5 Questions with Mitch F. Anderson
“Sandbagger,” by Mitch F. Anderson, is an experimental oddity, a feature film where all of the production’s audio files were lost, forcing the project to rely on captions to tell its story of a young woman finding solace in her relationship with her best friend, Evelyn. We asked Anderson about the inspiration for the film, working with his cast, and how the sound was lost…
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
I grew up almost in the middle of nowhere in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and my very early bedrocks of pop culture were VHS tapes of The Blues Brothers, Waterworld, and a dozen or so episodes of The Simpsons that my Dad had taped off TV, all of which I still look at as essential building blocks to myself and my sensibilities. My first true obsession, however, was comic strips, and I was actually sure I was going to grow up to be a professional cartoonist, but around middle school I realized that I didn't have the patience or drawing skills needed for this. I realized, however, that the part of cartooning I liked most was figuring out how to fit a joke into the inherent setup, buildup, and payoff structure of a three-panel comic strip, which translated pretty easily into writing and storytelling. Around high school, I got a copy of the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die book, which I still have a soft spot for since they actually do the work of including foreign and avant-garde stuff within the blockbusters and awards movies, and our family got a Netflix DVD subscription, and the movie obsession, and the urge to make them myself, really took off from there. Everyone was just too far apart and on different schedules for me to do the "make movies with my friends" thing that every director talks about doing, but I did a couple film projects in school and just watched everything that I could. I moved down to Grand Rapids for Grand Valley State University's Film/Video Production program, and graduated with my Bachelor's in the Spring of 2017, so Sandbagger is my first real post-college filmmaking project.
2) What was the inspiration for this project, the first element that came to you, and how did you go about building up from there?
The seed of the film was the real Argentinian stripping-and-painting graduation tradition that fascinates Lee in the film. I learned about it several years ago, and I was intrigued by how such a seemingly malicious and humiliating ritual actually had this underlying emotional element of self-realization and transition to it. Additionally, the color and physicality of the custom was something I really wanted to recreate in something, so that long take with Lee being stripped and painted was always going to be the climax.
Eventually, I built the main story out of that sort of modern millennial precariousness, where we're working harder and longer at jobs that we hate for the most part, which not only fail to ethically compensate us, but ask us to have emotional investment in the work for its own sake. The bowling alley setting felt right for a business that would try to undergo a "fun" redesign and force that on its employees, especially after we scouted the alley we ended up using for shooting, which is decked out in laminated signs and beer ads. The image of a character being in this "retro" uniform while in this extremely modern setting was too good for me to pass up.
The idea of the Patron who harasses Lee built itself pretty organically off of the workplace setting; there's very little structural protection from this kind of thing for most service workers, and I'd in fact heard about a situation at one of my workplaces where a coworker was altogether removed from the floor when their stalker was shopping, because the stalker was friends with the store's owners and therefore apparently couldn't be told to leave. I found the impunity in that story very upsetting, and in the film, I found it emotionally rewarding to tip that idea into the surreal if we made the Patron the only customer we ever see in the alley. Once all these pieces were in place, the film's structure and narrative emerged for me. Additionally, in the post-production process, I became extremely disillusioned with the internal politics and structure of that workplace, which I absolutely carried into the final product.
3) So, you actually lost the sound, or is this some kind of conceptual bit? Either way, I think it works in a fascinating way. There’s such a strange and unique feel to the film because it’s silent - I don’t know if I would like it as much if it had sound. I guess the question is: when did you decide to go soundless, and how did you come to terms with it? And I’m curious to hear what the general reactions have been from the people who have seen the film?
The sound loss is completely real. We had two wonderful people, Syd and Nicole, alternately in charge of on-location sound; a portion of their work still survives in the film's finale, and I was going to give them credit for their work no matter what. While filming, I made the decision at the end of each of our first two shooting days, where we shot all of our dialogue sequences, to dump the audio onto my external hard drive and reformat the SD cards, erasing them for the next day's shoot in order to maintain space. However, this meant that the only place in the world this audio existed was on my external drive, which fell off my desk during a cleaning session a couple of weeks after the shoot. It was also the only place where I had backed up my copies of the footage.
I fully expected that Nate, my Director of Photography, had deleted his own backups of the footage by that point, and it was a real dire half-hour between realizing the hard drive was toast and learning that he'd saved the footage; I thought that I'd already potentially made a lost film before the age of 25, and also thought that maybe I should drive my car into the desert until it ran out of gas. The movie wouldn't exist right now if not for him. That's the advice I'd give to any aspiring filmmakers reading this; always back up your footage and audio to multiple locations, and always hire people who are smarter than you.
I spent a good deal of time after filming taking stock in the film's situation and letting the surviving elements sit around while I figured out what to do. I actually have a screenshot on my desktop from a conversation I had with filmmaker Joel Potrykus, a friend of mine, where he told me he felt that a good filmmaker gets stuck when their footage is messed up, but a great filmmaker makes something new and better. Far be it from me to label myself a great filmmaker, or even a good one, but I really took that to heart when I was figuring out what to do. I definitely considered dubbing, but even if the actors did a perfect recreation of their lines, I felt it would still be too distracting for the audience at the expense of the story. Plus, Lindsey was preparing to move out to Los Angeles at this point, and I didn't want to add that on top of what was an already busy time for them. Eventually, I was writing and editing video captions as a side hustle, and realized that a subtitle approach could be used for the movie. I put together the picture edit, wrote and synchronized captions for the film within Final Cut, and composed a score in GarageBand to provide a structure to the audio.
