my life, so far, was being a supervisor at ARTSTREK. ARTSTREK is the best. If you’re a drama geek and you go to ARTSTREK there are ninety other drama geeks that you get to hang out with. I really like teaching kids. It’s so much fun.

JAMES

You have a new podcast. The Breakfast Dish. I’m curious. What is The Breakfast Dish and how’s that going?

GRIFFIN

So, my mother had a photo series on Facebook she called The Breakfast Series. It started when she had a meeting at 9:00 a.m. or something and she went okay, “If we’re going to meet at 9:00 a.m. we’re going to go for breakfast.” So, they went out for breakfast and after the meeting was done because breakfast wasn’t over, they just started talking about who they were, as people. Breakfast was conversation. Breakfast was who are you?  Breakfast was what are you working on right now? Breakfast was, I’ve never met you let’s go for breakfast. So, then she started this thing called The Breakfast Series, where she wrote a blurb about the person she was having breakfast with and what they’re doing and why she loves them.

And so we pitched a breakfast series to Verb Theatre for their Blue Light Festival. The Blue Light Festival was A Festival of Social Media Performance meant to run entirely online that was announced back in October 2019 long before COVID entered the picture. We called it the Blue Light Breakfast Series and the idea was to interview all of the people in the festival. To find out who they are, and the work that they’re doing, but the work is secondary to us. We just want to know who you are. This is just us hanging out.

And because a lot of theatre is moving online, we wanted to make a good archive of all the socially distant online work that is happening right now within Alberta, but also across the country. So, we got a lot of development through Verb Theatre and then we wrote a grant to the Rozsa Foundation, The Calgary Arts Development Authority, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and they chose to support us.

So, then we started The Breakfast Dish and The Breakfast Dish is for people who are making work online digitally. It is both to assist the artist in terms of the promotion of the work they’re doing because it’s a whole new theatrical marketing landscape that no one really knows how to do, and to help audiences find the work online. And it’s just me and my mom and we made a pact when we started hosting it that it’s just a conversation. We have some ideas of what to talk about but it’s just three or four people chatting about their work, who they are, what their favorite breakfast is, and why they do the work they do.

JAMES

Griffin, because you’re a host and because you have your podcast if you were going to sit down with Griffin Cork and be the interviewer, what would you ask yourself? Is there anything that you would want to bring up and love to talk about?

GRIFFIN

I don’t often get asked about what is the driving force of human nature in today’s world.

JAMES

I get asked that all the time.

GRIFFIN

I’ll bet you do. The thing that I could probably talk to you about ad nauseam is something we touched on earlier.

JAMES

Ah, I think I know what it might be.

GRIFFIN

Guess.

JAMES

Dungeons and Dragons.

GRIFFIN

Yes sir! Just give me one second. (Holds up sheets and notebooks) These are all my character sheets and notebooks, of all the campaigns that I am in currently. Oh boy. It’s the best because it’s just creative storytelling, with your buddies, or your family or random strangers at a gaming store. And especially if you do what my dad does which is the Homebrew, right? Homebrew is the term we use where you make up your own campaign. You don’t use the books. You just make up your own world and your own story. So, you get to make this TV series length saga story every Thursday night with your friends at a table with some chips. I mean you can’t do that right now, but before COVID that’s what you did.

JAMES

You do it in four different locations now. We have Zoom. We have the connectivity. We have the ability to stay in touch. We didn’t have that before.

GRIFFIN

Yeah, and I think Dungeons and Dragons and video games or computer games or anything like that tricks people into exploring their own creativity, even if they think they don’t have any. Even if they think they have no artistic talent or creativity or anything.

Something like Dungeons and Dragons or video games, kind of pulls that out of you. Whether you like it or not. And then you get to see it and view it and experience it. That I think is why I love Dungeons and Dragons. You’re just making stuff up. That’s how you don’t think about your shopping list is you’re trying to figure out the world that’s being presented. I’ve talked about Dungeons and Dragons so much. I could talk your ears off.

JAMES

I have a suggestion for you.

GRIFFIN

Hit me.

JAMES

The driving force of human nature is the desire to play.

GRIFFIN

Oh yeah, that’s a very good suggestion.

JAMES

Because you know we say play around with it see what you come up with. Scientists play around with ideas. We play with things all the time. That’s it. Humans just like to play. There you go. There’s our self-help book. Play it Forward.

GRIFFIN

Perfect.

JAMES

So, we covered a few things.

GRIFFIN

We sure have covered a few things. The only thing that I would toss in is that I forgot to tell you the advice my dad gave me.

JAMES

What advice did you father give you?

GRIFFIN

The only reason I bring it up now is because I think it’s not just a theatre thing. I think it’s a life thing. When I was eighteen I was freaking out about paying for theatre school and doing this career because I’d been told how hard it is and there are so many unknowns, and my dad sat down beside me, and he was quiet for a moment, and then he put his hand on my back and he went, “Do the thing that you want to do until you don’t want to do it anymore. And then find something else to do.” And I stopped freaking out. And of all my mentors that sentence is the best piece of advice I ever got, because you wouldn’t want to be forty and going, “God, I wish at eighteen I’d gone and done what I wanted to do.”

DOWNLOAD – James Hutchison Interviews Griffin Cork: Actor, Producer, Filmmaker
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview with Producer/Director Matt Boda: Absurd Hero Productions – Get It Made X

Posted on by James Hutchison

Producer/Director Matt Boda – Absurd Hero Productions

“Where preparation and opportunity meet is what makes luck seem so magical. I think if you prepare yourself for an opportunity, such as selling a movie script, then you can attract that scenario by actively working toward making yourself prepared and making it not so much about luck anymore and making it more about fate.” 

***

Producer/Director Matthew Boda has ambitions of taking his company, Absurd Hero Productions, into the big leagues and producing film and television across multiple genres. I connected with Matt through the Austin Film Festival where my comedy Masquerade had been a finalist in the playwriting category in 2018. After chatting with Matt about that script we got to talking about his love of film and television and I was immediately impressed by his boundless energy and enthusiasm for telling stories and so we set up a time to continue our conversation. I connected with Matt over ZOOM at the start of May to find out more about his personal vision for Absurd Hero Productions and his plan to bring new stories and screenwriters into production through his Get It Made X initiative.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Tell me a little bit about your logo for Absurd Hero productions. What does it mean and what does it symbolizes?

