1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking? 

I’m originally from Nebraska and didn’t go to film school; so finding myself in this world is a complex mix of hard work and a little magic. I hung out with a lot of skateboarders growing up, so my first experience with filmmaking was watching my friends make street skate videos and taking edgy middle school photos with disposable cameras.

When I moved to LA, I found myself in the music scene, which lead me to being in dozens of music videos. I started acting out of accident but struggled for years with the fact that I didn’t want to be an actor and was sort of faking it. I started directing music videos, which lead me to commercial directing and now i’m circling back and learning to merge all my skills together to make more narrative long form content.

2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?

It was December and I was sitting in my apartment feeling sorry for myself and blaming Covid for being unable to create. I had this idea floating around in my head about “faking it” and wanted to explore that concept, through a character stuck in the loop. Realizing I had only a couple of weeks before the end of the year, I decided to throw out my self inflicted rules and write the film that night. It took me one hour to come up with the skeleton and the phone conversation vo and within two hours I had the script ready. 

I called up my DP David Morrison, who is a long time great friend and collaborator and convinced him to come shoot this for me. Due to covid we had no choice but for me to act as the lead and to limit the crew to just the two of us. We shot it in the afternoon, I edited it that night and with the help of a couple friends, within ten days, we had picture locked. 

This film is stripped down, not perfect by any means and thats exactly the way I wanted it to be. Since I was playing a character that was riddled in lies, I wanted to be 100% truthful in my expression as a director. This is a film you can easily make, with no equipment other than a camera, in an afternoon, with a little imagination and a friend.

I’m a huge fan of the Duplass brothers and love their outlook on grabbing your friends and making a film on the weekends. Their grab-and-go style 100% influenced this film and I’m very happy at what David and I made so quick and cheap. There’s no gloss to this film, it just is what it is and I think there is something beautiful to that. 

I made this film in less than 2 weeks, in my spare time, on a food budget. There are 52.8 weeks in a year which means I could be putting out apx. 26 short films a year. This is the cold hard data someone like me needs to see, in order to inspire a less planning, more action approach. Personally, I don’t think I will make anything great for a while and i’m okay with that.

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?

Thats a trick question, because they are the same. Eating the food…believe it or not, there were a lot of food eating scenes we didn’t use. I ate so much and felt very sick for days after consuming such a large variety of sugary and glutenous foods. Next time I’ll spit it out ;P. 

4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

I just rewatched Mystery Train. Ugh, its so good! Young Steve Buscemi is fantastic and that movie has my favorite kiss scene! Screamin’ Jay Hawkins plays a night clerk and his character has the daddy energy we all need! 

5) What’s next for you?

I’m most excited about a new animation project i’m working on. I can’t say much, but if I get lucky then maybe you will know more about it soon!

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IG: @erickaclevenger