Here are a few more of the questions and answers from my interview with Keith Sanders:
KEITH: It looks like the film will take about a year to complete, what drives you to take on a project this big?
JI: Including the scriptwriting process it’s actually a total of more like three years (and the origins of this project go back almost four [see below in question 3]). One of the biggest things I’ve walked away from this experience with is the stout conviction that I can do this for the rest of my life at the expense of a lot more than just time.
With this project, I was driven by the desire to tell a story that is, at its core, inherently dramatic – but it’s wrapped in the absurdity of spandex so it’s often times hilarious as well. Adding the elements of superheros and backyard birthday parties into a world with real characters and real emotion just highlights the drama with the comedy and vice versa and humanizes the whole thing to an extent that maybe I didn’t even anticipate. In addition, the comic book-inspired subject matter is ripe with opportunities for dynamic visual storytelling. It gives my crew and I an opportunity to try things that incorporate visual and narrative concepts that maybe aren’t usually seen in student work.
KEITH: What has been the biggest challenge?
JI: My biggest challenge is internal, I think – dealing with compromise. Coping with the knowledge that you can’t always get exactly what you planned or wanted to get and that sometimes it’s important to shift gears and somehow get only what you need. The end of a shooting day is a huge emotional release for me, whether or not I get everything I wanted. I suspect it’s the same for Jake. One of the reasons we work so well together is that we’re both ruthlessly hard on ourselves and we always expect better. Frequently we’re told by those with qualified opinions that we’re doing the best job as director and DP that this school has ever seen, student or otherwise. That does little to console me when I had to give up a beautiful shot – or Jake when he didn’t have time to bring in another light or effectively block the sun as it makes its way across our scene and progressively mucks up our visual continuity. We both understand that every scene is important and we never approached any of them as less important than another and we never stopped caring about doing a better job tomorrow. The second I think I’ve made it because somebody praises what I’m doing – the second I think that’s a reason to stop getting better – I might as well go sell shoes.
Last couple’a questions next time – JI