MATT BODA

It’s from the myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus is, you know, a Greek character being punished forever and eternally having to push a boulder up the side of a mountain only to achieve the task and then have the boulder roll back down the mountain and he has to do it all again. Over and over and over. And it becomes an absurd task. There’s no meaning. There’s no reason to push the boulder up the mountain. There is no benefit, but he does it anyway.

It’s also a super hard thing to do. To push that boulder up a mountain every single day. So, it takes a hero’s spirit to be able to accomplish the task and do it anyway, in spite of its meaninglessness. 

And essentially, Albert Camus who is an existential philosopher wrote his own version of the myth of Sisyphus and likened the absurd hero to modern man. Life inherently has no meaning except for the meaning that we give it. 

So, knowing all that philosophy I went out to do one of the most difficult things that there is, and that’s to create a production company from zero not knowing anyone. Not having any direct contacts. Not coming from money. To do an absurd task. To try and become a filmmaker and make a production company and be involved at the highest level of making content that lasts forever and that’s super beneficial to the people that watch it and it felt right to me to do it under the brand name of an Absurd Hero.

JAMES

I have a quote for you by filmmaker Ted Kotcheff. He directed The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz which featured Richard Dreyfuss, First Blood with Sylvester Stalone, Weekend at Bernie’s, a lot of different films and he’s done a lot of television. He said, “Everything about filmmaking tries to distract you from that first, fine, rapturous vision, you have of the film.” I’m wondering how much you agree with that, and how do you keep that spark alive to make you see a film through from idea to screen?

MATT

Well, I agree with it completely because essentially what happens is the vision comes into the mind of the creator. Whatever way you believe it gets there – whether it’s a muse, or it’s God, or its creative energy, or whatever – something inspires the idea in the first place. 

For me, it comes in a flash. I have a vision. I see the whole movie in a moment in my mind’s eye, and it fills me with the desire and motivation to do the work to pull that out of my mind, and put it into the real world, and see what it will look like.

So, saying that everything after that is designed to get in the way of the original vision is completely true, because you have to compromise with the reality of what you can create and your fantasy of what you had envisioned. 

So, it’s like, “Okay I guess I can’t have him on top of the Titanic.” “Well, what if he’s in a little rowboat on the side of a dock on a lake?” “Okay, well does it embody the same theme that you were trying to express for the character on the deck of the Titanic?” “Yeah, it actually does.” “Okay then, let’s put him in the skiff.” “Cool. Problem solved.” That’s the compromise between fantasy and reality that any filmmaker has to go through in order to see their vision go from inception to completion.

JAMES

One of the projects you have in development is called The Container. Where did the idea come from for that project, and how did that develop, particularly in light of the times we’re living in, and how current and significant the subject matter is.

MATT

That project is making its rounds. I’m super proud of it. It scored really well on the Blacklist. Everyone that reads it gives it their praise, and I’m super grateful for that. 

That idea came in a flash from my mind’s eye and that’s usually born from needing to find a solution to a problem. In the beginning when I first started making films my ideas were visions about myself and my own life experiences, and so I started to make art about my life experiences, and I wasn’t getting the kind of response that I wanted to have with the work. It was too personal.

It was me all over everything. Me the director. Me the producer. Me the actor. It felt like a one-man-band in a way that alienates the audience. It makes them feel like they can’t identify with the story because all they see is you trying to work out your own problems on the screen. And I had fallen into that trap a couple of times because I had run with someone telling me to “write what you know.” Which for me was a mistake, because it made me dive into this selfish realm that a lot of people get into where they think they need to show that they can do everything, as opposed to embodying the true spirit of filmmaking which is completely collaborative. 

So, I was stressed out after a big movie that I had personally financed called Blood Sweat and Years, that even though it was shot well and had great music, just fell flat, and I was in need of a new idea. And I was actually in line to go to a movie in the middle of the day and my mind was hijacked, and what I saw was a little girl looking through a crack in a shipping container at the waves and the ocean and when she looked back into the container I saw all these people. They were all Chinese people and they were stuck in the shipping container, and I saw this whole movie in my head and it all ended in this terrible tragedy, and this little girl was the only one who lived to tell about it. In my mind’s eye that’s what I saw. So I immediately went home, and I found out through a little research – and thank God for Google you can go directly to the source – I started finding out that it was true. That before China became the giant manufacturing mogul it is now Chinese people used to flee the country because there were no opportunities in China, and they used to do it via shipping containers coming through ports in America like Long Beach. And I read all these articles, so I started to formulate it around China, and then I realized that all that stuff was actually twenty years old. So, I shifted and I did a bunch of research and I created this framework that took this really neutral approach to writing the movie, that’s about a group of North African migrants stuck in a shipping container. 

It’s eighty-eight pages long, and it’s like a thrill ride that ends with a wallop. It punches you in the gut. It’s a humanitarian film in the same vein of Cary Fukunaga’s film Beasts of No Nation on Netflix or Hotel Rwanda. That’s how The Container came to be.

JAMES

But it would not have existed, I think, unless you had worked, originally on Blood Sweat and Years, because the creative journey of that film involves you doing the previous film and learning from it. So, now how much do you draw upon your personal life? How do you balance that mix of taking from your past experiences to tell a story that isn’t necessarily about you individually, but might reflect some of the themes, feelings, ideas, and experiences you’ve been through?

MATT

It’s really simple. Now, I imagine being someone else. Just like an actor. I imagine what I would do in that person’s situation, but I let them do it just like the actor lets the character do it. So you know, let’s say I was from Eritrea, and I was living on a thousand calories a day, and I had scrounged up every cent I had to try and escape, and I just think what would I do in that situation, but I don’t imagine my face as the person accomplishing it. I imagined the face of a little girl, or the gentleman, you know, that needed something that I’ve never needed in my life but if I did, how would I go about doing it. I put other faces on it and that removes me from the equation so it’s not a self-centred approach. It’s universal.

JAMES

A film from twenty or forty years ago reflects the time they were born in, and yet some films even though they might have been made fifty or sixty years ago, still feel like they have a universal appeal or a universal story. What do you think it is in great films that makes some of them feel timeless?

MATT

It’s definitely making the audience identify with a core theme of the story. So, for instance, in The Container, it poses the question, “As you sit there and complain about what you’re going to eat tonight and how fast your internet is – imagine this: “What would you do if you were in this container and you’d paid a thousand bucks that took you eight months to save and you had your daughter with you and this was your last chance to get out of the country. You know, the country that made your life a living hell. What would you do if you were someone else?” And it takes the audience out of who they are and it makes them reflect on what they have. So, the audience has to identify in a very personal way with what’s happening in your subject matter and what’s happening in your concept, or it’s going to be forgettable.

