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Your new movie Opportunity
- in a few words, what's it about?
Opportunity is a movie about friendship and the American Dream. It’s
a movie about a guy who wants to buy a house and everything in the world
gets in his way of doing that.
What were your sources of inspiration when writing Opportunity?
Opportunity was born nearly two years ago, shortly after I returned
from army basic training and advanced individual training with the Army
National Guard. At the time, I was living in an RV outside my parents'
house, unemployed and really not having a great time. The marketing
company where I had worked as a video editor was going bankrupt and could
not rehire me. I was trying to buy a house with some money that I had
saved up but like Patrick in the movie I couldn’t qualify for a loan - so
I decided to make a movie instead. I began writing a script that would
eventually become Opportunity
because I needed a project that could give
me a sense of purpose.
I have always dreamed of making a feature film,a dream sparked when I
first read Robert Rodriguez’s Rebel Without a Crew, which inspired me to
create 40 short films over nine years. For one reason or another I never
felt ready to take the leap into making a feature film but circumstances
lined up just right so that I no longer had any excuses. I finished the
script, showed it around to some friends who liked it and then I committed to making the movie.
Of the two main characters in Opportunity,
Patrick and Donnie, who could you actually identify with more? Patrick
is 100% a version of me in the movie. In college I had a job pushing carts
at Fred Meyers and though I never lived in my van I came very close to
that actually happening. Donnie is a combination of two of my best friends
Quinn (who plays him) and Cody. What
can you tell us about Opportunity's
brand of comedy? I don’t think I set out to make a comedy
at first. I wanted it to be a serious drama but the comedy happened to
come naturally because of the absurdity of the plot, my casting choices,
and from my directing style of allowing the actors to improv lines on set.
I have taken a couple of improv classes and I remembered the lessons that
I learned in them. Many hilarious bits came through actors just making
stuff up after I got the takes that I wanted. For example in the scene
where Patrick and Donnie have their big fight and Patrick insults Donnie
with “… you unfuckable muppet!”, that was Jon just tossing out
insults on the fly because he is hilarious. The film struggles a bit with
those two concepts of drama and comedy which is why I call it a dramedy.
Even in the edit it was hard to strike the right balance between what was
going to be a serious moment and what was supposed to make you laugh. Some
things I played up certain moments in the edit to make them funnier than
they otherwise were. But overall comedic moments came from the actors
themselves playing into their characters, especially from Quinn. Quinn is
kind of like a real like cartoon character, and I say that with as much
love as possible. He is great and is only slightly playing up a character
which is more or less himself in the movie.
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A few words about your directorial
approach to your story at hand? I storyboarded everything
in preparation for the shoot because this was my directorial debut and I
didn’t want to waste anyone’s time and my money by not having a plan
for how I was going to shoot each scene. This was such a low budget shoot
that I had to wear many, many hats in order to get things done. I acted as
my own 1st AD and producer many times, meaning that I was largely
responsible for making sure that shoot days went according to plan and
logistics of company moves. But as the old adage goes,”no plan survives
contact with the enemy.” Or in filmmaking it should be said, no plan
survives the first day of shooting and nothing goes according to plan. So
I was very flexible with what happened on set. If an actor couldn’t make
it that day I shot around them. If a location fell through or wasn’t
exactly how I imagined it I adapted there on the spot. Again going back
to improv, you never know what is going to happen and you just have to
take everything as a gift and use it to your advantage, even if on the face
of it it seems to be the opposite. Adapt and overcome. Do talk about Opportunity's
cast, and why exactly these people?
I used people that I knew. All of the members of the cast are my
friends or were people that I had done film projects with in the past. One
of the benefits of making short films for almost a decade is that you meet
a lot of people and a lot of those people end up becoming working
collaborators. I think that finding “your people” is very important as
an artist, and the cast of Opportunity
are “my people”. I love them,
trust them and know how to communicate to them in the ways that they
understand. I hope that they can say the same about me. That is a big
reason why I chose people that I knew because it made for very little
friction on set.
I won’t go into each and every casting decision (unless you want me
to) but I will talk about why I cast Quinn Aikele as Donnie and Jon Waters
as Patrick. I
cast Quinn as one of the leads for two reasons.One, I wrote Donnie’s
character based upon him, and two because he had been in almost every
single short film I had made literally since the beginning. And I cast Jon
because I knew that he was a classically trained actor. He has a degree in
Theatre from Boise State University and he is a professional voice actor
for audiobooks. Meaning that I knew he is talented and would have no
problem memorizing all of Patrick’s lines and he had a lot of lines. We
had also done a couple of short films together in the past and he was a
blast to work with. I am very grateful that I had access to an actor of
his caliber and that he agreed to do the project. I am also glad that I
cast Jon because he ended up having great chemistry with Quinn, the two
bonded over their love of comic books and that friendship really showed on
screen and made Patrick and Donnie’s friendship believable.
