9DCU0117HD_Directors_Cut_Studio_Transcript

 ( phone ringing ) Hello? Oh, hey, Sarah, you remember every year! Yes, we've been married 35 years today! And we are the same two little kids in love.  Honey, eat your eggs before they get cold.  We hadn't really talked about what we were going to do, but I'm sure we're goin' out on the town tonight.  Hello, and welcome to Director's Cut.  I'm your host, Charles Monroe-Kane.  Here at Director's Cut, we're dedicated to bringing you the best in independent films and filmmakers.  This week, we're featuring the short films of Troy and Frances Perkins.  They reside in Neenah, Wisconsin, where they're both professors.  Troy teaches film and TV production; and Frances, theater arts.  They spend their summers off from teaching, making wonderful short films.  Frances and Troy, thank you very much and great to have you here today.  First, that was a clip from "Tractor For Sale," which I love.  It was absolutely lovely.  Written and directed by you, Troy, and produced by you.  First, Troy, tell me what the film, "Tractor For Sale," is all about.  Well, our line that we like to tell people is that it's a honky tonk tale of love, loss and a tractor.  Wow! Honky tonk tale of love, loss and a tractor! That's good.  That's what it's about.  That's pretty much it, right there.  It's something that kind of worked out for us, that we found the ultimate honky tonk band up in the Fox Valley area to provide music for us and everything.  Black and white, why would you guys make it in black and white? When I first wrote the script, the first draft, I just always envisioned it in black and white. 

 I think because as he goes on his quest, and that's what it really is, it's this adventure, this journey of the hero and everything.  It gets more and more strange the further along he goes.  And for me, it just sort of felt that it had that kind of abstract nature to it, that black and white would work well for.  To help our listeners out, the quest is, as we see from the clip, it's his 35th anniversary.  He obviously forgot.  And his quest is to sell his tractor, what kind of tractor? Do you remember what it was? It was a classic, right? A '57 Oliver.  A good engine.  To sell the tractor to get his wife something nice.  And then it becomes this battle.  Let's see a clip.  If you could set the clip up for us.  It's the clip where, well, you set it up.  He's already tried to sell the tractor to a fellow farmer who loves to buy up equipment, and he can't sell it.  So he goes to the feed mill in town and thinks he can try to sell it there.  And Wes, the young guy behind the counter, you know, who works at a feed mill, and has dreams and aspirations to do other things, so he takes this opportunity to play to the crowd a bit.  Let's see the clip.  That'll be $142, sir.  Does that sound about right? We're on our way.  Hey, how you doin', Pete? Hey, Wes.  What can I get for you? I'm looking to sell off one of my tractors, Oliver '57.  Yeah, you want me to make a listing for you and put it up on the board? I kind of wanted to see if anyone wanted to pick it up today. 

 Today, huh? I can sell it off for cheap.  Let me see what I can do for you.  ( microphone feedback ) * We got a tractor for sale.  It's a 1957 Oliver.  And we all know, the old ones are the goooood engines.  Man, can they purr! What color is it? Green.  Let me tell you something else here, ladies and gentlemen.  This prime tractor is as green as a --- into a brand new world.  As green as the sexy corn stalks, growing and enshrouding the sexy, sexy fields of the farmlands.  How about it, people? Who wants to wheel and deal, and make this prime piece of machinery yours? That's a no-can-do, Pete.  * That's a no-can-do * Pete Oh, I can not get enough of that.  The hand, and chubby fingers in the foreground.  I love it.  You know, watching that clip, besides from it being very funny, you know, I watch a lot of independent films to do this show, a lot of independent films.  I like them, but one of the things that gives them away, we tend to have the skills with the computer editing, and people tend to have the skills.  They maybe even get a little money together to do a few things.  But it's the acting that tends to give it away.  You have good actors in your film.  Where do you get them? You're the producer.  Where do you get actors in Neenah, Wisconsin? That's the hardest thing, you know, in the world of no budget, low budget.  You just are looking for the best actors you can get, who are willing to give their time, effort and talent, out of the goodness of their hearts. 

