An article by Shaun Sages

After spending approximately two hours sipping white wine and mingling with members of Manhattan's Lincoln Center community at the New York Film Festival’s Filmmakers Reception, Jamie Stuart and I left the celebration slightly inebriated. We proceeded to plop on a nearby bench in the middle of Broadway by Columbus Circle. He wanted to show me the storyboards for his next short film, which was set to start shooting in early-November.

Glancing at the storyboards, I had the same bewildered reaction as when viewing the storyboards to his last short project, bizarrely titled Triumph of the Will, Part II. That title suggested a sequel to the infamous Nazi propaganda promo, but bore zero relevance to Nazism or world history in general. The story, as can be expected with Jamie, seemed ordinary, but was actually as strange as David Lynch's films, without resorting to visible surrealism.

Okay. Since I’m not at liberty to divulge many plot tidbits as of yet (at the filmmaker's request), the reason for writing this piece is to familiarize you folks, aspiring filmmakers in particular, with what I consider to be a unique and diligent director. After all, this is the fella who got me to notice aspects of film that I was oblivious to, such as mise'-en-scene, composition, and the various layers of Stanley Kubrick’s films.

I had worked with Jamie Stuart last winter -- and when I say winter, I mean New York in all its December wind tunnel glory -- on his previous film, and admired the man's craft; the time taken to frame his shots, knowing precisely how to capture what was planned in his storyboards, and more importantly, how he reacted when time waned and everyone was tired as hell. That project (TOTW2) was originally shot with a 16mm camera. Due to time and money constraints, production was shut down for roughly 3 months, then picked up again. For the second half of the shoot, however, Jamie shot with a borrowed mini-DV camera. He explains:  "The entire production was such a hassle that the ease of working in digital kind of reluctantly won me over."

Raised in Yorktown Hts., Jamie always knew he was going to be a filmmaker. "I grew up about 45 minutes from Manhattan -- in a pretty conservative town. The town was predominantly Catholic and easily preferred athletics to anything artistic. As somebody who showed an early artistic inclination, nobody really knew what to do with me. When I was 8, I studied illustrating with Jim Spanfeller for the year. He was looking for a much older private student. My mother bugged him to see me. He finally agreed to take a look at my work and took me on as the only child student he ever had."

He shot his first short film at age 12. It was a 3-minute stop-motion Claymation book report for English class about Jaws. The assignment took so long to complete that the teacher gave him an "F". After shooting other shorts with his camcorder, Jamie got interested in special make-up FX, which led at 16 to a perfect score at Fangoria's Weekend on Horrors make-up and costume contest, in 1992. Like many willful teenagers with talent and aspiration -- and three feature-length screenplays to boot -- Jamie decided to scrape whatever money his parents had saved up for his college education and use it toward funding a cheap feature film. But, as fate would have it, his parents split right after high school and refused to give their son the money. So, as a means of earning the cash, Jamie tried to find gainful employment as an illustrator, but ultimately, that didn’t work out. His dreams of becoming a teenage wunderkind fizzled in the face of reality.

His new short 3200 K got started something like this: "3200 K came about during my years as an illustrator. It totally summed up, allegorically speaking, what those years felt like. First, I wrote a 10-page draft. Then lost it when my old computer crashed. I rewrote it and storyboarded it and ultimately shelved it. This year, knowing that the changing leaves were on their way, I figured now was as good a time as any. I started preproduction at the end of September, planning for an early November shoot in mini-DV. The problem was, I couldn't find the script. Luckily, I found the storyboards, which are quite specific, in terms of narrative, and was able to reconstruct yet another draft of the script."

The short was originally titled Monday, as an homage to Breakfast of Champions, the Kurt Vonnegut novel with the alternate title Goodbye Blue Monday. He ultimately wanted something more original. He explains, "3200 K, by the way, is the color temperature of tungsten light, as opposed to sunlight, which is much hotter. It's symbolic of humanity's attempts to create artificial life where there is none -- to delude ourselves into thinking certain things are better than they are. That problems can easily be ignored and covered up. Dramatically, it's a domestic drama set against modern times. The background TV news features reports on the war with Iraq and the Republican victory at the midterm elections. In that sense, the title couldn't have been more appropriate."

