5 Questions with Will Janowitz and Monroe Robertson
Will Janowitz in “Cole”
Today on NoBudge we’re premiering, “Pitcher / Catcher,” a VHS-shot movie about a washed up baseball player and his last shot at glory. Co-directors Will Janowitz and Monroe Robertson chat baseball, their background in acting, and what’s next for them…
1) How did the project get rolling?
Will: I’d been wanting to do something with Monroe for quite sometime. Additionally, I’ve always been obsessed with outsider sports stories; the anomalies; the odd anecdotes which you only hear about after a player's died/and or has made a major come back. Pitcher/Catcher is loosely based on the Matt Bush story. Matt Bush had a bright future as a major league closer and then vanished. He was struggling with fame and fortune and drugs and then started working at a Golden Coral, I believe. This is after prison. Anyway, long story short, he eventually got scouted again in the Golden Coral parking lot. He threw like 95 still. Shit changed after that. They sent more scouts and eventually he made it back. This was the seed of the story yet I wanted something with more of two-hander vibe. Something that felt like an old relationship. While pitcher and catcher relationships are a bit of a trope, there’s still truth to it. I wanted to see something which felt desperate, for both characters. Sports a desperate. And so is Hollywood. Both are cutthroat. We wanted to capture that.
Monroe: Will and I had been wanting to work together for a while and had started throwing a few ideas around so when Will mentioned this short prior to an LA visit we decided to jump on it, put together a schedule and shoot it over a weekend. I hadn’t shot anything in Los Angeles before and liked the idea of only working with natural light so I was psyched to do this together. I think we both share the view that you have to keep working and making your own content, especially as actors, and I’m always down for rolling up my sleeves and getting involved in all different kinds of projects.
Monroe Robertson
I grew up in England and find this country fascinating, inspiring, contradictory and bizarre. I enjoy stories that peel away the American Dream and with this one I love the simplicity and thought it was something we could achieve. It really wouldn’t work unless the relationship feels genuine, which I believe it does. Will, Arron Shiver and Dylan Kenin are all fantastic actors.
2) What's your relationship with baseball? Do you play / Are you a fan?
Will: I played baseball in high school and in the summers and spring. I played in Missouri in Summer and FL in spring. I caught and pitched. I was recruited to play in college but learned pretty quickly that I wasn’t all that good. You then are left with few college options and so on and so forth. When I’m in LA I go to see USC and UCLA games. It makes me very happy. I’m a METS fan which is like being the ultimate underdog fan you can be. My dad was raised in queens.
Monroe: Growing up in England, baseball wasn’t such a huge part of my childhood. However I’ve have always played sports and when I first came to NY as a young teen I insisted on buying a batt, ball and glove (which I still have somewhere) and having my parents find a baseball field so my brother and I could play. However American films and culture were a huge part of my childhood and every time I was off school sick my dad would come home with a stack of vides and I watched everything from “Major League” to “Field of Dreams” to “A League of Their Own”.
3) Talk about the look of the film, and your decision to shoot on VHS.
Will: VHS is a wonderfully weird medium. It’s finicky because the cameras are finicky. It was sort of the perfect vibe. We also wanted it to look like an old skate video. While skating and baseball are super different sports, there’s a desperation to both of them. I also equate both with warm weather, too. You can’t control VHS nor can you really light it. We wanted a natural look an I feel like we got just what was in our collective heads. The cameras are also big and clunky and oddly, you feel like it’s filmic that way.
Monroe: I like how honest and unapologetic VHS is and it felt like it would fit the story and characters. We decided we didn’t want to mess too much with the footage in post so it really feels like a time capsule to me. A family video of some strange relatives you might know. We liked that. Though it can be finicky, shooting on VHS in natural light really worked with the skeletal shoot we required and it also helped the flow and performances because we could just shoot without stopping or having to break the momentum of a scene.
One thing that doesn’t really capture well with VHS however is the sound and bad sound is always distracting so it was important to record that externally. Then we had the mix done at a great audio post facility called Fall On Your Sword who recently opened a Los Angeles location.
4) I'd love to hear a little bit about your background. Will, I know you're an actor. How'd you get into that? Have you directed previous films? What about you, Monroe?
Will: Well, you know about my baseball career now! I started acting on the heels of baseball since I sort of realized I was better at acting. I wasn’t great academically speaking and my parents and sister were over achievers so I was like fuck it, I’m going to acting school! I got into all the fancy conservatories except Juilliard. I decided on North Carolina School of The Arts because I dug the south and the girls and the BBQ. I thought Winston Salem was really weird and cool and it was. Great bands came through there and great artists too. I didn’t chill with that many actors though. Mostly musicians, dancers and visual artists. I left after only two years though. It wasn’t for me. I needed to fuck off and travel and work. Conservatory doesn’t really let you act act until third year which was driving me crazy. Maybe that’s changed — I doubt it though. I started acting after I worked in production. First film I ever did was a Troma film called “Terror Firmer”. Then “Law & Order” then “Sopranos”. I always wrote though and always wanted to create my own shit. Still to this day I get funny looks when I tell people how much shit I do. Which brings me to directing which I never thought I’d do. I’ve done it in my own small way with characters and shit. But yeah, I wanna do more. I wanna make big movies and small movies. I’ve written like three features on my own, only one of which I’m going to direct though. Working with Monroe was cool because we had a nice flow and didn’t really ever say no to ideas and process. We just tried to let this thing happen and focus on the acting. Monroe did all the shooting though, which is what some old school directors did i.e., operate their own camera. Soderbergh does, I think.
Monroe: My background is acting. I grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, my mother ran an RSC theatre and my father is an actor. I went to The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and then almost immediately moved to New York. I worked as an actor in theatre and indie films in New York and over the last 10 years developed an interest in working on the other side of the camera as well. I love shooting and always keep my 35mm film camera in my car. I haven’t directed an awful lot however I understand actors and like working with good ones. I love Will and have been a huge fan of him and his various characters since we met. The way his mind works is fascinating and refreshing and I enjoy collaborating so this was a no brainer.
5) What's next for you?
Will: I’m writing a feature right now. Bigger world than I’ve done before but fun cracking it. I’m trying to sell shit I’ve written and never done stuff with including this goblin comedy called “Forever Wrong”. Guys cursed to live as a goblin until he finds true love except he’s a miserable asshole. It’s like “Zelig” for millennials. I’m a co-producer on this huge Netflix movie which is gonna be surreal to watch from the inside — already is. Monroe and I have a fun BBC type show we wanna do over there which we’ll touch at some point this year too. Still wanna act wanna direct my first feature and act in fun shit. Wanna make stuff basically! I wanna see and make more things like Ali Abassi’s film “Border”. Go see it!
Monroe: I’m playing a lead in a movie that’s about to start shooting in Los Angeles . I’m writing a play set in the year leading up to the first World War and Will and I are working on a TV show idea to shoot in the UK. I also have a mens shoe store in New York called Jeffery-West (www.Jeffery-West.us) so when I’m not in LA you can find me there in the West Village.
Contact Info
Email: williamjanowitz@gmail.com
Email: MonroeRobertson3@gmail.com
Social Media
Instagram: @willjanowitz
Instagram: @MonroeRobertson