 Free? Free, for the love of their craft.  And these films are long days.  You know, part of the process is showing the students that we work with that, you know, it's a 12-hour day.  Six hours, lunch, six hours, wrap.  So the actors are on that schedule, too.  Many of them are used to local theater and haven't done film at all.  So it's hard.  But we actually called actors from every local theater source we could find.  Many of the fine actors you see in "Tractor For Sale," and in "Brothers," came from the pool that UW Fox Valley uses for its theater productions.  The guy who plays Wes was actually a student at the time.  You laugh, but in the background was the owner of the feed mill, the artist who did our poster, a student who happened to be there.  I know that you don't spend a lot of money on making these films.  I want to ask you something about that later.  But that makes me ask a question.  Is that a way to pay for a film? The mayor's daughter gets to have a cameo, or you put the guy who made the poster in the film? No, no, not at all.  Actually, the gal who did our poster came to audition.  So we gave her a part as an extra in the background with that look on her face.  And then she said, oh by the way, don't you know, I'm a painter.  She painted.  Oh, the other way around! We agree with you, acting is the key to the kingdom.  Because if we don't believe the lives on the screen, we don't believe the story. 

 It could be edited perfectly, it doesn't matter.  It doesn't matter how beautifully it's shot or how perfectly it's edited if the audience does not believe those lives on the screen and their journey, as ridiculous and funny as it can be, then what's the point of making a film.  I think you and I have talked before.  You can shoot a film on your cell phone.  Sure.  But if the story and the actors are not compelling, who's going to watch? And if it is, then also the editing isn't as important.  You've got to have good actors.  You've got to have the real story.  I'm curious, "Tractor For Sale" is 22 minutes long, shot with obviously good equipment.  What was your budget for this? What did it cost you guys to make this? Well, we had a lot of in-kind, you know, food donations and things like that.  Our cinematographer brought tons of gear with him that we did not pay for.  But I'd say cash, $8,000 all the way through post, including duplication, festival submissions.  Where does the money come from? Do you pay for it? See, now, and I'm going to ask you both this question.  And I mean it in all sincerity.  Why? I mean, it's a great film.  I'm not saying it's not a good film.  I think it's done well.  But why would you spend your summer making something that cost you $8,000 for 22 minutes? Because it's the love of filmmaking.  There's really nothing like it.  I could even do away with the festivals, screenings and everything like that.  Just to be on set, and to be making films about stories and people in Wisconsin, it's that important to us. 

 An example, our DP is very good, working, high-end.  What's a DP? Director of Photography.  He's working out of Minneapolis.  And you know, summertime in the Midwest is when people make their cash because the weather's nice.  And he's taking time off.  This is three summers in a row, he has taken a week or more off of his very lucrative schedule to come work with us for free.  And it is the love of narrative, telling fictional stories.  If you work in branding, if you work in commercials, if you work in corporate video, there is a side of your filmmaking life that's not being fed.  I said, "Why do you keep doing this?" He said, "I can't imagine not doing this. " It's funny, what I do now, when I watch these independent films, and I'm really glad I did it with your film.  I read the credits.  I read them carefully.  They go on and on.  But they're wonderful.  We're not going to show the scene, but there's this great chase scene.  It's like two miles an hour with this Firebird.  It's an old Vaudeville-looking scene.  Then in the credits it says, "Sweet Firebird donated by. . . " I can't remember the person. 

 It's probably some teenager.  Then your mom cooked the food.  And I was reading credits.  The band was free.  But you see these credits in there, "Mom," thank the mom for the food.  You know, thanks to Fred for the sweet Firebird.  Well, locations.  We're on these farms for days.  One of the farmers, whose farm is in both films, he re-arranged the tractors in his shed, like four times, so that when Pete comes to look and find which tractor he wants to sell, they looked right.  He's a producer in the making! I mean, this man could produce a movie with his eyes closed, because he knew exactly what kind of attention to detail was important.  We didn't ask him to do that, he just did it.  It is a funny film.  What I want to do now, is you've made other short films.  We want to do the next one called "Brothers. " And this clip, could you set up this clip from "Brother. " It's the one where they're looking at the tree.  Go ahead and set it up.  Yeah, it's toward the beginning of the film.  The brothers look out at this tree and they're basically surrounded by subdivisions now.  They're farmers.  Yes, they're farmers. 