JAMES

With film you’ve got two hours. In series television like Game of Thrones you have seventy hours. I think the difference in the amount of storytime you have means that film has to be much more concentrated. Much more to the point. Do you think films work best when they have a single protagonist that you’re seeing the story through?

MATT

I think they’re two different mediums that both approach story in a different way. For film, it’s much more focused. It’s like, “What do you want the audience to get out of this one movie, because they’re only going to watch it that one time and then it’s over and the world your telling begins and ends in that movie?” 

Whereas the purpose of a TV show is for people to fall in love with the actors, and they get plot and structure and story through the whole thing but the most rewarding part is being fed this story that feels so real in this episodic way so you can spend so much more time with a character, as opposed to learning a theme.

You know, films to me are themes. Like Fight Club has all these themes you can dissect forever whereas in Game of Thrones I love Tyrian, and I love Sansa. They’re like my sister and my uncle and you know they’re my family because I went through all this hardship with them, and I know what they went through. I know their story and their stories are just like me knowing my best friend’s story who you know maybe he was a drug addict and his dad died. The thing about the episodic story is you love the person, whereas in a film you love the idea and you love the people that are expressing that idea.

Matt on set – Absurd Hero Productions

JAMES

Right, well let’s talk about ideas. What kind of ideas do you enjoy exploring what kinds of stories attract your creative energy?

MATT

Well, you know, nowadays, I’ve just been super focused on executive producer roles where I champion multiple projects. So, I’ve got all these fires burning now and I created this program, Get it Made X, which is essentially a union for non-union writers. 

So, any writer that’s accepted to the program comes into the fold with all the rest of our members, and they all compete for funds that we put into the program as well as they pay membership dues. So, all of that all gets put into a pot. And they compete to make proof of concept films with that money and we make multiple projects so right now I have five of them. 

And I can talk about each one of those projects the same way that I talk about The Container. Because what we do is reverse engineer long-form materials. So, if somebody has a script they love and its scoring well in the screenplay world what we do is have them write a five-page version. Maybe the most pivotal scene that really showcases what the world of the film or the show or whatever it is would be about. And we go that extra mile because I have a production company. I own all the cameras. I have 5000 square feet of office space and everything you’ll need as well as all of the contacts and the relationships and the infrastructure because I’m in Los Angeles and I’ve been doing this for twelve years. 

So, we go right to the source and make these films and then we put these packages together with known entities and then we go to the studios. Because I have contacts at the studios, but they won’t read words on a page from an unknown writer. They just won’t do it. But what they will do is watch a five-minute film that’s well produced.

So, I’m like, “Hey what are you guys looking for?” “Oh, we’re always looking for easy horror stuff.” ” Okay, well I’ve got this thing about a demon baby and a crazy girl next door concept.” “Ok, send me the demon baby thing.” Boom, I text him a link that goes to a proof of concept movie, and he watches it and at the end he goes, “Hey, do you have the full script?” And then we send the book and the full script and all the people that are attached to the project. “Oh, you got the guy from Weeds as the main actor. Or, “Oh you got the guy from Brooklyn Nine Nine to direct it.” Now all the studio has to do is inject funds into a group of artists that are already mobilized, and a product will emerge. That’s what we’ve been doing now, and it’s just awesome. 

JAMES

So, what then is your vision for Absurd Hero Productions in the future? What is your goal.

MATT

What I imagined us to be is like Bad Robot. Bad Robot makes film and television shows across all genres. And if I have the right number of members in Get It Made X, I’ll be able to turn out twelve films across all genres, a year. So, my vault will be full – just filled to the brim with ideas that are packaged on paper and have known talent that have said that they will be a part of the project.

JAMES

Getting a film made is a tough business, so I was wondering how much do you think luck plays a part in a person’s success?

MATT

Where preparation and opportunity meet is what makes luck seem so magical. I think if you prepare yourself for an opportunity, such as selling a movie script, then you can attract that scenario by actively working toward making yourself prepared and making it not so much about luck anymore and making it more about fate. 

JAMES

You’re prepared to take advantage of the opportunities when they present themselves.

MATT

And luck is opportunity in disguise. You know what I’m saying? If you’re prepared for the opportunity and you get it, it’s going to feel like luck, but no it wasn’t really luck it’s because you were ready to take on that opportunity.

Matt – Early Days in LA

JAMES

You said you’ve been doing this for 12 years in LA. What brought you to LA? How did you get there?

MATT

I lived in Florida, and I started in Miami. I was in a rock band until I was 25 and I got way too caught up in that scene in terms of just all it has to offer in terms of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. 

So, I had to rebuild my belief system mentally from the ground up about what I expected out of life and what my life was going to be now that the rock band was over. I made a lot of decisions in terms of, you know, not allowing chemical dependency to become this everyday thing in my life. I had to shed that whole older beginning of being in a rock band, and of being rebellious, and being the lead singer, and being the center of attention.

And that’s how I ended up in LA when I was 25. You know, new brain power and new motivation, and that’s when I started from the ground up. And I rode a bike. I didn’t have a car. I rode a bike and went to any film place, and I literally said I’d work for free for a week to show you guys who I am and my attitude and to see if you guys want to hire me. 

And it was no, no, no, no and then a lighting rental house said yes, and they hired me, and I learned lighting, and I met people. I got into the union for camera and lighting, and I spent the next eight years working on movies and television and being a lighting technician, and I did camera a bunch too.

JAMES

But I think the first 25 years of your life has been really informative for you in terms of your journey and who you have become.

MATT

Yeah, I just wish I didn’t waste so much time. You know what I’m saying. You can get off the elevator at any floor. For me, I decided to go to the sub-basement for some reason.

JAMES

How important is forgiving yourself for those years to having a more positive and better future now?

MATT

As an artist, you know, having internal conflicts is the reason why I feel I need to have a voice. I feel like the only way to dissipate these internal pressures for me is through art.

Matt on Set – Absurd Hero Productions

JAMES

What filmmakers and films do you find inspiring? Who speaks to you? Who do you get excited about? 

MATT

I collect 11 x 17 movie and TV posters. Right now I’m looking at posters for Game of Thrones, The Tudors, Neon Genesis which is an anime from Japan, Silver Linings Playbook by David O. Russell, Cary Fukunaga – Beasts of No Nation all the way to stuff like Blue is the Warmest Colour, which is a crazy indie that came out of France.

