5 Questions with Dale Nicholls
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
Grew up in Southern California, watching westerns and cop shows with my grandfather. I was a nerdy indoors kid, obsessed with Led Zeppelin and movies. I’d go to the library and spend hours reading film books, screenplays, Film Threat, Fangoria, whatever I could get my hands on. I somehow talked my dad and stepmom into taking my younger brother and I to see Pulp Fiction. Our jaws dropped for different reasons. I was transfixed. Something sparked. They were mortified and probably expected child services to arrest them right there.
2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
I was in the weeds with a feature script and needed to break my brain a bit, bang out something short and fun. I had these characters who were like a Lucy and Ethel dysfunctional duo, always getting in absurd scenarios. Sam and Maria sell bootleg Smiths shirts and get chased by an enraged Morrissey, Sam becomes a Spiderman on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and is chased by enraged Sony lawyers. Lots of enraged chases. Anyway, wrote the Bad Day Sam script pretty quick and wanted to make it like a weird anti-fairy tale. Like a twisted children’s book with stylized chapters, full of the anxieties I was feeling. I approached Vivian and Tipper and thankfully they were into it.
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?
The weekend we shot had record LA rainfall. Just relentless downpour. It made capturing audio a little tricky, and everyone was wet and cold. One of those “we’re all in this together!” moments that brings out the gallows humor pretty quick. Funny in hindsight.
Sounds corny, but I love every part of the process. My favorite is watching actors do their thing. Taking a script and making it real, adding bits, giving it life. It’s the part of filmmaking that holds the most wonder and mystery for me. My least favorite part is the race to make the day and never feeling like you have enough time.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
Recently saw a short called Miracle Desert by Mark Hosack that I really dug. Supernatural elements, dim crooks, dark humor, all the things I want in life. Riley Stearns’s Faults and The Art of Self Defense were great. Deadpan, absurd, dark. I can’t stop thinking about The Lighthouse. Basically anything with Willem Dafoe wins. The Safdie Brothers’ passion and approach to making movies is inspiring. It’s a crime that Uncut Gems was shut out by the Academy. I’m storming the Oscars to unfurl a huge Greenpeace-style banner over the red carpet… “Justice 4 Gems!”
5) What’s next for you?
I have two features to get off the ground. Uncle Yucky is a dark comedy about a feuding clan of low-rung criminals. Kinda Coen Bros. do Cassavetes. Tarantino meets Tom & Jerry? The second is a dystopian dark comedy called Happy Sunrise, about a degenerate cult leader vs. an Albanian Mafia princess. I keep writing roles for Willem Dafoe, but he never returns my texts. Willem, get at me!
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http://vimeo.com/dtnicholls
Instagram: @datacadet
Twitter: @dalenicholls