 They have the last farm that's basically on the road.  Subdivisions are just going up all around them, you know, just urban sprawl in sort of small town America that we see all over Wisconsin.  So, in this scene, they're looking out at this tree, which was very much a part of their childhood, but also their last connection to their mother, especially, but their family and their heritage, and pretty much their identity.  Well, let's see a clip from "Brothers. " They're going to cut it down tomorrow.  Says who? Yeah, someone last week.  Tomorrow, it's coming down.  * ( children laughing ) A great clip from "Brothers. " Troy, you directed "Brothers," we just saw a clip from that, and "Tractor For Sale. " Both have a farm theme.  Did you grow up in a small town in Wisconsin? Yes, I did.  It's a farming family in rural Wisconsin, near the Fox Valley.  This is something that's happening all over up there.  It's something I'm very passionate about.  What happens to the farmers, you know, nobody really talks about it.  You see farms go away and subdivisions come in.  And my question always was, what happens to the families.  It's, you know, all of us have experienced or will experience at some point, growing up in a house, and our parents sell it off.  We sort of lose a connection with our childhood.  With a farm, usually that's generations, because the family is on the same land in the same house.  So again, it goes back to what happens to their identity, and what happens to the identity of the communities. 

 I grew up on a farm, not a farm, sorry, a farm community in Ohio.  It was interesting when I saw this film and some of the clips with the subdivisions coming in.  You know, often when you see farming in a film, it's very romantic.  It's either the bad guys coming to take the farmer away because of a foreclosure, which is not what this film's about, or it's this idyllic farm that's perfectly read.  That farm looks very realistic to what I remember seeing, which is there's some broken down stuff, and the number of cows.  You know, it made me realize why I'm seeing something real.  And realism isn't always beautiful.  It isn't always perfect.  Is that one of the reasons you're making films like this? Like, I want to see what's real, no matter what it is, for other people.  I want to see myself? Absolutely.  I mean, you know, we talked before about the difficulty of getting good acting, actors and everything.  You know, we go through extensive rehearsals.  And also, when we do a location, it's everything.  Even Amos, the farmer, we were looking at a subdivision, and he said, wait a minute, there's a subdivision over here which is more sort of "scary subdivision," you know, kind of those big old houses being put up all over the place.  We definitely try to go for that sort of realist impact of what's happening with these characters, and show these characters in their environment, realizing that environment landscape is as much a part of the real characters as anything else.  Well, let's see another clip from the film.  This one, I think completely speaks for itself.  This is another clip from "Brothers. " Roll that clip.  Hello? I'm Frank Meyers, senior agent of -- properties.  You probably know us from your neighbors. 

 We're the ones buying up all the farms in this area.  You're the one that bought Greg's place.  That's right.  And they couldn't be happier with the sale.  The next addition to Heaven Brook Acres.  I've got work to do.  I understand.  I've been calling you and writing letters for over a year now.  My company is prepared to offer you quite a bit of money for your farm, Mr.  Kelly.  More than double the amount of your neighbors.  Your farm offers a beautiful view.  And that access road can connect up the entire neighborhood.  Your farm is the last one on this road.  It's time to think about your family's future.  How much are we talking? Well, you and your brother won't have to work two jobs anymore.  I know exactly how you feel.  You don't want to be the one to sell, but look around you, subdivisions, golf courses.  It's going in everywhere.  All your neighbors are gone.  Your parents have both passed on. 