But my favourite stuff is historical fiction. Like The Last Kingdom which is about the Danish coming over to England when England was multiple nations in the eighth and ninth century during the reign of King Alfred the Great. And I’ve watched that series, like three times and it’s got four seasons now and I’ve watched each season three full times and they’re ten hours each. Same thing with Game of Thrones, you know, every single night I’m watching a piece of something, you know, all the way to shows like Billions, or Homelands.

JAMES

So, having lived a different life when you were younger and being your age now what would you say to your younger self? What sort of advice would you give to your younger self?

MATT

You know pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. I took the crazy route and then wallowed in my suffering so a lot of my joy was robbed from me.

I guess I would just say, “Just go easy on yourself. Don’t beat yourself up so much. You know, dude just keep going. Who cares? Does it really matter that much? Just try and don’t give up, because if you give up – it’s definitely not gonna happen.”

The worst part is that for the vast majority it never happens for them. They write three or four scripts and then they don’t write any more. And that’s it. It’s done. They’ve written a bunch of scripts that maybe placed in a few contests, but they never got made. But Get It Made X is going to be a way for people that are in the non-union realm to compete with everybody that’s in the union realm without having to wait to win the lottery – so to speak – and we want to do that for as many people as possible.

***

Download PDF version of Interview with Producer Director Matt Boda
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Matt Dy: Director of Script Competitions Austin Film Festival

Posted on by James Hutchison

If you have ambitions of pursuing a career as a screenwriter or television showrunner then I’d highly recommend you attend the Austin Film Festival. I attended the 2018 Austin Film Festival Writer’s Conference and found it to be a very rewarding and exciting opportunity to connect with industry professionals as well as up-and-coming writers. This interview with Matt Dy, the Director of Competitions about the Austin Film Festival will give you a comprehensive overview of what the festival is about and why you should enter the competition.

Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Austin Film Festival Barbara Morgan talks with the 2017 AFF Awardees: Walter Hill, Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Kenneth Lonergan.

We all have favourite stories – favourite films – favourite television shows and books and plays – because these stories somehow reach us. They make us laugh, or cry, or reflect more deeply about life, or simply give us a momentary escape from our troubles.

That’s why I’m really excited to announce that my play Masquerade is a finalist in the stage play competition at this years Austin Film Festival – which is a festival that’s dedicated to story. Masquerade is about an empty nest couple, Sarah and Glenn, that have drifted apart. They were talking divorce and selling the house until they discovered a book called: A Good Marriage is Just a Fantasy by Dr. Ravi Shasta. Basically, it’s a book about exploring your sexual fantasies with your partner. Unfortunately, sometimes what is real and what is fantasy can become blurred and what was intended to bring a couple closer together can sometimes drive them apart. 

The Austin Film Festival is a celebration of film and television that focuses on story and the people who write the screenplays and teleplays. The festival features industry professionals as well as up and coming writers. I’ll be flying down to Austin to participate in the festival as well the staged reading of my play. I gave Matt Dy, the Director of Competitions for The Austin Film Festival, a call to talk to him about how the festival began and what participants can expect.

Gabbi Lindgren, Script Competitions Coordinator & Matt Dy, Director of Script Competitions – Austin Film Festival

JAMES HUTCHISON

The Austin Film Festival was founded in 1993 by Barbara Morgan, who still serves as Festival Director, for the purpose of furthering the art and craft and business of screenwriting and filmmaking. So, I’m curious over the last twenty-five-year history of the festival how have those founding goals been developed?

MATT DY

The Festival was also co-founded by Marsha Milam who is still involved in a limited capacity, but Barbara Morgan is sole Executive Director for the Festival now. The two of them started the festival because they felt there was a need for a community like this. There really wasn’t a writer’s festival let alone very many screenplay competitions at the time. There were maybe a handful and now there are hundreds of them in existence, but we’re one of the original ones which is a really nice thing to be able to say.

The thing that still remains intact over the twenty-five-year history of the festival is our goal and mission to champion the screenwriter. We’re now open to playwrights and eventually we may become more of a hub for all forms of story because we’re also expanding into fiction podcasting and we have a digital series component as well – content for the web – so there’s a lot of different formats that we’ve embraced over the years but the mission to champion the writer is still the same.

First Day of the Austin Film Festival in 2017 – a room full of storytellers.

JAMES

You know when I think of successful screenwriters they might have different success stories but I’m wondering if there might be a couple of qualities that sets the successful screenwriter apart and I’m thinking one of those qualities is having a dedication to the craft. In what way do you think a dedication to the craft benefits a writer’s career and development?

MATT

That is absolutely essential and it’s easier said than done. I’m a writer as well and I tend not to take my own advice – to write every day you know – you hear of people who have nine to five jobs and they’re married, and they have kids, and maybe they have a second job, and they still make time to write. So my thing is to not make excuses anymore and just do it. It is about dedication. It is about finding time to write because, as a writer, you want to treat the writing as if it’s going to be your job. You need to set deadlines and goals and that’s why competitions are a great thing for writers because you work towards a deadline to get your script in for the competition.

It’s also teaching you about persistence. You’re a finalist in our Stage Play Competition. You’re in the top three out of 655 plays that were submitted but a lot of people that didn’t make it as far as you have may actually have a really good play and we may have overlooked it because – it’s a little bit of the luck of the draw – trying to find a good match for the reader that might respond to it. It’s a human process, and it’s incredibly subjective, so you’re going to get different results from different competitions, and so it’s also about being persistent and moving on and entering the next competition 

JAMES

Enter other ones or give it a rewrite and enter again.

MATT

Yeah, and you’ll find that exists in every creative field. And if you pick any popular film or stage play that has gotten produced – if you talk to those writers they will tell you consistently that they had so many doors closed on them – so many people told them this would never get produced or shouldn’t be produced and yet they still got it produced.  And so the writer’s process is to write every day and stay persistent, stay focused, and write the story you want to tell.

Writer, director, actor Dennis Hopper at the Austin Film Festival in 1997.

JAMES

You said you’re a writer yourself so I’m just wondering from your own perspective – because you’re surrounded by writers – what does keep someone going? I mean those rejection letters are piling up and you work for years for little money…what is that keeps writers going? Why do they keep writing stories?

MATT

Passion. Love. A lot of playwrights are incredibly passionate – they love their work – they do it for the love of the art – and I think a lot of screenwriters feel the same way. It’s a dream and if you don’t have a dream it’s hard to find the motivation to get up each day and work on that passion project

JAMES

I wonder if part of it might be realizing that when you sit down at your desk to begin the research, the writing, the outlining or just diving into writing your script you might be starting a ten or fifteen or twenty-year journey in order to realize that project.

