5 Questions with Will Barker
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
TBH my older brother was first into making movie and such so I sorta just copied him for a while. Later in my self conscious years, I found it was my most frictionless mode of self expression given I had been doing it for 8+ years. So I figured let's get as good at this as possible and be an entertainer in this medium. Went to film school in North Carolina, dropped out, went to a more expansive art school in my home town and made Awesome Burger as my thesis film. I have a million interests and going to VCU allowed me to feel out a lot of them which was cool. I don't think I'd be the same person without that experience.
2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
I had been making movies for over a decade by the time the "thesis film project" came around. So I was like, "Let's throw every idea, concept, and thing I want in a movie into the same project and see what happens" I spent maybe 3-4 months thinking and writing like 4 different stories and then ended up with a 22 page script which I cut down into a more subtle 12 page script. I wanted something with existential feelings about my weird life experience and what it feels like living inside of a movie everyday. I see peoples motions and the attempt to influence them by commercialism and entertainment. IDK like what the fuck is going on with everything right now? I am constantly feeling like nothing is real. Maybe I am the only one feeling like this but I don't think so. Everything feels fake and honestly when you think about it, everything is made by someone and the interpretation of it is made by your brain. Anyways, I also always wanted to shoot something in a "bad work place" environment and a couple other ideas that are hard to reflect on after making this movie 9 months ago. I took all these ideas and shook them up in a bag and made what came out. Crazy fun and hard and I feel like all my work moving forward will kinda reflect on this movie in some way.
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?
Well, writing this movie was kinda crazy but I already talked about that. I loved the writing process a lot but I also really loved working with people in my class talking about ideas and also shooting the film itself. I remember when we were in the restaurant location and we were breaking for lunch and I looked around at my peers eating food with me and thinking, "Holy shit I can't believe we are doing this right now. Everyone is here to work on my movie and we are creating an experience together." So happy that everyone wanted to help with my movie and that it could exist in the real world as well instead of just in my head. I think what was the hardest problems to solve was the writing process tho. Just taking my stupid gracious ideas and making them into something actually doable with the resources and talent that I had didn't seem possible at first. But thinking about what my movie actually needed to be and what parts of my movie didn't matter really helped. I feel like all the writing I do looking forward will be a process of creating something, cutting 50% out, reshaping whats left, cut 50% out, reshaping, and the assess what we can actually do logistically at that point. I am less worried about that in the future, I just know I can't be attached to anything I am making and have the power to kill parts of it for the sake of the project itself as it exists outside of me.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
Been really into stuff Blink Industry have been putting out. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared was a huge influence on me as a high schooler and still as a more adult movie making person. There was a slightly new piece they put out called Jarressey that had beautiful art direction and super silly dialogue and rhythm to the whole piece. Super beautiful and I want all my future work to be more like that. Colorful, fun, silly, and somewhat sorta saying something about life but like only kinda if you want to think about it that hard. Also Alan Resnick, his work is pretty awesome.
5) What’s next for you?
I've been working on a series called The Johnny Show which is basically just me in front of a green screen playing all the characters in a photoshop stock image world. Every character is named Johnny and nobody seems to realize or care about this fact except for the protagonist, Johnny 2. Currently have only made 3 episodes of the first season but there are a couple videos I made before hand experimenting with the format which I am calling "Season Zero". But I also want to make music videos, get a real job maybe or keep freelancing, help other people make movies, and some how be involved with Youtube cause I think content on the internet is cool and fun. Still trying to figure that out but IDK, maybe there is something worth while there.
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http://willjbarker.com
IG and Twitter: @truefrogma