5 Questions with Kevin Luna ("Fake Jazz")

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

Like many others, skateboarding was my gateway drug into art and film. 

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

I'd been wanting to make something with the cast and crew that shot this with me, so my main goal was to write something that I could do quick and cheap, and that would be fun for everyone to shoot. The script itself is kind of a loose thread. It evolved over a few different drafts, but the main idea I wrote without thinking much. Just playing around. I have OCD and invasive thoughts so it's always therapeutic to try and write them down. For me the characters are like different voices inside of my head, arguing with each other.

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

Figuring out who the characters would be was tricky. I didn't want them to just be my friends (which they are) driving around in a van. I wanted them to kind of be stock characters, but not so much that it would feel like a skit. Somehow, putting the two guys up front in chef's outfits did the trick for me. I think chefs are pretty funny and I like those stupid tall hats that they wear when they're making waffles in a buffet. I had bought even taller hats than the one in the film but they would've hit the ceiling in the van so I couldn't use them. 

Shooting was probably the easiest part. We had a two camera setup and got really lucky with the overcast weather so we could shoot going both directions on the road. Because it's basically one scene, once everyone got into the groove it went very fast. It was one of the last fun, social things I did before covid hit. 

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

I recently watched Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. It's a very funny and absurd film where the story is a bit looser and doesn't feel so intentional (in a good way). Everyone is on a train and things just continue to happen. A lady vanishes but that doesn't seem to really be the point. There is a shootout at the end, but even then no one is that concerned. The whole time the sound of the train drives the film forward whether you like it or not. I really enjoy this way of handling plot. I think it can get pretty boring when films get too wrapped up in the rules of narrative structure. One moment happening after another should be the only rule.

5) What’s next for you?

I've got a few ideas I'm writing at the moment and a feature that took forever to finish that I would like to screen. But honestly, I have no idea.

—

www.dreamtrash.com | IG: @dreamtrashk