MATT

Absolutely. Everybody has their own process. There are some writers who end up having one project that they spend their entire lives working on, but there are other writers who work on many different projects all at the same time because they know their one pet project may not be the one that gets them discovered.

JAMES

The festival has a number of writing competitions. You’ve got the feature-length drama. You’ve got the comedy feature. Horror. Sci-fi. So you’ve got lots of different categories, but I’m wondering, regardless of the genre, do you notice anything that the winning scripts seem to possess? Something in them that makes this writing stand out.

MATT

I think if I had to pin it on one thing it would be stories that have that unique voice – that unique perspective. Those stories end up winning or advancing in the competition. It’s always their unique spin on a familiar story. A different perspective so that when you’re reading it you go, “Oh that’s brilliant. I wasn’t expecting that.”

Each writer is going to have their own perspective on the world and so their version of a story is going to be different than someone else’s version of the story, and you can tell when they’re writing something for themselves for the passion and for the love of their story rather than when they’re trying to write something for the masses that they think would sell.

Writer/Director Robert Altman – M.A.S.H., McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, and The Player talks with screenwriter and actor Buck Henry – The Graduate, Get Smart, and Catch 22 at the Austin Film Festival.

JAMES

You bring up an interesting point because I just watched Get Out which was a huge hit last year and so I’m wondering when you have a hit like that – a film that, you know, is well made, does well at the box office, gets awards – does the success of that film, in the marketplace, influence the types of scripts you see being entered into the festival?

MATT

Oh yeah, not just the marketplace but also the climate – and what’s happening politically and what’s been happening in the industry with movements for diversity. All these different ancillary things that are happening in the world obviously effect what people are writing and submitting to the competition. You can definitely feel that when you’re reading scripts, and you’ll find that there are many people who are commenting on the current President and many of the other things that are happening in the Zeitgeist because we write to talk about and make sense of the world we live in.

Of course, there are going to be people who are going to try and anticipate what is marketable and usually if they try to emulate what’s popular right now they’re too late because those projects were long in gestation and they’re striking a cord now. As a writer, you should just continue to write what you’re passionate about and then something might happen to make your script a timely subject. There was a playwright here from last year in the playwriting competition who happened to write a play about immigration on a border town in Texas. It was a play she had written a long time ago that never got produced but she pulled that back out of her drawer because she knew this is the time for it.

JAMES

Well, let’s talk a little bit about the festival. There are two components. There’s the film festival and there’s the conference and the conference is filled with industry professionals and established as well as up and coming writers. What’s the conference part of the festival about?

MATT

I like to call it summer camp for screenwriters except it’s only four days. It sort of has that Kumbaya feel when you first arrive. It’s palatable – at least for me. You know you can stereotype writers and say they’re all an isolated bunch who are very introverted who don’t like to converse or be communal, but I find that even the most introverted screenwriter, deep down, really wants to connect, and I think when they realize that wow, I’m not the only one who feels that way, and they come to a conference where it’s a bunch of introverts and a lot of thinkers and creative types who are just like them then the walls start to come down. And we try to make it easy for them to get to know each other and just converse and make friends. Usually without fail that’s what happens.

Samuel Weller, Allison Norlian, Sean Collins-Smith, and Emily McGregor at one of the many mix and mingle functions at the 2017 Austin Film Festival

MATT

I also think a lot of people come to the conference with the goal of getting their script sold and produced or getting an agent or manager but that rarely ever happens at the festival. I like to think of the festival as an incubator where things just take time to develop. Like you’re planting the seeds. You’re making connections with people you wouldn’t normally be able to meet. If you place in the competition you’re going through a special track of panels with people who are just like you – quality writers, talented people with great ideas, so you’re in a very talented room with people that you’re going to several events with and you never know you might find your next collaborator or somebody who would love to read your work and would introduce you to somebody that they know in the industry and so usually those are where most of the success stories come from.

JAMES

As a participant in the conference there are panels there are readings what kind of things are happening?

MATT

Everything that happens at the conference is about the creative and business sides of story, so if you want to learn about other people’s writing process and how you can apply that to your own writing you can do that, or if you’re really wanting to understand how it works in the TV writers room we usually have that covered. We have pitching opportunities, we have script reading workshops, we have an indie filmmaker track as well if you’re a filmmaker and want to learn more about microbudget filmmaking. We have a playwriting track. We have a panel that covers writing for webisodes. We have a script to screen series where writers will show a few clips from their film or show and show the process of what they wrote and how that translated to the screen. We have a conversation series with people who just talk about their career in general and usually, those are the bigger people and in particular our awardees like Tony Gilroy

Barbara Morgan co-founder and Executive Director of The Austin Film Festival hosts In Conversation with Kenneth Lonergan the writer/director of Manchester by the Sea.

JAMES

Why don’t we talk a little bit about that since you brought it up? As part of the festival, you honour screenwriters and filmmakers, and the very first person that was honoured at the festival was Horton Foote who wrote Tender Mercies and adapted To Kill a Mockingbird for the screen, and then last year you had Kenneth Lonergan at the festival who wrote and directed Manchester by the Sea. Who are you honouring this year and why?

MATT

I mentioned Tony Gilroy who is a screenwriter and filmmaker. He’s somebody that we’ve tried to get for a very long time. We try and find people that have a rich history of contributing to storytelling and also have an ability to be accessible to our audience because that’s something we also pride ourselves in is that you have an opportunity to meet Tony Gilroy and talk with him or meet somebody like Vince Gilligan the creator and showrunner for Breaking Bad who took the time to meet everybody when he was here for the festival.

Tony Gilroy is the writer/director of the Oscar Nominated thriller Michael Clayton starring George Clooney. He also wrote the first three Bourne films and co-wrote and directed the fourth film in the franchise. More recently he is the co-writer of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the writer/producer of the political thriller Beirut starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike.

MATT

Another awardee we have this year is Daniel Petrie, Jr. who we’re giving our Heart of Film Award and we invited him because he’s been involved with the festival for such a long time and he really loves our festival and he’s very giving and he comes almost every year and we even gave his production company a category the Enderby Entertainment award because his company produced a finalist script from I think 2008 or 9 from our competition and it premiered here at the festival, and they’ve worked with many writers that they’ve met here at the festival. And so usually we try to find in an awardee who has left a mark on the industry and is somebody who can share words of wisdom for the next generation of creators. 

