5 Questions with Ryan McGlade ("Knickknacks")
1) What have you been up to creatively since we last spoke about "Larry Larissa Linda" last year?
I’m in the early stages of post-production right now on a new short about friendship starring Jeremy Levick and Rajat Suresh that’s been really fun to make and I’m psyched for people to see it. I’ve also been writing a feature that I’d love to direct at some point down the line, a postapocalyptic vaudeville escape movie with a mostly elderly cast of characters.
2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?
A few years ago I got scammed trying to buy some stuff online, which was more of a blow to my ego than anything because it made me feel like a doofus and a sucker. It was only with a bit of distance that I realized that I was operating at a semi-manic level of anxiety that day and that for a scammer, that’s a pretty ideal state of mind for a potential mark to be in because they’re not thinking straight and their judgment is all over the place. That was kind of the jumping off point, and I developed the primary two characters with Edy Modica and Tynan DeLong, who play the mark and the scammer, respectively. They’re two of my favorite actors in NYC these days and I’d really wanted to make something with them for a long time, and this concept felt really right for them.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?
Well, the shoot was pretty much an on-the-fly situation, which in and of itself was a challenge because we were shooting in an essentially improvisational way out in public, but also because the central phone call between Edy and Tynan was shot months apart, so while we were shooting Edy’s scenes I only had kind of a vague idea of what we’d be shooting with Tynan later. So I’d kind of just throw out prompts to the cast and they’d run with it, which is a testament to how brilliant they all are. We ultimately ended up shooting everything in non-consecutive sections over a few afternoons across six months or so back in 2019, and as was the case with Larry Larissa Linda, I was editing all the material piecemeal as we went along, so the first shoot heavily influenced the direction of the second shoot, and both influenced the third shoot. So, probably even more than usual, it was a lot of finding the film as we went along.
The easiest part of the production was working with the cast and crew, all of whom brought so much creativity and enthusiasm and talent and chutzpah to the experience. I learn so much from Cody Powers, our DP, every time we work together, and the visual style that he developed for this one taps into a certain special something that I can’t even describe, but it’s exactly how I hoped the movie would feel. So much of the way the movie feels to me also came from Dan Arnés, an amazing musician who composed the score. Everyone in the end credits is a beautiful artist, and I love them all so much.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I saw Raj Kapoor’s Awaara for the first time a few weeks ago and it’s been on my mind more or less constantly since. It’s probably the first coming-of-age/noir/romance/musical/courtroom drama that I’ve ever seen, and it’s so powerful and entertaining that it just feels like the ultimate movie. More than a lot of things I've seen lately, it made me really miss going to see stuff at rep theaters around NYC before they all closed down – it’d be mind-blowing on a big screen in a dark room. In the meantime, it’s still up on Criterion Channel the last time I checked.
5) What’s next for you?
I’m planning an online release later in the year for another short film of mine, Hoss, which has been on the festival circuit for the past year and is airing now on the ShortsTV channel. Otherwise, working on editing that new short with Jeremy and Rajat and revising that feature script. Also considering maybe adopting a cat.
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http://www.ryanmcglade.com/ | IG: @ryan_mcglade | Twitter: @ryanmcglade