5 Questions with Isaac Ravishankara
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
My father is a chemist and my mother is a doctor, so naturally… I started making movies as a kid with my parents’ old Hi8 video camera I found in their closet. But when I went to college, I decided to pursue physics, and it wasn’t until I was about to graduate that I realized I was never going to have a career as a scientist. In the meantime, I had taken a bunch of film production and film theory classes. The week after graduation, without any other plan, I moved to New York on a whim and got a job in the art department of a terrible vampire feature film.
2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?
Dre (the co-writer and star of the short) makes music as Steady Holiday. She and I were already going to Japan to film a short branded documentary on her songwriting process, and we decided to stay an extra few days to make something narrative. The initial idea of being a fish out of water trying to find a can of paint came from Dre, and we developed it from there.
Dre is half-Japanese, though multi-generationally American. And I am half-Indian, first-gen, on my father’s side. We wanted to make something about a particular feeling of other-ness we both share in being a mixed-race American visiting our "other" motherland.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?
The biggest challenge in making the film was timing and preparation. We only had four extra days in Tokyo before we had to head home. So that gave Dre, myself, and our cinematographer Kevin Hayden two days to figure everything out -- from gear and crew to locations and casting. Then we had two days to shoot everything.
The easiest part was how lucky we were in putting the pieces together. Some messages and calls and social media posts turned into friends recommending friends recommending friends and whatnot. We ultimately shot the entire thing in and around our AirBnB that we were staying in, and essentially walking around the neighborhood with a cart worth of gear.
The other big challenge was finishing the project. I had to dive into other projects as soon as we returned (exactly one year ago), and as we all know, 2020 ended up being… a thing. So it wasn’t until somewhat recently that we were able to dive in and finish the project.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I only just recently saw Shirkers by Sandi Tan and it really just blew my mind and exploded my heart at the same time. As a documentary, it’s such a wonderful film about a cultural place and time, and her celebration of her own naive creativity is so great. Then, the film-within-the film of Shirkers itself is so damn beautiful.
5) What’s next for you?
I’m just now finishing up a collaboration on an episodic project, which has been an incredible experience not only of working in long-form, but doing so safely and during a pandemic. I’m excited to dive back into writing, while trying to move forward on one or more of the projects I’ve been developing. I know that sounds so cliché, but it’s true! We’re also looking forward to planting a winter crop in our garden. That’s probably the actual next thing (also cliché?).
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http://www.isaacravishankara.com/ | IG: @ravishankara