5 Questions with James P. Gannon
The cozy documentary portrait, “Betty Feeds The Animals,” by director James P. Gannon, follows an eccentric older lady who has made it her mission in life to feed dozens of stray animals. We asked Gannon how the project started, what the biggest challenge was, and what comes next for him…
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
I'm the 6th in a line of 7 kids, so growing up in my house was a bit of zoo. Not only was the house packed with my siblings and pets but also my sibling's friends were over all the time as well. One of my brother's friends had "acquired" a video camera from the local mall for "free" and would bring it over to my house and film random stuff. Most of the time they were just torturing the younger people in the house. I distinctly remember waking up once in the middle of the night with a light bulb in my mouth and a video camera in my face. The explanation I was given was that they wanted to see if it would "light up". Eventually, they graduated from those kinds of videos and started making short movies for fun and roped me into playing rolls. Nothing that made any real sense, I distinctly remember playing "hunter boy Jake" an 11 year old "man" who had gone mad trying to find a monster killing people in the woods. Anyway, it was fun and I started to wonder if that was something I could do for my real life. Years later I went on to buy my own video camera from a JC Penny I worked at and taught myself filmmaking making short films with friends.
2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
It all started when Betty showed me a photo of the animals outside of her house at night. The photo, taken through a plate glass door with the flash on only showed the reflection of the camera flash and dirt on the glass. But she insisted that you could make out the shapes of skunks in there somewhere. I thought it was hilarious. From there she started naming the animals and the process of feeding them became more elaborate. I thought to myself that maybe this could be a fun short film but I wasn't sure if anyone besides me would find it interesting. But I figured, worst case scenario I would just make the movie for myself and for her and my siblings. Betty is my Mother and I kinda wanted to make a love letter to her and how she lives her life with such an unrelenting kindness towards living things.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the most, and the least?
The biggest challenge in making this film was doing it alone. I could have had something helping me with sound and moving the cameras and stuff but I was afraid that she wouldn't be as natural on camera. So I opted to just do it all on my own. And then to make it harder on myself, I opted to shoot the whole thing on super 8. So it was just me running around with 2 cameras (one super 8 and one digital camera with sound attached to it) filming her for one day around her house. I shot on Kodak 50D which requires a lot of light and no matter where I put her the meter was always telling me I needed more light. That's why she is in front of windows the whole entire film. When I left from filming her I was convinced that none of the super 8 footage was going to come out and felt super defeated. So much so that I went back the next day and shot the entire movie all over again with the digital camera just in case. Thank god I didn't need to use any of it.
The best part of the process was passing it off to an editor. This is my first time doing that and the things that Sam brought to the table in the edit really elevated the film.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
Funny enough I recently rewatched Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade...it had been years. That movie is completely out of fucking control. From a writing perspective, it would seem ludicrous to have a boat chase, motorcycle chase, and an airplane chase all take place within an hour of each other but they do it and it WORKS. Also, the way Sean Connery is so dismissive of Harrison Ford doing cool stuff, fighting off bad guys is a really fun dynamic. I'd seen the movie many times, but sometimes you watch something and its almost like your seeing for the first time. I don't know. I just had a blast watching it again for some reason.
5) What’s next for you?
Next up, I'm working on a short doc about my father getting hit by a train in the 70's. I've also got a feature script I'm looking for funding for about a demolition derby driver in the 80's who gets lost in the desert in an AMC Gremlin. I'm pretty excited about it.
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http://www.jamespgannon.com
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