Daniel Petrie, Jr. will receive the Heart of Film Award for his many contributions to the film and television industry and his service to the screenwriting community. Dan’s screenwriting credits include the Oscar-nominated Beverly Hills Cop as well as The Big Easy, Shoot to Kill, and Turner and Hooch. Dan is also a two-term past president of the Writers Guild of America West and a long time panelist and supporter of the Austin Film Festival.

JAMES

And you’re also honouring Roger Corman. How many careers has he helped launch?

MATT

Yes, I know that’s another reason it was very clear why we chose him because when you find out all the careers he’s started you wonder why he hasn’t received more credit. It was clear for us that he needed to be an awardee.

Roger Corman has been credited with discovering such talent as Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Diane Ladd, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, and James Cameron. He is the director of over 500 films including Little Shop of Horrors, Death Race 2000, and The Pit and the Pendulum. Corman’s company New World Pictures was also a distributor of foreign cinema including the work of Francois Truffaut, Akira Kurosawa, and Federico Fellini.

JAMES

And then you’ve got Larry Wilmore.

MATT

Yes, and he’s somebody else who has been so great as well. Somebody who has been great talking with our attendees and very giving and very accessible as well. 

Emmy Award winning Larry Wilmore has been a television producer, actor, comedian and writer for more than 25 years. Wilmore created the Bernie Mac Show which ran for five seasons on FOX and recently helped launch ABC’s Black-ish. On camera, Wilmore was the “Senior Black Correspondent” on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and was the host of his own show The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore for two years on Comedy Central.

JAMES

So, my play Masquerade is a finalist in this year’s Stage Play Competition and I’m really excited to be attending the festival, but I was curious about why you decided to add a stage play category to the film festival?

MATT

It was our Executive Director who had the idea to do it because we work with many playwrights, and we find that many screenwriters and tv writers aren’t just screenwriters and tv writers they also have plays and a lot of these people have been asking us to start a playwriting competition. A lot of playwrights living in New York City, for example, find it hard to make any money as a playwright so a lot of them make their money in TV. The Americans, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black those writer’s rooms took place in New York and a lot of them consisted of playwrights. We started the screenplay competition in 1994 because there was a need for something like that and so we thought this would be a great way for playwrights who want to make that transition into film and television to utilize the resources that we already have in place. And also to give recognition to your own play because the placement and the exposure your play gets from the festival could help get it produced because every playwright still wants to have their play produced.   

JAMES

Let’s talk about the other aspect of the festival – so you’ve got the conference part but it’s also a film festival and the film festival runs for an additional four or five days after the conference ends. What are some of the highlights coming up this year as far as films go?

Closing Night Film at the 2018 Austin Film Festival is The Front Runner starring Hugh Jackman. Based on the real-life story of politician Gary Hart whose 1988 run for the Democratic Presidential Nomination was sidelined by reports of an extramarital affair with Donna Rice.

MATT

What I love about our film festival is that our mission to honour the writer still exists. All the awards that are handed out for the different categories in the film competition are handed out to the writers of the film. Not the director or the producer. You know when you watch award shows or you’re at a film festival and they announce the best picture they usually hand out the awards to the director and the producing team.  Unless it’s a writer/director but usually the writer isn’t involved with directing or producing they just wrote the script. But at our festival, the writer is the one who actually receives the award. We put a stronger emphasis on the quality of the writing than the marketability or the production values of the films that are chosen to be in the festival. So story really is the thing that we look for the most.

Greta Gerwig the writer and director of the Oscar-nominated film Lady Bird attends the 2017 Austin Film Festival screening of her film.

MATT

The thing that’s nice about our festival is that we’re after Toronto after Venice – after all the bigger film festivals that have those Oscar contenders – and so we have a lot of those big films that end up getting nominated for Oscars. Last year, I think, we might have had nine or ten of them. We had Lady Bird, Three Billboards, I Tonya, Mudbound, and Call Me By Your Name.

JAMES

That was quite the lineup.

MATT

And while a lot of people are going to be gravitating towards the bigger marquee films that we have this year like The Favourite or Boy Erased or Widows you don’t want to miss out on all the other films that are playing within the film festival competition because those are films that you might not be able to see anywhere else anytime soon.

JAMES

So, as I mentioned this is my first time going to the conference. What basic tips or advice can you tell me about coming to the festival that I should know and would help prep me or anybody else who is going?

MATT

Well, get familiar with our list of panelists that are attending the festival and the conference. Find out if your screenwriting heroes are going to be here because they’re going to be out during the festival. They’re going to be at the Driskill bar and they’re going to be at the partner parties and their badge is just going to say their name. It won’t tell you any of their credits or if they’re a panelist. So you never know who you’re going to be standing next to and if you recognize them you can respectfully introduce yourself like, “Hi I’m a finalist in the playwriting competition.” And there aren’t very many finalists. There’s about fifty of you and that’s a huge difference from the ten thousand five hundred scripts that were submitted this year. And your badge will say finalist and you should wear that badge proudly and introduce yourself, “I’m James, I’m a finalist in the playwriting competition.”  And that is something that will hopefully open doors. “Oh, you’re a finalist. Okay, tell me about your play.” And of course what’s also going to happen next is, “Well what else are you working on?” And so be prepared to talk about other work that you’ve written and of course be ready to talk about your play.

2017 Panelists Amy Berg, Eric Heisserer, Megan Amram, and Raamla Mohamed attend the Writers Guild of America West Welcome Party

MATT

You’d be surprised how many writers come here and they have a fantastic piece of work but they don’t know how to talk about it to people. So, just be prepared for that elevator pitch but I wouldn’t necessarily call it pitching at the festival because nobody really likes to be pitched to. A lot of these agents and managers and producers who are here are here to have a good time and to meet writers and contribute to the festival. They don’t want to be treated as if the only reason you’re talking to them is so you can send them your script – there’s so many people that are after them that they just want to be treated like a human being.

JAMES

Well, treat them like you would want to be treated if you were in their position.

MATT

Yeah, exactly and as a manager, it’s all about the relationship and so if that’s how you’re going into it they’re probably going to think I’m not sure I want a relationship with this person. And don’t forget about your fellow writers that are sitting right next to you because you know everybody comes here wanting to try and meet the panelist or agents and managers but it’s a chance for you to meet other writers like yourself and develop your network and friendships and your professional relationships.

JAMES

I was thinking about the legacy of the festival. And I have to say I really like what you guys are doing with the Austin Film Festival – On Story. Tell me a little bit about how that started and what you guys are doing with that part of the festival.