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What can you tell us
about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
Principal photography lasted 12 days with another 4 days of pickups and
reshoots, so 16 days altogether, but since all of us had 9-5 jobs during
the week we only shot on weekends.Newton's 1st law which states that
things in motion stay in motion, so I knew I had to start moving. July 9th,
I had a script reading and cast/ crew production meeting, and on July 15th
we started shooting. I did not do any rehearsals and expected the cast to
do that on their own and memorize lines by themselves. I believe that
Amanda Coryat and Quinn did this a few times on their own, but I was not involved
in the process. For future projects I will probably give 2 weeks for
rehearsals and blocking, but with this project I was so eager to get
started and had been a part of so many projects in the past that fell
through that I knew I had to start as soon as possible. We wrapped up
shooting in early October 2023.
All of the filmmaking advice that I had read about making a low budget
indie film told me to film as much as possible in one location - which I
didn’t do, but I did do the majority of the shooting at locations that I
knew I had access to which principally meant shooting behind Justin
Brown’s store Combat Sport Supply. I credit Justin as a producer on the
film because he helped so much with getting locations, props, vehicles and
now promoting the film for me. He also knew the owners of the Reuseum
where we shot all the office scenes and the final fight sequence. It is so
useful to know local business owners who will allow you to film on their
property. It also helps that Justin has been involved with the film scene
in one way or another forever.
We filmed a lot of the movie in the alley behind the store which
allowed us to operate almost whenever we wanted since it didn’t matter
whether or not the store was open or not. I could drive down there, park
my van and shoot a scene. I also filmed at Quinn’s house, Mason’s
house, Jordan and Riley's apartment.
And as far as the on-set atmosphere I think I kept it pretty light. As I
mentioned before I was very aware of my timetables and had Glyn Shore, my
AD/script supervisor, to help me stay on track with the schedule. There
was a lot of internal stress that I felt on the set, but I tried hard not
to let any of that spill over onto the crew. You’d really have to ask
them how they felt about it but from my own perception it went well and
the energy was high. I have a pretty decent social IQ and can generally
feel when the energy in the room is waning. That’s when I begin to do
goofy stuff like dance or have a sword fight with a prop crowbar. Whatever
it takes to get the crew smiling and vibes high.
The
$64-question of course, where can Opportunity
be seen?
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I am working on that piece of the puzzle right now,
trying to get distribution. We will be launching a Kickstarter soon to
help raise some funds to do that because it turns out that distributing a
movie is almost as expensive as making one. My distribution strategy is a
multi pronged approach with the first plan of attack being a film festival
run. We have submitted to all the big ones and some of the smaller ones,
we will see how that goes. Crossing my fingers. Next, I plan on doing a
few local screenings of the film at small mom-and-pop theaters in Idaho
and around the NW. I want to turn Opportunity
screenings into a mini punk
rock show and make them fun events that people want to go to. Turn Donnie
and Patrick’s antics into drinking games and have the audience throw
popcorn at the screen like Rocky Horror Picture
Show. I would love to see Opportunity
tour around to as many places that will show it as possible.
If you have a space and will have us we would love to show the movie to
you! And finally we are looking into getting on an online streaming
service that fits our movie and makes the most financial sense for us.
Tubi is the most likely candidate for that but that is yet to be
determined. I will let you know when those things happen and give you the
links. Anything you can tell us about audience and
critical reception of Opportunity?
We have had two local showings and both audiences loved it! Lots of
laughs and awws. It was great seeing the audience's reactions to things in
real life. It is great seeing that scene worked especially after working
for so long on the movie in isolation. It is very rewarding to see that
all your hard work paid off and realizing that you are not crazy. The
audiences all seem to cringe or gasp at the nail step, which was as
intended. It is nice to see that things are in fact as funny as you
intended them to be, and few laughs at unexpected things like the
tumbleweed falling off the van in the desert scene.
As far as the critics' reception to the movie thus far I am blown away.
It is one thing to hear that you made a good movie from friends and family
but another when you hear it from complete strangers whose job it is to
critique your work, that is nice. And any and all negative critiques of
the movie I take those in stride. I have worked on this movie for two
years now so I am very aware of all of the movie’s flaws. There isn’t
much that someone could say about the movie that I haven’t said to myself at some point.
Any future projects you'd like to share?
