5 Questions with Tyler Rubenfeld
In an uninterrupted six minute take, “Ursula Promo,” directed by Tyler Rubenfeld, introduces us to a voiceover artist and his plight to sound suitably ominous while recording a weather alert promo. We asked Rubenfeld how the project started, how many takes it took, and whether or not he intended it as a metaphor…
1) How did the project originate?
I'd been writing this short about a weatherman who becomes increasingly depressed during a monthlong rainstorm, and it was the kind of thing that spiraled and became too big for a short (but not enough for a feature), and I eventually scrapped it. I salvaged one scene from it — one that probably would have been edited out anyway, since it was the only one that didn't directly involve the weatherman, and it was about recording a TV spot for the storm. It was essentially an excuse to cast Matt — an actual voiceover artist who I'd cast in a previous short and definitely wanted to use again, and the Hawaiian-Punch-red Hawaiian shirt I'd seen him wear a few times.
2) Was it always gonna be one shot? How many takes did you do? Which one did you use?
It was always going to be one shot, mostly because I couldn't think of a good reason to cut to something else. We used the sixth take, which was the last one. I screwed up one take in a very millennial way by snapping a picture with my phone, mid-scene, with the flash still on.
3) It’s a great performance by Matt Hopkins. What was it like working with him? Did you rehearse or just wing it?
I got to know Matt when I cast him in a previous short; we took two two-hour LIRR trains to shoot a fifteen-second scene (he was a good sport about it!). I definitely wrote the short with him in mind. Because of all the moving parts, I rehearsed with the cast for a couple hours; I wrote a fairly specific script, but gave them the freedom to improvise. They ended up sticking with the content that was written but ran with it in their own way, and all in all, we had a lovely afternoon!
4) Am I detecting some metaphorical intent here? Can you talk a bit about a larger contextual picture you were addressing, if you were?
Ohhh, you know, there's probably something metaphorical in there… A cursory read of the short might say that it's about climate change, and it's basically the "this is fine" dog meme as a six-minute short, but I don't think it's quite that simple, (I hope not, at least!). What I will say is that I spent a lot of Tr*mp's first year in office a) terrified, and b) unable to deal with gallows humor of the "we're all going to die" quality. It left me a lot of time to dwell on how people in a place of privilege process global catastrophe, and maybe that's what I'm dancing around here.
5) What’s next for you?
A few months before "Ursula," we shot a longer short called "Decent Living," which is finally getting spruced up for festival submission. I've been prepping a feature for awhile now, and if all goes well, that'll go into production next year, (and if all doesn't go well, another short?)
Contact Info:
tgrubenfeld@gmail.com