 Here you are, working your fingers to the bone just trying to stay afloat.  We're farmers.  It's what we do.  Then sell.  You can buy ten times the livestock and land, 50 miles down the road.  Look at those houses over there.  Those people.  They say they want real country living.  But really what they want is their lawn and a little quiet, clean air.  They don't want to smell cow -- coming from your place.  That is a great clip.  Troy, you grew up in Wisconsin.  Frances, you grew up in southern California.  Can you relate to this? Somewhat.  I grew up in massive suburbia, as far as the eye could see.  That's the irony, that we come from such different--.  The county I grew up in has three million people in it.  Wisconsin has what, 4. 5 million? But I can relate to the idea of identity with who you are, especially family.  My family comes from a rural farming environment in the south.  And so, my mother watched this and was like, wow, I can really relate to this. 

 You're one step away.  I'm one step away from it.  And I think that so many people are close to it, within a generation or two.  Every single person we encountered making this movie said, yep, that's going on in my neighborhood.  That's going on up the street.  And no one was surprised at all, especially in Wisconsin.  But it has resonated with festivals in really disparate places like Hawaii.  That makes sense.  When I watch the film, I could see why it does relate.  It's a universal theme.  It is.  And I think that the fact that festivals in places that are not undergoing this kind of urbanization have gotten onboard.  We're going to be in Sedona next month.  Sedona doesn't necessarily have farms going under to bring development.  But the story resonates.  Why do you make short films and not feature length? Obviously, you have the skills and the equipment, why are you making 22-minute films and not hour-and-a-half films? Money.  You know, "Tractor For Sale" was eight days.  "Brothers" was six days.  "Test Day," that we're going to talk about, was three.  Six days of a crew of 25 people, plus actors, that's like $2,000 worth of food, not to mention all the food that was donated, all the lunches and meals.  If you're out in the middle of farmland in June, that's a lot of water, a lot of soda. 

 That's a lot of snacks.  It's like a party for 12 hours, except we're trying to make sure people are being taken care of so they could work their best.  That's a lot.  That doesn't even count the equipment, the post-production, the duplication.  It's an expensive process.  And we love doing it.  So, short films are a way for us to continue doing what we love to do.  So if you had the money, you'd make feature films? Absolutely.  We've got them in line waiting to go.  We just need the cash.  You have the scripts written, waiting to go.  It's interesting.  It seems sad to me, in some sense, but that's just how it is.  You're professors, so you have your summers off.  You have the time.  All you need is one element, just money.  A simple little thing.  But we have friends who've made features, who have gotten the money, gotten the financing.  They're still trying to find distribution.  Everybody ends up going about this in a different way.  We ended up doing it in a way that allowed us to have real jobs and real lives and family, as opposed to mortgaging our life to the bones to make the films. 

 For us, this is the way it is for right now.  It's interesting.  This is a totally separate thing here, but you know, my understanding, I'm not a filmmaker, but when you make a film, the director is the omnipotent being, the dictator.  But you're married, and you directed those films and you produced them.  But then the film that we'll talk about in a minute, you directed and you produced, which seems clever.  But what's it like having him and vice versa as the omnipotent being for the summer, totally in charge of everything? Everyone asks that.  No, no, everybody asks that, and we were actually teaching on the same campus for a while, and everyone thought that was so strange.  It's not by design.  We never intended to continue working together, but it works.  I think at the end of the day-- And filmmaking is hard.  It is an arduous, time consuming, exhausting path.  And you want to be doing that with somebody you implicitly trust.  And at the end of the day, you know that if I tell him, no you can't have it, we don't have the money, he knows that I've gone to every length I can to get him what he needs, and that at the end of the day, we can't have it.  If he tells you, artistically it has to happen? In the case of "Tractor For Sale," there was a moment where he was ready to cave on something.  Fine, fine, we'll just shoot a cutaway and we'll fix it.  And I said, no, no, no, we are doing what you want artistically.  If it means a re-shoot, if it means re-hiring equipment and all that stuff, that's what it means.  But once you're making the movie, you can't dump it just because at the tenth hour of the day, something got hard.  So I think that level of protection is there, and it really is hard to get anyplace else.  Does it spill over into the rest of the day, when you go home to hang out with the kids? Hey, I'm still in charge.  No. 