I have since written 2 feature scripts, one of which I would like to sell. I also wrote a 65 page
treatment of the sequel to Opportunity
titled Opportunities, which I would
love to eventually make one day. I also have an idea for a horror movie
that may or may not be my next film. I am also working on making some
short films with some other local filmmakers who are also super talented,
and I can’t wait to share those projects when they are finished. There
is a lot of talent out here in Idaho and we will be soon bursting out into
the world showing everyone what we can do. What got you into
filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on
the subject? My filmmaking education is a bit eclectic. I didn’t go to film school
but I did go to art school, which is where I first learned to edit and
thought of the idea of doing anything with a camera at all was implanted
there. In high school I was a painter, sculptor and illustrator, and I
initially thought that that’s what I wanted to do with my life. Being an
artist with a capital A, meaning do fine art shows and galleries. Art gave
me a lot of the basics for filmmaking like color, composition, thinking in
symbols and how to tell a story with images. I actually wanted to be an
animator before I was a filmmaker because that is after all just moving
pictures. As a part of the animation program at my school they made me
take an acting class, and that in combination with being a grip on two
indie feature films in Portland, OR really made me want to make movies.
So I moved back home to Boise, ID, bought a camera and started making
shorts which is where I learned how to tell a story with a camera. I also
interned and helped run a production company for a couple of years and
that is where I really learned the technical side of running a camera.
Everything else I learned from watching other people do things on sets,
YouTube and a lot of experimentation.
What can you tell us about your filmwork
prior to Opportunity? As
I have already said, I shot 40 short films over the last 10 years as well
having helped out on at least a dozen other people’s projects over the
years. I have shot and edited dozens of commercials, most of which were
local but a couple of them were national spots. And the biggest thing that
I worked on prior to Opportunity
was a 45 minute pilot for a reality TV show about an interactive aquarium where I was the story editor and a
cameraman. I think that the experience of putting that show together made
me realize that Hollywood wasn’t as out of reach as I thought it was
because we pitched the show to a few big networks. Ultimately it wasn’t
picked up but I met a lot of talented people along the way.
How would you describe yourself as a director?
Driven. I have a
lot that I want to say and I feel like I still haven’t had the
opportunity to say it. Part of the reason why I titled the film Opportunity
was because it was just that, an “opportunity“ that I was
making for myself. It is hard not to say the word “opportunity” when
talking about the film. I hold myself to a high standard and I want to
make a positive impact on the world. And most importantly I want to have a
lot of fun doing it. Filmmakers who inspire you?
Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez are the two who have been at the
forefront of my mind for the longest because of what they did to start
their careers. Both of them took enormous risks to make their first movies
and had wild success because of that. I also recently read biographies on
Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola, and all three of them are legends who took
risks and made huge hits. I like people who have strong morals and put
their money where their mouth is in order to make what they want. In
short, I like rebels. Many of these people now are established insiders,
but if you study their lives they didn’t start out that way. They
started out trying to beg, borrow or steal their way into making their
first few films, and I see a bit of myself in that.
Your favourite movies?
There are so many I will limit it to ten to keep it concise. Largely
based on the rewatchability factor. There are plenty of films that are
good that I will never watch again because they are depressing or messed
up. Those would include: Requiem for a Dream, 12 Years a Slave
and Irreversible.
Here are the ones I have seen maybe the most in my life: 1. The Mummy (1999) 2. Starship Troopers 3. Gladiator
4. Conan the
Barbarian 5. Die Hard 6. The Empire Strikes Back 7. The
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 8.Pulp Fiction 9. Hot
Fuzz 10. The Dark Knight
There are dozens of others but for that I would have to make a list on
IMDb. And if you want a more obscure less mainstream list I can give you
that as well. Huge fan of foreign films. Some of those would be: Taxidermia, Pee
Mak (2013), and City of God.
.... and of course, films you really deplore? Oppenheimer, I
really couldn’t get into that movie, so boring. And Tenet felt like what
would happen if you gave a film student millions of Dollars to make a
movie. Normally I am a huge Christopher Nolan fan but those last two
movies didn’t do it for me. Other movies that I don’t like that many
other people love include Napoleon Dynamite and anything with Andy Samberg
in it. I don’t understand that style of humor. Your/your
movie's website, social media, whatever else?
https://opportunity-the-movie.com/
https://www.instagram.com/opportunitythemovie/
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
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I would like to give a shout out to my sound designer Jacob Kinch who
is an absolute badass and saved the movie in the edit. He did amazing work
fixing all my mistakes and really built out the whole world in sound.
Without him I don’t think that the movie would be half of what it is or
would be watchable at all. Super talented guy, I can’t thank him enough
for the work he did. Thank you Jacob.
And another huge shout to Taylor Ross who composed the film. I have
known Taylor for years, he is a musical genius and I knew that I wanted
him to score the film and he crushed it! It was his first time scoring a
film and that is a lot of work. Thankfully he is a classically trained
musician and composer, and dove head first into creating the score. It was
fun to work together on crafting how I wanted the score to sound. Also it
was my first time working with a composer, so I had to learn to speak the
language of music. I learned lots of fun terms like leitmotif, think Darth
Vader’s theme, and legato, when music is smooth and continuous. Having a
film score is now another tool in my filmmaking arsenal that I can use, and
I can’t imagine making a film without one now. Thank you Taylor.
Thanks for the interview!
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