Local Legends: Interview with Director/Producer/Actor Matt Farley

Matt Farley as himself in Local Legends

The Squeerelist - We're in 2013 and you decided to make a black and white movie. What are the reasons for this directorial commitment?
Matt Farley - I think black & white is beautiful. The movie is heavily influenced by Woody Allen, who has done plenty of black & white. My previous movies are weird, silly, straight-faced comedies--so I thought doing this one in black & white would be an easy way to show that I'm being a little more serious this time. And, finally, when you're shooting a movie with a digital camera, sometimes the colors look too bright. On film, there's a softness to the image that is lost in a lot of digital photography. If you take out all the color, it's an easy way to look more like film.  

In Local Legends you keep mentioning how much you dislike pompous artists. Is this because you feel like their media is not reachable by the common folk?
It's hard to describe, but there's just something about a lot of creative people that drives me crazy. Lots of them seem to be lacking in self-awareness. I definitely have more sympathy for someone who's just trying to entertain an audience than I do for artists who make purposely "difficult" works. I feel like most of the best work from the past was made primarily as entertainment. Any additional "deeper meaning" should just be a bonus.

When did you decide you would spend your free time making music, movies and stand-up shows? Were your relatives supportive or were you the black sheep of the family?
I always wanted to make movies and music (I only dabble in stand-up comedy). I worked on projects all through high school and college. Upon graduating, I made sure I got a job that might not pay a lot, but would give me the time to continue to do music and movies. My family has always been supportive--especially because I have a full-time job and can support myself whether or not my creative endeavors earn me anything. I feel like a lot of the "pompous artists" from the previous questions are the ones who can't be bothered with day jobs as they embark on their selfish quests to create difficult art.

Watching Local Legends, we can feel that you praise the New-Englander way of life. Have you ever considered moving to L.A. or NYC to pursue your artistic career and have a better shot at breaking through?
No. I wish more creative people stayed in the area where they were born. If you're surrounded by nothing but people who share your interests, you quickly lose touch with the real world. You can tell pretty easily when you're watching or listening to the work of an artist who only spends time with other artists.

Your movie is extremely autobiographical. Some of the people your character encounters - the stalkerish girl for example - are very peculiar human beings. How much of what happens to Matt in the movie actually happened to Matt in real life?
Most of it happened in real life. The Abby character is based on the traits of lots of different girls I've met over the years. I really hired a girl to keep track of the stats of 1-on-1 basketball games with a friend of mine. I've seen plenty of ambitiously planned comedy shows get downgraded to basement show levels. Most of the characters play themselves, and most of the conversations are based on actual conversations I've had with them. Of course, plenty of it was manipulated for the sake of making the movie more entertaining. I guess the best way to say it is that this movie collects all of the best things that have happened to me, and makes them all better and funnier.

We can witness in your comedy that you embrace your narcissism and ridicule. Aren't you ever embarrassed?
Yes. I get embarrassed by all of this stuff from time to time. But, ultimately, my fear of embarrassment is weaker than my desire to make more music and movies. It's sometimes embarrassing when we're filming scenes in a public area and people walk by and start gawking at us, etc. And it was definitely risky to make this movie because it's hard to make a movie all about yourself without coming across as completely narcissistic. Ultimately, I justified making this feature-length ego-fest by telling myself that most mainstream artists have teams of publicists who do that dirty work for them. Small-timers like myself need to also be self-promoters. It might come off as crass. But ultimately, it's no different from big time artists who hire others to do the promoting.  

You give away your DVDs and CDs like peanuts at Fenway Park. You don't hesitate to go out of your way for people to watch your movies or listen to your music (I personally can testify as the postage on my package shows $7.35). It is very enjoyable as an audience member - and as an indie critic - to be treated with such respect and consideration. This being said, how do you do to make ends meet with such a generous marketing technique?
The only money I make from creative endeavors comes through sales of my music on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. The movies are labors of love. But, even with all the money that goes into the movies, and giving away some of the music, I still end up making plenty more than I spend. And I have a day job, so it's all just bonus money anyway. I guess a long term dream would be that all this stuff I'm giving away will eventually create word-of-mouth that leads to more sales. But who knows? I'm just happy to have people hearing my songs and watching my movies.  

As an indie film-maker is there any advice or word of wisdom you would like to share with whoever tries to make it in the industry?
I've seen lots of people try to make movies but never finish. So I suggest setting deadlines for yourself. Declare that you must finish the movie by a certain time, and stick to it. If you stick with it, you'll end up with a finished product. Lots of people get bogged down trying to make everything perfect, and before you know it, you've wasted all your allotted time completing just a small portion of the movie. Better to have a flawed finished film than half of a perfect film. Also, don't write scenes that you won't be able to film.  If you don't have access to a police station, don't write any scenes that take place in a police station. And make sure you trust your actors. If one of your lead actors is unreliable, it's going to be very hard to film. Also, don't write scenes that require lots of different actors to be at the same place at the same time. It's very hard to get a lot of people together for any extended amount of time (if, like me, you're not paying any of them). Make it as easy as possible for the people who are helping you out. They're probably a lot less devoted to this project than you are, so don't expect them to devote more than a few hours here and there.

More on Matt Farley's projects at moternmedia.com !