MATT

So, Barb our Executive Director had always envisioned that we would have a TV show and so she had the foresight to record all of our panels during the festival and to keep a record of it so that we could utilize it in some way one day. And we also had a lot of people who attended our festival asking if we had any recordings so there was a demand for it. And so we went through our archives and created a quality product that PBS loved and picked up and our marketing team has gotten us in almost all the markets for PBS and now On Story has expanded into a book and a radio show on PRI and we have a podcast as well. So On Story has really become its own brand and people really love it. 

JAMES

I watched a couple of them on YouTube and shared them through Facebook, and Twitter and Instagram. I watched Carl Reiner talking about the early days of working on the Dick Van Dyck Show and it was really interesting, and I watched Kenneth Lonergan who you had here last year and I thought it’s nice to have those things available.

Vince Gilligan creator of Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul at the 2013 Austin Film Festival

MATT

And we’re proud to say we’re an Emmy award winner as well. We won an Emmy for our episode featuring Vince Gilligan whom I had mentioned earlier and actually, we’re nominated this year for an Emmy for our episode featuring Eric Heisserer the writer for Arrival. 

JAMES

I’ll have to hunt those down and watch them. Are there any legendary stories from the festival that you can share?

MATT

Oh God. Legendary stories. Well from the first year the winning script in our competition actually got optioned and produced rather quickly. It was called Excess Baggage and it was written by Max D. Adams. It had Alicia Silverstone and Benicio Del Toro in it.

I believe the first screenwriters’ conference for AFF happened at Willie Nelson’s old opera house, but it was run down, and it was rainy but somehow it brought people together, and you know we said magic happened there. I wasn’t around for it but this is what our director Barbara Morgan has said repeatedly over and over again – that magic happened there despite all the chaos because everybody was there because they believed in story and telling their stories. And a lot of big influential people from Columbia Pictures were there as well and they felt the magic too, and I think that helped encourage them to become more involved with us and to see us as a legitimate resource for writers, and they optioned that first script and produced it and that’s really what put us on the map.

Austin Film Festival 2017 Awards Lunch (L to R) Walter Hill, Extraordinary Contribution to Film, Keenen Ivory Wayans – Extraordinary Contribution to Television, Kenneth Lonergan, Distinguished Screenwriter

MATT

And you know what feels legendary for me each year is the Awards Luncheon and hopefully you’ll see that and feel that too when you’re here because the awards luncheon is where we celebrate the winners in the competition and win or lose it’s still a really great event because on that stage we are awarding up and coming writers from our competition and we’re also honouring the established writers like the Tony Gilroys, the Larry Wilmores, Roger Corman, Dan Petrie and so they’re all on the same stage together. And what’s so beautiful is that one of those awardees, almost without fail, will comment on what they’ve seen from the up and coming writers. They’re deeply moved by the time they get up on stage because they’re also not sure what to expect at our festival.  So, when they see we’re really championing the writer and they’re hearing all the winner’s stories and we even have a young filmmakers award so they end up seeing young kids going up there and accepting awards too it makes an impact.  And these kids are in awe of what they are seeing – you know these teenagers are seeing people from different backgrounds and ages winning our script competition and our film competition and then they’re seeing highly established people as well and so that’s really inspiring for the next generation of young people who are going to continue to create and write and tell stories. And for me, that feels legendary because everybody always comes away feeling so invigorated and inspired.

***

The Austin Film Festival and Writers Conference runs from October 25th to November 1st. You can check out all the details regarding the Festival at their website online.

***

AFF is pleased to announce the 2018 Script Competition Finalists and Winners. 51 scripts were chosen for the Final Round with one winner to be determined in each of the 13 categories. The winners were announced during this year’s Conference at the Awards Luncheon held on Saturday, October 27 at the Austin Club. (Winners in Bold.)

COMEDY FEATURE SCREENPLAY
Presented by Sony Pictures Animation

Sex APPeal by Tate Elizabeth Hanyok
Darryn the Bold and the Sword of Boldness by Justin Best
Meet Cute by Noga Pnueli
My Date Is Kate by Carlin Adelson
Orientation by Eve Symington

 ***

 DRAMA FEATURE SCREENPLAY
Presented by Writers Guild of America, East

Horsehead Girls by Wenonah Wilms
The Death of Colm Canter by Revati Dhomse & Hector Lowe
Dig Two Graves by Jared Schincariol
The Huntress by Abdullah Alhendyani
The Innocent and the Vicious by Dominique Genest & Nick Kreiss

 ***

SCI-FI FEATURE SCREENPLAY
Open to science fiction, fantasy, horror, surrealism, myth/legend and fantastical storytelling.

Our Own Devices by Paul Vance
Darryn the Bold and the Sword of Boldness by Justin Best
No Man’s Land by Jeffrey R. Field & Michelle Davidson

 ***

HORROR FEATURE SCREENPLAY
Open to thrillers, dark suspense, sci-fi, and macabre themes.

The Patience of Vultures by Greg Sisco
Blood of Israel by Davey Morrison
Shaky Shivers by Andrew McAllister & Aaron Strongoni

***

ENDERBY ENTERTAINMENT AWARD
For feature scripts in all genres with an original concept and distinctive voice that can be produced for under $10 million. The production company was founded by Rick Dugdale and Daniel Petrie, Jr.

Project Horizon by Charles Morris
Grit N’ Glitter by Seth Michael Donsky
 The Patience of Vultures by Greg Sisco
Put Your Hands In by Warner James Wood
 Surfmen by Christopher Rhoads

***

AMC DRAMA TELEPLAY PILOT
All Semifinalists will be reviewed exclusively by AMC who will determine the Finalists and eventual Winner.