 That's good.  The film geekiness does.  It's constant.  It's at all points of the day.  I mean, we're watching TV and we're talking about something in the film.  It's really kind of sad that that's where we are.  But it's what we love to do, so it's what we'll talk about.  And what we talk about is what we love to do.  You were the producer for these last two films, but then you took the director's reins for "Test Day. " I have to say that we didn't pay entirely for "Test Day," because I did get a grant, a professional development grant.  We got some little grants along the way for the other films.  But I wrote it and made it small to fit within the money we were allowed.  Well, let's see it.  I don't think this clip needs any set up at all.  Let's see the opening clip to "Test Day.  Roll that clip.  You ready? Yeah, I guess I'm ready.  ( pencil sharpener whirring ) These are the ones that I'll allow you to use on the exam today.  ( loud gulp ) * ( loud zipper sound ) ( clock ticking loudly ) That was a clip from "Test Day. " Frances, you're the director of "Test Day. " You did this collaborating with students. 

 It's interesting, because not all the students were film students.  No, we opened the collaborations on all three films up to any student who wanted to collaborate.  Anybody? An English major? Yes, most of them are film students.  And in fact, most of them are UW-Oshkosh film students, but the background actors, and many of the actors in "Test Day" were from UW-Fond du Lac, where I teach.  What's that like? It must be a little frustrating.  No, it's awesome.  For us, it's basically an extension of what we're doing in the classroom already.  So it feels pretty natural.  What are they learning? Everything? They learn everything.  They learn about how long the days are, how the pace is.  Our cinematographer is a professional.  He's asking them for professional level work, which is not always easy when they're used to working just with each other on these weekend blitzes that they do.  They learn the chain of command.  They learn the hierarchy of the positions on a set and how they work together.  And they love it.  It's professional filmmaking without the paycheck.  And as you know, in Radio, TV and Film, you've got to do something for free first before someone's going to pay you.  This way, they're getting-- Listen to us, you've got to do something for free first.  And this is the way to do that, and get some really good experience with professionals and at a professional pace.  You guys were saying earlier, both of you, that it was all about money.  You have the time. 

 You have the infrastructure and the equipment.  And that you would make films full-time.  But I'm curious.  In Neenah, do you have everything you need? Could you be, forget teaching, have a decent standard of living, you know, make films that you're proud of, the way you want to make them, can that be done in Neenah? Or if you have the funding, would you have to go to LA, or even Milwaukee.  Can it be done in small town Wisconsin? Can you really make good films? I think with the technology, just all the change that's happened over the past five years, I absolutely believe that it can happen.  Now, I say that realizing that our cinematographer has brought a lot of the equipment from Minneapolis.  But I think that we have access.  We're close enough to Chicago and Minneapolis that anybody in Wisconsin can get anything that they need to make any type of film.  Anywhere.  We're not talking the big, big budget films that need the larger crews.  We're talking the lower, I'd say, $5 million on down.  I think there's definitely the locations, the infrastructure, actors, and all those things.  It's just a matter of having the money to do it.  You asked, could we make our living doing this, doing solely this? If we had the seed money to start the first film, like to get the ball rolling.  You can still live in Neenah and do it.  That would be ideal.  It's such a nice place to live.  If it happens, give me a call.  We'll have you back and I'll be all excited because you got to stay there.  We've got features that are set in Wisconsin.  We just need some funding to get them going. 

 And hopefully, the first one will let you get another, and another will get another.  I've interviewed a lot of independent filmmakers, and people are very excited.  They're very optimistic, as are you.  I applaud you.  When you make more films, call us.  We'd love to have you back on.  Thank you very much for being on the show.  Thank you.  And thank you all of you for joining us and watching today.  For more information on the films of Troy and Frances Perkins, including where to watch them, please go to: wpt. org/directorscut.  While you're there, send us an email.  We love to hear from you.  I'm your host, Charles Monroe-Kane.  For everyone here at Director's Cut, thank you very much for joining us.  Check the gate. ECHO is on.