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Your new movie The Art Canteen -
in a few words, what's it about? It's basically an interview
situation on a mock TV show with someone who doesn't want to be
interviewed, so this character, The Guest, just repeats the same nonsense
word over and over again, and The Host tries to ship around this, showing
his disdain in the process. What wer your sources
of inspiration when writing The Art
Canteen, and given that you've conducted quite a few interviews over
the years, is any of this based on your personal experiences?
Well, in a way this is based on a true story, as Kyril Zach, who plays The
Guest, really didn't want to be interviewed. But here's the story in more
detail: Kyril is an Austrian actor and filmmaker who has made the movie
molkipolki,
in which he, while miming himself through the plot, just repeats the word
"molkipolki" over and over again. Now I've reviewed the movie and found it
a fascinating experiment, so I wanted to know more - but Kyril refused to
be interviewed, which is fair enough of course. Still he was
understandably keen on promoting his movie, so I came up with the idea to
do an interview The Art
Canteen-way. But is it based on personal experience?
No, not really. But maybe on subconscious "what-ifs". I mean every
interview, no matter if as interviewer or interviewee, has the potential
to go wrong - and The Art Canteen
then is pretty much a worse case scenario.
HHow would you describe The Art
Canteen's brand of humour?
To boil it down to one word: Absurd. To an extent it's of course inspired
by
Monty Python, who often had mock art programs on their
TV show, but then honestly what absurd comedy since has not been inspired
by
Monty Python. That said, the comedy's also very
situational, and the older members among the audience might also
appreciate a (not very) subtle dig at Casey Kasem's American Top 40.
What can you tell us
about your directorial approach to your story at hand?
Frankly, minimal would probably be the fith term. I mean, I had to let
Kyril do his thing, as that was the whole point of the short, and one
can't really directo oneself as an actor, as acting is already directing
oneself what to do (unless the director says otherwise) - so other than
setting up the cameras and asking for certain camera movements, my
direction was limited to saying "action" and "cut" ;) You
also appear in front of the camera - so what can you tell us about your
character, what did you draw upon to bring him to life, and how much
Michael Haberfelner can we find in The Host? HHe's basically
a pretentious prick who thinks he knows it all, and more importantly
thinks he knows it all better than his interviewee - and he lets the
audience know that. To play him was pretty easy then, as I just drew upon
my basest emotions - and let's face it, we'd all like to be a prick
sometimes. As for how much of me we can find in The Host - I do hope not a
lot, but probably more than I'd like.
Do talk about your
co-star Kyril Zach, and what was working with him like? At
first I was a bit worried, as I hadn't known Kyril personally prior to the
shoot other than from a quick phonecall. I would have loved to do a
rehearsal at least via videocall, but he wasn't up for that. So this was a
gamble ... that ultimately worked out great, as he came prepared (maybe
even more so than myself), we quickly clicked, and I think we got the
right chemistry across - which really wasn't too hard though as our
"chemistry" was two people coming from two totally different planets ;)
You of course also have to talk about your location, and what
was it like filming there? The location really came out of
necessity: Basically, as with all indie shorts, there was little money on
the table and little time for pre-production, so one just had to go with
what one has - and what I had was the bar in my apartment with an adjacent
kitchen. So I really retro-engineered the script to fit the location
rather than the other way round - thus the "canteen"-part in the title.
And really didn't even have to do any set-dressing for it to fit the
requirements. As for filming there - well, it was crammed, we had to
squeeze three cameras (well, cellphones) in the smallest of space, two of
them on tripods, one hand-held, and our camera guy has probably suffered
from claustrophobia being restricted to a tiny corner during the shoot.
But ultimately, that's indie filmmaking for you.
A few words
about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? I wish
I would have some funny anecdotes - but I just haven't. This was actually
a super-smooth shoot, one and a half hours and we were done (of course,
helped by the fact that we had three cameras for maximum coverage). Now of
course it helped that Kyril and I clicked that quickly, I originally had
been scheduled a four hour shoot. The $64-question of
course, where can The Art Canteen be seen?
https://youtu.be/GDLEHeEsO8g
- and you can also find it on my Facebook and Instagram (links below), but
that's the most direct way to watch it ... and since we're talking
YouTube, I'm almost obliged to say "like and subscribe, and make sure to
hit the bell so you never miss a vid" - please don't hate me for saying
that ;) Any future projects you'd like to share? Oh plenty, if you
don't have them you're not a filmmaker ;) But there's a couple that are
actually taking shape, one's a webseries called Dark
Confessions where I play a podcaster interviewing
serialkillers. Some really cool guest stars on that one. It's partly
filmed already, but really can't give you any more info as I'm only an
actor on this one. And then there's also the horror comedy Ghosts
of the Asylum, on which I'm writer and producer, which is in
early development - too early to give you any details, but as far as
casting goes this one's top notch.
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Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever else? Find the film at
https://youtu.be/GDLEHeEsO8g My socials:
https://www.facebook.com/michael.haberfelner and
https://www.instagram.com/michaelhaberfelner/
And of course, if you want to check out Kyril Zach's
">molkipolki, go to https://www.molkipolki.com/
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely
forgotten to ask? Merely a massive shout-out to our
cameraguy, my good friend Peter Hammerschick, who despite not working in
the industry was ok with being crammed into a corner for an hour and a
half documentint your shenanigans and being screamed at while probably
wíshing himself anywhere but there, and be it the Ninth Circle of Hell ;) Thanks for the
interview! |
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