5 Questions with Hunt Beaty
Hunt Beaty (left) with actor, Rob Youells (right)
As part of “Six Short Films,” the collective effort between three NYC filmmakers, to make personal projects in-between paid commercial and other crewing work, “Pay Pig,” is the latest and perhaps most provocative of the bunch. It follows the relationship between a submissive bodybuilder and the dominatrix who empties his wallet and more. We asked Beaty how he was introduced to this world, his general writing process, and the working model of the recent string of shorts…
1) This is one short film in a series of six. Can you briefly discuss the collective you’re working with? You’ve written extensively about the process on your website so I won’t ask you to repeat the whole thing, but just for people to get a quick sense of the working model, and anything new you’d like to add about where you’re at with it?
Sure. Wes, Andres and I have been working primarily in the commercial world in a variety of capacities since we left college. One evening, over perhaps what was one too many beers, we decided to embark upon this challenge together to roll up our sleeves and flex our narrative muscles again. Essentially, we wanted to remind ourselves why we even went to film school and started in the industry in the first place. Plan was for each of us to make a film with the full support of the other two. So we’d rotate the director role and the other two would be “all hands on deck” and do whatever needed to be done to make it happen. We set some ground rules, but the bottom line was to KEEP GOING, and release the films at a steady pace, not allowing ourselves too much time to stew on one project and get bogged down. Just shoot, edit, release, make another one. Simple as that, right? In just a little over a year, we’ve shot and released (5) short films, and the 6th and final short should be coming out in late March/early April.
2) What was your introduction to the world of pay pigs? What kind of research did you do? What was the most uncomfortable aspect of making a film about this subculture?
I encountered this subculture quite randomly online while researching a DIFFERENT fetish, the online marketplace of people who buy and sell underwear and other undergarments online. This search was prompted by a conversation I had with a friend who’s and amateur bodybuilder who told me people hit him up on Instagram asking for his workout shorts all of the time. No joke! Initially, I thought we’d make a film more focused on that, but the more I read about the broader subculture of financial domination the more I was intrigued. To me, this idea of a “pay pig” just felt so completely “of the moment,” and a thing that had only truly come into existence recently, so I wanted to pull at that thread. To be honest, the most uncomfortable aspect of making this film for me was worrying and becoming self-conscious over how the story would actually fit together and “work” in the short format. It was a lot to bite off conceptually, in sense. Also, had the usual doubts about how a story like this might be perceived in a broader sense, but I think we did our homework and delivered something thoughtful and interesting.
3) What’s your writing process like? Especially when you have to keep other full-time jobs to stay afloat? When do you find the time to write? How quickly was this written / how many drafts, revision, was involved?
My day job is a bit all over the place schedule-wise honestly, but I for the most part would try to focus on work during normal business hours, and then write and focus on everything related to making these shorts starting at 6pm. Obviously, this didn’t always work out, but those were the parameters I tried to set for myself. So I’d write in the evenings over the course of a month or so and send drafts back and forth to Wes and Andres for their feedback. For this movie, we had to re-conceive parts of the story in post and ended up shooting the webcam footage after principal photography had wrapped. Wes and Andres and I all worked on that re-conception together, and additionally, much of the dialogue from those sections was the result of riffing on set with both Frankie and Rob.
4) What about your cast? I know a bit about Francesca Anderson, who is great, but what about Rob Youells? Is he an actor? Do you take different directorial approaches with different actors? Do you rehearse? Do you give them room to ad-lib or improvise?
Certainly, I can’t say enough good things about Frankie, who we first worked with on “F*ck Bunny,” directed by Wes. As I mentioned earlier, part of me was certainly nervous about making this film so it felt good to be working with someone who I could trust and felt comfortable working with already. Frankie really does her homework when she plays a character and I loved collaborating with someone who took ownership of the character. We’d often discuss the validity of certain lines while on set and I’d look to her for what she felt was something that her character would believably say.
Rob is also indeed an actor. He worked on a short film several years ago called “Off Season.” The film was set in the bodybuilding universe and Wesley actually photographed that film. We found Rob very late in the game and we were lucky to have him come onboard. He’s a naturally charismatic and compelling guy who is also very thoughtful about certain choices he makes on screen. He stepped right in and “got” the script right away and trusted us
I do think I take slightly different directorial approaches with actors, mainly that manifests itself in gauging how different people like to work. Some like to talk things out quite a bit before even reading a line, while others I find like to jump right in. I’m totally down for both, and try to do my best to deliver on what they need to feel like they’re getting as little or as much guidance as they need from me.
No rehearsals on this project. But yes, we big time left room for ad-lib and improvisation, particularly during the YouTube “confessional” segments for both Rob and Frankie.
5) What’s a movie or movies you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you think live up to the hype?
Late to the party I know, but I finally completed the series “Breaking Bad” recently after a years-long hiatus. Definitely lived up to the hype for me. Also, really enjoyed “The Favourite” in this year’s batch of Oscar-noms.
Bonus Question: What’s next for you?
Well our 3rd short in this series “Sundays,” directed by Andres, will be having its last screening at SXSW tomorrow (March 14th). We’ve been in Austin all weekend and had an awesome time meeting a ton of talented filmmakers.
Personally, I’d like to continue pursuing directing/producing projects in the commercial sphere, while hopefully developing a feature film with Wesley and Andres. We have a few ideas in the works, one based upon a short from this series, so we’ll see what sticks.
Contact Info:
Email: hunt.beaty@gmail.com
Instagram: @huntbeaty
Collaborator IG’s:
@wingowesley
@jacardona