Confine: Interview with Director Tobias Tobbell

Tobias Tobbell

The Squeerelist - Your heroine and her nemesis compile quite a few textbook disorders from agoraphobia to psychopathy or hoarding… What inspired you to display such conditions?

Tobias Tobbell -  The disorders explored in the film evolved for different reasons. The agoraphobia developed out of the nature of the story itself. As I worked on the character’s history – being a naturally introverted person forced to go on show around the world as a model – it seemed Pippa would be almost keen to say goodbye to the world the moment she had the chance (driven further by her scarring after a career based on looks). I’ve been curious about obsessive-complusive behavior since studying pyschology, and it felt like a natural progression to have a person as anxious as Pippa to focus this into something specific, her need for order in her tiny world. The sociopathic element, Kayleigh, I suppose is a little more typical of screwed up ‘bad guys’ in film – though I was also finding ways to connect the two characters so that fell into place fairly easily. 

How much of yourself can we find in your characters and/or stories?

That depends on the story, but I certainly and consciously try to move away from anything to do with me or my life. I write escapism stories for the most part. However, I’d probably describe myself as fairly shy (particularly when I started the Confine script nearly 10 years ago), though this is a long way from agoraphobia I can empathise pretty easily.

Movies shamefully lack women in the lead even though the trend tends to evolve. Your movie, Confine,  features 2 female main characters. You wrote the screenplay over 8 years. Did you have women in mind from the start or was it a later revelation?

The two main characters were both female from the very beginning, although I wasn’t as conscious of how unusual it was to write with 2 female leads at the time. The plays I wrote before tended to feature an equal balance of sexes. I think I’m a little better at writing female characters so that’s how it started off with the film scripts. It’s certainly not an exclusive thing, but there’s such a wealth of incredible actresses out there and they’re just not being given as many meaty leading roles as actors are. Added to that the strange misrepresentation of female vs male leads and I’m now making more of a point of it (if it seems appropriate for the story).

Your next project will also focus on strong female protagonists. Can you tell us more about it?

The next project, a sci-fi thriller called The Last Planet, has just six characters. Three girls and three guys. It’s another very isolated world but for very different reasons. It’s set mostly on a small research station on another planet. It essentially revolves around a heist but told from the point of view of the characters trying to prevent it. The setting is an icey environment, similar to The Thing, though we’re mostly inside the small, rig-like interior. I love submarine films like Crimson Tide, Das Boot, Red October, so I’ll be looking to create that close, tense atmosphere they’re great for.

Why do you care so much about strong leading women?

I come from a family with some very strong, motivated women. Plus, through school, university and my professional life I regularly encounter as many exciting, damaged, fascinating, inspiring and/or headstrong girls as I do guys. It seems crazy to me that films just don’t seem to represent woman in the world the same way I’ve experienced through-out my life. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of really interesting female characters in film, but take anyone’s top 50 films and I’d be surprised if even 10 of those feature female leads. Maybe I feel a bit embarrassed that my favourite medium still isn’t as open-minded as I’d like it to be and I’ve chosen this issue to focus on?

What kind of director are you: do you give your actors free rein to improvisation? Or are you more anal when it comes to what’s on the screenplay?

I’d like to say the former. The pragmatic side of my brain tells me there probably isn’t really the time for improvisation on set. Until I’m more confident in myself I’d worry that if we didn’t at least shoot everything in the script (before improvisations) we may run into problems in the edit. On the other hand dialogue is the weakest area of my writing, and given my background in theatre, I should try to allow more time for improvisation on set. I feel the same about the cinematography. I’m the kind of director to go in fully storyboarded. But as I grow in experience and confidence I’d like to experiment more on set.

Eben Bolter (Director of Photography) and you did an impressive job with Confine’s cinematography. You said beauty was a must in the making of your movie.  From your perspective, what’s the share of content (a good plot) and form (good cinematography) that makes a good movie?

Bottom line it has to be the story that comes first. I’m very driven by production design and cinematography, but if I find that I’m having to chose to focus on performances/story or the visuals, in the end it’ll have to be the story that take precedent. I just hope we’re working on a script so strong it kind of takes care of itself. Theoretically the script is complete long before I start working on production so they shouldn’t have to clash too much.

Would you like to share any valuable tips or advice with aspiring filmmakers?

I’m learning so much everyday (in the lead up to the release of Confine) I kind of have loads of tips I’d love to share. Here’re a few : experiment on zero budget shorts (find a camera, edit yourself) – learn your craft before taking other people’s money to make your films. When you’re ready, make sure the script is really bloody good, find as many industry professionals to feedback and take it on, try not to be defensive about it too (I still get defensive, but usually wake up the next morning taking the feedback more seriously). Finally, and this is a really big one if you’re making a feature film, think about your audience and think about how you’re going to reach them – both on a story level, and on a marketing level. There are hundreds of films made every year and there’s no guarantee yours will be picked up. If you pitch your film to a distributor along with behind the scenes videos, smart virals shot on set, pre-recorded cast interviews or ‘shout-outs’ for all sorts of TV channels etc, clever marketing ploys that don’t cost anything extra, and you show that you understand your target audience, you’ll really stand a much better chance of getting your film out there.

Find out more about Confine at http://www.confinemovie.com/