5 More Questions with Drew Angle and Katelyn Douglass
The one-take comedy, “Terrible Accident at the Bread Factory,” follows the employees at Crumbles Baking Co. as they throw a welcome back party for a co-worker who was seriously injured after falling into a cooking vat. We asked co-directors Drew Angle and Katelyn Douglass how the project started, what the biggest challenges were, and what comes next for them…
1) Can you talk briefly about your backgrounds, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
Katelyn Douglass: I moved to Chicago from Florida to work in theatre and am a founding member of a devising group, Hot Kitchen Collective. We make work thats falls somewhere between performance art and storytelling. I'm interested in exploring more ways these two worlds can intersect.
2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
KD: We know so many great actors and comedians in Chicago. We thought it would be fun to get them all in a room together and see what would happen. Drew and I came up with the premise for the film and then opened things up to the performers to discover the characters and create dialogue. We had 2 workshops/rehearsals with the actors where we worked off prompts and played improv games to see what we could find. Drew and I took the recordings of the rehearsals and used that to write the final script.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the best, and the least?
Drew Angle: Developing the script was so much fun. All of the actors brought great ideas to the rehearsals and created some hilarious scenes. One of the earliest challenges was figuring out what moments could make it into the film since there was so much good material.
We broke up the film into 3 shots with some great insights from our steadicam operator. We got to work with a gaffer we love, Joe Nilsen, and he was able to do some really simple and effective lighting so that we could shoot 360 and move in and out of rooms while keeping the same exposure. The performers were spot on as well and gave us great performances take after take.
The biggest challenge came from nailing the pacing and just executing the camera moves. Our steadicam op, Dae was brilliant at using blocking to motivate the camera movement and pull us throughout the space. Katelyn, myself and our sound mixer would run around behind Dae trying to anticipate pans and dodge reflections in the bar mirrors, but we would inevitably get tangled up or end up on the wrong side of the camera for a pan and bust the take.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
DA - I just watched the Last Black Man in San Francisco the other night and was blown away. I feel like this movie deserved so much more attention. It had a really amazing tone that was playful and poignant. Really wonderful shot design and cinematography. And one of the best intro sequence I can recall that immediately pulls you into the world.
5) What’s next for you?
KD - We are editing a project we shot last summer at a Renaissance faire outside of Chicago. The story follows a self-absorbed clique as they track down the artist behind a botched portrait. We shot the movie sort of under-cover, there’s a lot of long lens coverage and scenes set against bizarre backdrops.
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Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/crumbss
Instagram: Drew Angle: @lars_lettuce | Katelyn Douglass: @katelyndouglass.