5 Questions with Alex Kavutskiy
1) What have you been up to since we last spoke in Feb. for Gilbert's Little Christmas?
This is a weird chronology since I quickly wrote, made, and put out Gilbert long after I finished Ear Ache. But since February, I guess I've been... quarantined a lot? I got to catch up on a good amount of writing and got a lot of experience pitching things over Zoom. And then I hit a wall and stopped being productive. And then I landed a writing gig on a Netflix sitcom, which was the absolute perfect job to get during a pandemic, but it definitely made it easy for me to continue not thinking about my own personal projects. This online release ended up timing out nicely with this job wrapping up, so, whether or not people like it or watch it, it'll be a good reminder of "oh yeah, this is what I like doing and should be working on." A lot of festivals I love have been doing a great job of adapting to what's going on and holding online festivals but it's just not the same. I'm excited to finally get this out into the world.
2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?
So right after I finished shooting the NoBudge-officially-selected short "Squirrel", I was immediately antsy to make something that's the exact opposite. Stylistically, structurally, tonally, etc. So the opposite of a high-concept, dumb premise seemed to be a quiet, character study. And when I looked at the people around me and inwardly, a character trait that really stuck out was there was so much self-pity going around so that felt like a good starting point. I met up with DeMorge, who I've worked with many times before but never this intimately, and we just chatted a bunch about self-pity (basically we just shit talked everyone we knew and ourselves). I can't remember when I landed on the ear infection part of it but it came from us wanting to give the character real pain. Sure, he uses it as an excuse and shield so often but it's real and heavy nonetheless.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?
The easiest part was definitely working with the actors. You cast the right people in the right parts and then it's all fun. Jay the cinematographer and Ester the production designer really set up such a gorgeous setting and, as a director, it was mostly just letting the actors play and explore. It was less plotty than what I've usually done so there was a lot more room to linger and follow little threads.
The hardest part was editing. I guess the flip side of exploring and trying different stuff is you do have to pay the piper in editing. This is definitely the project I've had to cut the most out in post. Alex the editor really held my feet to the fire of looking at the bigger picture and not getting bogged down in specific scenes. The initial goal of this character study was to feel like a slice of life and some stuff I had written and added definitely weighed it down and made it more linear and didn't fully capture that feeling. Cutting it down makes the film feel "smaller" in a sense, which I really like for this. And Jason's score is so incredible that it really helped hit how significant little pains and moments are in daily life.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I just watched Deerskin, which I loved. Big fan of Quentin Dupieux and he continues to not miss. There's so many movies that make sense that they exist. Oh yeah, sure this Holocaust movie is very important or yup, this adaptation of a popular comic book is gonna be a big hit. But I love that one day he thought "what if this guy really loved his jacket and didn't want other people to wear jackets?" and then just got to make a whole movie about it. And executed it so well. Movies are so expensive and hard to make and I love that there's still space in film for... for lack of a better word, stupid crap. Taken seriously.
5) What’s next for you?
I'm gonna keep writing features and TV stuff, trying to make something with actual money. I think I sold a show, I'm not really sure, everything takes so long. I keep trying to not think about making more shorts until I finish some scripts I've been pushing off but it's very hard to open Instagram or NoBudge or whatever and see people out there making stuff. I wanna play, too. So maybe if another idea for a self-made short grabs me, I'll jump on board. Safely, under covid precautions, of course.
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