5 Questions with Cormac Hawken McCarthy ("Turtle Training")

1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?

I think watching skateboarding videos as a kid was my first access to filmmaking. The music, culture and attitude had a big influence on me. I went to art school for painting, but I was really interested in watching other students make films. It wasn’t until a few years after I graduated that I became invested in it and eventually shot one. It turned out to be far more challenging and involved than I had anticipated, but I enjoyed the ‘run and gun’ aspect of it and trying to build a story with the footage. 

2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?

My brother and I work as a commercial electricians and had to complete the exact type of on-site training for an endangered turtle as in the short. Watching a wildlife biologist interact with uninterested construction workers was fascinating and felt synonymous, in part, with our current political divide. When we got serious about writing this, we had to consider that the frustration of the biologist was only compounded by the amount of times he had to give this presentation. We imagined in him breaking into song and in his despair and asking “Is Anybody There?” from “1776”, something our mom would play regularly for my brother and I as kids. 

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?

The biggest challenge was finding a location. Most constructions sites aren’t interested in allowing someone to use their facilities to shoot a film. After a few months of searching, we got lucky with a coworker of mine who happens to live on a farm that has an office trailer. It took some work to make it usable but, it allowed us to shoot everything in a day without any interruptions. Which made shooting easiest part of making the film.

 4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

I just watched Lawrence Wright’s documentary Going Clear. After having read The Looming Tower, I loved learning that he had ambitions to be a director and screen writer prior to that book. It’s interesting to follow the thread in his work as a writer/journalist to documentaries.

5) What’s next for you?

I have a few ideas for a short film I’m working on that I’d like to shoot next year. I’m working on some paintings to keep me busy as I develop the story and figure out the logistics.

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IG: @cormachmccarthy