Worth by Stuti Malhotra
Double Time Dames by Davia Carter
Liberty Falls by Robert Attenweiler
Lifers Anonymous by Sean Collins-Smith
Mindset by Ethan Solli & Ziba Sadeghinejad
Ticker by Connie O’Donahue & Jeremy Nielsen

 ***

COMEDY TELEPLAY PILOT

What Will Jessie Do? by Kevin Luperchio
Band of Mothers by Sabrina Brennan
Bastards by Erin Muroski
The Last Abortion Clinic in Kansas by Tammy Caplan
Rice, Fish, and La Croix by Naomi Iwamoto

***

DRAMA TELEPLAY SPEC

The Handmaid’s Tale: Rebels by Angela Jorgensen
Billions: Trust by Amanda Parham
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Abduction by Todd Goodlett

***

COMEDY TELEPLAY SPEC

 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy Volunteers! by Maggie Gottlieb
Better Things: Goy Vey by Robert Axelrod
 Master of None: Headspace by Honora Talbott

 ***

SHORT SCREENPLAY

Ruby Throat by Sarah Polhaus
Seat 23B by Eliott Behar
 A War on Terror by Peter Haig

***

SCRIPTED DIGITAL SERIES
Presented by Stage 13

Epizootic by Daniel Young
Halcyon by Jonathan Marx
hello, world\ by Michelle Sarkany

***

STAGE PLAY

Particular Disposition by Benjamin Fulk
 Masquerade by James Hutchison
Disposable Necessities by Neil McGowan

***

FICTION PODCAST

The Rest Stop at the End of the Universe by Samuel Suksiri
Alethea by Katrina Day & Phillip R. Polefrone
Forces by Len Sousa
Welles D-11 by Simon Nicholas

***

JOSEPHSON ENTERTAINMENT SCREENWRITING FELLOWSHIP FINALISTS
In addition to this year’s Script Competition Finalists, we are proud to announce the Finalists for the inaugural Josephson Entertainment Screenwriting Fellowship. This new opportunity will provide a one-on-one mentorship with producer Barry Josephson and his team in Los Angeles for the writers of one feature screenplay and one teleplay pilot. 

***

Feature Screenplays

The Death of Colm Canter by Revati Dhomse & Hector Lowe
Darryn the Bold and the Sword of Boldness by Justin Best
Meet Cute by Noga Pnueli
The Patience of Vultures by Greg Sisco
Sex APPeal by Tate Elizabeth Hanyok

***

Teleplay Pilots

Lifers Anonymous by Sean Collins-Smith
Band of Mothers by Sabrina Brennan
Mindset by Ethan Solli & Ziba Sadeghinejad
Ticker by Connie O’Donahue & Jeremy Nielsen
Worth by Stuti Malhotra

***

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Revised on November 26, 2018.

Who needs the Waltons? Thoughts about August: Osage County

Posted on by James Hutchison
August Osage County Movie Poster

So, last year around the holidays I decided to watch the movie August: Osage County. Maybe I’d had enough of It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street and was in need of something a little darker. After all, you need to balance the sweet with the sour – don’t you?

August: Osage County is a gathering of the clan to say farewell to the family patriarch, poet, and drunk Beverly Weston. It’s a gathering of the clan that brings up old wounds and explosive confrontations. You know – your typical holiday family gathering.

Anyway, not everyone liked the movie – it has a 64% positive rating from the critics and a 65% positive rating from the public at Rotten Tomatoes. I’m one of those 65%. I liked it. Loved it in fact. I read the play and I watched the movie and I think Tracy Letts did a fantastic job of adapting his play for the big screen. Although I saw it at home on the small screen. Which isn’t that small anymore. Do you remember when a 26-inch television was considered big? Do you remember how happy we were to get a remote control…which meant we didn’t have to get off the couch to change the channel? But you know what, now that I think about it, maybe the invention of the remote control coincides with the obesity problem I’ve heard so much about over the last decade. Maybe getting up and changing the channel was a good thing. Yes, clearly we must outlaw remote controls for televisions. There’s a logic to that. A dumb logic, but a logic never-the-less.

Anyway, I loved August: Osage County and what a cast. A cast that includes Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Margo Martindale, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Sam Shepard. It was a terrific ensemble. And I think they’d be my dream cast for a big-screen version of Gilligan’s Island. Can you imagine Meryl Streep as Mrs. Howel? Benedict Cumberbatch as Gilligan?

So, a few weeks after I saw the movie I went out with some other playwriting friends who didn’t share my opinion. They didn’t like the movie. They felt something was lost on the big screen. They felt the stage play was more powerful because the action takes place in one location. I didn’t agree. I’ve never been to Nebraska but it was an environment I knew. I understood it. It reminded me of my own boyhood when we’d visit my Uncle and Aunt in Salmon Arm during the hot Okanagan summers. But I think the main reason I connected with the film on an emotional level was because of how the characters were all coping with lives that were unhappy. How many people stay together as a couple when a relationship is dead or work at a job they hate or search for meaningful relationships and can’t find them or simply have to deal with the daily pain of being out of sync with life?

And that’s what all the characters in August: Osage County are doing – they’re coping. Some of the characters are taking action to change things – some of those actions are drastic – and in the end – well if you haven’t seen it I don’t want to give away the end – but I liked the ending. And I found it satisfying – I found there was an emotional journey for each of the characters and for me that’s one of the things that makes the play and the movie work so well. And in particular, I liked Julia Roberts’ performance because it was through her character that I most identified with the story.

So, like all films that touch us on some personal level, they do so because we can identify with them and they reflect some aspect of our own worldview and or experience. Which surprised me – because I didn’t think August: Osage County was about how I felt about the world. But it is. Because it made me reflect on my life and the choices I’ve made.

I just have one wish though…and that’s for the Lifetime channel to commission an August: Osage County Christmas Special – who the hell needs the Waltons – I’d rather spend Christmas with the Weston family – can’t wait to see them fight over the wishbone.

***

August: Osage County (2013)

Directed by John Wells
Screenplay by Traci Letts
Original Play by Traci Letts

Meryl Streep – Violet Weston
Julia Roberts – Barbara Weston
Chris Cooper – Charlie Aiken
Ewan McGregor – Bill Fordham
Margo Martindate – Mattie Fae Aiken
Sam Shepard – Beverly Weston
Dermot Mulroney – Steve Huberbrecht
Julianne Nicholson – Ivy Weston
Abigail Breslin – Jean Fordham
Benedict Cumberbatch – Little Charles Aiken
Misty Upton – Johnna Monevata

Music by Gustavo Santaolalla
Cinematography by Adriano Goldman
Edited by Stephen Mirrione

“Family dysfunction has seldom been as flamboyant—or notable for its performances and flow of language—as it is in this screen version of the Tracy Letts play, directed by John Wells from a screenplay by the playwright. The cast alone is worth the price of admission: Meryl Streep as the cancer-riddled, drug-addled matriarch, Violet Weston; Sam Shepard as her alcoholic husband; Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson and Juliette Lewis as the couple’s daughters; and Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Margo Martindale, Benedict Cumberbatch and Abigail Breslin as members of their extended family. The language, rich in invective, flows from kindred spirits who are rich in aggressiveness, both the active and passive flavors.”

Joe Morgenstern – The Wall Street Journal
December 28, 2013

Link to Heart of Stone a Jessica Quinn Mystery by James Hutchison
Link to Stories from Langford by James Hutchison