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Last
month I went up to the Tower Theater and covered their Open
Mic Night film festival. This week we’re talking
to one of the winners of the festival. Amanda Stoddard took in
her short film called “Float
My Boat”,
a music video for local band The
Mollies,
and walked away with the Judge’s Choice award. I got a chance
to talk with her about the making of the film, Open Mic Night,
projects she’s currently doing, and a few other questions here and
there for the winning director. All to the majestic sounds of
speeding cars going 55 off the light on South Temple during lunch.
What’s with you people?!? ---
Amanda: I went to school at the
University of Utah and went through their film school, and since
graduating in 2001 I’ve just been working around town
professionally. I’ve been cutting pieces for industrials and
commercials and all that kind of stuff. Recently I’ve been
producing my own material like The Mollies video and a friend of mine
who’s been doing sports videos. Just trying to establish
myself as a producer.
Gavin: How was the program
at the U?
Amanda: It’s good. It’s very
geared towards creating artistic film, and I think that’s where I
learned my artistry and developed a love for the art of
filming.
Gavin: Do you think of yourself as more
independent or work with people more frequently?
Amanda:
Well film is so hard to do, you can’t do it on your own. It’s
expensive, you have to buy so much stuff and so much gear, you can’t
even haul all the equipment yourself without breaking your back.
So you have to have people that you work with and you have to have
people that trust you. I have a crew of maybe ten people that I
work with professionally and also artistically depending on the
project, you have to have those people around.
Gavin:
How did the idea for “Float My Boat” come about?
Amanda:
One of the guys that’s in The Mollies is a friend of mine. We
got to talking and he played the song for me and I thought it was
great so let’s make a video.
Gavin: How
long did it take you to set everything up and film it?
Amanda:
Well, I came up with the script and the band approved it and
then about two weeks later we shot it. We did one day of
shooting with all the stuff in the kitchen and outside of it, and
then we went out on Christmas morning and shot the stuff with the
cake downtown so the streets would be empty. So it was
basically a day and a half of shooting.
Gavin: Where
was the kitchen stuff filmed?
Amanda: It’s my
house. We just painted the kitchen and dressed it up a little
bit.
Gavin: Now with the effect of the reverse
tearing apart of the cake, how long did that take to do?
Amanda:
Not long, it’s so easy now with Final Cut Pro and the technology,
you can just throw a filter on it and you can do whatever you want.
In that part of the song it just needed something different so we
decided to do the reverse cake stuff.
Gavin: Cool.
When you finally finished the product, did you show it to an audience
before Open Mic or a private type thing? What was the reception
to it before hand?
Amanda: I of course showed it
to the band, and then they went and showed it to all their friends
and family and everyone they knew. Then I showed it to people I
knew. But the great thing about Open Mic is that you get to see
your film on the big screen and then you get an honest reaction from
the crowd as they watch it. So that was really the first time I
watched the film with a bunch of people who didn’t see it before
and who didn’t know me and weren’t friends or family. So
that was the first night.
Gavin: How did you hear
about Open Mic Night?
Amanda: I’d known they
had been doing it for a while, and I always kind of keep track of
what the Film Society is doing. And the Utah Foreign Video
Center used to do something similar when I was in college, and it’s
a really cool experience to see your film with a bunch of other
people. So I was hoping someone else in town would do that and
found out that Patrick and David and the Tower people put it
together. So yeah, I had heard about it through the film
community.
Gavin: What was your reaction to
seeing it there and hearing the audience reaction?
Amanda:
It’s hard to say. I think everybody liked it, it didn’t get
as much of a reaction as I had hoped, like people didn’t laugh at
some of the things I thought were funny, but I think people really
enjoyed it and were really interested in talking about it afterward.
It was different than some of the films I’ve done in the past that
have a little more shock value, this one is just kind of sweet and
friendly and gives everyone a warm-fuzzy feeling when they watch it,
you know?
Gavin: How did it feel being the
Judge’s Selection winner?
Amanda: It’s
awesome! It was really cool. I read Jeremy Matthews
reviews and I agree with his view on film and think he’s very
knowledgeable on film. So to have him pick mine was really
validating and a neat experience because I really respect that guy a
lot.
Gavin: Speaking of which, what are some of
the previous films you’ve done?
Amanda: A lot
of the ones I’ve done personally have been made with friends as art
projects. There’s one online called “Divine Hibiscus”,
and then recently I’ve been doing these short documentaries for
this guy named Chris Waddell. He’s going to be the first
paraplegic to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro. The first one is a little
bit older, I did it a few years ago. Then I worked for a
production company for about a year so most of the stuff I did then
was for another company. The one for Chris we just finished
this fall. It’s really cool and it’s getting great reviews,
it actually looks like he’s going to pull the money together to do
the trip to Kilimanjaro, so we’re going to do several more of these
short documentaries to cover his training and the process of getting
ready to do this trip. So I’m finishing up one now that
should be on his blog and online next week or maybe two
weeks.
Gavin: What would you say are the top
films that have had an influence on you?
Amanda:
It’s so hard to say because it changes everyday. I loved
“There Will Be Blood”, but there are several films that I watch
over and over again but they’re not like, the most popular or
artistic and they’re kinda girly. I like “Pride &
Prejudice”, I really like Ang Lee and everything he’s done.
And I like some of the new directors from the past ten years like
Soderberg and Paul Thomas Anderson and their recent films.
Gavin: If you had to pick an influential
director, who would you say is the most influential on you?
Amanda:
Well there are certain films that really changed the way I look at
film and I would say that some of Bergman’s films, especially
“Persona”, that one really changed the way I thought about it.
And a lot of the more recent ones, one was “Run Lola Run”, it
kind of came out when I was trying to decide whether to be a film
student, and it was the cool film about this girl with crazy hair and
it really meant something to me. I don’t know, it changes all
the time, but I would say “Persona” at least definitely, it was
one of the first films I saw and I was totally blown away.
Gavin:
Do you plan on being more of a producer or a director down the
road?
Amanda: I’ve found to really have that
artistic influence over what you do you need to be producing your own
work. I love directing and really want to direct, but on the
short-film level in order to have that influence and have the last
say, you need to be producing. So I’m doing both right
now.
Gavin: Any local directors you feel are at
the top of their game?
Amanda: Well, we kind of
have those people around who you see around town such as Trent
Harris. It’s good to see them around and know that he’s
always trying to produce something and always putting stuff
together. Another person I see around town who has been here
for years making films is Diane Andrews, she does documentaries and
if you ever run into her at a coffee shop she’s always willing to
talk about film.
Gavin: Any hint you want to give
toward the next film or keep it hush-hush?
Amanda:
Well right now I’m doing the sports stuff for Chris. I would
love to do more music videos, I haven’t decided anything yet and
it’s just going to be finding the right band and the right song.
And then I’m going to be doing the 48 hour film festival coming up
next month. Then we’ll see what happens after that.
Gavin:
Any final thoughts you wanna voice?
Amanda:
I think the Open Mic thing is a really good opportunity for
filmmakers to see their film in a theater and anybody that’s about
town should be putting their films in that competition because you
just don’t get that opportunity for short films.