5 Questions with Ryan Betschart & Rachel Nakawatase
1) Can you talk briefly about your background(s), and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
We both went to school for film making, Ryan at CalArts and Rachel at UCLA. We met on the set of a youtube beauty guru's short horror film, and fell in love. We got married a few years later and have been making things together since. Our roots in visual arts started with Rachel wanting to emulate Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura who is always seen filming on her hi8 camera, and Ryan started making films because he saw The Muppet Babies do it - it's funny we each didn't pursue animation since we were so influenced by characters in animated series, but it has to be because we saw ourselves reflected in those characters, and they were just having fun filming their friends
2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?
It started as a film about student loans, but then turned into this diatribe on boomers. Ryan always brings up how his elementary school teachers in the early 90s would talk about the heavy financial and ecological burden baby boomers were setting up future generations with, so this vitriol between millennials and boomers has been stewing for 30 years.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?
We shot this film on a friends spooled down agfachrome 16mm stock, which at the time of shooting we had no idea how it would turn out. Agfachrome 16mm is a weird stock; it is so grainy it looks like 8mm. Everything was shot on a bolex so there was no monitor, just a foggy eyepiece and a crank to manually wind the motor. Our friend who spooled down the stock accidentally got her sweater caught in the spool, and because you have to spool down in the dark she didn't catch that the film was covered in yarn. Since loading the film you also do in the dark, we didn't see all that junk until we got it developed. Combine this with the makeup process which lasted 6 hours to get into that demon outfit, and Rachel Ho our amazing Zablah started to have issues with the contacts that resulted in a very expensive medical purchase to get the proper drops to treat it... Then with sound design, since we added every sound in post, we had to add sounds for messed up film, and whenever there is yarn on the screen that's dubbed too..
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
We founded and run the San Diego Underground Film Festival, so we have watched thousands of films this year and we got our lineup down to 39 of the best films we have seen in 2020. Two highlights are from filmmakers Jordan Wong, and Zach Dorn, who each made incredibly moving short films - one hilarious, one nostalgic - all using screen recordings of internet searches, tumblr posts, youtube videos, and using the incognito tab. Because our world right now is mostly online, these films feel more real and connect with us more than a lot of films hitting in 2020 (including our own) - you get to literally watch as someone types "boyfriend scented candle" into google search, while watching videos of Ina Garten make mixed drinks (in the case of Jordan Wong's film). And in the case of Zach Dorn he prints out frame by frame a video of Stevie Nicks singing Wild Heart with her sister and makeup artist, resulting in an incredibly moving piece (this was made before the dude skating to Fleetwood Mac drinking cran-raspberry, which in itself is a reference to the 'Cholo Dances to Different Songs' video which featured Fleetwood Mac's Dreams") Anyway you can watch these films (if you read this prior to December 4-6 2020), because San Diego Underground Film Fest is FREE on twitch during those dates so come along and enjoy!
5) What’s next for you?
We are in a doomgaze band called Shrine Maiden. Earlier this year we released our first full length record, and are in the process of finishing up our second. You can find us on Spotify if you wanna bathe in heavy noise, think Sunn O))) meets My Bloody Valentine.. We are also shooting a feature horror film on 16mm black and white stock, which right before we wrote this, we projected our 1st test roll and IT WAS A SUCCESS - everything looks great, so production begins immediately. We also every year run the San Diego Underground Film Fest and this year it is free on twitch December 4-6.
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ryanbetschart.com | IG: @shrine_maiden666, @sdundergroundarts
rachelnakawatase.com | IG: @shrine_maiden666, @yunglilith