I appreciate the kind words! That's actually been a consistent reaction from people who've seen the film; multiple people have asked me if the sound loss was real. It makes me so happy when people respond well to that element in particular, since it was definitely a gamble to assume people would hang with the movie with that as the structure (in fact, I made the opening text a bit more explicit because multiple people asked if something had gone wrong with the sound in the export process). While it's obviously not what I envisioned when we were filming, I think it creates a fascinating effect where it becomes impossible to put on as something in the background; even with subtitled foreign films, the cadence of the actors' voices can still basically guide you through a scene if you happen to drift away from the subtitles for a moment. Taking away even that cadence puts the audience in an interesting position, especially for something as verbal and dialogue-driven as this film. In combination with the deliberately long and wordless sequences I decided to emphasize during the editing process, I think it ends up creating an effect where not only is attention demanded, but the viewer has to do a good amount of work and can hopefully feel more rewarded by it in the end. The positive responses people have had mean the world to me.
4) I’d love to hear more about your lead character - even without dialogue, she has a striking presence and attitude. How you did develop the character, and what was most interesting to you about her story and relationship to the world. And how did you find and work with your lead actress?
With Lee, I found that the external treatment of her physicality and sexuality by the people around her was the theme that tied the film together. Since the film largely consists of her conversations with Evelyn, The Patron, and Arthur, her responses to all three were necessary to build her arc, particularly to build to her action near the end where she pretty definitively severs her ties with both men. I didn't want to give her too much explicit backstory, but added some small things like the Paris Is Burning poster in her room (which actually belongs to Lindsey in real life) or the shelf of Criterion Blu-rays visible when she stands in the doorway. I wanted it to be clear that Lee has bigger aims in life than her current situation, but doesn't feel ready to break out of the cycle she's trapped in until she takes action at the end, and Lindsey's performance was really what tied it all together.
Meeting and working with Lindsey for the first time was initially the result of that weird West Michigan cross between serendipity and the fact that everyone kind of already knows each other. We both went to Grand Valley and had some mutual friends, and I'd seen them in a couple performances on-campus, and I first reached out to them back in 2016 to act in a video project I was making for a summer internship. We hit it off from the first day we worked together. I definitely prefer to be in a place of exploration as a director, which is exactly the place Lindsey prefers to be as an actor; while there is absolutely a roadmap and a structure in what I've made so far in my time as a filmmaker, both of us are willing to explore the organic tangents and ideas that may come up in the moment when we shoot. I hired Lindsey to star in my final college project, and knew I needed to give them a more ambitious showcase. I never had anyone else in mind for Lee, and Lindsey was the first person who read the script after I finished the first draft back in late 2017. They loved the project, and were especially excited about the moments and content I thought would require the most convincing. We actually waited until they finished school, then shot in a whirlwind three days last summer between their graduation and their move out to L.A.. The final day of filming, where almost everyone on set was naked and covered in paint in a hot house, still feels more like a dream that I had than a day of production. Even after filming, in the chaos of post-production, I knew Lindsey was someone I could touch base with and provide me with an alternative perspective and honest feedback on anything. They're a singular performer and human being who's become an invaluable part of my artistic and personal life, and I hope I get to work with them forever.
5) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
There've been so many movies from this year that feel like all-timers. Her Smell was monumental, very possibly one of my favorites of the decade. I already mentioned that Joel Potrykus is a friend, but even if I had no idea who he was, Relaxer would've still blown my mind. High Life! Claire Denis is a genre unto herself. Diane broke me, The Beach Bum put me back together. I should also thank you for programming The Person I Am When No One is Looking, which is of my favorite short films of the last few years. I can't wait to see what Kailee McGee does next.
But the movie that's stuck with me the most this year is Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir. Such a moving look at the joyful, painful ways that artists truly become artists, and how there's no such thing as a purely "happy memory" or "sad memory" as long as the people we love can break our hearts. So beautifully shot, and Honor Swinton Byrne is an instant star. I haven't seen any of Hogg's other work, but all her films are on the Criterion Channel right now, and I'm an instant megafan. I believe she's already in post-production on Part II, and I can't think of a sequel I've been more excited for in my life.
Bonus Question: What’s next for you?
I've got a couple feature scripts I wrote last year more on the ambitious side that I'm trying to clean up, and brainstorming something on the more doable side to possibly make later this year. I've got a pilot script that I've almost finished a first draft of, and an idea for a play that I'm working on. A pal of mine asked me to act in something he's hoping to make this summer, so I've been trying to get myself camera-ready for that, and in general I want to help other people with their projects however I can now that Sandbagger is finally out in the world. In terms of the big picture, I'm looking to finally make the move out to California soon. Also trying to develop a better overall daily routine. If anyone has any recommendations for a good pair of running shoes, let me know.
Contact Info:
Website: http://www.mitchfanderson.com/
Twitter - @MitchFAnderson
Instagram - @mitchfanderson
Facebook - @mitchfanderson