As with his previous film, problems did occur. This time, trouble came in the form of a last minute emergency. "Everything was going fine -- casting, scheduling -- then my lead actress had to pull out the day before shooting started. She found somebody else, but I wasn't even going to meet her until she showed up to start shooting. I was attending lunch that day at the Swedish Consulate for Lincoln Center's Swedish film series, and the directors I was telling about it -- Mans Herngren and Hannes Holm, and Baker Karim -- all thought it was hysterical." The lead actress, showing much grace, recommended actress Alison Meyer. "Luckily, Alison turned out to be a real trooper. She did a great job. Really natural and authentic. Same for Holt [Bailey, the leading male actor]. I was in hysterics watching his dailies! When I first met him he looked like a hippie, so I had reservations. But he's electrifying as his character -- he's got a subtle touch of Jack Nicholson from The Shining."

Holt was raised in the Chicago suburbs. As a child he often attended the playhouse with his parents. These visits to the theater are what inspired him to become an actor. "I really enjoyed watching (the plays). My mom wanted me to get involved in some activities, and she told me I should audition for some plays. So, I auditioned and got in, and had a good time. It was in 7th grade. I was like 12. So, I really liked it and kept doing it. I never thought I'd keep doing it. I thought I'd just do it for a little while. I ended up going to school at Carnegie-Mellon for it. Trying to make it a profession. Make a living off of it."

Having recently graduated from NYU, Alison acted in many student films. This was, however, the first time she had zero rehearsal time before shooting. "I think one thing that was rushed -- we didn't get to rehearse. In the beginning, I wasn't really sure what story he was telling. Especially with film, cause it is mostly just pictures. Especially, cause there's not much dialogue in this. The words can mean a thousand different things, as opposed to what's really the core story. That, I thought was hard at first, cause I came into it, I met the cast and we started filming right away."

When asked about his technique, Jamie replies, "Well, I storyboard everything I do shot by shot. I enjoy the process. I like the challenge of creating 3-dimentional space in my head -- figuring out the film's language. Shots aren't just about looking good or moving fast, pacing, emotion, that type of thing. They're about telling the story and conveying information just as much. Camera and editing are to cinema what sentences and punctuation are to novels. Storyboarding helps when you have no money or time."

Jamie finished editing the picture a week after the shoot wrapped, using Final Cut Pro on his Titanium Mac PowerBook. “Now Mario and I are working on the sound on his G4. He's got Pro Tools and everything.”

Mario Mazzoli is an Italian-born composer, currently based in New York. The graduate of the Berklee College of Music explained, “I met with Jamie and he told me about this project. This short movie that he wanted to do. And I also watched some of his previous short movies. He was good in what he was doing. So, I asked him if he was willing to use some original music?

Eventually, he said, Yes.”

“It’s been nice. The project is coming out nice. I think it’s good for me cause it’s a project that will allow me to write some music that might be really interesting. Not some formula movie. Not some standard movie that you’re not involved in, just doing it as a job. That’s one very important thing for me. When it’s finished it will be really interesting I think.”

Both Jamie and Mario are hysterical about advances in technology; they’ve been able to work on the project with their own equipment. Jamie laughs, “The only thing that's going to cost me anything is the final video transfer -- which still in the scheme of things won't be too much. We shot over the course of 3 days for a total of 12 hours -- and I only spent $40! Under the rushed circumstances, it came out as perfect as it could have. Only in digital could I have gotten away with that.”

As for filmmakers who have influenced his craft, he won't claim to be influenced by anyone in specific, but lists those who've helped. "Let me put it this way: Spielberg governed my childhood, Kubrick guided my young adulthood, now I'm in charge of my future. I also love the Coen Bros., Woody Allen, Coppola. I think Chuck Jones was the best, most modern and influential animator. David Fincher's late-'80s/early-'90s music videos have yet to be surpassed."

“I don’t know what’s up next,” Jamie offers. “I’m not thinking that far ahead yet -- money doesn’t permit such idealism. This one’s really time consuming, but I’ve got 4 more short scripts to play around with. I’m also in various stages of storyboarding 2 of my 11 feature-length scripts that I think would make good, ambitious debuts -- should the world determine it’s ready for me. Who knows? I’m determined as hell, just having fun right now.”

-Copyright 2002 by Shaun Sages 


 

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